Royal Reels: Gambling

Mining

MESSRS. SAINTOIN FRÊRES, NÉGOTIANTE, ORLÉANS, LOIRET, FRANCE

The cover has a strip of four green 6d ‘Chalon’ Queensland stamps cancelled with four duplexes of BRISBANE/ JA 20/ 1867/ QUEENSLAND and it is addressed to the Saintoin Brothers Company, Merchants, Orleans, Loiret, France and there are two illegible transit &/orarrival French cancels, one in blue and the other in red. There is a manuscript at the bottom of the cover ‘Pour remettre a —— Gaujaro, tiné’, and the

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LETTER to the MAYOR of St. KILDA, VICTORIA 1904

This cover as a single folded sheet has a Victorian 1d red ‘Postage’ stamp postmarked with St KILDA/ B/ JA 11/ 04/ VIC and a reception roller postmark of MELBOURNE / 11 JAN/ 3 15 PM/ 1904/ VICTORIA. It was addressed ‘To His Worship, The Mayor of St Kilda, Town Hall, St Kilda (Figure 1). The full letter reads: MarinaBeaconsfield ParadeSt Kilda To the, Mayor of St. Kilda, Dear SirI

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LAWRENCE ADAMSON, HEADMASTER of WESLEY COLLEGE, MELBOURNE

The orange brown One Penny ‘Reading’ postcard on yellow stock was cancelled with a duplex MELBOURNE/ 16 S/ JE 10/ 91 with a VICTORIA obliterator, and it was addressed to L.A. Adamson Esq, Wesley College, Prahran (Figure 1). The reverse had a printed heading of EDLINGTON FOOTBALL CLUB and the following manuscript message:Auburn, June 10, 1891 L.A. Adamson Esq      Dear Sir    We will be on your ground nextSaturday a

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JOSEPH ROWE’s AMERICAN CIRCUS in MELBOURNE in the 1850’s

This 1855 letter was addressed to a circus but unclaimed by the addressee and it was accompanied by a Post Office List which was advertised in the Melbourne Morning Herald of March 10, 1855. The letter had an orange-yellow 6d ‘woodblock’ stamp of Victoria postmarked with a barred oval ‘2 over V’ of Geelong and alongside there was a red butterfly cancel ‘14 over V’ . It was addressed to Mr. Jones,

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JOHN & ANN FRASER BON, WAPPAN STATION, DELATITE RIVER

This inward bound letter had three stamps from England postmarked with a duplex of LONDON-N/ X/ NO 25/ 60 with a barred obliterator N/ 16 addressed to John Bon Esq, Wappan, Delatite River, Melbourne Australia (Figure 1). Interestingly the Australian Dictionary of Biography was for his wife Ann Fraser Bonn with limited information about her husband. Ann was born 9 April 1838 at Dunning, Scotland the daughter of David Dougall,

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JOHN CAMPBELL PTY. LTD., ELECTRIC POTTERIES, LAUNCESTON

With a modest stretch of imagination the label could be classed as postal ephemera, and it did appear several times on eBay Australian philatelic auctions. It was a label to be affixed to boxes posted with breakable Pottery Ware (Figure 1). I acknowledge that this short paper is taken directly from the John Campbell & Sons Pottery history site at http://www.auspottery.com/Campbell_history.htm . “In 1902 Campbell’s pottery became the first industry

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HENRY UPTON ALCOCK: ‘FATHER’ OF THE AUSTRALIAN BILLIARDS TRADE

Two registered covers were found advertising Alcock & Co., Billiard Table Manufacturers, 213 Russell Street, Melbourne and it also listed their addresses in the other colonies. The first had 2 QV stamps of Victoria (1d &2d) as well as the green ‘TWO PENNY’ Boer War Charity stamp, with a large ‘R’ in a circle handstamp, and the postmark REGISTERED MELBOURNE/ PM/ 2/ 27.6.00. The reverses was not seen (Figure 1).

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FRANCIS CADELL, NAVIGATOR/ ENTREPRENEUR, & MURRAY STEAMERS

The first reference to Francis Cadell and Murray steam navigation I could find was surprisingly in The Courier (Hobart, Tasmania) on 9 October 1852. Page 3. He was described as “Captain Cadell of the Queen Sheba, with four successful gold-diggers, has sailed in a canvas boat on the Murray as far as Swan Hill, a crossing place on the upper Murray, distant 120 miles from the gold fields of Bendigo. The gallant explorer

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FELIX AUSTRALIA MASONIC LODGE: AUSTRALIAN FREEMASONS

Two covers addressed to the Australia Felix Lodge were found, both very early in their founding. The first was a December 1840 entire addressed to the Worshipfulful Master of the Lodge of Australia Felix, Melbourne with a ms. Per Clonwell with a GPO backstamp and it was rated ‘4′ and it had an oval postmark MELBOURNE/ [crown]/ JA 14/ 1841/ NEW S. WALES. This was one of 3 recorded covers from the

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EMPIRE DAY, CORONATION DAY & THE AUSTRALIAN WOMEN’S NATIONAL LEAGUE

This colourful 1911 Australian Women’s National League fold-out illustrated “A Souvenir of Empire” letter-sheet promoting both Empire Day and Coronation Day, had a printed history of the Union Jack flag within, and the green ½d ‘Bantam’ entire was used at Melbourne and posted to Middle Brighton, Victoria. This was an example of the scarce ½d solo stamp use for the printed matter rate, legal in the British Commonwealth (Figure 1).

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