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Auction: 177 - The Philatelic Collector's Series Sale
Lot: 569

Postal History Collections & Balances - Aviation
Germany, Grand Duchess Eleanor’s Rhine-Main Airmails extensive collection,
with roughly one hundred items, including thirteen official Royal Family “Postkartenwoche” real photo cards issued for use on the flights, including formal portraits by court photographer Steinacker, as well as more casual family images; six photos by Susanne Homann, a professional midwife and amateur photographer who was a friend of the Grand Duchess; multiple Weisser Hund postcards flown during the festivities, depicting scenes from the parade grounds, pilot Lt. von Hiddessen, loading and unloading mails from the flights, etc; scarce cards to foreign destinations including England, Holland, and Switzerland; a set of thee Eugen Bracht cards, printed and flown for the occasion and depicting reproductions of the artists’ famous paintings; examples mailed on every day of the festivities, with every participating town - Worms, Darmstadt, Frankfurt, Mainz, and Offenbach - represented, many on their first day and/or last day of use; advertising cards used by private firms to send “greetings through the air” to clients and customers, as well as promotional seals and cinderellas; a set of semi-postal stamps - “First German Airmail to the Rhine” - including the scarce “EELP” (“Ex Est Luft Post”) overprints; an exceptional collection for the enthusiast of early aviation, and one that would take years of dedicated effort to duplicate. History was made in June, 1912, when the Zeppelin Schwaben and the Gelber Hund carried the first German mails by air. This nearly two-week affair, designed to raise funds for Grand Duchess Eleanore’s charity for mothers and infants, met with tremendous public excitement and left an important philatelic legacy.

Sold for
$2,700

Starting price
$1800