The sheet was issued simultaneously with the one penny black and two penny blue denominations. Letter sheets had impression of the Queen’s head but a rather elaborate and jingoistic drawing showing Britannia seated at the head of the sheet, shield by her side and a rather lethargic looking lion slumbering at her feet.
Britannia
Britannia’s arms out-spread dispatching angels to the four corners of the globe. Imperial symbols abound at her feet sit the Empire’s population; on the left Asia is represented by an Indian scribe who is surrounded by elephants and camels as he writes a letter. While on the right side the Americas are shown with early European settlers being greeted by friendly American Indians.
Indeed Sir Rowland was of the opinion that these letter sheets would be more popular than the stamps and eventually reduce or eliminate the need for stamps. He was wrong the public took to postage stamps with enthusiasm and ridiculed the letter sheets that became known as Mulreadys.
William Mulready
Irishman William Mulready RA was a highly respected and eminent Victorian artist who was a friend of William Hill. And it was Hill who asked Mulready to design the letter sheet, besides the elaborate and over fussy illustration the sheets contained detailed and patronising instructions on their use.
Like the postage stamps the Mulready envelopes were issued in two denominations – one penny and two pence. The penny letter sheet printed in black on cream paper and the two pence in blue ink on cream paper to resemble the colour scheme of the postage stamps.
The Popular Penny Black
Sir William Hill thought that the Mulready letter sheets would be more popular than the Penny Black and two pence blue. However, this hope was dashed almost as soon as the Mulready’s were issued on May 1st 1840. The letter sheets were the object of ridicule and satire, mercilessly mocked and parodied for what even then, was seen as an overly jingoistic representation of the “Motherland”, many others considered them to be embarrassingly paternalistic.
Withdrawn Mulready Sheets
The Mulready letter sheets were withdrawn only a few months after their introduction and a special machine had to be designed and built to do the job of shredding them. The letter sheets were replaced with a plane sheet bearing the embossed head of Queen Victoria.
Aerogramme or Air Letter
However, the idea of a letter sheet, and decorated ones at that, did not fade altogether but it took a century before the idea was revived in the form of the lightweight aerogramme that could be written on one side only and often contained some form of illustration on the front and back panels.
Good ideas, it seems, do not die they simply fade to await reincarnation in another form for what is an aerogramme but the Mulready letter sheet in a different guise?
 |
