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Auction: CSS109 - The ‘Connaught’ Collection of Hong Kong, Part 2
Lot: 6645

Hong Kong
Military and Naval Mail
British Naval Forces on Komundo Islands
1886 (17 Mar.) mourning envelope to Port Hamilton "Via San Francisco" bearing U.S. 5c. brown tied by cork cancellation and Deoorah c.d.s., addressed to "Captain Gordon, Royal Marines, Port Hamilton, care of Senior British Naval Officer, Nagasaki, Japan", the reverse bears indistinct duplex and Nagasaki c.d.s. (29.4). A good cover from this important correspondence.

It is thought that there may only be three incoming covers, all from the Gordon correspondence. Meizo Mizuhara owned two which were included in his Korean postal history exhibit

The islands were surveyed in 1845 by Sir Edmund Belcher. He named them Port Hamilton after the secretary of the Admiralty, Capt. W.A.B. Hamilton. The British occupied these islands between April 1885 and early 1887 in order to prevent Russian expansion in Asia as they wanted an ice-free harbour (Vladivostok was blocked for about four months each year).

Capt. Gordon was in command of a detachment of marines of about one hundred men. The mail was transported from Nagasaki by British warships

Estimate
HK$20,000 to HK$25,000

Starting price
HK$14000