hankams

Dear Alfred, Hallo Miteinand,

Thank you for your again enlightening and entertaining response.

As for the exercise on the Meister distribution: I know that mr. Schier is quite somewhat older even than I am at the moment, but I guess I will still postpone the search to that other life … other goals look more attractive to me at the moment. But who knows?

Uruguay: your observation, again, saved me from making a wrong statement in my article in statu nascendi. Thank you for the nice pictures, they are wetting the appetite, helas …

Mr. Egolf: on the one hand, this seems to be illustrating the ugliness of greed and exaggeration (king midas or his current instantiation trump ‘gold gold gold’ at work). I guess, however, that like most of us, I would eat the grapes anyway once I could jump as high as the mr. Egolfs of this world. Nevertheless, I would prefer your somewhat bruised Hawaii letter ten times above the completely sterile set of three with the blocks: no life in them whatsoever, while your letter carries history. No comparison for the ‘real’ collector as far as I am concerned … The origin/destination of your letter is incredible. It means that the stamps were for sale in Hawaii early May, and that the letter made it in time to Friedrichshafen on the 18th. In the official announcement of the Postmaster it says that they would be available in DC on 19th April, and on 21st April in the major post offices of the (then) 48 states. Hawaii is not mentioned there, nor is Alaska (and Puerto Rico). A gem indeed. And the collector was a lady. Or was it mr. Anderson himself? A picture of 3638 Kilauea Ave today is in the Anhänge 1.

I wonder whether we could base some interesting socio-economic conclusions comparing the percentages of over-franked letters from the respective countries.

In order to end with a new point: many a piece had been ordered from stamp dealers by collectors, still a current practice for e.g. FDC’s. This sometimes led to very weird combinations, I guess. The English postcard in Anhänge 2/3 has been organized by Liverpudian stamp dealer Davis (a regular with Zeppelin I think) for a collector in Basel (Schweiz), who lived around the corner from Friedrichshafen (Germany), to be sent from (then Freistadt) Danzig on the SAF Rundfahrt. I guess there may be even more convoluted creations out there?

Cheers,

Dik

Dear Alfred and Klaus,

Klar – da stimme ich dir hundertprozentig zu! Die Sache hat nur einen Haken: zusammen mit @Klaus sind wir hier offensichtlich ganz allein auf uns gestellt. Mir sind zwar bei weitem nicht alle Mitglieder unsere Arbeitsgemeinschaft Zeppelinpost bekannt, aber ich bin sicher, dass mehr als einer über ein Archiv und/oder eigene Belege verfügt, die unsere Recherche-Plattform wesentlich erweitern könnten.

As in science in general: we are standing on each others shoulders, and more shoulders implies more progress (and vice versa).  And I assume that the Felzmann bidder on the Ms. Drummond-Hay card who was just behind me might very well have been one of the ArGe members …

2. I used your Sevilla numbers to check and correct mine and they were virtually the same. I assume that the numbers of Meister pieces arriving with Spanish stamps already stuck on them would have been rather low, probably only from some dealers, like your fantastic letter with the 1929 Airmail series, so they might be negligible in the overall count. The only piece of the puzzle left then is the distribution of the Meister mail over Friedrichshafen – Sevilla – Rio. I assume that this is known somewhere. If not, the only thing one can do is to repeat the Schier exercise, now for all three destinations over a number of different auctions in different countries (Germany, Spain, US, Brazil at least) and including hundreds of pieces so as to do some minimally reliable statistics. Maybe in some future life.

3. I love your (A.) Andorra letter. It does not have the complete series (4P and 10P missing), but note that the 30 c is the best of the whole series, rare also used. I guess pieces from Spanish African possessions will be very rare and will not affect the numbers even if not included here. Gibraltar would be a great origin indeed. Would you think that Uruguay was also a ’Schwarzfahrer’? I find the postage paid from there very low indeed, seems like the normal airmail fare.

4. Mr. Egolf: that seems to me to be sound reasoning. The hypothesis is falsifiable by finding a piece with an intermediate number but with different sender. On the other hand: the number is a minimum since it could be extended in both directions.

Best, until the next one,

Dik

Dear Alfred, and Klaus,

Thank you for the insightful pieces you are showing us again. Food for thought!

1. 4 ptas einschreiben Barcelona: I have a card to the same person in Hartha, see my article figure 57 (and Anhänge #1), but franked properly and without ‘Barcelona’. Note that is was written by the same person, mailed together in Sevilla and arrived together in Hartha.

