ISBN 978-1-913015-31-2

When Rowland Hill introduced the Mulready Envelope and Lettersheet to the world on 6 May 1840 they were immediately ridiculed in the press. Some early users of the envelopes embellished the design with comic additions and the satirists and caricaturists of the time developed and published their own versions of the Mulready. Since its publication in 1984, the “bible” on this subject has been British Pictorial Envelopes of the 19th Century by Bodily Jarvis and Hahn (BJH). This new work sets out to update the information in the BJH book with much more detail on the varied states and printings of these caricatures by the different publishers. BJH listed 305 different copies in 145 different states; we now include 941 copies in 207 states and provide a census of all known recorded copies of Mulready caricatures. 
Extensive research into the sale of these caricatures through examination of over 22,500 historical auction house catalogues and from handling many of these items over the past 20 years has enabled us to now record that around 10% of copies have been adjusted in some way. Victorians tended to collect stamps rather than covers, so some caricatures that were held in scrap books have had replacement stamps added, and our research enables the collector to see this “before and after” provenance for the first time. We include in this book 2392 images as colour illustrations of all known copies and an indication of where adjustments have been made to the envelopes. It is hoped that this new detailed information will provide the next “bible” for collection and understanding of these fascinating envelopes.

Robin Cassell FRPSL

Robin is forever grateful to his father David for buying, on a whim, a stamp collection from a travelling stamp dealer when he called into the family restaurant in Mere, Wiltshire. It sparked a collecting instinct in the teenager that has never left him. Robin mainly specialises in repaired states and unusual cancellations of the line-engraved stamps.
Like Richard, for many years Robin was in the packaging industry. Back in 2000, he founded the philatelic research forum The Mulready Group and soon after, inspired by the late John Bohn and Chris Jarvis, his passion for pictorial envelopes began. As a trio they bid keenly at the 2004 Louis Grunin sale. Items from this collection helped form the basis for an Exhibit which won Large Gold and Gold medals at National and International Exhibitions in London and Stockholm. Robin regularly gives talks to Philatelic Societies on the subject.
He has been a professional philatelist since 2007, trading as Mulready Philatelics. When not at his desk, Robin enjoys watching cricket and football, being out in the Dorset countryside and dancing with his partner Maria.

Richard Hobbs FRPSL
Richard studied Chemistry at Bristol University, obtaining a PhD in 1968. He then joined the Dickinson Robinson Group where he was responsible for developing fibre free peelable medical packaging which is still in use today, worldwide marketing and strategic planning. For the last ten years of his working life he ran his own medical packaging consultancy business before retiring in 2010.
Richard collected stamps as a schoolboy but later built up an extensive collection of over 5000 different 1841 2d Blues. However, in 2007 he met Robin Cassell and was inspired to begin collecting Mulready Caricatures. He now specialises in GB Victorian Propaganda Envelopes and has been awarded Gold medals at three International exhibitions: Brasilia 2017, Stockholmia 2019 and London 2022. In 2018 he won the inaugural Devonshire Bowl competition and was elected FRPSL.
Apart from stamp collecting Richard’s hobbies include wildlife photography and walking along the beautiful Dorset Jurassic coast.

Contents                   

                   

Volume 1                   

Foreword                   

Preface                   

Introduction.                    

          Mulreadies with Hand Drawn Adjustments         

          Abbreviations         

          Acknowledgements.         

          Selected Bibliography         

Chapter 1                    Ackermann                    

          No.1 The Rint Mill         

          No.2 Palmer’s Tun or the Hot Bed of Foreign Affairs.         

          No.3 The Civic.         

          No.4 The Royal Birth         

                   

Chapter 2                    Bell                    

          No.1 Canine.         

          No.2 Rules of the Post Office         

          No.3 Bloodhounds         

          No.4 The Sheep Stealer or The Poacher.         

                    

Chapter 3                    Fores Comic No.1                    

          Broadsheet.         

          Lettersheet.         

