Antonio, regarding your 1856 cover, I had a friend who worked for Hoare and co back in the 60's. They were then a stockbroking firm in the city of London and I actually played for their football (soccer) team although I didn't work for them.
I think they are still in business.
Vic
I have become very interested in the Caribbean mails of the Victorian era, when colonialism in the Caribbean dominated. Could not resist this folded sheet, which contains a letter (in French, I think), dateline "Pto. Cabello, 23 Juni 1867" to Bordeaux via Southampton. It's a new acquisition, so I don't have it in hand yet. Can't wait to translate the letter! Anyway, this one's marked up real nice!
Will need a hand in figuring it all out!
So far, I've determined that "Ruete Rühl" was a cotton exporter. (Found an announcement in the October 16, 1867 issue of El Federalista describing an exportacion of 145 cotton bales worth $27,920 by the firm on "del vapor ingles Plantogenet" to an F. Muller.) The last word in the first line of the address is "Klipsch"
Next task is to figure out which vessel carried this letter! I wonder, since it does not bear a postage stamp, if it was carried by private packet. There was a whole succession of private companies carrying goods (and mail) in the Caribbean around this time...
As you can see, it's going to be tough to do anything with the scan I have. I still can't tell if it's in English, French, or Spanish. I see a "100" in the seventh line of the letter, and I see what appear to be freight rates for London, Hamburg, and Paris in the last line. I think I see the word "Coffee" in a couple of places in the letter.
The imprint at the upper L is that of Ruete Rühl and co.
I have been aware of Puerto Cabello as being an important port in the southern Caribbean, and served by private packets, along with La Guaira and St John, DWI. I believe the top line on the sheet is "Pr Steamer via Southampton". I am presuming "Pr" indicates Private.
Would love to know if there are any clues in the rate markings on the cover!
It is as I thought. The letter is printed, except for the signature. The sender is merchant agent of some sort and he would prepare regular reports on trade in the area (quarterly would be my guess). He would write the letter using a stylus to scratch his script into plate of soft metal. Then the plate can be inked and multiple copies can be produced by firmly pressing a piece of paper onto the inked plate.
I am not sure of the exact process, but he would not have been writing backwards.
The fineness of the text made me think of that, and the fact that the writer seems to be reporting on commercial matters. Looking at it know I think I jumped to the wrong conclusion.
"The fineness of the text made me think of that, and the fact that the writer seems to be reporting on commercial matters. Looking at it know I think I jumped to the wrong conclusion."
Too bad the date cannot be read in the CDS. But, it looks like DAKAR SENEGAL.
Would be fascinating to know how this cover made its way from Dakar to Paris, and how long it took to get there!
(The 1920s was the cradle of international air mail development.)
For the "AVION" cover from Senegal, I meant that it would be interesting to know the identity of the aircraft/pilot that carried this piece of mail, and its schedule. Keeping to schedules was a precarious proposition in those early days, and the delays (and reasons for same) make very interesting stories about what it took to have the mails "go through".
I understand. Now that you have brought the subject up, I am rather curious about it as well. I will pull the cover tonight hopefully and get a look at the back side and see if there are any markings that help explain its story.
Although narrower than what you are talking about, I think Richard Frajola's "Postal history of the world 1840-1860" is a fascinating take on country cover collecting:
Panama!
I bought this one because it (was cheap and) it's a three-fer!
1. First Day of Issue of the stamps (January 9, 1928)
2. Commemorates Lindbergh's Good Will Tour of Latin America, and his arrival in Panama with a fancy cancellation. LLEGADA is 'arrival'.
3. Genuine Postally Used
I haven't finished the research on this one yet, but Lindbergh was named Time Magazine's Man of the Year on January 2, 1928. On February 6, 1928, he piloted a plane carrying 3000 pieces of souvenir mail in Central America, ending up in Havana. I have my doubts whether Lindbergh was actually IN Panama on January 9, but still, it's a neat piece...Strongly philatelic, but at an interesting intersection of time...
Now, THAT's my kind of FDC!
-Paul
PS: One has to realize how immensely popular Lindbergh was in 1927-1928. He was a true national hero, widely revered by the general public, commanding HUGE crowds wherever he appeared. We have probably seen nobody in modern history, before or since, as universally popular as he was.
So from what I understand the stamps were ordered up on kind of a last minute basis. There was not time to get the designs nicely engraved. The Panama Canal Company (the US organization that ran the Panama Canal) offered to help with printing them up, but because of the time restrictions they were printed using the easier and quicker typography.
