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Lot# 7629 - Auction 250-256

  • Lot# : 7629 Austrian Levant

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    Catalogue# : Turkey 15B
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    International Postal Connections to Europe - Turkey 1871 (Oct 5): Cover from Anatolia via Constantinople to Strzebowitz, Austrian Silesia, bearing Duloz 1870 1 pi. yellow, irregular perf. 5-11 in a horizontal strip of six on reverse and a single example on front, tied by indistinct strikes of a triple framed all Arabic handstamp in black, on front transit handstamp of Maamuret-ul-Aziz / Elazig in Eastern Anatolia (Coles & Walker fig. 1). In Constantinople, an oval bilingual Pera datestamp (Oct 5, 1871) in blue was added to the reverse and the cover was transfered to the Austrian postal service with Constantinopel (Oct 17) cds (Tchilinghirian fig. 387) in black struck to the front, reverse with 'Schönbrunn B H' transit cds (Oct 26). Part of address erased, a unique item showing only a Turkish franking, not charged due in Austria for the journey from Constantinople to Austria, illustrated in 'Die Österreichische Post in der Levante' on page 377. Cert. Ferchenbauer (2020).rnNote: Unfortunately the origin of this cover cannot be detected from postmarks or handwritten notes on the cover. However, one can guess that it came from Harput, a neighbouring town of Elazig which was socially and commercially more active in these days. There was an American missionary school since the early 1850s from where many correspondence to Europe and the USA originated. Elazig was situated on the main Basra - Istanbul route in 1871 which explains the transit handstamp. This cover shows the correct franking for the Turkish part of the journey with 6 piaster for the third rayon above approximately 1'000 km and one additional piaster for the Istanbul city distribution charge to the Austrian post office.
    Starting bid : 750 CHF
    Hammer price : 3,000 CHF