Recent acquisitions

It is not easy to acquire desirable philatelic items from North Borneo nowadays. Fortunately, now and then, the dealers have some nice and reasonably priced offerings. Being a regular customer also makes it easy to get a discount on all purchases. 

This is a very attractive incoming card showing Jesselton D2, Sandakan D8 and Lahad Datu D3. It was addressed to the New Darvel Bay Tobacco Plantations Ltd near Lahad Datu from a manufacturer of embrocation which was an old word for a liniment treating sprains and injuries. Such injuries were likely common place among the labourers working in the plantation. This company survived until 1930.

It is obviously not a North Borneo postcard but it was sent as part of information to shareholders of The New London Borneo Tobacco Company Ltd about the sales and shipments of tobacco. This was one of the earliest tobacco companies and was started by Count Geloes d'Elsloo. Its main property was the Ranau Estate which won a prize in a tobacco competition in London in 1889.

I am showing this postcard because its adhesive is cancelled by Jesselton D6 in a very beautiful magenta colour which is rather unusual.

USS Augusta at North Borneo

The above pair of stamps from the Marshall Islands commemorated the Atlantic Charter in 1941. This was a joint declaration by US President Franklin D Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill on 14 August 1941 following their meeting on board the USS Augusta while she was moored at naval Station Argentia, Newfoundland. The charter provided a statement of US and British war aims. The pair of stamps also depicted the respective ships USS Augusta and HMS Prince of Wales, the latter bigger and more impressive. The more modern British ship displaced 43,786 tons, more than 4 times that of the Augusta. 

She visited Sandakan between the 14th and 16th December 1934 on her way from the Dutch East Indies to the Philippine Islands. She was under the command of Captain C M Nimitz. The Sandakan covers are more difficult than the Jesselton counterpart. I really like the second cover with the sender details. It looks like commercial mail which is rare among this group of mainly made to order covers. These two do not have the same date.

On Friday the 14th, Admiral F B Upham, Commander-in -Chief of the United States Asiatic Fleet, together with Lieutenant E S Pearce arrived to stay at The Government House as guests of the Governor Sir Douglas James Jardine and his wife. They left on Sunday the 16th. 

USS Augustus was at Jesselton between the 3rd and the 5th of November 1935 during her journey between Singapore and Zamboanga in the Philippines. The ship was under the flagship of Admiral Orin G Murfin and the command of Captain F X Gygax.

This is another nice cover with Augusta visiting Pontianak in Kalimantan, Borneo. Note the date is a few days before that of Jesselton.