35th International Auction

overseas\asia\china\varieties / plate flaw / specials
1897, 1 C. type I on red revenue resp. 4 C. large type on red revenue with surcharges on dowager: seriffed 5 C., 8 C. and non-seriffed 2 C., 10 C./12 Cn., 30 C./24 Cn. all canc. brown Pa-Kua on registered cover with brown "CUSTOMS APR 22 1897" and bold vermilion "R" alongside, in combination with french offices 50 C. tied "SHANG-HAI 22 AVRIL 97" to Boehmer, Oppeln/Germany. On reverse transits of "NAPOLI 24 MAI 97", "AMB. ROMA BOLOGNA 24 5 97" (TPO Rome-Bologna) and arrival "OPPELN 27.5.97". The handstamped address appears erased and reinstated in manuscript, adhesives lifted and re-affixed. The cover is accompagnied by the original registration receipt signed by the Shanghai counter staff. Cover is not yet listed in the excellent "Theà Red Revenues on Cover" census by Benjamin Y. K. Hwa (ed. CSS 2003). The present cover bears the handwritten registration number '195', which is one earlier than cover #41 in Hwa Vol. I p. 89. This makes it the earliest of covers posted to Boehmer. The franking seen here is identical to the one in Hwa #44.- A note on Captain Alfred Boehmer (1860-1908): mainly known as addressee of german colonial issues covers. His dominant private interests were photography and travelling. He was in the military administration in Oppeln/Silesia from 1891. From 1904, now Major, he was No. 2. in the county defense district of Lyck/Eastern Prussia. He met his fate, when his yacht capsized on lake Lyck during an unexpected summer storm 1908.6.21.This cover is a major new find, cert. BPA (2014) "is genuine.