Turkish Delight- some Ottoman Items

Lot #19 in Sale #30/ Rare railway postmark

Ottoman Philately has been a fascination of mine for years. The size of the empire and number of cultures encompassed from Eastern Europe to Asia makes it a great area of study. For postal history the area is a huge combination of negative seals, cds with Turkish dates, bilingual and trilingual postmarks. Add to that the plethora of WWI military postmarks and censors and you have a postal historian's dream. We have examples of several types of covers and cards in our Auction this month, some are quite scarce and several of the usual smudged negative seals are quite clear and complete on these. The above example of the "JAFFA-JEROUSALEM" Railway postmark in blue has not been on the market before. The Bale catalog says '1 known'. I guess they have to change that now. 

We obtained certificates from expert Yakup Nakri on several of the better items.

Here is the Nazareth Negative Seal Postcard from the certificate above:

Rare Nasra negative seal- Lot #14, Sale #30

A nice strike of the Turkish 'Yafa Posta Shubesi' (Jaffa) on a lettercard to Germany:

Lot 15, Sale #30

Here is a nice "JERUSALEM 6" octagonal postmarks 'R' cacheted cover Jerusalem to Germany.

Beautiful Registered cover. Lot 21, Sale #30

Here is one Jerusalem to Beirut- 'Jerusalem 5' octagonal with clear purple box negative cancel. It is a military censor applied in Jerusalem "QDS-1-SHERIF MINTIQASI ASKERI SANSURU" (Jerusalem district military censor)  (Collins CM4).  Note the addressee is Moise Behar (see earlier post) This is what led me to believe he worked at the Ottoman Post Office in Beirut prior to the French Mandate. 

Lot 23, Sale #30

I will include this just because I like it. Postmarks were applied to Telegraph receipts when the telegraph fee was paid. All are quite scarce. We have 2 in the auction, one with a stamp, the other 'Official' so no stamp needed.

 The first is a negative seal (Jerusalem) on a receipt for message from Walach to Markus in Constatinople;

Lot 26, Sale #30

The second has the 'Jerusalem clocks' (Collins T13) from the Telegraph Center on the reverse and a light strike of bi-lingual telegrah center on front. Here is a picture of  the clocks;

Lot 27, Sale #30

We also have a rare example of a Turkish unit negative seal postmark from WW1. Probably one other known. This one in Red.

Lot 25, Sale #30

   

 Here is the Nakri certificate for this:

I will end with my favorite Turkish item from this auction, 

I believe the photo speaks for itself;

Lot 808, Sale #30, Turkey to Brazil, forwarded with postage dues.

The auction is online and active now. www.romanoauctions.com . It is closing at midnight Tel Aviv time on October 30th. Prospective bidders may request a printed catalog for this auction by emailing me directly  gbailey15@gmail.com. We are mailing catalogs this week. Thank You