Mulready stationery offered prepaid correspondence when Britain introduced adhesive postage stamps in May 1840. William Mulready’s illustrated design appeared on letter sheets and envelopes intended as an alternative to affixing a separate stamp. The National Postal Museum dates this particular first-day cover to 6 May 1840 and identifies it by accession 0.205561.2. That dated postal use distinguishes the museum’s example from unused stationery and later uses of the design. This record does not assume that the person who designed the stationery also wrote or addressed this particular cover.