Advertising envelopes of the Australian Colonies

Valentine’s Temperance Envelope

 Easy access to cheap alcohol and the destruction it caused to society gave rise to the Temperance movement in England with a number of societies advocating the abstinence of alcohol. Printed propaganda envelopes were fashionable with the most popular being the sale and distribution of Valentine’s designs.

This Valentine’s Temperance envelope was printed in England and is used from Kadina, South Australia to Cherry Gardens in 1868.

The earliest cover recorded from Tasmania using the new Overland service via Egypt

The new colonists in Australia were always looking for quicker mail routes back to England. In 1843, the P&O Line service ran from Suez to Calcutta via Galle providing another possible link for Australian Colonial mail to connect to the steam service in India, and then west via Suez and Egypt to England.

This envelope dated 6.12.1843 is the earliest example recorded using this service. Note the via “INDIA” handstamp in red.

Inwards mail to the Australian Colonies

Mail to and from Norway in the Pre-UPU era is rare. This envelope from Christiana (now Oslo) is dated the 10.11.1870 and addressed to Ballarat. Oscar Wedel could not be located and the envelope redirected to the gold diggings at Godfrey’s Creek.

This is the second earliest envelope recorded from Norway to Australia.

Australian Military Mail in WW1

This cardboard cutout of a Drapkins cigarette box was cut up and used from Gallipoli in June 1915.

The soldier’s had no writing materials, and anything that could be used to send a message home was purloined, including officer’s notebooks, chocolate boxes, ammunition cartons and cigarette boxes.

This “postcard” was sent by Lt. Rupert Vance Moon, who was awarded the Victoria Cross for bravery at Bullecourt, France in May 1917.

Rare usage from Victoria in 1857 to the Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein (then part of Denmark)

This 1857 envelope is one of the earliest recorded covers to the small Duchy of Schleswig Holstein. A war between Denmark and the Kingdom of Prussia over this territory ceded the lands to Prussia in 1865, becoming part of unified Germany in 1871.