These are the only Panama stamps I know of that were printed by the Panama Canal Company.
Nigeria, First Republic 1960-1966
December 3, 1963
As Nigeria was granted autonomy by the UK in 1960, the government formed Nigeria's first republic. In 1966 the First Republic ended as Nigeria descended into civil war.
In my reckoning the various covers from all of the countries and/or postal administrations for Nigeria (or it's environs) would be:
Lagos (Island) Colony
Oil Rivers Protectorate
Niger Coast Protectorate
Northern Nigeria Protectorate
Southern Nigeria Protectorate
Nigeria Colony and Protectorate
First Republic
Second Republic
Biafra
Third Republic
Smauggie- Did you consider Nigerian stamps used in British controlled Cameroons in 1960-61 (Nigerian stamps overprinted U.K.T.T.) prior to the separation of north & south and absorption into independent Nigeria & Cameroons, respectively?
Good question rjan. As the stamps were used in Cameroon, and not Nigeria that is how I would classify them as Cameroon stamps
Also, my interest is based less on stamp issue and more on each political entity. Since the stamps were used in British Controlled Cameroon, the part that would be of interest to me would be getting a cover from British Cameroon.
A very scarce first day cover. In case you are wondering the double rectangle in the upper right is a provisional postage marking.
In 1952, the US returned the Amman Islands to Japan and the rest of the islands in the Okinawa region were turned into the US territory of the Ryukyu Islands.
Inside the cover is this card. I am not sure what a Women's Department did.
The Boeing Stratocruiser depicted in the cachet made its first flight on July 8, 1947 - just months before the voyage that the cover made, and TWO YEARS AFTER the first commercial orders for the plane. It was not put into airline service until April 1, 1949 (PanAm) which is a good indication that the cachet was wishful thinking at the time it was printed.
The Stratocruiser was a derivative of the B-29 Superfortress, and had a checkered operational history due to many incidents with its propellers, 2 of which resulted in fatalities...but, that's another story...
The Pto. Cabello folded letter above arrived this morning, 8AM via FedEx Express! How exciting! So, I have rescanned the letter:
First, to respond to smauggie's conclusion that the letter is a print, I don't think so. For these reasons:
1. The hand that wrote the letter is the same as penned the address.
2. There is visual evidence of ink blobs where the pen paused. This effect would not occur with a stylus on a metal plate. To wit, these "t"s:
Next, I think the letter might be written in Portuguese. Here is another close-up:
There are two lines on this piece. In the top line, I see "brillado Caffee", which may translate into "bright coffee". In the bottom line, I see "Descerezado", which translates to "Dissappointed".
There are numbers on 5 lines in this letter, including these two, both with $ signs:
and, this:
Looks like the word "Steamer" at the right side.
What excites me about this folded letter now is it's multiculturalism:
- Posted in Venezuela, a former Spanish colony
- Transitted through Southampton, England, gaining a GB rate marking for carriage from England to France
- Written in Portuguese
- Addressed to Bordeaux, France
- Reference to American currency ($)
- German company (Ruete & Ruhl)
- German addressee? (Klipsch)
I guess that's what attracts me to 19th century Caribbean as a collecting area - it's a cultural crossroads!
A Registered cover, an elderly hand, a West Chicago address that's now walk-up apts.
In the 1920s and 1930s, I wonder how many international Registered covers like this contained money...(especially the ones to banks). The paper is quite heavy, isn't it?
Usually the money would come from the US back to the old country. My guess is that this cover contained important paperwork, perhaps in preparation for emigration to America.
Here in Minnesota, you will find many covers form Scandinavian countries to Minnesota where no postage was applied to the envelope as a regular practice, as it was expected that the wealthy US relatives would pay the cost of postage. Of course the cost for postage due covers was twice the normal cost of postage for the same route.
Cover from Odessa, Ukraine to Wisconsin, USA. This is the modern cousin of the previous cover form Odessa. The postage is provisional postage printed on a dot matrix printer.
The asterisk in the top middle of each stamp is the closest text symbol for Ukraine's Trident.
The high values of the postage stamps denominated in Ukraine's equivalent of the US Dollar, the Karbovanet. This shows the beginning of the a hyper-inflationary problem that would eventually see the Karbovanet replaced by a new currency, the Hryvnia.