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Auction: 16012 - Meiso Mizuhara, The Exhibition Collections, The Chinese Customs Post
Lot: 1511

China
Forerunner Period
Customs Datestamp
1875 (13 July) opened-out Hancock envelope to Chefoo "Via Marseilles" then redirected to Peking, bearing G.B. 1873-80 3d. plate 16 and 1/- plate 10 tied by a single Lurgan Irish duplex and bearing, on the reverse, faint Hong Kong (23.8) and a fine strike of the "customs/chefoo/sep 6/75" datestamp. This is the second earliest example of any Customs datestamp and unusually applied on an incoming letter because it was readdressed and required redirection.


A few peripheral imperfections, nevertheless a highly desirable and important cover.

There are about sixty Customs datestamps recorded before the Large Dragon stamps were issued. The earliest is from Shanghai dated 7th August 1875. Only four covers with Chefoo datestamp, the first two are from the Hancock correspondence, although written on 15th July and 22nd July, they both arrived in the same mail and bear the same date Chefoo c.d.s. This example is considered the finer of the two

Sold for
HK$130,000