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Auction: 14024 - The Philatelic Collector's Series Sale featuring the Award-winning Collection of Province of Otago Postal History formed by Greg Francis, and the Cliff Wheatley Rhodesias
Lot: 1372

(x) New Zealand
The Postal History of the Province of Otago
Mail via Brindisi
1870 (31 Aug.) envelope "Via Suez and Marseilles" to Bolton Le Moors, this route closed due to the Franco-Prussian War and diverted on the "via Brindisi" route by the Avoca, bearing 1864-67 4d. yellow and 6d. red-brown twice cancelled by "0" duplex and showing a fine strike of the rare "insufficiently paid/for brindisi route/deficient postage/d3" handstamp, upon arrival redirected to Blackpool and showing, on reverse, part Bolton transit c.d.s. (31.10); the envelope repaired at left side and with other minor imperfections. One of only two covers recorded from New Zealand with this explanatory handstamp. Photo

Note: The outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War on 15 July 1870 resulted in difficulties with the route through France, and from September of that year mail to Europe endorsed "via Marseilles" and prepaid at the appropriate premium rate was diverted to the route via Brindisi. The September and October mails from New Zealand were surcharged 3d. per half-ounce on delivery in the United Kingdom, where an explanatory handstruck marking was applied. This was the rate-difference in charges in the United Kingdom for letters sent by the alternative routes, though for letters from New Zealand the actual rate-difference was 5d. per half-ounce
This cover is illustrated on page 59 of Vol VII of the RPSNZ handbook. The only other cover recorded with this handstamp was included in the John Woolfe sale in 2006

provenance:
Kenneth J McNaught
Gerald Ellott

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Sold for
£2,400