Chapter 4                    Fores National Series Envelopes Nos. 1-10                    

          No.1 Courting Envelope         

          No.2 Musical Envelope         

          No.3 Dancing Envelope         

          No.4 Hunting Envelope.         

          No.5 Racing Envelope.         

          No.6 Coaching Envelope.         

          No.7 Shooting Envelope         

          No.8 Civic Envelope         

          No.9 Military Envelope.         

          No.10 Christmas Envelope.         

          Hand Coloured Copies.         

Chapter 5                    Froom.                    

Chapter 6                    HB (also known as McLean or John Bull)                    

Chapter 7                    HCK                    

Chapter 8                    Hodgson.                    

Chapter 9                    HRH.                    

Chapter 10                    R.W. Hume of Leith                   

Hume Comic Envelope No.1 Britannia Seated On An Egg                   

(also known as “Seated On a Pig”)                    

          Appendix to Chapter 10 Detailed Characteristics of Hume Comic No.1 Copies.         

Chapter 11                    Hume Comic Envelope No.2 Balloon Mail                    

          Appendix to Chapter 11 Detailed Characteristics of Hume Comic No.2 Copies.         

Chapter 12                    Hume Comic Envelope No.3 Elephant in a Kilt.                    

Chapter 13                    Hume Comic Envelopes No.4–6.          303         

          No.4 Mechanical World         

          No.5 Victoria’s Saved         

          No.6A Leith Race Course.         

          No.6B The Sands of Leith.         

Chapter 14                    Hume Musical Envelopes and Covers                    

          Musical Covers.         

                    No.1 Coolun

                    No.2 Oh Dinna Ask me Gin I Loe Ye

                    No.3 The Maid that Tends the Goats

                    No.4 Here’s a Heath to Those Far Away

                    No.5 March to the Battle Field.

                    No.6 Ye Banks and Braes O’ Bonnie Doon.

          Musical Envelopes         

                    No.1 Robert Burns

                    No.2 Robert Gilfillan Fare Thee Well

                    No.3 The Ewie Wi’ The Crookit Horn

                    No.4 Hurrah! For The Land of the Brave

                    No.5 Epistle to Lapraik.

                    No.6 Farmer’s Salutation to His Mare.

                    No.7 Rent Day.

                    No.14 The Scots Piper

                    No.20 Cam’ Ye By Athole.

                    No.36 (aka No.19) Auld Gudeman Ye’re a Drunken Carle

                    No.37 From the Court to the Cottage

                    No.38 The Braes Aboon Bonaw.

                    No.54 Rob Roryson’s Bonnet.

                    No.61 The Penny Post Bag No.1

                    No.63 Jock and the Spinning Jenny.

                    No.69 Tom Tug and My Trim-Built Wherry

                    The Queen’s Own

                    Rhomeo and Guilleta

Appendix to Chapter 14—Large Size Images of the Music on Hume Covers and Envelopes                    

                    

Chapter 15                    Hume Nautical Envelopes.                    

          Nemesis         

          No.16 Naval Battle         

          No.17 Acre Envelope         

          Nautical Lettersheet         

          Appendix to Chapter 15 Hand Writing of Robert W. Hume.         

Chapter 16                    Hume St. Valentine Envelopes                    

          No.1.         

          No.4.         

          Nos.5 and 6         

          No.8 Token of Affection.         

          No.10 The Old Maid.         

          No.11.         

Chapter 17                    Hume Tourist Envelopes.                    

          No.1 50 Miles around Stirling         

          No.2 50 Miles around Ben Nevis         

          No.3 50 Miles around Edinburgh and Leith         

          No.4 Roslin Chapel.         

          No.197 Views of Edinburgh from Costorphine Hill         

          Unnumbered Type 1.         

          Unnumbered Type 2.         

Chapter 18                    Hume Victoria and Albert (V&A).                    

Volume 2                   

                   

Introductory Pages to Volume 2.                    

Chapter 19                    Lesage.                    

