Slania? Yes. But what about Zarins?

Every dealer at  stamp exhibitions has been asked for examples of the work of Czeslaw Slania (1921 - 2005), the engraver of many beautiful stamps. Look on the Internet and you will find websites devoted to him with comprehensive listings of his work.

But Rihards Zarins (1869 - 1939)? No one has ever asked me for examples of his work. You can find a short Wikipedia page for him but I don't think you can find an inventory of his work. He wasn't an engraver but rather a designer.

Zarins (sometimes Zarinsh or Sarrin) was a highly trained graphic artist who became Technical Director of the Imperial Russian Printing Office. In this capacity he was involved in the design and production of the  War Charity and Romanov Tercentenary stamps. Later, he is credited with the Kerensky Chainbreaker stamps.

In 1919, he was appointed Director  of the Latvian State Printing Works and designed several early stamps - the Dragon Slayers for example. He retired in 1934.

He is also credited with the design of  the unissued Asobny Atrad stamps of the Belarus National Republic. I think these were printed in Latvia and sheet margin enumerator marks are like those found on Latvian sheet margins of this period, so they were probably printed in the State Printing Works. To my mind, all this shows a serious intention behind the production of the Asobny Atrad stamps - they were not cheap and quick productions for some philatelic swindle.

This is also suggested by a curious detail of the set. The design of the 15 kopeck differs in several details from the design of the other values. Someone  has gone over the design. To the left of the girl's shoulder some messy background detail has been removed. The shading on the bench at the left side has also been simplified - cleaned up. The plant growing at bottom right has been toned down . Everywhere you look there are small differences. In addition, the inscription ASOBNY ATRAD is completely different and at the base the flowers on either side of the "B.N.R" have seven petals on the 15 kopeck and eight petals on the other values. I have no explanation of why this 15 kopeck is so different...

Maybe out there somewhere is a Zarins collector who knows a lot more and who has produced an Inventory of Zarins' work. If not, there is an interesting challenge here.

My illustrations of the BNR stamps show ungummed, imperforate examples from the original printing. Forgeries exist but are easy enough to recognise.

[Note added: I discover I have an undated but probably 1926  article by George Jaeger, the Libau/Leepaja stamp dealer, who writes ( under the pen name George Neljubin) about a 1926 New York exhibition of Romanov essays and proofs. He credits Zarins (which he spells Sarrin) with the design of the 2,3,10, 15, 20 kopeck and 5 rouble Romanov set. His name does not appear on the list of engravers. There is also relevant information in  L.L. Tann's The Imperial Romanovs (1977) but this is probably not easy to find ]

Russia: Three Triangle Censorship in 1919

Postal Censorship in Russia is a popular collecting field. The interest of the cover above is that - according to Robert Taylor - it shows the earliest recorded use of a Three Triangle censor mark. The ordinary letter has been sent during the Post Free period from a small town in Nizhni-Novgorod guberniya to Nizhni - itself. Here it received two strikes of a rather strange NIZHNI NOVGOROD * 1 C   5 12 19 cancel - Taylor says this is a machine cancel  but there is something odd about "* 1 C" - I would expect "* 1 * " . I will have to find some more examples of the machine cancel to see if my expectations have any basis ... [Note added: Go to Ivo Steijn's Comment below for a response to my doubts]

It also received one strike of a NIZHNI - NOVGOROD 5 12 19 with three triangles at base. These are so clearly struck (as are the letters "NIZH.." that it is clear a brand new device is being used. According to Taylor, the only other Three Triangle censor mark known used in 1919 is one from SARATOV used on 19 December 1919.

The First Latvian SSR 1918 - 1920

When I think of the Bolshevik Occupation of Latvia, I think of Riga and the philatelic covers with Chainbreaker stamps which are quite common. But this is only part of the story. 

After the Armistice of November 1918, Germany lost power in the Baltics. The Latvian nationalists led by Ulmanis took control of Latvia but the  Bolsheviks also stepped in and proclaimed a Latvian Socialist Soviet [not Soviet Socialist ] Republic on 17 December 1918. Troops entered from the east and Riga was not the first area to be taken. And when Riga was recaptured by nationalist Latvian forces on 22 May 1919, the Bolsheviks remained in control of "rump" areas to the east until the beginning of 1920 when combined Latvian and Polish forces drove them out.

This explains the cover above. It's easy to think that the cancellation on the front "KORSOVKA LATVIJA "a" 10 1 20" is an old Imperial canceller - until you realise that there was no such guberniya as "Latvija" . There was Kurland and Lifland and so on. The canceller is a new post-revolutionary cancellation and the clarity of the cancellation suggests that the canceller has seen very little use. It is a Bolshevik-prepared cancellation for the new Latvian SSR. However, registration details are all in manuscript.

On the reverse, the 4 rouble franking corresponds to that for a registered letter in the Russian SFSR. The letter is addressed to the 6th Latvian Soviet Infantry Division. Korsovka is now Karsava in Latvia and it is a town in the east, very close to the border with Russia

I haven't seen anything like this before - and I am reminded of the second World War when both German and Russian occupying forces arrived in newly conquered areas with shiny new cancellers  ready for use.

