360 / Mai 2015 London

British Post Offices 1881: Registered cover from Carthagena to Breslau, Germany franked by extraordinary combination of Great Britain 1870 1½ d. lake-red, plate 3, 1873/80 1 s. orange-brown plate 13 and 1873/80 4 d. grey-brown plate 17 (two examples, un-recorded by Gibbons used in Colombia), the first two stamps tied by bold 'C65' obliterator (error for C56) and the latter two with straight line REGISTERED handstamp in black. Repeated 'Registered' at upper left and single ring CARTHAGENA despatch cds (March 2) adjacent. Oval London transit on front (March 30) in red and German registration label 'Vom Auslande über / Bahnp. 10 Vervier-Cöln'. Reverse with Breslau arrival cds (April 1) and further strike of the straight line 'Registered' handstamp. A remarkable and rare cover. Cert. BPA (2014). Note: We have recorded just 5 covers struck with the 'C65' error for 'C56', this being the sole recorded usage of the 1880 4 d. grey-brown used in Carthagena.

1910 (12 July): 2nd Provisional Ponape issue, Hohenzollern definitive 3 pf. ocre brown with inverted overprint "5 Pf", tied by neat "PONAPE (KAROLINEN) 12.7 10" cds to picture postcard, sent to Dattenfeld a. d. Sieg with official cachet "KAISERLICH DEUTSCHE POSTAGENTUR PONAPE KAROLINEN", type II alongside. A fine and fresh postcard showing this rare provisional use of overprinted 3 pf. stamps issued for printed matter during a shortage of 5 pf. stamps to pay the postcard rate, in this case even with inverted overprint, written by the post office clerk Carl Kammerich. Cert. Bothe (1983) Mi = € 7'000. Provenance: Jakubek auction (April 1985), lot 2589.

1910 (12 July): 3rd Provisional Ponape issue, Hohenzollern definitive 20 pf. violet ultramarine, right half of a vertically bisected stamp, tied by neat "PONAPE (KAROLINEN) 12.7 10" cds to envelope of the "Südsee-Expedition der hamburgischen wissenschaftlichen Stiftung", sent to the Museum of Ethnology in Hamburg with official cachet "KAISERLICH DEUTSCHE POSTAGENTUR PONAPE KAROLINEN", type II alongside. An attractive and fresh cover, cert. Bothe (1983) Mi = € 9'000. The addressee of this cover is Prof. Georg Christian Thilenius (1868-1937), director of the above mentioned museum. He organized an expedition in 1908-1910 to the German colonies in Micronesia and Melanesia.