hankams

Dear Alfred and Klaus,

It is about a year ago that you helped me finding my way around in the wonder world of Zeppelin, especially the 1930 SAF flight. Some time ago I completed an article discussing my collection, which now finally has appeared as a small book. I would like to send you a copy, be it that it is in Dutch, but the pictures tell a story … Could you please send me your home address to my email:

dbakker777@kpnmail.nl

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Dik Bakker, the Netherlands

Dear Alfred, Klaus and you other zeppelinistas,

There seem to have been mail from Rio to Recife on board during the 25th May flight. However, I guess the Meister letter in the Anhänge was not. Condor brought it to Recife. I wonder, however, why they put the 26th May Zeppelin cancel on the back anyway.  It was never on board the LZ127 and reached Chicago via the regular mail route. Isn’t that some kind of make-belief or cheating? What would a letter that did go on board look like, if any at all? I understand that some mail was taken on board in Rio, both from Meister and from other countries.

Dear Alfred, and all you zeppelinistas,
Sad and inspiring at the same time, your Darwinian approach to keeping this thread visible: to go on producing a rapid response in order to keep it in the list of the five latest entries. Might be the hidden objective of the moderators …
But back to 1930. You can see the people at BKM S.A being in shock about the bags of mail they probably had not counted on (I guess they did not get paid per letter or card; I see again your wonderful picture of the people at the Friedrichshafen post office, who must have had some experience with this …).
I have had another look at the 235 Meister pieces collected by Schier. I found seven pieces like yours and mine (mine is there, yours is not, so that makes eight being ‘known’). Most of these cluster around a low Meister number, but some are outliers, like yours. They are all, though, meant for Brazil, so I guess they came from one package or bag, handled routinely by an employee putting on 8 pesetas, using a sheet of Vaquer 4 pts, some sheets of the aero overprint 1 pta and one of the Congreso areo 1 pta, fitting them in the same way all the time (only one Ed.487 since it is quite big). Schier found two more pieces, sent to the USA, but he has made a mistake taking them twice, confusing numbers (‘6’ instead of ‘8’) on his photocopies (he did not know about the origin of the numbers). 7 pieces on 233 is 3%. Now let us speculate that they had one sheet only of 50 of the Ed.487 (500 were produced). If all 50 were used, then that is 3% of around 1600 – 1700 pieces, which is I think a reasonable estimate of the number of Meisters that went to Sevilla. A bit speculative, but not too outrageous: it would still comprise half of what went from Sevilla to Brazil (=3.269).
As for the cancellation of Spanish stamps and the catalogue prices for on piece after the classical period: this is a great point. Also the Edifil Especializado stops giving them after 1900 for the individual stamps. Most collectors of Spain that I know collect unused after 1900 (so do I, although I prefer used), and complain that it is virtually impossible to find really used examples from all the non-permanent series (the first is the 1905 Quijote, Ed.257-266). When you find them, they are mostly philatelic frankings – complete series on mail abroad etc. And that is what the Ed.Esp. gives you: a total price for the whole series on one or more pieces. For the 1930 Congreso this price surpasses the value for mint in the case by almost 50%! (I will send you a photocopy of these pages). Cancelled off piece are suspect; they are typically cancelled by order, you are right, so only to be trusted on piece, or with a clear place/date CDS. My impression is that collecting for Spaniards often means collecting as they come from the post office. The prices for used are constrained by price-with-hinge for before 1960 and by mint after. Some iconic series, e.g. the 300 year Quijote from 1905, are sought after on piece since they were available only 15 days and only in Madrid (1st-15th May 1905, see the one in the Anhänge). That you have the 4 x 4P of the regular Congreso on (Zeppelin!) piece is really fantastic, mouth-watering indeed (only 300 sheets of 50 printed). Let us assume that Harry was not a greedy collector and that Otto received his card safely back in a nice envelop, with a green Lakehurst zeppelin stamped on the other side … I guess a 10Pts would be Exhibition worthy (200 sheets printed only). I go on dreaming.
Grüße,
Dik

Dear Alfred,

That is a great photo, I also find moving in a way … the dedication to get all these hundreds and thousands of letters and cards to their destinations, giving the adressees the pleasure of receiving a nice card from a friend or a great piece for their collection. And then, 90 years later, still extending that pleasure to us, the next generation of collectors.

Thankx,

Dik