Sale 3039: The "ERIVAN" Collection of United and Confederate States Postal History Part IV

26X1, Fredericksburg, Virginia, 5c Blue on bluish, position 1, margins huge to ample with a portion of sheet margin at top, tied by black "Fredericksburg Va Paid Oct 25" cds to neat small mourning cover to "Major R.L. Maury, 24th Va. Reg., Early's Bridage, Manassas Junction,", well-margined stamp with some light wrinkling at top but far less severe than typically seen for this delicate issue, Very Fine and choice (Scott $5,500)rnrnThe "Maury" correspondence, believed to have been written by his girlfriend (and later wife) Susan Crutchfield Maury, spans from June 1861 to (possibly) early 1865. All covers in the correspondence are numbered in sequential Roman numerals in order of receipt, this being "LVIII." Nine mourning covers bearing Fredericksburg adhesives were sold in the 1966 R.A. Siegel Rarities of the World auction (sale 296; the cover offered here was lot 162). Since then, the anonymous collector of CSA mourning covers "Paul Bearer" has conducted a census of the Maury mourning covers ("The Maury Mourning Covers - An Initial Census and Survey"), which can be accessed via Richard Frajola's website. The addressee, Richard Launcelot Maury (1840-1907), was the son of Matthew Fontaine Maury (1806-1873), a celebrated US Naval Commander and astronomer nicknamed the "Father of Modern Oceanography and Naval Meteorology" and "Scientist of the Seas."rnProvenance: Rarities of the World (R.A. Siegel Sale 296, 1966)Confederate States Postmasters' Provisionals