Ha Buey Hon

Ha Buey Hong (1871-1947) must have been responsible for the existence of hundreds or more of postal items of Sarawak. These included postal stationary, postcards and covers. Normally, philatelic items like these are held in low regard. Due to the sheer variety, interest and depth of his material, it has become a specialised area to collect within Sarawak philately.
This sole item that I have and probably will have, does give a lot of insight into his life. The front has an address for Bavaria, Germany. He literally corresponded with anyone around the globe who had a need for his services. The left bottom corner has his name and beneath it "C.C.C. 2724" in violet. This was his membership number for the Cosmopolitan Correspondence Club in Milwaukee. This club had over 6,000 members around the world who sent each other postcards.
While still working as a clerk for the Borneo Company, he was also trading as a stamp dealer. He became a skilful photographer and was personally responsible for much of the reproduction of his postcards. He used a very attractive cachet in violet with the address of his place of work. It was unusual that he was allowed to use his employer's address for his own private enterprise. It might have been that they hoped that he would be able to bring along extra business with his worldwide contacts.
The message shown demonstrated his line of work. I do admire his hand writing and a very fine signature to top it all. Thank you Mr Ha Buey Hon!

  
Update 6 June 2014. Thanks for the interest in this post. As a bonus I am adding this posthumous cover presumably sent by a family member after his death to fulfill a prior arrangement? It is also the only HBH cover that I know which has the very collectible AV2 cachet. The details of this cover is available in an issue of the Sarawak Journal last year.
If you are keen on collecting AV2s, try finding one on a non registered cover which are relatively rare.