375th Auction

1869, 50 b. pale-blue/red, 15 b. red and 10 b. blue, all with good to large margins, 10 b. with corner crease and small marginal tear at upper right, otherwise fine, tied by cds. "JASSY 1./5" to small registered envelope to Janina, Epirus, showing on reverse boxed "TRIESTRecommandirt 19 5", some minor creasing; a fine 3 colour franking with 50 b. in original state of preservation

1851, Mercure 0.6 kr. blue, large to huge margins with part of adjoiniong stamps at top and right on three sides, tied by clear cds. "ARAD 31 3" to Newspaper "Србски дневник", fine

AUSTRIAN PO: 1863/64, 3 covers from Yassi to Janina, one with 2+3+15+15 s., one as registered cover with 15+10 s. and the third with horizontal pair each 10 s. and 15 s., somewhat mixed condition, the 3 colour franking with desinfection slits

Hungarian Post Office in Bucarest: 1868, King Joseph 2 so. yellow, two single stamps tied by cds. “BUCAREST 9.10.” to printed matter cover to Cronstadt with arrival mark, right stamp repaired and tiny water spots, otherwise fine, scarce 4 so. rate from Bucarest, certificate Hochleutner VÖB (2000) (Ferchenbauer 3.600,-)  

1919, Flood relief 1l. on 5f. light-green, the value "1 Leu" showing on top instead of bottom, according to the Handbook of Dr. Szalay only 2 known, this piece originates from a recent find, some short perfs, otherwise fine

1919, Flood relief 1l. on 5f. light-green, horizontal marginal pair with clear double print, the left stamp with "large break in segment III", mint never hinged, few stained perfs, vertical crease through right stamp, otherwise fine, scarce with only 1 sheet printed showing the variety only once

1919, Flood relief 1l. on 5f. light-green, horizontal pair with clear double print, mint never hinged, few stained perfs, otherwise fine, scarce with only 1 sheet printed

Karl 15b. violet with right sheet margin and inverted overprint, mint never hinged, fine, very rare with only two sheets printed, signed Dr. Szalay

1915, 20b. on 100f. dark-green/red, unused, a very rare stamp, fine, signed Dr. Szaly a.o.

1778, "ST PETERSBOVRG" clear black straight-line on dated folded letter, fine, signed Mikulski

1820, "SPBurg" red cyrillic straight-line on small folded letter to Narva, scarce, fine

1857, 10 k. blue and brown, good margins allround, used, fine, signed Richter and Ebnet BPP (Mi. 1.000,-)  

1857, 10 k. blue and brown, good margins allround, used, fine, multiple signed and opinion Ferchenbauer (Mi. 1.000,-)  

1884, 2k. green and 5k. lilac tied by cds. "DZHULFA 1" resp. "DZHULFA 2" to reverse of two covers to Tabriz, fine, scarce Provenance: Peter Ashford Collection

1884, Coat of arms 3k. red imperforated horizontal pair, fresh color, the left stamp just touched at left, 3mm tear between stamps at base, right stamp margin into design on 2 sides, with strip of paper added at top, used with clear cds. "LAGODEKHI 6 FEB 1887", of very fine appearance, with only one other copy known, that being unused, one of the great rarities of classical Russian philately, certificate Ceremuga (2019) Provenance: Zbigniew Mikulski (Private Treaty)

1903, Free Frank privilege asserted with red wax seal and violet numbered cachet to send ordinary letter from SARAPUL to Mont Athos. On reverse clear Kazan and Odessa transits and arrival mark of ROPIT AFON. The letter must have travelled directly by ship from Odessa to Athos ; if it had gone via Constantinople and then overland, the Free Frank privilege would not have extended into Ottoman territory. Very unusual item of Black Sea / Mediterranean ship mail 

1905, Free Frank postcard to the Maria Feodorovna charities in St Petersburg with rare cancel of KHARBIN GOSPIT. GORODOK [Town Hospital], message in Farsi script. 

