385th Auction

1928-30, 2d. grey & maroon, overprint OFFICIAL (Type I) on the left and OFFISIEEL reading up, without stops, London Printing, full top left pane of sixty stamps, with Bradbury Wilkinson imprint at foot, showing the “Apostrophe between Fs of OFFICIAL” in position 9/1, never hinged, a few stamps with small tone spot on gum, a scarce pane, fine.

1941-8, 1-1/2d. blue-grey & yellow-buff, horizontal pair, watermark sideways,  overprinted “OFFICIAL / OFFISIEEL” horizontally, never hinged, fresh colour and well-centered, a fine and scarce variety; with photocopy of 2004 RPSL certificate.

“Gdeopend onder Krijgswet. (P.no.30.)” Boer censor seal on rose paper (Type 3), on a franked mourning envelope from “BULTFONTEIN AP 13 (1900)” to Green Point in Cape Colony with reverse transit cds. “JOHANNESBURG APR.-00”, thereafter two additional British paper seals applied (Type 2 A+B) and violet circular “PRISONER OF WAR  CENSOR” possibly applied as arrival, one adhesive slightly defective, still very fine. A quite spectacular and rare combination of both Boer and British seals, with a three Pence Orange Free State franking still accepted for postage

“Gdeopend onder Krijgswet. (P.no.30.)” censor seal on rose paper (Type 3), closing a franked envelope from “SMALDEEL JAN 9 (1900)” to Lourenco Marquez with reverse arrival cds., fine. Rare usage from the Smaaldel Station during the early part of the conflict

“KANTOOR VAN DEN POSTMEESTER GENERAAL O.V. STAAT.” large circular censor handstamp in blue on franked postcard from Bloemfontein to London, dated on reverse 5 November 1899, transit via Natal and Pretoria, light horizontal crease and some toning, still fine. A very rare Boer censor mark

INCOMING MAIL TO A BRITISH PRISONER OF WAR: British 2½ d. tied by cds. “FARNBOROUGH” to an envelope addressed to “Prisoner of war Capt. W.G. Thompson, Suffolk Regt. c/o Boer Commander Pretoria”, endorsed via Hamburg and Delagoy Bay, transit cds. “PRETORIA 27 APR. 00”, Boer censor label and arrival, some wear and minor tear, also a stampless cover (faulty) from Pretoria via “FIELD POST OFFICE FE 9 00” to Maritzburg via Delagoy Bay, with large circular Boer censor handstamp “COMMANDANT GENERAL” and triangular “PASSED PRESS CENSOR”. Despite the imperfections, a very rare duo

“GEZIEN CENSOR. 8 APR. 1900” violet decorated cds. on a franked envelope addressed to England, endorsed “Prisoner of war at Pretoria” and sent via Lourenco Marques with both reverse transit and arrival cds., some tears and imperfections, also a similar violet cds. “GEZIEN CENSOR. 8- APR. 1900” to an envelope England, reverse transit via Lourenco Marques and arrival cds., small tear at top, still fine. A very scarce duo from occupied Pretoria by the Boers

“ELANDSLAAGTE 8 - FEB. 1900” violet truncated oval field post office cancellation on a ½ d. postal stationery card to Johannesburg, very fine, also violet two-line “P K, NEWCASTLE 1 NOV 1899.” on another ½ d. postal stationery card to Johannesburg, and a four-colour franking tied by cds. “DUNDEE DE 4 99" to an envelope to Johannesburg, insignificant toning spot otherwise very fine. A very scarce group 

“VELD-POST G.F. FLEISCHER, DUITSCH & JOHANNESBURG COMMANDOS 16 DEC. 1899” blue cds., superb strike on franked envelope from “HOOFDLAGER 16 DEC 99” to Johannesburg with reverse arrival, very fine. A very scarce postmarks combination

“VELDPOST Z.A.R. GLENCOE, 25 DEC. 1899.”, superb strike of the violet three-line cancellation on Natal ½ d. postal stationery card to Hattingspruit, reverse oval arrival, very fine and scarce

“LADYSMITH SIEGE POST OFFICE / Feb. 14th 1900.” blue two-line cancel tying a 1 d. natal adhesive to a locally addressed envelope to a staff officer, very fine, together with a similar strike dated 28 February 1900 to a stampless envelope addressed locally with cds. “LADYSMITH NATAL FE28 1900” alongside, slightly soiled, in addition three illustrated postcards in mixed condition

