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Auction: 16012 - Meiso Mizuhara, The Exhibition Collections, The Chinese Customs Post
Lot: 1507

China
Forerunner Period
Custom House, Shanghai
1872 (22 Feb.) envelope to Madame Louise Garrier in Paris, bearing a very fine strike of the dated double-oval "custom house/shanghai/paid" in red, beautifully presented by being applied in the lower left corner of the front of the cover, clear of any other marking. The envelope with France 10c. (2) and 80c. Laureated Napoleon Heads (one 10c. torn) cancelled by "5140" gross chiffres with "shang-hai/chine" c.d.s. alongside with small boxed "PD" and octagonal Suez transit datestamp (8.4). The envelope is signed in the lower corner "Ch. Vapereau".


Not only is this the first postmark used by the Customs Postal Service of China but also the earliest recorded example of this postmark. The importance and desirability of this cover is enhanced by the fact that the postmark has, unusually, been applied on the address side. This is the only cover with this postmark applied on the front.


An exceptional and highly desirable example, the earliest postmarked Custom Post cover.

provenance: Sir David Roseway, November 1963

Sir Percival David, March 1975

Robson Lowe auction, June 1983



Seventeen examples of this datestamp have been documented, many having been sent by a French teacher at the Language Institute in Peking, Mr Vapereau.



The Imperial Maritime Customs had been given responsibility for the transmission of legation mail. The letters for foreign areas were managed by the Peking Head Office of Customs and were then sent to Shanghai for the affixing of stamps and passing to the relevant Foreign Post Office

Sold for
HK$450,000