Once slotted home
Stamp of approval... John Vincent reports on how old postboxes from country houses are making a comeback.
Imet a chap the other day who told me he hadn’t posted any mail for two years. He’s not the only one, of course, as more and more people favour emails, social media, voice calls, texting and electronic greetings. Those who have not used a postbox recently may not even be aware that the cost of a first-class stamp has risen to 95p and second-class to 68p.
With letters written neatly in fountain pen going the way of washboards, Betamax videotapes, iron lungs, transistor radios and fax machines, it comes as no surprise that few of the nation’s larger houses still boast their own postbox. Long gone are the days when servants would empty them of household correspondence twice daily and take them to the red mailbox.
But although letter-writing may have gone out of fashion, those old private postboxes are back in vogue. Proof came in the sale of an extraordinary single-owner collection at Woolley & Wallis of
Salisbury, Wiltshire, where one fine example went for
just under £5,625. The late 19th century 55in-high hexagonal box, made of oak and bearing the Royal coat of arms, once stood in the Queen’s Hotel, Portsmouth.
Others were less costly: a mahogany country house box, early 20th century, topped by brass postal scales, made £685; a fine oak mid-20th century specimen bearing a brass plaque inscribed ER with the monarch’s crown £750; and a Victorian oak box £500.
Other postal history memorabilia is also gaining in popularity and the sale saw a cast-iron Victorian red wallmounted letter box realise £365; a 1930 painted wooden model of a postman’s barrow cart £465; a pair of mahogany stamp dispensers £340; and an oak stamp dispenser and letter box £245.
Postscript: the first pillar box in the UK was installed in Carlisle, in 1853. Three years later, Richard Redgrave, of the Department of Science and Art, designed an ornate pillar box for use in London and other large cities. In 1859 the design was improved, becoming the first National Standard box. Soon the hexagonal boxes designed by architect JW Penfold were everywhere and red was adopted as the standard colour in 1874, although it would be nearly 10 years before all were repainted. About 150 of these original boxes survive.