“LADYSMITH NATAL FE 12 1900” cds., clear strike on a stampless envelope addressed to London, endorsed “On active service no stamps available” and (district) “N°5”, postage due mark “20c” covered by a London barred circle “F(oreign) B(ranch)”, red transit cds. “LONDON SL PAID 25 MR 00” and reverse arrival the following day, some minor imperfections but still fine. A very scarce outgoing cover from Ladysmith, most of the siege mail being addressed locally

“BETHULIE” with ornaments at top and bottom, superb strike of the single line purple censor handstamp on franked envelope from “BETHULIE OC 7 (1900)” to the Green Point camp in Cape Colony, some slight wear and toning, still fine. A very scarce censor handstamp used only for a couple of weeks

“CENSORED G.B.BEAK” straight-line on franked envelope from “FICKSBURG 27 AU (19)00” to a prisoner of war in the Green Point camp in Cape Colony, reverse transit cds., slightly soiled, still fine and very rare censor mark from Ficksburg

“Censored Com(missioner) at Luckhoff” in manuscript on franked envelope from “LUCKHOFF JU 30 00” to England, transit via Bloemfontein and arrival “BRIGHTON JY 27 00” on reverse, a couple of slight folds without importance, still fine and a very scarce manuscript censor

“CENSORED T´NCHO” straight line, fine strike on franked envelope from “THABA`NCHU 17 SE 19(00)” to the Green Point camp in Cape Colony, circular “PRISONERS OF WAR” possibly applied as an arrival, some minor imperfections, still fine and a very rare usage of that short-lived censor mark

“C.W AUG 14” single straight-line, a perfect strike in violet combined with “PASSED CENSOR.” on a contrived registered envelope from “KROONSTAD AU 14 (19)01” to Kimberley with the later ´s triangular censor cachet and reverse arrival, very fine and attractive . A very rare combination of the two Kroonstad censor marks

“E. J. Cullen” cursive straight-line censor handstamp applied on the double triangular cachet “PASSED PRESS CENSOR” to a local contrived registered envelope from “WINBURG 12 MY (19)02”, alongside the scarce oval registration “R” from Winburg, very fine and attractive. Most unusual usage of that particular censor handstamp on the cachet, as opposed to on a paper seal

“PASSED CENSOR H.T.H.” straight single-line, superb strike in violet on franked illustrated postcard with “BRANDFORT 9 MR (19)01” to Wiesbaden with arrival cds., interestingly on the postcard the printed “O.F.S” is crossed out in pencil and replaced with “O.R.C”, very fine and exceptional usage of a rare censor handstamp from Brandfort

“18” barred oval numeral obliterator with “FICKSBURG 16 JUL (19)00” alongside, together with manuscript “Censored (  )” applied locally to an envelope to Grahamstown in Cape Colony, reverse arrival cds., cover folded vertically twice, still fine. A rare usage of the early manuscript censor forerunner of Ficksburg before the introduction of the official handstamp

“Censored, Mc Donald, Int.(elligence) Officer, Bethulie 22/5/00” in manuscript, together with a purple censor handstamp on a franked envelope to a prisoner of war in the Green Point camp at Cape Colony, some minor imperfections, still fine. An extremely rare manuscript censor

“CENSORED. ROUXVILLE, O.R.C.” with pencilled initials, very fair strike of the double oval handstamp in violet to a mourning envelope from “ROUXVILLE NO 21 (19)00” to a prisoner of war detained in the Diyatalawa camp in Ceylon, reverse transit cds. “COLOMBO DE 25 00”, back flap missing and one adhesive torned, still fine and attractive. A very rare censor handstamp

“Censored, Sidney A. Slater, Lieut. Imp(erial) Yeomanry” in manuscript on franked envelope from “BULTFONTEIN JUN 7 (1900)” with purple censor handstamp alongside, sent to the Green Point camp in Cape Colony, slightly stained, still fine. An extremely rare manuscript censor from Bultfontein

“CENSORED” straight-line purple handstamp, together with manuscript “J.J.W. R(esident) M(agistrate) on franked envelope from ”JAGERSFONTEIN JY 2 (1900)" to the Green Point camp in Cape Colony, alongside circular “PRISONERS OF WAR” possibly used as an arrival mark, fine and very rare censor mark from the mining town of Jagersfontein

