1897 France to French Legation, Peking, f.w. French 25c, tied by Fourmies cds. Transit Shanghai French PO (16 Jan), In combination with
1897 France to French Legation, Peking, f.w. French 25c, tied by Fourmies cds. Transit Shanghai French PO (16 Jan), In combination with Empress Dowager surch small figure 4c/4ca for domestic rate, tied by Customs Shanghai (18 Jan) cds. Arrived I.G. Customs of Peking (7 Feb). Incoming usage prior to the 2 February 1897 inauguration of the Imperial Post Office. The surcharged stamps were not officially on sale to the public until 2 February 1897. There are, however, a few instances when these stamps were used in January 1897, on either domestic or incoming foreign mail, all from the Customs Post Office in Shanghai. There are less than fifteen such covers known in total, most of which are from the Berteaux correspondence. All of these covers originating from overseas to the northern Chinese ports were subject to domestic rate when utilizing the winter route. This charge was not abolished until 17 February 1897.An exceptionally rare and alluring pre-issue usage of the New Currency surcharged stamps.Provenance:Sir Percival David, Robson Lowe.(London), (Oct) 1974, lot 1312. “Ming”, Corinphila (Zurich), (Mar) 1987, lot 4862. Jane and Dan Sten Olsson, Interasia (Hong Kong), (Jan) 2010, lot 219. References: Major Richard Pratt, Imperial China. History of the Post 1897.(London, 1998), pp. 64-65. Tony.To-Wah.Kwan,.ed., Covers and Cards of Empress Dowager Jubilee and its Surcharged Issues. Volume Two: Surcharged Issues Covers and Cards - 1897.(Hong Kong, 2011),.p. 506. Jeffrey S Schneider,.“Census of New.Currency Surcharges on Covers and Fronts Used Between 7 January and 1 February 1897”, The Asian Philatelist,.Vol..13.(2022)
