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Auction: 24028 - Stamps and Covers of British Africa
Lot: 1006

(x) Anglo-Boer War, 1899-1902
The Steven Walske Collection of the Boer War Sieges
Siege of Mafeking: 13 October 1899 to 17 May 1900 - Pre-Stamp Mail

Mafeking siege mail can be divided into two periods, marked by the establishment of an organized civilian mail service on March 23, 1900. We have thus chosen to separate these into two sections: pre-stamp Mafeking covers and stamped Mafeking covers.
The earliest siege letters from Mafeking were written by garrison officers and carried with military dispatches, and fewer than twenty are known to have survived. A highly accurate census documents only 15 such letters, compared to 94 external- and 105 locally-sent stamped Mafeking covers.
1900 (Jan.) unstamped envelope from Colonel Vyvyan the Base Commander to his wife in London, headed "Free. On Active Service", carried by courier to the Base Train military post office at Mochudi where it was countersigned by Capt. Rolt, Adjutant of the Rhodesia Regiment at Tuli, Rhodesia, showing Bulawayo transit c.d.s. (on reverse; 24.3), "T" h.s. and blue crayon "4d" with both deleted by London "f b/m" circular h.s.; the envelope with some minor peripheral creases. Photo

Note: From Bulawayo this cover was sent via Salisbury to Beira, and by dispatch ship "Formosa" to Cape Town. It left there on 28 February aboard Castle Lines "Kinfants Castle" and arrived in Southampton on 16 March.

provenance:
Ken Griffith, October 2001

Subject to 5% tax on Hammer Price in addition to 20% VAT on Buyer’s Premium.

Sold for
£1,200

Starting price
£800