Printed to Private Order (PTPO) Envelopes - pre-1913

[shatten]

The PTPO envelopes present a wide range of opportunities for collectors. H&G provides a simplified and incomplete listing.

I'd liketo hear from anyone who has:
(1) compiled their own lists of PTPO envelopes
(2) researched the sources of PTPO envelopes (that is, who ordered them ) or
(3) knows of sources of such information. There may well be material in past editions of The Courier.

Also, I recently picked up a quintuple (below). Has anyone else got a quintuple?

Tas Q.jpg (127.88 KiB) Viewed 10189 times

[admin]

The up-to-date Courier Index is here http://www.tps.org.au/PDFs/Cumulative%2 ... ourier.pdf. I see a few entries but nothing like a definitive article.
If anything is of interest and you dont have the relevant edition let me know and I may be able to dig the article out
Malcolm Groom has put together an excellent display and I expect would know as much abut this topic as anyone. I'll see if Malcolm has any references he can suggest

[Colin Salt]

A useful source is 'Printed to Private Order Stationery. Tasmania, 1933 to 1974' by Tony Orchard.

Published by Magpie Publications January 1999.

[David McNamee]

There are at least 2 used copies of the ½d orange (x5) and one other mint that I have seen. I use Higgins & Gage, plus there are some (like this one) that are not listed, and some are varieties (appear in various sequences or shades). Not listed I have found include:

Postal Cards
1d emeral green on 3-part folded card
1d red + 1d red on 3-part advertising card (2 used known)

Envelopes
½d orange (x5) Two copies known used; 2 unused

Wrappers
1d red + ½d yellow

[Malcolm Groom]

In response to the posts so far I can add:

1. The main published sources for PTPO stationery are the old and sparse Higgins & Gage listing and more fullsome chapter in Tinsley Stamps & Postal history of Tasmania authored by Owen Ingles.
The Tasmanian Postal Guides contain clauses permitting any Firm or individual to have stationery to be embossed (in batches of 480) with one of the dies. It seems to be generally accepted that the value embossed needed to be a valid postal rate.. I also presume that for the 5 embossed envelopes they required five submissions to the Post Office to achieve the five embossings. There is also no indication in the Guides stating whether the 480 submitted items of stationery had to be the same of could be a variety of items.

2. I am aware of three mint embossed envelopes with 5 impressions, one has the 5 embossings in the one row. I have recorded three used examples all in similar configuration to the item Allen illustrates. I do not have access to my scans at the moment to be able to post images.

3. Sometime in the future I hope to post a listing of the PTPO stationery I have as part of a full Tasmanian postal stationery catalogue. It is in a large and increasing pile of things to be done.

4. Colin's reference to Orchard is great for Commonwealth period PTPO material but sadly we have no such records for the State period and my searches so far do not fill me with hope that such a record exists.

Malcolm

[shatten]

After immense effort I have obtained a copy of Tinsley (which typically sells for $200++ on the net). There is a chapter by Mr O G Ingles on postal stationery, which presents excellent information on everything except the PTPOs. Mr Ingles is rather dismissive of them: ".... an extensive series of what can only be described as exploitations of the philatelic public-manufactured rarities." These issues ".... are listed only in the barest outline sufficient to provide adequate warning for the serious collector."

As most readers probably know already, the PTPO listing for Tassie in H&G is very basic in comparison to the equivalent listing for Victoria. There is a smorgasboard of papers, sizes, flap cuts, monograms and shades of colour in the Victorian catalogue and these variations apply in some measure to Tasmania. Additionally it is clear from this BLOG and my own very limited experience that the H&G doesn't include all the possible embossing combinations.

I have a few ideas on how a list of PTPO envelopes might be compiled - stand by for further bulletins, and any suggestions will be appreciated.

[Ross Ewington]

I think that as the envelopes themselves were of private manufacture, any study of them would be not particularly relevant to collecting postal stationery as it is with items produced by the post office. The listing of the indicia (colours, shades, etc.) and their various combinations is the 'core study area' for Tasmanian PTPO stationery in my opinion. A listing of usage including early and late dates or similar would be essential to any such study.

The only areas of interest in the envelopes that doesn't involve the indicia that I can think of are: 1) advertising envelopes, cards, wrappers, etc. and 2) examples of PTPO envelopes by stationers such as J. Walch & Sons that were produced for re-sale to the public as pre-stamped envelopes, etc.

[Ross Ewington]

Printed-to-order stationery received some attention in an early edition of The London Philatelist (Vol. 1, No.7, July 1892

lp tas stationery.jpg (62.54 KiB) Viewed 9366 times

[shatten]

Nice one Ross.

Interesting that they mention platypus impressions on wrappers. Not often seen?