Confederate 'Mount Lebanon, La.' Postmaster's Provisional

A country without stamps

Louisiana left the Union on January 26, 1861. For a few months, mail in the seceded states kept moving on United States stamps, but their use in the Confederacy ended on June 1, 1861, and the Confederate government did not issue its own stamps until October 16. In between, local postmasters improvised. They printed adhesive stamps, handstamped envelopes or sold press-printed envelopes, and collectors call all of these postmasters' provisionals.

Provisionals made before June 1 were usually denominated 3 cents, matching the old Union letter rate. The Mount Lebanon stamp, like many later provisionals, is a 5-cent value. Most provisionals are scarce, and for some only one example survives.

Mount Lebanon was a small place for such an undertaking. The village lies in Bienville Parish in northern Louisiana, roughly 400 miles from New Orleans, and had a wartime population of fewer than 1,000. Its Baptist settlers came from South Carolina; a 2009 sale description dates the settlement to 1847, while another account says its Baptist church was organized in 1837. The Louisiana Baptist Convention was established there in 1848, and the village's school became Mount Lebanon University in the 1850s (sources give 1853 and 1855). During the war the school was closed and used as a hospital.

The postmaster and the woodblock

According to an account by L.B. Dabney, published in the Southern Philatelist in May 1929 and based on interviews with Mount Lebanon residents, the town's postmaster from 1859 to 1865 was W.F. Wells, publisher of the Louisiana Baptist newspaper. Residents told Dabney that Wells printed the provisional stamps and that they were used only briefly, in June 1861.

The stamp was printed from a piece of wood with a relatively smooth surface. Lines were cut into the wood and strips removed to form the borders around each stamp; ruled lines were added inside each border, and a circle was cut into the center. The maker then took printer's type and hammered the letters of "Mt. Lebanon La." around the circle and pressed the numeral "5" into the middle.

That was the mistake. Anything printed from a block comes out reversed, so a printing surface has to carry its design backward. The Mount Lebanon block was made to read correctly as you looked at the wood, so every impression came off the press as a mirror image. As one leading specialist put it, "This principle of typography was missed or ignored by the creator of the Mount Lebanon provisional." The result is believed to be the only mirror-image stamp in all of philately.

One cover, described

The only known example is a 5-cent red brown stamp with an excellent impression that shows all of the lettering, the "5" and even the grain of the wooden printing block. Its margins are huge and show portions of several adjoining stamps, evidence that it was printed in a sheet with others. It was cleanly cut at top and bottom and roughly separated at the sides, causing one tiny tear, and it is canceled by a small, neat pen stroke.

It is affixed upside down on a clean white cover addressed to "Mr. D. Ripley, care Adol. Hamilton Esq., New Orleans, La." At lower left is the printed corner card of a local merchant: "C.G. Thurmond, Dealer In Staple & Fancy Dry Goods, Hardware, Groceries, &c., &c., Mt. Lebanon, La."

The cover was opened roughly along the left side, which affects the stamp's margin but also effectively ties it to the envelope. A small piece of backing paper has been added behind the left edge to improve its appearance.

From a count's albums to a bond king's

The cover's first known owner was Count Philipp von Ferrary, whose collection was sold at auction in Paris between 1925 and 1927. It next appeared in the 1956 sale of the collection of Alfred H. Caspary, where A. Earl Weatherly bought it. In 1963, at Weatherly's invitation, Charles and Lucy Kilbourne acquired a number of his important provisionals by private sale, the Mount Lebanon among them.

When the Kilbourne collection was sold at auction in September 1999, the collector William H. Gross bought the cover against considerable competition for $385,000 including buyer's premium, a world record for any Confederate philatelic item.

Gross sold his Confederate postmasters' provisionals at an unreserved auction in New York on November 19, 2009, giving the entire proceeds to the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum as part of an $8 million gift toward a new street-level gallery for the national stamp collection. The sale listing reports the Mount Lebanon cover sold for $240,000; a collectibles news report the following week gave $220,000 and called it the top seller of the sale. The cover was offered again at auction on September 9, 2020. A 2021 local newspaper report said it remains in a private collection.

