Today in Postal History

France to England
April 25, 1839

This stampless folded letter originated in Angouléme
about 100 km north northeast of Bordeaux in west central France.
(Angouléme is the site of an annual carton festival and a cartoon museum.)
It received a nice CDS and was marked with a boxed PD for Paye á Destination
(Paid to Destination) indicating the letter fees had been prepaid.
The rate calculation was also included:  14 + 19 = 33.

A Paris receiving mark was applied on the letter's arrival on April 27.

There is a partial London Foreign Branch receivingmark at the bottom.*
The Foreign Branch dealt with all foreign mail including delivery in Central London.
The Foreign Branch also applied the curved FOREIGN PAID banner.
It was also rerated for the English portion of the journey
and marked with an additional boxed PD.
I believe the /9 is indicative of the English rate of 9 pence.

Mail to be delivered outside of Central London was
transferred to the General Post Office or the London Local Post.
On the arrival of this letter at the GPO on April 29 it was marked
with the PAID tombstone applied to all incoming prepaid mail from all sources.

The L|AP 29|M in the lozenge (diamond with truncated points) is a receiver mark for Liverpool.

The addressee was Thomas  Leathers Equine, Merchant.

*Many thanks to Orthorpteran for his help in understanding operations of the London post offices in 1839!
I hope I've interpreted his comments properly.

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