Auction 333-341 Europe & Overseas - Day 6

Austrian Post Offices in Romania, Ingoing 1867 (May - Oct): Three Entire letters from the Zafiropulo & Zafiri company in Constantinople directed to Demetrius Mussico in Bucharest, each bearing Austrian Levant 1864 15 so. brown perf. 9½, tied by cds’s either of the Austrian Post Offices in Constantinople, or in transit in VARNA in blue, or in RUSTSCHUK, respectively. Each with oval FRANCO handstamp in blue or blackish blue alongside. Two entires with BUKAREST arrival cds’s.

Note: This series of covers show that the oval FRANCO is not a postal mark but almost certainly a private firm’s marking, presumably intended to ensure that the firm’s agents would prepay the letters they posted. All examples occur in the same ink as the handstamp of the sender’s cachet, whether mailed in Constantinople, Varna, or Rustchuk.
Provenance: All three covers ex collection Denis Vandervelde; the Varna cover ex Köhler sale 216 (1975), lot 4350.