Mulready Envelopes (home page: Alphabetilately, http://alphabetilately.org)
(home page: Images of the World, http://imagesoftheworld.org)
I remember Mulready as a small, very neat man, very deaf, and very kind, and for years I treasured the black and blue "Mulready envelopes" he gave me, which were the predecessors of the penny stamp, and he never could understand why they were superseded. The design was certainly very good, but as the letter had to be written on the paper, which was one with the envelope, the method was clumsy, and the penny stamp placed on any envelope, which could hold either a large or small sheet of paper as required, was much to be preferred. But I gathered from Mr. Mulready that he had some grievance against the Post Office for not using his envelopes, of which he appeared to have a great many surplus copies. I trust he knows now how valuable they are; I wanted a couple for a schoolboy friend nine or ten years ago, and I know I had to pay something like £4 for them.
Mrs. J.E. Panton, Leaves from a Life, 1908