35th International Auction

overseas\middle east\bahrain:europe\great britain\british protectorate\bahrain
1902 India used abroad: Queen Victoria 2 annas (2) and 1 anna tied by "BANDAR ABAS 24 JL 1902" squared circle on cover sent to Dar-Es-Salaam, German East Africa (23.8 arrival). The sender "Robert Wönckhaus" had offices in Lingah and but not in Bandar Abas (Iran/Persia). This letter was possibly forwarded from Bahrein across the persian gulf to "Bandar Abas" (Persia) in order to get a faster ship connection to Dar-Es-Salaam (Deutsch Ostafrika). A MOST UNUSUAL ROUTING FROM BAHREIN ACROSS THE PERSIAN GULF TO BANDAR ABAS AND FROM THERE ON TO GERMAN EAST AFRICA.In the decade of the 1890's Robert Wönckhaus, a German, who worked for a Hamburg firm in Zanzibar on the east coast of Africa. Native dhows plied regularly between Zanzibar and the Persian Gulf, taking up cargoes of slaves to serve as pearl-divers and bringing back products of the region. Among other things, they once returned with mother-of-pearl shells, practically as ballast. These shells were bought by the Hamburg firm, shipped to Europe, and sold at a handsome profit. Wönckhaus had heard that such shells were thrown away as valueless in the Gulf; he decided to go up there and see what could be done with them. This was in 1897, and "Robert Wönckhaus and Company" appeared soon afterward at Lingah. Until 1914 he maintained offices Lingah, Bahrein and Bushire.