Moveable Box or Boîte Mobile

(Based on Alan Robertson, The Maritime Postal History of the British Isles and Colin Tabeart, Robertson Revisited)

Resulting from Anglo-French postal Convention of 1st June 1843 a new service for the posting of mail by
private steamships was inaugurated.
In December 1843 the first MB handstamp was issued by the general Post Office but since the earliest date of
usage is 1844 it appears to have not been used till early that year.

A new postal convention was drawn up in 1856 which commenced operation January 1st 1857.
(one of the conventions follows)
Payment on account of conveyance of letters shall be made to the owners of the vessels by the Post Offices
of the port of destination at the rate of 10 centimes or 1d per letter. The French and British Post Offices to
divide the payments equally.

Prior to 1856 moveable boxes appear to have been installed mainly on ships sailing from Le Havre to
Southampton, London, Dover or Brighton in that order of frequency.
Folkestone may have used a similar handstamp but an entirely different one was put into use in 1845.
In 1856 the old simple MB stamps were replaced by stamps incorporating the names of the ports.
Dover, Folkestone, London, Southampton, Newhaven and the islands of Jersey and Guernsey.
To these was added Weymouth with a stamp despatched October 23rd 1858.
In the mid 1890's London and Southampton were replaced by new circular type. Southampton in blue, London
in red. Last recorded use was in 1940.

Moveable box on the Jersey - St. Malo steamer.

Cancel to left was in 9th December 1843 Post Office Despatch book.

Used in London 1844-50 in red (rarely black). Mostly stampless accompanying script 6 rarely on 1d adhesive.

Used Southampton 1844-47 in blue (rarely black)

Used Dover 1844-50 in red accompanying Dover circular date stamp.

Used Brighton 1847 in black accompanying Brighton circular date stamp.

Possibly also existed at Folkestone, Margate, Plymouth and Weymouth.

Replaced by cancel at right at Dover.

The example illustrated above was sold at the "The F. Chadwick Ship Letters of the British Isles" auction in 1975.

Sent from Calais to London in 1849. Also marked with crowned Exempt Ship Lr, both in red.

Different cancel used at Folkestone and its replacement (note the missing "e").

Cancels used in the Channel Islands

Various cancels used at London

The Newhaven version

Southampton produced the greatest number of cancels.

Finally Weymouth.

 

Additional information on boîte mobile from James Van der Linden, Catalogue des Marques Passage

Boulogne-s-mer: red octagon 1868 rating 6
Calais: no data
Cherbourg: red octagon 1859 rating 8
Dunkerque: red octagon 1861 rating 7
Granville: red octagon 1857 rating 3
Le Havre: red octagon 1857 rating 3
Port-Bail: red double circle >25mm 1860 rating 8, black double ring circle 1871 rating 8
St Malo: red double ring circle >25mm 1867 rating 4, red octagon 1858 rating 2.
Morlaix: no data.

From Bryan Hunt and Philip Cockrill, The Cross-Channel Services Part I

the following can be added:

Cancels used from 1857 to 1863. F4 type used in conjunction with petite chiffres F5 for Granville,

with F6 for Le Havre and F7 for St Malo. #842 for Cherbourg is known but without F4 cancel.

Salles, however, notes red Cherbourg octagon used 1859 rated RR, used with 842 on English stamps.

The red Granville in use from 1857-62 rated 150.

ANGL.B.M./ST MALO, in red, used 1857-62, rated 200, with Englishstamps cancelled with petite chiffres 3176 in red.

Used 1863-66, rated 100 with English stamps cancelled with grosse chiffre 3734.

Octagonal datestamp "ANGL.B.M./LE HAVRE", in red, used 1857-1871 without stamps, rated
50; in red, used 1860-1862 with English stamps cancelled with petite chiffres 1495, rated 125.

From 1863 similar situation except numerals are larger.

F10 for Granville, F11 for Le Havre, F12 St. Malo, again no F9 type for Cherbourg.

Salles notes Granville used 1863 to 1876 rated 250. Further used from 1876 to 1892 accompanied by Granville CDS rated 65. A redesigned octagonal stamp was used with Granville CDS from 1893-1911 in black, rated 50.

Circular datestamp "ANG.B.M./ST MALO", in red, used 1867-75, rated 100, with English stamps cancelled with grosse chiffre 3734.

In red, used 1878-85, rated 100, with English stamps cancelled with St Malo cds.

In black, used 1889-1904, rated 150, with English stamps cancelled with St Malo cds.

Last type issued for St. Malo in 1906, not other ports.

However Salles notes Large circular datestamp "ANG.B.M./SAINT-MALO", used 1905-1936, in black, rated 50, with English stamps cancelled with St Malo cds.
Circular datestamp "ANGL.B.M./ST MALO", in red, used 1867-75, rated 200, with English
stamps cancelled with grosse chiffres 3734.

In red, used 1867-1873, rated 150, with English stamps cancelled with numeral obliterator 409 ( in error, instead of ILES C/ST MALO datestamp above).

In red, used 1876, rated 200, with English stamps cancelled with St Malo cds.

Not mentioned by Hunt and Cockrill but described by Salles are Dunkerque in red octagon, dates unknown, rated RR. Port Bail - Circular datestamp "ANGL.B.M./PORT-BAIL", in red, used 1869, rated RR; in black, used in 1871, rated RR; with English stamps cancelled with numeral obliterator 409 of Jersey.

Plerin -Circular datestamp "ANGL.B.M./PLERIN", in red, used 1880, rated RR, on English stamps, also stamped au verso.

Binic- Circular datestamp "BINIC/COTES DU NORD", in black, used 1905-08, rated 150, used to
cancel English stamps, also handwritten "Paquebot" and oval BM accompany this datestamp.

As far as the Channel Islands are concerned, Guernsey had routes to Cherbourg, Binic, and St. Malo, Jersey with Plerin, St. Malo, Granville, Port-Bail, and Carteret. Apparently, Carteret did not have mobile box service as no
datestamps are shown. A steamer "Grand Turk" would leave Southampton in 1851 on Sunday at 4pm for Morlaix via Guernsey, returning Wednesday. This service does not appear to have been repeated in 1852. No examples of mail carried via this route have been seen.

Update:

An extremely rare Morlaix cancel was recently won on eBay and is currently in the possession of Arthur Ryan & Co. Image follows:

 

From Robson Lowe The British Postage Stamp of the nineteenth century in his description of the Reginald M. Phillips collection in The National Postal Museum

"Volume XII contains many covers with unusual cancellations, the rarest being an 1841 cover from Boulogne
which was posted on a cross-channel packet, the penny stamp being cancelled with a framed "MB" in red, and
further cancelled by the London Ship Letter date stamp on arrival (25). This remarkable cover was bought by
Phillips at the auction of the late Basil Stranack's collection in 1955."

 

Many thanks to Dennis Engblom for providing information and who, himself, would appreciate any information on the Kosmos Line and packet boats to Buenos Aires.