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Auction: CSS98 - The Philatelic Collector's Series
Lot: 121

China
1898-1910 Imperial Chinese Post
Covers
1890 Large official I Chan cover sent from the Viceroy of Hunan and Hupeh Province to the prefect of Shiang Yang Fu. The cover has clear characters indicating the course of the journey which started between 9 and 11pm on the 23rd day of the 5th month and was completed between 7 and 9am on the 1st day of the 6th month. At the left in larger characters: 'Take note of what is written on the right when passing through Chou and Hsien courier stage posts'.

Special measures were taken to ensure that the despatch was not removed from its envelope during the course of the journey. A hole was pierced through the cover and its contents, a string passed through and the ends secured at the front and back of the cover by pasting over them with diamond-shape pieces of paper. On the paper patches the two characters 'Ting Yen' (examined) have been hand-struck in black. The patches were finally tied to the cover by strikes of the large official seal.

An extremely rare official cover using I Chan private courier illustrated in Peter Padget's book 'The Postal Markings of China'. The book is included for reference.


1890年兵部尚書湖廣總督部堂馬上飛遞呈襄陽府開拆公文封套1件，及原套排單1件，封上加蓋馬上飛遞限日行三百里章，另經“釘驗”處理，有重封條，蓋關防5枚；派單標注從宜昌途徑湖南湖北州縣地名，保存完好，為1978年《THE POSRAL MARKINGS OF CHINA》書中原件，研究清代郵驛制度不可多得至素材，非常少見，附《THE POSRAL MARKINGS OF CHINA》1冊

Estimate
HK$250,000 to HK$300,000

Starting price
HK$250000