A rather attractive Beresford Series postcard entitled Jersey Old – Farm House Mont-au-Prêtre was acquired at the London 2022 International Stamp Exhibition by my Postage Due Mail Study Group colleague Michael Furfie.
The card was sent from Jersey on 26th April 1904 to Vienna in Austria. As usual at that time, underpaid mail from the Channel Islands going abroad was routed via London, hence the hexagonal T / 15 / L London taxe mark. A divided back card, it was liable to letter rate, so the deficiency was 1½d = 15 centimes, due 30 centimes = 30 heller.
I am grateful to Michael for permitting me to scan the card and share it with C.I.S.S. members.
A cover sent in September 1904 from the Hotel de l’Europe to France using the movable box service appeared on day one of Auktionshaus Christoph Gärtner’s 50th Jubilee auction – which closed on 21st June 2021 – as lot #08979 offered at €250. This attractive cover finally sold for €260.00
Bearing a strip of three KE VII ½d stamps and one KE VII 1d stamp cancelled at Carteret on 23rd September 1904, the cover also shows a superb PAQUEBOT marking. Initially addressed to Blois, where it arrived the following day, the cover was re-directed to Mesland.
Gibbons[1] records this type of Carteret three concentric circle cancellation as used between 1898 and 1908 on Boîte Mobile mail.
Reference
1. Stanley Gibbons Channel Islands Postal History Catalogue Ringwood & London: Stanley Gibbons Publications Ltd, December 1991.
