Auction 333-341 Europe & Overseas - Day 5

1918 (Nov 4): Cover from Aleppo to Beirut, bearing Aleppo Provisional Issue Type 1, the handstamped Arab Seal indicating that „The prescribed fee has been paid“, struck on gummed paper, cut out and used as adhesive, tied by bold HALEP 2 Nov 4 cds, alongside Arabic military censor handstamp of Aleppo, reverse with DAMAS (Nov 24) partial "(BRITISH FIE)LD POST OFFICE (SZ 62)" and "ARMY POST OFFICE SZ 29" (Dec 11, these both at Damascus), routed via Port Said where it received both "PASSED BY CENSOR No. 10" and "PASSED CENSOR 6" British censorship handstamps. Central vertical file fold well away from the elusive adhesive, Kaczmarczyk & Unwin record only four covers bearing this stamp, they had been in use only on Nov 4 & 5, 1918, the first stamp of Syria.
Provenance: Christoph Gärtner sale 17 (March 2011), lot 4835.