          Clerical Envelope No.1 The Church Tossed on a Stormy Sea         

          Clerical Envelope No.2 The Parsons Going it in the Face of the Law         

Chapter 20                    Macgregor                    

          Envelope No.1 The Two Young Ladies         

          Envelope No.2 Two Postmen.         

          Envelope No.3 Four Continents.         

Chapter 21                    Martin                   

          Envelope No.1 Soldier and Old Lady.         

          Envelope No.2 Two Old Men.         

          Envelope No.3 Courtroom Scene.         

          Envelope No.4 Courting Envelope.         

          Envelope No.5 Sir Walter Scott’s Belles.         

          Envelope No.6 Bagpiper.         

          Envelope No.7 Friendship and Love         

          Envelope No.8 Lords and Earls         

Chapter 22                    Mason.                    

Chapter 23                    Maurisset                    

          Envelope Designs Series 1.         

                    No.1 La Salle de Spectacle.

                    No.2 Les Bulles de Savon

                    No.3 La Cuisine du Restaurant

                    No.4 Le Bal et le Galop.

                    No.5 Le Concert D’Amateurs.

                    No.6 La Correspondence

                    No.7 La Lanterne Magique d’Aubert.

                    No.8 Le Premier Jour de l’Année.

                    No.9 Les Indiscretions

                    No.10 La Soirée a l’Anglaise.

                    No.11 La Poste aux Lettres.

                    No.12 Les Parties de Plaisir

Maurisset          Envelope Designs Series 2.         

                    No.1 Jardin Public

                    No.2 Joute sur l’Eau

                    No.3 La Polka des Salons

                    No.4 Les Fumeurs.

                    No.5 Les Patineurs

                    No.6 Partie de Campagne.

                    No.7 Partie de Plaisir

                    No.8 Un Concert â Faire Fuir

                    No.9 Un Coup de Vent.

                    No.10 Une Fête aux environs de Paris.

                    No.11 Voyage Aérien

                    No.12 Unrecorded Name.

          Emy Designs         

                    No.1 A Rainy Day.

                    No.2 A Windy Day.

Chapter 24                    Menzies                    

Chapter 25                    Oxford                    

          No.1 Racing (also known as Hunting).         

          No.2 Rowing (also known as Boating).         

          Delamotte         

Chapter 26                    Phiz.                    

Chapter 27                    Punch.                    

          State 1a Without an Inscription in Lettersheet Format.         

          State 1b Without an Inscription in Envelope Format.         

          State 2 With an Inscription in Lettersheet Format         

Chapter 28                    Southgate                    

          No.1 Pickpocket         

          No.2 Ladies School         

          No.3 Peg-Leg Sailor.         

          No.4 Blarney Stone         

          No.5 Pickwick         

          No.6 Papal.         

          Hand Coloured Copies.         

Chapter 29                    Spooner                    

          Large Broadsheet.         

          Spooner Series Nos.1-14.         

Chapter 30                    Thackeray.                    

          Original         

          Defaced         

Chapter 31                    WE Jr (Junior)                    

          No.1 Post Office         

          No.2 Flying Quills.         

          No.3 Cheap Writing Paper         

          No.4 Post Office Inn         

          No.5 A Man of Letters,         

          No.6 Mail Coach .         

          No.7 The Old Maids Envelope.         

          No.8 Valentine         

          No.9 Writing Desk         

          No.10 Maid         

          No.11 Four Continents.         

          No.12 Letter Bags         

Chapter 32                    White                    

          Broadsheet.         

          Lettersheet         

          Evils of Monopoly.         

          Henderson Variety         

Chapter 33                    Miscellaneous Designs.                    

          Additional Caricature Designs.         

                    Four Continents

                    La Poste.

                    Mon Tonson.

                    Penny Newspaper.

          Printed Congressional Mulready.         

          Hand Drawn Caricatures         

                    Fores Comic No.1.

                    Southgate No.1.

                    Spooner No.4

                    De Merle Envelope.

                    John Bull and Rowland Hill Envelope.