A Curious Fact about Ukraine Tridents

Collectors, dealers and speculators who made it up as they went along - all these people got involved with Ukraine Trident production and some of them tried to get limited edition specialities created to make a fast buck. In some districts they were successful - Odesa for instance - and in other districts they seem not to have had much influence. In some cases we can link an individual name to a particular "Philatelic" Trident variety - Svenson, Trachtenberg and so on.

But it's a curious fact that with  few exceptions (mostly in Kyiv), no one fools around with ink colours. Maybe post office officials said No to that - it would confuse matters too much for clerks handling mail. In Odesa, for example, whether they are upside down, sideways or whatever, the handstamped tridents are always black. Exceptions are rare and don't look like deliberate creations.

For example, Bulat lists just two cases of Trident overrprints in violet-black (Bulat 1179a at $30 and 1304c at $18). 

The only examples I have ever seen do not look at all like deliberate colour varieties: in the two blocks of four above which have violet in the ink you really have to look for it (click on image to get a full screen view). To me, it looks like there was a bit of violet in the ink pad and that's about all. In contrast, as far as the left hand block is concerned (with Odesa Vb, Bulat 1253 - a stamp on which there are quite a lot of odd varieties listed) what you first notice is that the trident has been applied at an angle - to my mind, probably deliberately at someone's request. But the ink variety is almost unnoticeable.

Added February 2020: Most of my Ukraine-related Blog posts are now available in full colour book form. To find out more follow the link:

http://www.armeniazemstvo.com/2020/02/just-published-trevor-pateman.html

Russia : Literacy Campaigns after the Russian Revolution

In stamp dealers' boxes, you rarely come across picture postcards which reference the changes being brought about by the Russian Revolution. Perhaps they are all in postcard dealers' boxes or in Museum collections. Anyway, here is an unusual and nice example sent by a Danish traveller in Omsk on the 14 February 1918, when Omsk was still under Bolshevik control. The writer seems to link the image in the photograph to the (similar) literacy work undertaken by Danish Landsbyskolen ( which I translate as something like rural elementary [primary] schools). Since the writer labels this card to his or her mother "No 310" perhaps someone reading this has another card from the sequence.

The card also refers to the Calendar change in Russia implemented on 1st February / 14th February 1918. The writer exclaims that it is for the first time the 14th February in both Denmark and Russia. 

Russian Mail after the Treaty of Brest - Litovsk

There are probably many postal history collectors who pick out Registered postcards from dealers' boxes. They are not common and they are often interesting. The one above is very interesting.

Despatched from ARCHANGELSK 18 6 18 it is franked to 42 kopecks which, according to Epstein's table of Tariffs, is the correct RSFSR Foreign Registered postcard rate introduced in March 1918. The word "Zakaznoe" is written in ink below the stamps and below it, in pencil, is the Registration number 923.

The card is addressed to Minsk. It has travelled straight down the railway from Archangelsk through Vologda and Yaroslavl to end up in Moscow, where it has been censored - see the circular violet cachet to the right. It has then travelled on to Minsk where an ordinary Cyrillic receiver cancellation (bottom right) indicates its arrival on 25 7 18. However, Belarus was at this time under German occupation (accepted by Russia in the Treaty of Brest - Litovsk of March 1918) and in the middle of the card there is a German censor mark, a W in a circle. On the left, some (German) postal official has written "Minsk" in Roman next to the Minsk in Cyrillic.

By the time this card arrived, Archangel was under British Occupation - they entered the town at the beginning of July. The sender may have known he needed to send this card before it was too late. If anyone wants to attempt a translation of the message in the Comments box below, they are welcome to try.

Bolshevik Russia and the Baltics 1918

Wars and Revolutions cause mail bags to accumulate in post offices.

In December 1917, the Bolsheviks concluded an armistice with Germany but this was repudiated by Germany on 18 February 1918 which then proceeded to occupy the Russian Baltic provinces. So this card with its statement of account, initially postmarked 27 2 18 at the Petrograd 44th Otd., was just a few days too late to make it to Reval. This is indicated by the two straight line violet cachets in  Cyrillic indicating that the card should be returned ("OBRATNO" - equivalent to German "Züruck") because there is no postal service to the destination. 

My guess is that the card stayed in a mail bag until taken out again at PETROGRAD 1st Exsp. on 4 AUG 1918. By this date, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk of March 1918 had seen Bolshevik Russia accept the German Occupation of the Baltics and allowed postal services to resume. At second attempt, this card arrived at its destination as indicated by the German REVAL 24 8 18 at bottom left. 

You can see a boxed Russian censor cachet at the bottom of the card and a German cachet (R in a circle) at top right. The large "10" in blue crayon looks like a Postage Due marking. If the card was treated as Printed Matter, then in February 1918 it should have been franked at 10 kopecks not 5 kopecks and 10 kopecks would then represent double the deficiency.

But the real interest of this card is the way it failed at first attempt and succeeded at second attempt in getting to its destination, neatly illustrating how Russia's relations with Germany changed during 1918.