Straits Settlements King Edward Vll registration envelopes used at Labuan

Somehow during my armchair exploration of the philatelic universe, I came across these two covers and was able to acquire them without much resistance. The Labuan crowns were the very last stamps that were issued where the territory existed as a separate entity. The British North Borneo Company were the administrators on behalf of the British Crown between 1890 and 1904. A significant amount of the income of the island was from the sale of stamps for philatelic purposes. The North Borneo derived Labuan stamps were probably getting quite tired by then, especially with the number of CTOs produced. A fresh design would generate renew interest and earn more stamp income. Were they expecting a bonanza? Despite countless numbers of CTOs on the crown issue of 1902-1903, there were more than enough for subsequent Straits and Brunei overprints.
With the incorporation of Labuan into the Straits Settlements, this set of stamps were overprinted. After been severed from North Borneo on 1 January 1904, Labuan reverted to the Crown. The internal affairs of the island were then administered by the Straits Settlements. The proclamation date to include Labuan as part of the Straits Settlements was made on 13 October 1906 but it was only on 1 January 1907 when the boundary of the Straits was officially extended to include Labuan. But strangely enough, the overprinted stamps was already in use by 24 December 1906.   

There is no mention of Straits Settlements KEVll registration envelopes in the index of The Malayan Philatelist  which is very surprising. There must be something somewhere in the journal. This is a size G envelope measuring 9.5x15.2cm. The other sizes recorded for the Straits registration envelopes are H 12.7x20.3cm, H2 10.2x22.9cm and K 15.2x29.2cm.
It has part of the December 1906 issue of the Labuan crowns overprinted Straits Settlements. The 1c and the 2c stamps are the most expensive used stamps of the set barred the errors. There are quite a few varieties with this set and one can not blame North Borneo solely for this sort of thing, whether it was incompetency or deliberation. 

This envelope is actually smaller despite what the scan shows. It measures 3x13.4cm or 3.25x5.25 inches. This would correspond to size F, the smallest of the standard British registration envelopes. This has the rest of the values of this set. It is difficult to know why the overprint for the 10c has a different font and setting.

Mervyn Skipper (1886-1958) and Labuan

I came across this personality recently which might be of interest to aficionados of Labuan. He was an artist, cartoonist, illustrator and painter who wrote some children books based on local folklore while he was working in Labuan in the 1920s for the Eastern Extension, Australasia and China Telegraph Company (EEAC).

Mervyn Garnham Skipper was born in Adelaide. The Meeting Pool is a collection of children's tales based on the island of Daat which is part of the territory of Labuan. He was at Daat and while there, he started a collection of stories for the benefit of his young daughter in Australia. Some years ago in the Sarawak Journal, there was a wonderful article about the land deed of Daat on which were affixed high value revenue stamps including the Labuan overprinted North Borneo $25 stamp which are worth a substantial small fortune.

The White Man's Garden was a further collection of similar children stories based on traditional tales from Borneo.

Telegraph system of Labuan and North Borneo

It is logical how events and personalities are all interconnected. Mervyn Skipper was working for the telegraph cable company EEAC and reading around it, found details about the telegraph system of Labuan and North Borneo. In 1894 a cable was laid between Singapore and Hong Kong with a landing at Labuan. The laying of the 2002 nm cable was carried out by the ship CS Scotia.

CS Scotia built 1861 by R Napier & Co Glasgow

Cables were laid by:

12 April 1894       Singapore - Labuan

14 April 1894       Labuan - Mempakul/Menumbok, North Borneo

8 May 1894          Labuan - Hong Kong 

This old map from 1888 shows the island of Daat in between Labuan and Mempakul on the mainland of North Borneo. Mervyn Skipper was based at Daat. Was he involved in some repair or upgrading in the cable connecting North Borneo and Labuan and hence the outside world? 

When the cable between Singapore and Labuan was completed in 1894, BNBC paid for part of it by letting EEAC select 20,000 acres of land for use or resale. The total cost of the cable from Hong Kong to Singapore via Labuan was about £300,000 which is roughly £27m in today's money. 

Sipitang was the initial choice for the connection with Labuan but abandoned due to exposure to rough weather during monsoons. Mempakul was then selected and it is geographically closer as seen on the map. The 11 mile cable to Menumbok at the mouth of the river Klias was laid by 14 April 1894. 

A telegraph connection was subsequently planned from Sandakan to Menumbok. This is a very much more difficult and protracted affair, much of it across wild uncharted territory.  By December 1895, only 173 miles was completed but on 6 August 1896, the respective telegraphic lines from the west and east coasts were finally connected. The completion cost was £10,500. Local communication by this means was therefore made possible but it was not until 7 April 1897 when a reliable connection was made between Sandakan and Labuan which enabled onward transmission to Singapore and Hong Kong.

North Borneo and Labuan stamps cancelled at Brooketon

I have posted some information on Brooketon in a much earlier post. Rather than repeat it again here, you can read it by clicking on here.

A Brooketon cancellation on a North Borneo adhesive is practically hens tooth in rarity. I have only seen a couple so far. Even the Cassels collection which was the most comprehensive North Borneo philatelic collection ever accumulated only had one copy. Well, how did a Sarawak cancellation appeared on a North Borneo stamp? It was probably used on paquebot mail on its way to Kuching in Sarawak via Brooketon. There was a regular boat service between Brooketon, a mining concessionary owned by Rajah Brooke and Kuching. The date on the post mark was 23 MAY (94 most likely).  

