364 / März 2017

1878: 'Round the World' card mailed with 1875/79 20 pfe. blue from Hamburg (June 6) to Amoy, China; with Hong Kong 1863/71 4 c. grey and 8 c. dull orange tied by 'A1' obliterator with AMOY cds alongside (July 17), forwarded on again from Amoy via San Francisco with red 'Paid All' cds (Aug 25) to Philadelphia, where franked by 1875 Taylor 5 c. blue cancelled in black with Philadelphia cds in red (Sept 4) at left; and thence back to sender in Hamburg (Sept 18). Reverse with further transits of HONG KONG / MARINE SORTER / SINGAPORE TO HONG KONG cds (July 8), Amoy (July 16), Hong Kong (July 19). The card with corners improved and negligible imperfections due to journey but a remarkable and most attractive usage, the card completing the journey in 105 days.

1891: Cover from Hannover addressed to the Imperial German Legation in Peking, China franked by 1889 20 pf. blue tied by 'Hannover' cds (Dec 23) in black. Reverse with KAISERLICH / DEUTSCHE / POSTAGENTUR / SHANGHAI cds in black (Feb 2, 1892), CUSTOMS / SHANGHAI cds in black (Feb 2) and fine strike of 'I G OF CUSTOMS / PEKING' in blue (Feb 19). Obverse with fine strike of framed 'To Pay.' marking in red for inland transmission. A rare cover.

1891: 10 pf. carmine postal stationery card used to Seoul, Korea cancelled by 'Hamburg' cds (Jan 1), reverse showing 'Nagasaki' thimble datestamp (Feb 9) in red. On arrival the addressee (the Editor of the 'Korea Gazette') was not found and the card was struck initially with scarce 'NON RECLAMÉ' handstamp (not claimed) in red, this deleted by a further strike of the same handstamp and replaced by 'Inconnu' marking in red; the card being returned to sender in Hamburg (July 17). Unusual usage.

1872: Cover from Hamburg to Soerabaja, Netherlands Indies (Steudemann correspondence) with 1872 Small Shield 1/4 gr. violet, 1/2 gr. orange-red, 1 gr. carmine and 5 gr. ochre-brown in a horizontal pair all tied by HAMBURG datestamps (Feb 21) in black. Red framed 'P.D.' below and manuscript '83 c.' (centesemi) credit in red crayon. Reverse with Verona cds (Feb 24), part Brindisi cds, SINGAPORE transit (March 25) in black and Soerabaja arrival (April 3) cds in red with '20' Neths Indies due in manuscript on front. 2 stamps with small faults, otherwise a splendid and most attractive four colour franking to an exotic destination for the first issue. Cert. Krug (2016). Albert Steudemann (1842-unknown) was a German pharmacist. On his second trip to the Far East he settled down in Soerabaja, soon got a wealthy person. When he was older he returned back to Germany and was dedicated in many charity actions. Furthermore Steudemann was a passionate 'Skat' card player and donated a fountain in Altenburg 1897, called 'Skatbrunnen'.