Auction 333-341 Europe & Overseas - Day 5

Russian P.O. in Aleppo, Ingoing 1869 (Jan 28): Entire letter from Alexandretta to Aleppo, sent unpaid and struck upon arrival by extremely rare two-line “POSTE-RUSSE / d’ALEP” in greenish blue (Tchilinghirian fig 205). One of four covers known to date, this strike being the first one described of this elusive cancellation. 

Note: The existence of a Russian post at Aleppo remained unsuspected for a long time. Most letters were transported by the Turkish post from Aleppo to Alexandretta, where they were transferred to the foreign postal services. Vice versa, incoming mail was charged and Turkish postage due was added. However, Tchilinghirian (1958) described in the collection of Franz See an ingoing stampless cover from the Marcopoli correspondence which was struck in Aleppo by a two-line “POSTE-RUSSE / d’ALEP”. In the 1960 supplement of their work, Tchilinghirian & Stephen noted two additional covers with this cancellation, the present stampless item from the same correspondence ex Liphschutz and another one from Smyrna ex collection Matuhin, franked with 5 kop Levant adhesive. These covers establish that some sort of a Russian post was functioning in Aleppo. In between a fourth cover was found, all ingoing to Aleppo on the two dates of January 22 and January 28, 1869.
Interestingly, this cancellation looks were similar to the French “POSTE FRANCAISE / d’ALEP” and may have been manufactured by the same craftsman.
All four covers show a taxation of ‘1’ (piastre) in red crayon.

Reference: Described in detail in Tchilinghirian “Stamps of the Russian Empire used abroad”, part VI on pp. 536-537 (1957). This strike is the template for its first description in Tchilinghirian part 2 on page 151.

Provenance: Collection Franz See; collection Pavlovsk, Corinphila sale 92 (March 1996), lot 4899; DF sale (May 2004), lot 30267.