2. Bob FLINN/Santa Cruz: Such pieces are wonderful since they illustrate minor aspects of the whole enterprise. So, it was late for the 1st May steamer ‘Albert Ballin’ to Hamburg-Cuxhaven. I have no idea how the Sevilla mail was sent, I guess directly to Spain (Cadiz?), just like the mail to Rio. Meister would indeed have sent off mail later to Spain, knowing that it was late I guess, since that was not his fault, but Bob’s.

The highest numbers Schier found are 30244, 30634, 30694, 30882, 30917, all sent on the Heimflug. His pictures are too small to really see details, but one of them is a ‘Klotzbach’ (nr. 30822) which must have been handed in together with my Klotzbach (nr. 30894) and sent to someone in Berlin. Also here 4 ptas paid. See my article figure 59 (and Anhänge #2). Bob’s letter joined them then.

3. I guess this one is very rare: I thought this cachet was only supplied on pieces that started out from Friedrichshafen on 18th May or cancelled later on board. Must have been a bribe to the Bordpost official.

I guess that when we would join our collections one day the picture would become more and more complete, almost at the level of individual collectors of 1930. Showing our pieces and writing about it is the best thing we can do for history. On the other hand, one gets the impression that ‘anything goes’ as you said yourself, and that there are like 100.000 different letters and cards. Do we have any idea how many were actually sent, and what percentage is left of that? I guess quite a high percentage, because virtually all have been in collections from day one on, and most still are, be it in different collections for the time being.

Mit herzliche Grüße,

Dik

Dear Alfred und Klaus,

Thank you for keeping me the loop. It would have been impossible for me to find out about a number of issues with respect to SAF 1930 without the knowledge that you represent. That will, of course be ackowledged in my article, that is running out of hand by now but will be finished shortly … When complete, you will both have to reveal your full names to me for the proper reference.

It becomes more and more clear to me that real ‘Bedarfsstücke’ are very rare indeed. In by far the most cases, at least one stamp dealer or intermediary is involved, if not two or three. In that sense, Alfred’s letter from Liechtenstein to Madre Estefania in Florencia (Col) is a real gem, for several reasons of course. Indeed, how true: “… gibt es eigentlich nichts, was es nicht gibt …”. Purists, I guess, would be only interested in such pieces, sent between to ‘normal’ people, maybe not even stamp collectors themselves (what do we know about the secret passions of Estefania?).

With respect to dr. Oscar Eiser: instead of working in his chemical lab, he was obviously making an extra peseta by sticking stamps on Frischer’s cards over there in Madrid. I have a similar card as the one shown by Klaus. Yours has been cancelled on 30th May T(arde), in the afternoon between 12:00 and 20:00 (Spanish afternoons run until later than ours; they eat at 22:00). Mine has been canceled on 31st May N(oche), which I guess was the next day after 20:00. OsCar (nicht: OsKar) must have produced quite a few of these, then. He is consistent in putting the five stamps of the airmail series from high to low face value. In my article I suggest that when fixing them to my card (see Anhänge) he got so tired and bored that he could not put them in a straight line anymore (maybe the lights had gone out and he was using a candle). Or would he have followed the angle of the red cancel on the top left of the card?

The Havanna discussion takes on the level of a real detective story; fascinating. Great is the analogy with mail from Nicaragua, which I have not seen so far: I guess it must be pretty rare. Philately is in need of one Inspector Derrick, a Kommissar Dieter Leder, or maybe one Auguste Poirot, who could have been on board of the LZ127 as well, and solve a murder mystery like he did on the Orient express and the Nile in the same old days … There has not been such a drama on board of the Luftschiff I guess, but – indeed – I was highly intrigued by Alfred’s card sent by ms. Drummond that I found on the Lieblingsbelege thread, and the love story connected to it. On this, I have an obvious confession to make, that will follow in the contribution I hope to make later on.

With all my best wishes,

Dik

Dear Alfred and Klaus,

Obviously, Alfred, I made the unforgivable mistake to not see that it were the February 1929 airmail stamps rather than the May 1930 ones … Of course, they are more or less look-alikes, but a collector of Spain should have seen it, especially after your warning, and that alone should be enough to ban me from the discussion for at least a year of intermediate study and shame. That said, it makes the piece of course even more special, since Correos accepted a series that had lost its validity for already over a year, so it is arguably unique.

