“1st District” Post Box

Wooden “1st District” post box for “Correio Diário” (Daily Mail) designed as a receptacle for correspondence to be forwarded by the postal service.
Rectangular in shape, it is made of wood and has the words “CORREIO DIARIO” written on the front in white on a brown background. Above the horizontal letter aperture (21.5 x 8.5 cm) is a fixed protective beak. Below this opening are the words “CAIXA, C./ 1º Districto” (L. BOX/1st District) painted in black on a brown background. The surfaces are painted brown with the exception of the top, which is black, with a small bracket at the back to attach the box to the wall vertically. On the right side is a small hatch (21 x 15.5 cm) to remove correspondence from the inside. This hatch is locked with a key to ensure letters cannot be stolen.
This post box corresponds to the style established in the “Regulation establishing the delivery of local mail and packages and mail carriers in Lisbon” published in 1801 governing the door-to-door delivery of correspondence and the placing of post boxes, in similarity to the service supplied by the General Post Office.
However, for reasons not entirely clear, this regulation issued by the Postmaster General of the Realm, José Diogo de Mascarenhas Neto, was not implemented at the time and would only be so after the Liberal Revolution.
We know that this box stood in the 1st Postal District (Mocambo District) which was one of the 17 districts into which Lisbon was divided for home delivery of letters after the 1801 regulation was reformulated in 1821