An aristocrat of philately

Specialists describe the Mount Lebanon cover as the most valuable item in Confederate philately and one of the great rarities of the world. One 2009 description ranked it, with two Livingston, Alabama, covers, among the three most famous and desirable Confederate covers in existence.

It has been shown repeatedly in the "Aristocrats of Philately" display alongside the world's greatest stamps, at Interphil 1976, Ameripex 1986, Anphilex 1996 and World Stamp Show-NY 2016. In 2020 the standard U.S. specialized catalog listed it at $255,000, a catalog value set in italics because the cover trades so rarely and reflecting its 2009 sale. That is a guide value, not a sale.

The town itself has dwindled. After the railroad went through Gibsland, three miles north, Mount Lebanon declined; its post office closed in the 1950s, and the 2020 census counted 66 residents. Its most famous export remains a single envelope sent to New Orleans in the first summer of the Civil War.

The numbers

Issued

June 1861 (per 1929 interviews with residents)

Denomination

5 cents, red brown

Known

1, on cover

Printing

Woodblock (woodcut) with type hammered into the wood; mirror-image impression

Separation

Cut cleanly at top and bottom, roughly separated at the sides

Cancel

Small pen stroke

Timeline

1. 1848

   The Louisiana Baptist Convention is established at Mount Lebanon; Bienville Parish is created the same year.

2. 1859

   W.F. Wells becomes postmaster of Mount Lebanon, according to a 1929 account.

3. Jan 26, 1861

   Louisiana secedes from the Union.

4. Jun 1, 1861

   Use of United States stamps ends in the Confederacy, and local postmasters begin improvising.

5. Jun 1861

   According to townspeople interviewed in 1929, the Mount Lebanon provisional is printed and used briefly.

6. Oct 16, 1861

   The Confederate government issues its first general stamps.

7. 1925

   The cover is sold in Paris as part of the Ferrary collection sales, held from 1925 to 1927.

8. May 1929

   L.B. Dabney publishes his interviews with Mount Lebanon residents in the Southern Philatelist.

9. 1956

   Sold from the Alfred H. Caspary collection to A. Earl Weatherly.

10. 1963

    Charles and Lucy Kilbourne acquire it from Weatherly by private sale.

11. 1976

    Shown in the "Aristocrats of Philately" display at Interphil 1976; again at Ameripex 1986 and Anphilex 1996.

12. Sep 1999

    Sold at auction from the Kilbourne collection to William H. Gross for $385,000, a record for any Confederate philatelic item.

13. Nov 19, 2009

    Sold at auction in New York from the Gross collection, with proceeds donated to the National Postal Museum.

14. 2016

    Exhibited in the "Aristocrats of Philately" display at World Stamp Show-NY 2016.

15. Sep 9, 2020

    Offered at auction in a sale of Civil War postal history held without public attendance.

The world in 1861

• Feb 9, 1861

  Jefferson Davis is elected provisional president of the Confederate States at Montgomery, Alabama.

• Mar 3, 1861

  Tsar Alexander II abolishes serfdom in the Russian Empire.

• Mar 4, 1861

  Abraham Lincoln is sworn in as the 16th president of the United States.

• Mar 17, 1861

  The Kingdom of Italy is proclaimed, with Victor Emmanuel II as king.

• Apr 12, 1861

  The Civil War begins with the bombardment of Fort Sumter, South Carolina.

• Jul 21, 1861

  The First Battle of Bull Run ends in a Confederate victory.

• Oct 24, 1861

  Western Union completes the first transcontinental telegraph line; two days later the Pony Express announces its closure.

• Nov 8, 1861

  The Trent Affair: a U.S. warship stops a British mail ship and seizes two Confederate envoys.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Confederate 'Mount Lebanon, La.' Postmaster's Provisional is number 29 of 100 in the stamps entries of the FLOAT 100. 82 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (24 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• It is believed to be the only mirror-image stamp in all of philately, because its maker cut the woodblock to read correctly instead of backward.
• The grain of the wooden printing block is visible in the stamp.
• The stamp is stuck on the envelope upside down.
• The postmaster who made it also published a Baptist newspaper.
• William H. Gross gave the entire proceeds of his 2009 Confederate sale to the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum.
• Mount Lebanon had 66 residents at the 2020 census.