361 / September 2015

1361, entire letter written in Italian language from Brugge 10. April 1361 to "I nobili veneziani Bernardo Giustinian e Andrea Contarini, procuratori di San Marco e commissari di ser Giacomo, Gabriele e altri ...." with long commercial contents; supposed to be the earliest known commercial letter from Belgium to abroad; a rare piece of early European postal history; documentation and translation of parts of the letter enclosed; certificate Van der Linden AIEP (2010)

1593, entire letter from Anvers to Bartolomeo Corsini at London, fine and scarce, certificate Van der Linden AIEP

1849, Leopold 10 c. brown, nice fresh colour and beautiful large margins, coming from the upper sheet margin, unused with full original gum and small hinge remainders; a beautiful stamp and very rare in this superb condition, certificate Kaiser (2009) Provenance: General Gill (Robson Lowe, 1965, lot 1328)

20 c. dark-blue, plate II, pos. 130, very nice fresh and deep colour and good to large margins on all sides with sheet margin at right, unused with large part of original gum; very fine, a rare stamp in this condition; pencil signatures, certificates Soeteman (1997) and Kaiser (2009)

10 c. reddish-brown in the typical shade of 1st printing, good to large margins, cancelled by central strike of numeral "123" of Verviers, very fine, certificate Van der Linden AIEP (COB 1h)

10 c. brown and 20 c. blue, both with wide to enormous margins, neatly cancelled, 10 c. natural paper inclusion, extremely fine

10 c. brown in horizontal pair, good to very wide margins with small sheet margin at bottom, neatly cancelled by numeral "4" of Anvers

1863, Leopold I. 40 c. carmin, horizontal strip of 3 and single stamp 20 c. blue, tied by numeral "340" to cover from "SPA 24.JUIL.54" to Baltimore with adjacent "ETATS-UNIS PAR OSTENDE 25.7" and straight line "AM.PACKET" on reverse, one stamp with corner fault and cover slight transportation marks, otherwise fine and scarce

1884, Leopold 10 c., die proof on chinoise paper in block format

BELGIAN EXPEDITIONARY CORPS OF ARMORED CARS IN RUSSIA: 1915, German occupation postal stationary card 5 c. with additional franking with full text on front and reverse from members of his family to Theo Halleux, a well-known member of the corps, first to a undercover address in the Hague, here newly franked with a Dutch stamp and sent to St. Petersburg with arrival mark "PETROGRAD OTD. DOST. VYSOCH. KOR. 8-10.15"; a scarce and interesting card of WW I postal history

1889, 15+10 c.postal stationery double card with additional franking horizontal pair King Leopold 25 c. blue as registered card from "LUKUNGU 18.SEPT.96" with text and boxed "Recommandé" via Matadi and Boma to Uccle, Belgium with arrival mark, fine, scarce

1894/1900, postage stamp 50 c. green and black (3) and 25 c. orange and black tied by cds. "ETAT INDEPENDANT DU CONCO LUKUNDU POSTES" to reverse to AR-cover via "BOMA 6.DECE.1896" to Morlanwelz, Belgium with arrival mark, one stamp with faults and slightly crease

1910, postage stamp 25 c. blue and black and 10 c. carmine and black tied by cds. "NIANGARA 16.DECE.13" to reverse to registered parcel label "sample without value" with handstamp "NIANGARA" to Belgium, fine

1915, postage stamp 10 c. carmine and black and 5 c. green and black tied by cds. "MATADI 16.AOUT.1919" to cover with "T"-cancel and Swedish "Lösen"-label to Malmö with 8 postage due stamps 2 ö. yellow with pen cancel on reverse, cover folded and long tear on front, otherwise fine

1931, postage stamp 1 fr. red, 75 c. lilaccarmine, 50 c. violet and 25 c. blue tied by cds. "BASANKUSU 27.4.40" to cover via Coquilhatville to Roosendaal, Netherland with label "Amsterdam Maar 1948 Door oorlogs omstandigheden met vertraging ontvangen", cover with slightly crease, otherwise fine, rare

1935, Independence 5 fr. imperforated, marginal block of 4, unmounted mint, signature in pencil and certificate Kaiser (2015)

1912, postal stationery picture card with cds. "ABA ...4.1914" and dated "Village Ganza situé sur la rivière Ubele Route Niangaru vers Dunga le 19.4.14" to Belgium with arrival mark, rare

1889, 15 c. postal stationery card with blue cds. "BANANA 16.DECE.1890" via Paris with French transit cancel "PARIS A MODAN 17.JANV.91" in red to Batavia and forwardet to Soerabaya with arrival mark, slightly stained, scarce destination

"ELISABETHVILLE 1....", original cancelling device, complete with date slugs

"ELISABETHVILLE 1...." (bilinguial), original cancelling device, complete with date slugs, one bolt broken

"LALUABOURG 1.....", original cancelling device, complete with date slugs

"LEOPOLDVILLE.....", original cancelling device, complete with date slugs

"LEOPOLDVILLE 1....", original cancelling device, complete with date slugs

"STANLEYVILLE.....", original cancelling device, complete with date slugs

LADO: 4 photopostcards with photos concerning the internment of NCO Jenssen, who committed suicide after suffering from violent fevers, all written by the customs agent Dutordoir, who was stationed at the Lado; all cards franked with Sudan stamps, cancelled "WHITE-NILE T.P." and sent to Bruxelles with distribution marks and 3 with additional arrival marks of October 20th 1909. One card illustrated (together with similar items of the same correspondance) in Gudenkauf "Postal history of the Lado enclave"; a rare and interesting group