Labuan Misc

Some bits and pieces of interest. This should be the concluding post of this series. I may show in weeks or months to come, my other items of North Borneo and Straits stamps used in Labuan.

There is quite a noticeable shift of the lower overprint which maybe a buying point for some. The initial Labuan  overprinted stamp was issued in 1895 and then surcharged with 4 CENTS in 1899.

The only Labuan due stamp that is not bar CTO in my collection. These postage due stamps are quite uncommon in used condition. Note the significant shift of the  vignette downwards. In philately, the vignette is the central part of a postage stamp design.
Update I have just noticed this D6 date of  8 JUL 06 is almost a year later than the last date given by Proud and overlaps D7 by as many months.

On the right, we have a very interesting forgery. Even though it was not "LABUAN" overprinted, there is no doubt as to which stamps were the subject of imitation. The other labels in this series all bear the colours of comparable Labuan stamps even though they were based originally on NB designs. A forged cancellation with the word "IMITATION"  is often seem in this group of forgeries.
Update I can confidently ascribed these type of forgeries to Maeda Kihei of the Kamigata-Ya shop in Tokyo, a Japanese dealer in the 1890s and 1900s who forged stamps from about 27 countries, mostly Asian for sale. These are collectively known as Kamigata forgeries. They are generally crude and lithographed. Some are cancelled with partial circular cancels bearing the letters IMITATION.
Reference; The Fakes, Forgeries & Experts journal vols 5 Varro E Tyler.

I would be grateful if someone could tell me something about Lim Guan & Co. which seemed to be acting as some form of agency in Labuan around the date shown of 24 NOV 90. It was possibly a branch of a Straits or Sarawak company. Somewhere in 1883, there was a mention of a Wee Lim Gwan of Labuan who had something to do with a tender for a government licensed opium farm.
The history of the licensing of opium farms and gambling by BNBC is difficult to accept. It was primarily a form of levy on the immigrant and also some of the local population. One supposed it was better to control these vices which came along with the incoming Chinese immigration than to outlaw them which definitely would have driven them underground.
Update By 1890, Messrs Wee Lim Gwan " established themselves in Labuan as Auctioneers, Commission and Estate Agents".

Update NOTICE is hereby given that all the Town and country lots in and near about the Town of Labuan, the property of Wee Lim Gwan, Bankrupt, will be sold by Public auction, at the Court House of Labuan, at 2 p.m., on the 20th August next. Terms Cash on Transfer of Grants.

J. HAMILTON HUNTER,

Official Receiver.

Labuan, 3rd July, 1893.