                    Hand Drawn Irish Envelope

                    Hand Drawn Mulready with Corean Clown.

          Contemporary Pictorial Envelopes         

                    Pipe Dream & Hand Drawn Animacula.

                    Printed Begging Dog

                    Pretty Well of Letters Awaiting

                    Printed Elder and Ogilvy

                    The Reverend Lorraine Smith Hunting Envelopes.

                    Irish Personalities.

                    Nettle.

                    Nichol

Chapter 34                    Lawrie & Knight Advertisements.                    

                   

Chapter 35                    Wafer Seals                    

          Ackermann         

          Lesage.         

          Little         

          Punch.         

Chapter 36                    Contemporary Imitations                     

          Imitation Fores Broadsheet.         

          Imitation Fores National Series (No.1 Courting and No.3 Dancing).         

          Imitation Hume Comic No.1 (Tinkler & Newbold)         

          Imitation Southgate Series         

                    Imitation Southgate No.1.

                    Imitation Southgate No.2.

          Pirated Southgate No.2.         

          Imitation Spooner Series         

                    Imitation Spooner Nos.1 and 7

                    Imitation Spooner No.2 with “POSTAGE” Inscriptions

                    Imitation Spooner No.4 and Spooner No.5 with Southgate Flaps

Chapter 37                    Deraedemaeker Reproductions                    

Chapter 38                    Forgeries                   

Appendices                     

Appendix 1: Common Correspondence.                   

          Batty Family, Axminster.         

          Dennis Family, Baltinglass         

          Miss Hodgson, Bishop Auckland.         

          John Dallas, Bothkennar.         

          Lady Grey de Ruthyn & Hon. Rev. Eden, Harbledown, Canterbury.         

          Maxton Family, Crieff.         

          Mrs Guinness, Dublin,         

          Hill Family, Row, Helensburgh         

          Miss Wright, Honiton.         

          Payne Family, Ixworth (& Dedham)         

          Paulus Aman, Liverpool.         

          Brosnan, Covent Garden, London         

          Miss Trevelyan, Milverton         

          Mrs RH Fowler, Southwell, Notts.         

          Miss Lewis, Southwick, Nr Fareham         

          Miss Wood, Stourport         

          Miss Wood, Tenby         

          Miss Porter, Trim         

          Munn Family, Worcester         

                   

Appendix 2 Valuation of Caricatures                    

Index                    

Preface
The Background Story

On 6 May 1840 the first adhesive stamps, the 1d Black and 2d Blue, were issued in Great Britain. In addition, an envelope and a lettersheet of the same values were introduced, designed by the Irish artist, William Mulready. This was the crowning achievement of Sir Rowland Hill’s introduction of the Penny Post. Mulready was a member of the Royal Academy, he had just unveiled three of his paintings to great acclaim at the 72nd Exhibition at The National Gallery on 4 May. Picture the scene. With over 1200 pieces of art, and hung amongst works by Turner and Landseer, the papers reported “The three pictures of Mr Mulready we feel to be beyond all praise; there is no living artist who could compete with him”. His design for the new postage envelope had just been unveiled and was about to be released. All his Christmases had come at once. However, the very same day, The Times, and its readers, metaphorically tore his envelope to pieces. One can only imagine the mixture of emotions coursing through his veins. The stamps were a great success; Mulready’s envelope was laughed out of town.

The Morning Post of 9 May not only criticised Mulready’s design, but mentioned a new caricature by Fores. This is the Broadsheet in Chapter 3. Following public ridicule, and numerous newspaper articles attacking the somewhat – for early Victorian times – elaborate design, Rowland Hill was forced to face up to his mistake. On 12 May he wrote in his diary: “I fear we shall be obliged to substitute some other stamp for that designed by Mulready, which is abused and ridiculed on all sides. In departing so widely from the established ‘Lion and Unicorn’ nonsense, I fear that we have run counter to settled opinions and prejudices somewhat rashly. I now think that it would have been wiser to have followed established custom… The conduct of the public shows that although our attempt to diffuse a taste for fine art may have been imprudent, such diffusion is very much wanted”. It was already too late.

