Bidspirit auction | Postal history. Patuleia War. British

Postal history. Patuleia War. British packets. During the Patuleia War (Portuguese civil war from October 1846 to June 1847), the transport of mail from Europe to Portugal was carried out by British packets. From the beginning of the war, two letters are known, of which this auction presents one, the second being illustrated on page 509 of the PRE-PHILETRY PORTUGUESE. The land postage of 480 réis, for a letter coming from Europe via Spain, was added to the postage of 120 réis for the British packet. This letter has the unique circumstance of having handwritten “Postage of the packet 120”, for a total of 600 réis to be paid by the recipient. It has the mark P.BRIT.º on the front. On its journey from St. Servan, from where it departed on 26.12.1846, it passed through Nantes on 27.12, Bordeaux on 28.12 and Madrid on 2.12. Due to the interruption of postal communications with Portugal, it was diverted from Madrid to A Coruña, where it boarded the British packet ship bound for Lisbon, arriving on January 12, 1847. It is one of the great rarities of Portuguese maritime mail. MR and MB