Dr Raymond Casey Grand Prix Collection at David Feldman

Dr Raymond Casey, at the age of 94, remains an indefatigable collector. Yesterday, I saw him in animated conversation at London's Philatex stamp show. A couple of weeks before, he was at my table at London's Strand Stamp Fair - and,remarkably, I found something ( a small something) to offer him for his Ship Mail collection.

Today, I sat down at my computer and watched the sale of his Grand Prix collection of Russian Post Offices in China, Mongolia and Sinkiang. I didn't get the item I really wanted: a 1918 insured letter from Pekin to Petrograd, returned as undeliverable even before it reached the border. It interested me as showing that in the Pekin Russian post office, they still thought Petrograd a possible destination as late as May 1918.

Particularly interesting also were the Romanov franked items in the collection, all of which achieved high prices - and in some cases, very high prices. Here, I want to put out an unorthodox idea:

The conventional wisdom, endorsed by Dr Casey (page 17 of the catalogue), is that the Romanov stamps were not stocked in the China post offices (let's leave out Mongolia and Sinkiang from this and stick with China). However, so the story goes, they were valid for use if supplied by the customer - and this is how we come to find examples of them.

In the Feldman sale, no PEKIN items are franked with loose Romanov stamps; one very philatelic KALGAN cover has a 3 kop Romanov (Lot 20047); no CHEEFOO or HANKOW items have Romanov frankings; but two SHANGHAI items, both seemingly non-philatelic and dated 1913 and 1914, have low value Romanov frankings ( 2 kop, Lot 20064 - shown above - and 10 kop x 4, Lot 20065).

In the recent past, I had in my stock a fragment of a wrapper from Shanghai the franking on which included a 4 kop Romanov. I am sure I have seen loose stamps with Shanghai cancellations.

So my hypothesis is this: for some reason, the Shanghai Russian Post Office did receive some Romanov stamps for its stock. Maybe they asked for some.

Over to the specialists!

Dr Casey's collection realised over one million euros, with only one Lot unsold. You can consult the results at www.davidfeldman.com where you can also browse the illustrations of every Lot.

Postal History for Beginners :)

I was one of those boys who took the stamps off old postcards. My aunt had quite a collection and, rather reluctantly, she let me peel off the stamps. So I got damaged stamps and she was left with damaged postcards.

It's called, Not being able to see the wood for the trees. I know better now, but it took a long time.

Postal history should always be placed in the biggest context possible:

Who sent What to Whom? From Where, When and Why?

How much did it cost and how was the cost shown (the Franking)? By what Route did the item travel and how long did it take (Receiver cancellation - Despatch cancellation = Transit time)?

How was it handled en route? Did censors open it? Was it delayed by conflict?

Was it a typical item? Was everyone doing it? Was it specific to a particular time and place?

Some times the answers to these questions are obvious and sometimes they require a lot of research.

Today I was looking at Dr Raymond Casey's collection of Russian Post in China and Mongolia, as illustrated in two fine books The Russian Post in the Chinese Empire (David Feldman) and in the catalogue for the forthcoming sale of that collection (also David Feldman). This is how postal history should be done. Dr Casey pays attention both to the traditional philatelic matters - stamps, cancellations, tariffs - but also to the wider contexct of this mail. And what he has done can be done for items costing a dollar, not just for those costing thousands.