“DISTRICT COMMISSIONER BLOEMFONTEIN” two-line censor together with “CENSORED.” single line handstamp both struck in violet on franked envelope from “BLOEMFONTEIN AU 24 (19)00” to a prisoner of war in Green Point camp in Cape Colony, circular “PRISONERS OF WAR” handstamp possibly used as an arrival mark, fine. A very rare and short-lived combination usage of both straight line handstamps

“J E S” violet initials censor handstamp on a seal closing a franked envelope from “JAGERSFONTEIN ROAD (19)01” to Edenburg, also “H.P.Y.” censor mark, all applied at Bloemfontein, fine. A most unusual convergence of a rare censor mark and the very scarce obliterator from Jagersfontein Road

“LANDDROST KANTOOR PHILIPPOLIS O.V.S” large circular purple censor mark on franked envelope from Philippolis to the Green Point camp in Cape Colony, reverse transit “BLOEMFONTEIN MY 26 (19)00”, on front purple handstamp “CENSOR PRISONERS OF WAR” possibly applied as an arrival mark, one tiny tear at top and small part of back flap missing, still fine. An extremely rare censor handstamp from Philippolis used by the British

“PASSED PRESS CENSOR”, superb strike in purple of the double triangle censor handstamp on a franked envelope from “”HEILBRON JU (19)02" redirected from London to Amlwch with both transit and arrival cds., some minor peripheral toning of no importance, fine and rare. A late usage of British censorship a few weeks after the end of the war

“PASSED PRESS CENSOR.” with initials, superb strike on the back flap of a large franked envelope with cds. “FIELD POST OFFICE B(ase) O(ffice) * MY 24 (19)00” to the USA, transit via Cape Colony, New York and arrival on reverse. Some wear and imperfections, still a very elusive censor mark, possibly used at Kroonstad

“VREDEFORT ROAD MR 27 (19)02”, clear strike on a franked envelope to the prisoner of war Bellevue camp in Cape Colony, red censor initial “P.B.C” and rare double triangle “PASSED PRESS CENSOR” applied at Vredefort Road, transit cds. on reverse “BLOEMFONTEIN 30 MR 02”, some slight cover wear, still fine and attractive.

“Z X G” initials censor handstamp together with straight-line “PASSED CEB CENSOR” on franked envelope to Port Elisabeth in Cape Colony, reverse transit and arrival cds., closed tear at left and slight toning, a rare censor mark used only for a very short period

“RAGAMA CAMP NO 24 (19)01”, a very fine arrival strike on front of a franked postcard from “SPRINGFONTEIN OC 24 (19)01”, transit via Natal and censor marks, on reverse the text crossed out in pencil, still very fine. A very scarce postmark from the Ragama Camp in Ceylon

BRANDFORT CAMP: postcard from “BLOEMFONTEIN JU 28 (19)01”, addressed to “Dr. Martinius, M(edical) O(fficer) Refugee Camp Brandfort”, censor straight-line “N.P.Y”, lower corner creased and teared and some surface imperfections, still fine. A particularly rare incoming mail to that camp, which was infamous for having one of the highest mortality rate

KRAAI RIVER - ZASTRON CAMP: franked postcard from Germany with oval “DEUTSCH SEEPOST LINIE HAMBURG WEST AFRIKA 5 4. 02”, addressed to the “Kraai River Camp Aliwal North”, violet trangle and “J.C.C.” censor handstamps, reverse arrival cds. “ZASTRON MY 10 (19)02”, slightly toned and a minor corner crease, still fine. A very scarce incoming mail from the German colonies to the Zastron camp, which was supposedly associated with the Aliwal North camp

KROONSTAD CAMP: incoming registered envelope originating from the camp “BRANDFORT MR 20 (19)02”, censor straight line “PASSED CENSOR” and reverse arrival cds. “KROONSTAD 22 MR (19)02”, fine and attractive, together with an unused illustrated postcard. A rare refugee intercamp mail

HARRISMITH CAMP: franked envelope from “SGRAVENHAGE 11 DEC 01” with reverse transit via Durban and arrival cds. “HARRISMITH JA 7 (19)02”, the recipient not found and letter consequently returned to the sender. Some cover faults, but a rare incoming mail from the Netherlands to a refugee camp