Handpainted

We mentioned above that coin collecting merged with our encased stamps, and this next set of featured covers is where philately is transported into art. These handpainted colour envelopes are also from a famous correspondence being addressed to “His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales, Sandringham”. If you study them, they have stamps, postal history, royalty and paintings. It almost seems unlikely these would have actually travelled through the postal system, which they did, all sent from Scotland to Norfolk in the early 1900s.

The racing car example is quite a famous cover and sold at auction for £7,000. The watercolour of the four British soldiers sitting at the table depicts: “The 42nd Highlanders” (The Black Watch) and was based upon an image taken from the Crimea War in 1856. The Christmas-themed cover, which incidentally has the stamps on reverse, features Britain’s first Military Airship piloted by Father Christmas, who is seemingly parachuting Christmas presents down to Sandringham. As you can see they are all wonderful and the artist provides an added dimension and a fascinating thread to this beautiful theme. The talented Captain Hugh Rose (1863-1946), who was a member of the Black Watch and served in the Nile expedition of 1885-1886, the Boer War and the First World War, produced many colourful and creative paintings, the canvass of his art being the humble postal envelope. Not just to royalty and indeed some sent whilst on his travels, as well. The two sailors on the deck were sent from India to Santa Lucia. If you were wondering, Captain Rose, after his exploits in the British army, was on the staff of the Prince of Wales.