CSA 12c, 10¢ greenish blue tied LYNCHBURG Va. circular datestamp tied on cover to Mrs. E.L. Saunders Care of Peter Saunders Esq Rocky Mount Franklin (County Va.) On the back, Jack Molesworth describes the postmark as dull violet. I’m guessing BLUE. But who knows, yours to decide. Ex Ralph Swap. $150. 

Peter Saunders Sr. was known as the Pioneer of Franklin County, Virginia. His son, attorney Peter Saunders of the same name, built Bleak Hill, an Italianate villa-style house set on a hilltop overlooking the Pigg River. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places described as being rural, wealthy plantation life of a political family during the 19th and 20th centuries. His wife, Elizabeth, apparently named the property after her first winter there while reading Dickens’ Bleak House. It remained in the Saunders family until 1946. The first house on the property was built ca. 1815-20 by Judge Fleming Saunders.