Interestingly, the Edifil specialized catalogue shows a letter with three of the stamps sent in May 1929, without remarks about being outside of the three days of validity 14 – 16 february 1929 (see Anhänge).

Oval ‘Mit … befördert’: I think the card in Anhänge Afb 28a has gone off board in Sevilla, and the letter Afb 30a in Friedrichshafen. Those are the only ones that I have with that cachet.

As for the running out of high values point: that seems to make sense, I will look for evidence, it may have been different at different places, of course, most of the pieces that I have and have seen do have the 1pts, 4pts and 10 pts, that normally would have had very modest use. I will give it a thought, to the extent that this means anything …

Have a good weekend,

Dik

Dear Alfred & Klaus,

Yet another extraordinary piece you (Alfred) are treating us on: from Canal Zone 15th May to La Habana 16th May. Then to Sevilla where it arrived on 4th June, in time to board the LZ127 on 5th June, and to arrive in Friedrichshafen on 6th June. As far as I understand it, it must have been waiting in Habana until 29th May, when it became clear that the wind did not allow the LZ127 to land there. At least that is what I understand from Eckener’s story. Then, only airmail could get it to Spain within the six days left, I guess. Or there must have been a ship leaving for Spain precisely then. Alternatively, it could have been decided earlier on that they would not wait for the Zeppelin anyway. Whatever, an incredible example of postal cooperation and efficiency. I seem to understand that the oval ‘Mit Luftschiff…’ was applied afterwards. I guess this was put on board and on only a few pieces, for some reason or other, or just at random? I have it on a card that ended in Friedrichshafen, like your Panama letter, and also on one that went off in Sevilla.

I did see that your great 13 – 15 May airmail series card was sent by an American Briefmarkenhändler. Would you think that Correos did send new issues to stamp dealers weeks before they were actually at the post office tellers? Then, of course, it could have been prestamped before it was sent to Meister.

Now a point that still relates to the original thread, the Sevilla mail of April 1930. We know that no Spanish mail was taken back on the L127. Schier, in his handbook on Spanish philately (2011) rightly observes that no Spanish mail was taken on board since it was late. He then says that mail for Germany was taken by plane. That seems to be right for the Berlin case at least: my card from Spain to Berlin has the familiar German cachet ‘Mit Luftpost … Berlin C2’. I guess that went straight with Lufthansa, but only because there was a direct air connection. A lot of the rest of the mail was sent via Paris, I guess by train ending at Gare du Nord, then going to the airport (Avion). This included mail to smaller German destinations like Leipzig as well, as in the case of Klaus’ beautiful flamenco card. My impression is that this did not only concern mail from Spain, but also some pieces that were already on board. Klaus’ Nothilfe card must have been on board in Friedrichshafen and went back to Teplice nevertheless via Paris (19/4) and Berlin (19/4). Maybe it was offloaded because it said ‘CSR’. I have a letter (see Anhaenge) that has a An Bord cancel 16th April on the blue 2 RM Zeppelin stamp, and the Sevilla Aereo 16th April cancel. It has a return address in Deisenhofen near Munchen but it does not say ‘Deutschland’ or ‘Alemania’ on the envelop. Someone has written ‘Germany’ on it afterwards (in English!). It has also travelled via Paris (19/4) and arrived in Munchen on 20 April. So maybe that was by mistake then. Or was Munchen also too small? I think I am slowly but gradually getting there …

Viele Grüße,

Dik

Obviously, Alfred, I am speechless. The whole 1930 airmail series on a Zeppelin letter … an incredible piece, congratulations Sir. And mr. Betts must have had a fine philatelic friend in Sevilla …

In the context of German mail too late to make it to Friedrichrshafen on time, I can show the card in Anh 3a/b. According to the sender in little Plattling (see text) he initially wanted the card to go with the Do X, but since the Seaplane was still not getting very well of the ground (well .. water) he decided to go for the LZ127. It was late in Berlin and then put on the Anschluszflug. Apparently, it made it on time to Sevilla, got the German cachet (on board?) and left the Zeppelin in Lakehurst on 31 May. My questions (if I may):

1. Was the extra 16 pf necessary for the Anschluszflug?

2. I seem to see a brown dot above the Zeppelin on the 4RM stamp. Is that a known Abart, or just a minor flaw?

The DO X left months later, and took over half a year to get to New York … (Anh 4)

Herzliche Gruesze,

Dik