Newspaper Wrappers and their Postmarks
The Cape Times was a leading Cape Town newspaper with many subscribers both in SA and overseas. I would like to know more about the cancellation of newspaper wrappers. How did this wrapper system work in practice? Did the Cape Times wrap their newspapers up in wrappers, put a stamp on it and take it to the PO who cancelled it with this octagonal NPB (Newspaper Branch) datestamp? Did the Argus act as a postal agency cancelling its own pre-paid overprinted wrappers with the Argus Wheel datestamp?
Of interest, this one is going to the Castle Line offices in London. It appears that the rate on an overseas wrapper was 1d at this time.
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Welcome back, Underbidder.
A wrapper is a form of postal stationery which pays the cost of the delivery of a newspaper or a periodical. The wrapper is a sheet of paper, large enough to wrap around a folded or rolled newspaper, usually with an imprinted stamp to pay the cost of postage. As such, wrappers needed to be cancelled to prevent re-use and a loss of revenue to the PO.
A newspaper wrapper was the equivalent of a postage stamp. The newspaper wrapper system worked the way postage stamps did - they were purchased, applied to the item to be posted and cancelled at the PO once delivered there for mailing. Wrappers were bought and paid for by the user, either singly or in bulk. The user, either an individual buying one or a newspaper buying them in bulk to mail to subscribers, was required to enclose the rolled newspaper in them and deliver them to the PO for cancelling and mailing.
The Cape Times building, as well as the Argus, the other main Cape Town newspaper, were based close to the Post Office on the corner of Church and St George's Street. (See Goldblatt's Postmarks of the GOGH. Page 101.) As the Argus grew more popular and the volumes of its wrapped newspapers delivered to the PO increased, the PO supplied it with its own canceller, the Argus Wheel, in order that it could cancel the wrappers itself, thereby saving the PO a time-consuming job. I am not sure if that statement is correct. Please advise.
Regarding your Cape Times wrapper of 'DE 19 94', it appears not to be imprinted but requires a 1d stamp to be affixed. See the plain standard GPO wrapper below with 1/2d value. By comparison, yours appears to be a special wrapper printed by the Cape Times., The example in the middle below of 'OC 31 93' has been overprinted with 'Argus Daily Edition', presumably by the Argus with the approval of the Cape Post Office. Like yours it has a stamp affixed because the wrapper rate to London is 1d, the Cape domestic rate being a 1/2d.
On the middle example below the affixed 1/2d stamp has been cancelled with the PO's NPB Squared Circle canceller while the 1/2d imprint has been cancelled with the Argus Wheel, a total of 1d for the overseas rate. This leads me to wonder if the imprint was cancelled in the Cape Argus and the stamp in the PO? I have found no suggestion that the NPB Squared Circle canceller was used by the Argus.
I attach an Octagonal NPB canceller like Underbidder's and also an Argust wheel, the common one. The scarcest of these, not shown here, is the Argus Wheel with the date deatils in the quadrants.
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Here's a wrapper sent from EAST LONDON 'AP 4 0x' to Cathcart in the Eastern Cape. The wrapper is a 1/2d one as befits the Cape newspaper rate and is of the same issue as the first one in the preceding post. An additional 2d postage has been affixed. Has the rule been infringed? (See green Conditions.) Has this wrapper been used to send something other than a newspaper or did it include a letter?
It is not possible to see the Year this was sent but it could be 1902 or 1908. Goldblatt tells us that in 1882 - 1883 the rate was a 1d for newspapers not exceeding 4 ounces. In 1890 the rate on newspapers prepaid in the Cape and Basutoland was 1/2d per 2 ounces. On commercial papers the rate was 2d for the first 10 ounces and 1/2d per every 2 ounces thereafter. Thus on the wrapper below to Malcomess & Co, the wrapper presumably enclosed commercial correspondence that weighed just under 11 ounces (2d + 1/2d).
Your advice please!
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That's useful but I am still not sure where these postmarks were applied. Goldblatt does not suggest they were applied by the newspaper.
Here are two sheets that I prepared some time ago on the various types of Argus Wheel postmarks.
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Hopefully someone who knows more than me can answer your question.
Thanks for your examples of Argus Wheel postmarks. Its good to see them in the flesh, so to speak, rather than in a book.
Below is a postcard showing the Argus Building (left) on Greenmarket Square, also the Kimberley PO where Sol T Plaatje, the renowned Black author and man of many talents was once its Post and Telegraph messenger. Accompanying that is a heavily overprinted Diamonds Field Advertiser wrapper for use at the 1/2d rate. This would have been cancelled and dispatched via the Kimberley PO.
There was recently an article in the April 2024 Springbok, the Journal of the SA Collectors' Society, by Dr John Courtis FRPSL on the subject of 'Curating Overprinted Private Postal Wrappers of SA'. From a database of 10,000 images, he was able to extract 56 overprinted South African private wrappers. This Diamonds Field Advertiser wrapper was not included among his 56 examples.
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I do not know of any reference that can definitely answer underbidders question, so what follows is my own assessment based on material I have. Pre-printed wrappers were sold "cut" or "uncut", this enabled the publisher to also print the addresses of subscribers. So one can find both address labels and pre-printed ones. Given the care that the Post Office regulations were enforced, I would think they were stamped at the Newspaper Branch in the Head Office (reasoning later when machines were employed for cancelling cheap mail were purchased). If the stamping was done by Argus themselves the PO would have opted not to purchase these machines. I have wrappers that were taxed additional postage.
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The Diamond Fields Advertizer (I have seen a few copies, but is certainly elusive). Here is my copy.
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I have been away from the SAPC website for some many months. I must now return with something of a trademark 'WOW! "Pushful Joe" Chamberlain, eh! Wonderful. It is ironic and quite synchronicitous that you show this now. I was at a meeting of the ABWPS (Anglo-BoerWar Philatelic Society) on Tuesday at the Union Jack Club in London. I am still on a high from that enjoyable day and the incredible material that was shown by its members. I went specifically to hear a talk on the Jameson Raid, a conspiracy that Joe had a hand in, one which he denied. My head is still abuzz with the events of the Jameson Raid as described and some of the material shown by Ian Shapiro. This newspaper wrapper of yours comes as as a neat end piece to that experience. Thank you and welcome back. Its good to be back.