Lot 1636
1636
cover 1857 (29 Oct.) envelope to Hobart headed "On Public Service only" and countersigned "M.M. Ryan", showing very fine example of the very rare circular "PORT ARTHUR/POST OFFICE" h.s. with manuscript date inserted and very fine Hobart "FREE" d.s. (30.10) in red. Only five covers are recorded. Photo
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus bu… Read more
cover 1857 (29 Oct.) envelope to Hobart headed "On Public Service only" and countersigned "M.M. Ryan", showing very fine example of the very rare circular "PORT ARTHUR/POST OFFICE" h.s. with manuscript date inserted and very fine Hobart "FREE" d.s. (30.10) in red. Only five covers are recorded. Photo

Details
cover 1857 (29 Oct.) envelope to Hobart headed "On Public Service only" and countersigned "M.M. Ryan", showing very fine example of the very rare circular "PORT ARTHUR/POST OFFICE" h.s. with manuscript date inserted and very fine Hobart "FREE" d.s. (30.10) in red. Only five covers are recorded. Photo
Special notice
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.
Further details
Note: Father Michael Ryan was the Roman Catholic Religious Instructor attached to the Prison Department at Port Arthur from 1856 to 1859. He had been posted at Norfolk Island in 1853 and at Impression Bay in 1854 and 1855. Later he was appointed as Roman Catholic priest at the Female House of Correction in Hobart.
The addressee is Father Robert William Wilson who became Bishop in 1843 with the title of Bishop of the See in Hobart. His report in 1852 to Sir William Denison, Governor of New South Wales, about the condition of prisoners in Norfolk Island was instrumental in the closure of that penal settlement in 1855.