In Leith, Edinburgh, Robert Wright Hume, who can be called the ‘inventor’ of the Comic Envelope, had seen an example of the new envelopes and spotted an opportunity to make an extra shilling or so. A bookseller, printer and stationer, his principal daily income came from The Lyre, a weekly musical broadsheet he produced. Seizing the moment, he, or his in-house artist, drew up a satirical design showing Britannia seated on a pig, but more commonly known as seated on a giant egg. On the top flap is an image of Rowland Hill having a letter posted into his mouth!

The Caledonian Mercury of 16 May wrote “COMIC ENVELOPE.—A very clever caricature upon the “Post Office Envelope” has been published here, by Mr Hume. The satire is keen and perceptible, and really, we must say is not undeserved; for anything more unmeaning, ludicrous and grotesque than the original we have never seen. As a “work of art”, too, we will pit Hume’s against the Post Office—ten to one. If the “Comic Envelope” be sold at a moderate price, it is sure of extensive circulation, as the “Adhesive Stamp” can be placed on a corner without defacing it; and the receiver is sure to get a good laugh before he meditates on the contents within”.

On 21 May an advertisement appeared in both The Sun and The Morning Herald—“FORES’S COMIC ENVELOPES, No 1, now ready, price 1s 6d per dozen—London: Published by Messrs Fores, at their sporting and fine repository and frame making manufactory, 41, Piccadilly, corner of Sackville Street.” The following day John Leech, the artist behind the design, wrote and posted an example to his place of work, Bentley’s Miscellany in Regent Street—the first recorded postally used English caricature. These two publisher’s designs were so successful that many others soon followed their lead.

There were two principal centres of production for the caricatures, Edinburgh and London. In Edinburgh, there was Lawrie & Knight in Dundas Street, Lesage in Hanover Street, Macgregor in India Place, Martin in Arthur Street and Menzies in Princes Street. All were booksellers, print-sellers or stationers. On the Shore in Leith was Hume. 

Leith is two miles North East of central Edinburgh. The map shows where Hume operated from on The Shore; on his Comic No.4 he can be seen working with behind him ships moored in the docks. The same scene could be created today. Clearly all would have been aware of each other. Lawrie & Knight collaborated with Hume, Menzies and Lesage to have their advertisement printed on the interior of their designs (as well as having it on the inside of actual Mulready envelopes).

The first caricature by Hume, his Comic Envelope No.1—“Britannia seated on an Egg”—was sent from Leith on 13 May 1840, just one week after the Mulready envelope was issued, and arrived in London on the 15 May. It was addressed to William Mulready himself. How fantastic that this member of the Royal Academy and renowned Irish artist should see enough humour and merit in Hume’s parody of perhaps his most famous work to keep it and not consign it to the bin!

Soon afterwards the London print-sellers produced their own creations. S.W. Fores employed John Leech to create his “Comic No.1 Envelope”. The fabulous design of the majestic one-eyed lion clearly captured the imagination of the people as 80 used examples and counting have been recorded, the vast majority used in 1840.  Other London print-sellers joined the party, all based around The Strand. They were household names at the time just like Fores and included Ackermann, Southgate and Spooner, as well as Thomas White and others. Outside London contributors included Mason of Brighton and even a French artist, Theodore Maurisset, who produced a series of twelve beautifully executed designs solely for the English market.

 As quickly as they appeared, they went. By early 1841, with the introduction of the sombre penny pink, the show was over, and the booksellers and print-sellers went back to their more standard occupations. Of course, the seeds had been sown and throughout the Victorian period people used the envelope for many purposes – propaganda, commercial designs, commemorative or just fancy pictorials. Just imagine, had Mr. Mulready not produced his elaborate and much ridiculed envelope, how different the world of philately might be today. You would now be looking at a blank page!
Robin Cassell FRPSL
Dorset, England