1906, Coat of arms 3k. tied by oval "BLAGOVESCHENSK-STRETINK PAROKHOD 16 7 06" to picture postcard, showing river steam boat, sent to Rig, scarce, fine

1917, 1k. orange block of nine and single tied by cds. "PETROGRAD 1. APR. 17" to reverse of neat typed ordinary letter to Abo with part of red Finnish censor mark on front, the earliest recorded postal use of any 1917 imperforate, fine Provenance: Trevor Pateman Collection

1918 February, examples of the local reduced rate of 30 kop for ordinary letters and 1 rub for Registered, both used within Petrograd. Rarely seen rates with the 30 kop letter notable for printed label “ People's Bank, Russian Republic ", some minor imperfections, scarce

1918 August, Commercial registered letter from Petrograd to Warsaw, correctly franked at 60 kop with dual censorship and German receiver cancel on reverse, one stamp with corner fault, but a nice example of mail enabled by the Treaty of Brest Litovsk

1919, 1rbl. block of four with cds. "OPOCHKA 2 1 20" on reverse of registered cover addressed wo what looks like a suppy commissariat for the XIth rifles in Luga, no receiver cds. but paper adhering to front that may be related to delivery, only sent one month after or so after the defeat of the North West Army approaching Petrograd through Pskov guberniya, fine

1919, Private correspondence, long letter still intact, Registered letter sent from within the RSFSR with Imperial Registration label and cancellations of KOSLOVKA SIMB . [ irsk ] “ b ” 27 11 19 and a 4 rouble franking ( made up with 22 stamps ), correct according to the RSFSR Tariff of 5 November 1919 . Endorsed " Active Army " at top and addressed to a soldier in a Latvian regiment. No transit or arrival markings but possibly destined for the Latvian front

1920 October, Ordinary private letter sent on the TPO "RYAZHSK 61 VYAZMA" to Brussels via Moscow with three triangle censor mark. Franked correctly with a 5 kop imperforate stamp revalued x 100 (Tariff of 30 September 1920). According to Alexander Epstein, very few examples of this 5 rub tariff are known; after the resumption of foreign mail services in June 1920, most letters were sent registered, minor stains, otherwise fine

December 1920, Revaluations x 100,  registered cover from KROLEVETS with Moscow receiver, franked four Kyiv Il Tridents on Imperial stamps, revalued x 100 to give the correct 10 rubel RSFSR tariff . Unusual late Soviet use of Trident stamps

1921 May, Private Esperanto correspondence, ordinary postcard sent from OMSK 24 5 21 to Bamberg with weak Three Triangle Censor on the reverse. This card is correctly charged at 2 roubles in accord with the RSFSR Foreign tariff of 30 September 1920, which abolished the Free Post for ordinary mail sent abroad. The Kerensky card is used as a Blank in accordance with the invalidation of 1 January 1919 . A German Postage Due mark PORTO KONTROLLE has been applied and " 80 " inserted by hand and repeated in blue on the card. However, the card is correctly franked and both the cachet and the " 80 " in blue have been crossed through with red crayon . Alexander Epstein records only a few known examples of the 2 rouble postcard rate, most mail abroad in 1920 - 21 was sent registered

1921 October & November, two Kerensky postcards used as blanks and each franked with 7 x 15 kop Imperial Arms stamps, locally sent in Petrograd by a prisoner N N Kholodilin in pre-trial custody. The long messages include valuable historical details of prison arrangements for payment and sending of mail and reception of parcels

ST. PETERSBURG: 1889. Issue for Women 1r. 8k. blue, 2nd class, used, small thin otherwise a very fine and clean copy with well above average perforations

1900, complete undivided sheet of six stamped papers for curreny transactions, spectacular watermarks make this ideal for lightbox framing and display, few folds, otherwise fine

1842 Small envelope with contents (long letter in Greek), addressed in French to Kicheneff [Kishinev], on reverse Cyrillic double ring KONSTANTINOPOL in red. 

1851, cyrillic cds. "KONSTANTINOPEL 1851 MAY 14" on reverse of long entire letter written in Italian, sent from Constantinople to Odessa showing many disinfection slits, scarce, fine

1868, 2 pia (2) on folded letter Constantinople to Taganrog cancelled by retta with weak adjacent ROPiT datestamp. Ex Dr Raymond Casey

1918 (December) printed envelope of the ROPiT agency in Eisk, registered to Odessa with receiver mark, backside franked pair of 25 kop on 1 kop perforated Kuban adhesives, well-tied by EISK cancel. Very scarce White Russian Civil War item. 

Ganzsachen: 1895, double card 4 k. used from "CONSTANTINOPEL....97" without text via Odessa to Hattingen, Germany with arrival mark, fine

BOGORODSK: 1896, 2 kop printed paper rate incoming cover from St Petersburg  with added 2 kop., neatly tied by violet Zemstvo cancel. On reverse, transit mark of Bogorodsk Imperial post office. Nice item 

CHERDIN:1914, 2 kop. red used on locally sent cover well tied  by double ring cancel, clean cover with central fold. (Schmidt 33)