British Courier Post from Damascus to Beirut 1835: Second sheet of entire letter from Mr. Jean-Baptiste Baudin, the French agent consulaire
British Courier Post from Damascus to Beirut 1835: Second sheet of entire letter from Mr. Jean-Baptiste Baudin, the French agent consulaire in Damascus directed to the Consul de France in Acre, at that time in Beirut, using a postal service organized by the British consul-general in Damascus, Mr. Farren, the cover struck by crisp bilingual intaglio „DAMASCUS POST BRIT. CON. GEN. SYRIA / Poste Consulaire Générale Anglaise du Pays de Sham“ seal. On obverse handwritten "No. 13" and "2 ¾" (piastres). Some acid ink imperfections, nevertheless an immaculate strike of this extremely rare handstamp, cert. RPS (2004). Notes: In 1835 the British Consul-General for Syria, Mr. John William Perry Farren was maintaining a Dromedary Post between Damascus and Al Heet in the south of the country, and a communication by post between Damascus and Beirut. The British had to reorganize their activity in the Levant after the Peace Agreement of Kütahya in 1833, when the Ottoman provinces of Adana and Syria had become part of Egypt, and Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt became governor-general of the two provinces. John William Perry Farren was the British Consul-General for Syria, located in Damascus from August 1830 to September 1837. Sent by Mr. Jean-Baptiste Baudin (1788-1848), born in Marseille but living in Syria nearly all his live. He settled in Damascus around 1825 as a merchant and even had a shop in the Khan Assad Pasha; he was apparently the only European established in Damascus at that time. He then represented the interests of foreign merchants and he even managed the affairs of the French, Austrian and Russian consulates. He later became the agent of the only French consul in Beirut. In 1839, a French consulate was established in Damascus. Finally, he would have been one of the first victims of the cholera epidemic which struck the city in July 1848. Directed to Henry Guys (1787-1877), Consul de France de St. Jean d‘Acre et dependances à Beyrouth. Henry Guys came from a French family of French diplomates. He was consul in Alger in 1818, thereafter in Aleppo, Beirut and finally in St. Jean d’Acre, the French name of Akkon, today in Israel. It seems that he lived in Beirut, where he had married in 1824. Reference: Described by Norman J. Collins in his article ‘Some Overland Mail Rarities’ in the London Philatelist 105 (Oct 1996), pp 261-266), a xerox of which is added to this lot. Provenance: David Feldman sale (April 2007), lot 60068.
