Russia Pre-Philatelic Cancellations / Russland Vorphila

This particular Blog won't go viral. There are not many collectors of Russian pre-philatelic mail or pre-philatelic cancellations - though some cancellations continued in use after the introduction of postal stationery and even postage stamps.

Recently I bought a collection of pre-philatelic mail of Russia formed by Harry von Hofmann. I did not immediately study it - no one was pressing me to supply them with such material - though I did put one interesting item - an entire letter from DUBOSARY in the auction now online at www.filateliapalvelu.com.

Anyway, today I checked the material I have against the major handbook in this field, Manfred Dobin's Postmarks of Russian Empire (St Petersburg 1993)  - a heavy bi-lingual work in 538 pages with illustrations of postmarks and maps of postal districts. I was pleased to find I have three cancellations not in this Handbook:

1. DMITROV

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This cancellation is on an official stampless wrapper. it reads DMITROV MOSK [va] GUB[ERNIYA] 18 ..... GODA. Though the date is completed in ink as 1860, the style of this cancellation is definitely pre-philatelic and it should exist on earlier material.

2. IRKUTSK

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Dobin lists and illustrates a similar cancellation but capable of printing the date; this cancellation is intended to have the date filled in by hand. Unfortunately, the cancellation is on an undated official wrapper the style and paper of which could date from the 1830s through the 1860s. It is possible, I suppose, that this is Dobin's canceller with the middle removed and so later rather than earlier. He gives a period of use 1838 - 1850 for his cancellation.

3. UNIDENTIFIED

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I can't read this. The last word is Gub[erniya] and the middle word may identify the guberniya as Volin[skaya] The date is filled in as 1867 and it is used on a stationery envelope addressed to Novgrad Volinsk and apparently re-routed (see Mss at bottom of cover) But I cannot identify the town from which the cancellation above originates, once again pre-philatelic in style though used as late as 1867

 Readers? [ Added: See Comments below. Howard Weinert proposes Korets in Volhynia ]

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We All Make Mistakes :)

At the top, a cover which appeared in a recent auction and for which I entered a bid (unsuccessfully).
Underneath, my "Reference" cover which tells me what the genuine JELGAWA "a" looks like.

Umm ... on the cover at the top, the "a" slopes to the right ; on the cover at the bottom, the "a" is more upright. The top cancel is forged and is the commonest (and very old) forged Jelgawa cancel, applied here to stamps with forged overprints.
Not only is the "a" different, the formation of other letters in the cancel is different too (try the final "A" of LATWIJA.)

How did I make the mistake? I worked from memory instead of taking out my Reference cover and comparing it to the cover in the auction. It's some time since I occupied myself with Western Army stuff (which I find exhausting anyway) and I should have known better than to bid impulsively.

How do I know that my Reference cover is reliable? Here is a picture of the back:




Here you will see the attestation of the Jelgawa postmaster, dated 11 Oct 1919 and underneath the further attestation of the dealer Koningsfest dated 4 April 1921. These guarantees are both reliable. In addition, I have a stamp on piece with what I am telling you is the genuine JELGAWA "a" cancel and this piece is signed HOFMANN BPP (that's Harry von Hofmann, author of the numerous Handbooks on Latvian philately). See below: