Infos/Forum

The section “Forgeries” presents a previously unknown forgery from Pola, entitled “Pola-Istria.”

P. Schulz

There appears to be an unknown FROM STEAMER BOX mark for Canton that has not yet been cataloged—see image below. Can anyone provide information about the dimensions of the stamp and when it was used?

P. Schulz

Isamu Tanabe has described a Paquebot stamp from Otaru from 1909 that has probably not yet been catalogued.
I have attempted to translate the Japanese text from 2022 into English. The result can be found in the Publications section under the title “Otaru Paquebot dated January 10, 1909, Cover Research.”

P. Schulz

A cancellation combination that raises some questions. The letter dates from 1973 and is underpaid for registered mail. The purple PAQUEBOT mark is undoubtedly from the port of Gdynia; it bears the catalog number 1017. But what about the reddish-brown Paquebot stamp in the upper left corner? Is it perhaps a private or ship-specific cancel? In the current Dovey & Morris catalog, this mark impression is attributed to the port of Klaipeda, bears the catalog number 1028, and is listed as having been used in 1990. This begs the question: how did the Klaipeda Paquebot stamp from 1990 end up on a letter from 1973? Or, how could a potentially ship-specific Paquebot mark from 1973 suddenly be used as the official Klaipeda Paquebot stamp?
In this respect, there seems to be a pressing need for clarification. If anyone can shed more light on this matter, please contact me at the following address: captain_schulz@gmx.de
The complete cover is shown in the gallery look for „Gdynia 1017 (E)“ please.

P. Schulz

A huge thank you to all friends of the Paquebot.info website for your support over the past time, which has made it possible to display more than 14,000 items in the gallery!
I wish you all happy holidays and a peaceful 2026 worldwide.

Peter Schulz

For those of you who are interested in South African Paquebot postmarks — and in particular the Simonstown #2737 postmark — there is an interesting article by Steve Hannath. This article can now be found in the “Publications” section under the heading “The Hyacinth Cover.”

P. Schulz

A whole series of extremely rare paquebot cancellations will be auctioned at the 62nd Christoph Gärtner auction in early June.

For example, the only known commercially used letter with BERWICK SHIP LETTERS (D&M #5), a Peterhead envelope (D&M #322) from 1894, the unique Cobh/Queenstown card with Spanish franking (D&M #370), the fantastic “SHIP LETTER BLYTH NORTH” cancel (D&M #9) on a French stamp from the hospital ship “NOTRE DAME DE LA MER” and other UK rarities will be auctioned.

From Valletta there is the postmark (D&M #22) from February 1894 and from the USA the Honolulu cover (D&M #1682; UNIQUE!!), Jacksonville #1948, Juneau #1956, Portland/Maine #2105 and San Diego #2126.

Great rarities from Africa and Asia will also be auctioned. These include Lourenco Marques (D&M #6626), the very rare Aden #2929 stamp from January 1894, Belawan #3040, Takao #3414, Tamsui #3415 and the Japanese Tokyo-Kyobasi roller cancel not yet listed in the catalog.

For the specialists among the collectors, it is unfortunately a great pity that the 52 individual rarities have been grouped together in 9 lots, as this makes selective acquisition more difficult.

The auction house’s offer is therefore probably aimed more at stamp dealers than at stamp collectors.

P. Schulz

A short article titled “Why Vitoria # 6435 needs confirmation” has now been posted in the Publications section, which sheds more light on the origin of the postmark “Vitoria # 6435.”
The postmark shown below probably does not originate from a postal authority in Brazil, but rather has a private origin.

P. Schulz

Dirk Stratmann has now exhibited some covers from the Iles Eparses in the gallery. The Iles Eparses include Bassas da India, Juan de Nova, Europa and Les Glorieuses west of Madagascar and Tromelin east of Madagascar.
The covers all bear the French Antarctic Omnibus Type # 2637.
These islands are not yet recorded in the Dovey and Morris catalogue.

P. Schulz

In the Publications chapter, an interesting letter about the mark “Pilot Town 2095” is now shown under the title “How Pilottown (Louisiana) got its NAVIRE stamp”.

P. Schulz