There is a post on this blog showing two of my Labuan stamps with the Brooketon cancellation due to paquebot usage. You can read it by clicking here.  I have managed to find a few more since then. They are quite uncommon but less than ones on a Brunei stamp which I still do not possess. The second item on piece is the closest thing we have to a cover. Despite many Sarawak stamps with this cancellation, there is no known cover in existence.

These two were from the Bickley collection but I do not think it was shown in the Spinks sale catalogue. I bought them as a Christmas present for myself, sad! 

There are many Sarawak stamps with the Brooketon cancellation. They maintain their price due to popularity and demand. This one above with the smudged 00 for 1900 is said to be more uncommon. But I think the pre 1900 items are definitely less commonly seen and any on the provisionally overprinted Sarawak stamps are quite hard to find as well. This was the very first Brooketon cancellation that I bought so many years ago.

This is taken from A City Of Many Waters by Peter Blundell published in 1924. He was working for the Island Trading Company.

North Borneo Japanese Occupation Tobacco Revenue stamps

I am posting less regularly nowadays because I feel that this blog has fulfilled much of its purpose. It was started initially to show what was a paltry collection which I have had since my early teens. It worked to inspire me to go further, that was to make contact with like minded collectors and to join the Sarawak Specialists' Society. Their journal is a treasure trove of information collected from in depth research of British Borneo ever since the society was formed in 1946. With this knowledge, I was able to buy with confidence and show parts of my collection. A tremendous amount of work and much expense has gone into putting together this collection. Therefore it is rather annoying when images were plagiarized from this blog without acknowledgement and permission. I would not have declined if this courtesy was observed. 

      

Little is known about these JO Tobacco Revenue stamps. They were most certainly printed by the Chinese Press at Kuching during occupation on poor quality paper which was in keeping with the bad economic conditions of the time. I first noticed them when an item was listed in an auction of the Revenue Society. However, in the Frank Bell archive at the Imperial War Museum, there are tobacco wrappers with these stamps attached cancelled by Japanese seals.

 Barefoot: South East Asia Revenues (2006)

Barefoot listed 3 values for this assumed date of issue in 1943 but it was probably earlier, when it was realised that there was a need to raise funds locally for the war effort. The economy went into a steep decline as the various countries in British Borneo were completely depended on exports of local produce. No official records of its introduction and use survived but this tax was known to have been introduced in the Philippines during the war.

These are the unused examples of the 4c and 8c which came from sheets that were probably taken to safety as souvenirs after liberation otherwise I doubt they would have survived the tropical conditions for very long.

This is a rare used block of 9 with Japanese seals. There would have been different seals for the various districts for accounting and audit purposes. Notice the separation bars in between stamps at the bottom row. This is mentioned by Barefoot. It is present after 3 or more stamps and likely acted as a perforation guide. Years ago whole sheets of unused stamps were auctioned by InterAsia. I should have taken some scans to confirm this.

I think this 4c has a different seal cancellation to the above. It could be oblong similar to an item in the Imperial War Museum archive in London. The separation bar is seen here on the bottom right.

The seal on this vertical 8c pair is circular. Different value stamps were used according to the weight of the tobacco purchased. A separation bar is also seen here on the bottom stamp only.

This war time receipt for quit rent illustrates a peculiarity which is also present on the tobacco revenues. The Japanese/Chinese script reads from the left against the normal convention of writing and reading from the right. We also have the Japanese plum blossom emblem here. It symbolises perseverance and hope, as well as beauty, and purity which was a complete contradiction to what transpired during the war.

A 1944 2 line Japanese Occupation overprint on a 1939 12c stamp with the usual convention of reading the overprint from the right side.

On the other hand, this 1943 lithograph issue printed by G. Kolff, Batavia has the Japanese/Chinese script, against convention, reading from left to right.

Reference: Lardner, Bernard (2014). Tobacco Stamps issued during the Japanese Occupation. Sarawak Journal v67/3 82-83.

Some North Borneo philatelic items of interest

Just a few more things that I have accumulated over the past few months. Otherwise, things have been rather quiet without any startlingly significant acquisitions after missing out on some essential items because our area continues to attract a lot of interest and outstanding material are getting more expensive. 

I have somehow acquired this desirable specimen set on the cheap and now have a spare $5 stamp as well. The 1931 50th anniversary set is arguably the best designed and printed set of stamps from North Borneo. There are no known errors or varieties such was the quality control. This was unlike in previous years with re entries, different perfs, imperf pairs etc etc and one wonders whether the laxity in quality control was on purpose. To retrieve their reputation on this occasion, the decision was made to put the stamps on sale on 1 January 1931 and  to withdraw the issue fully on 31 December 1931 and all remaining unsold company stock was destroyed both in North Borneo and London. On the same day, the printing plates, dies and cylinders were also defaced. Requests from dealers to buy up remainders were tersely turned down.
A one frame competitive display with all aspects of this set including the artist's sketches, various types of proofs, mint and used sets including postal history should be worthy of a good medal in competition. And of course, the equally attractive Waterloo sample stamps in different colours should be included as well. You can see this set in pairs on this blog by clicking here and here.
A very good reference for this set of stamps would be the monograph North Borneo The Fiftieth Anniversary Issue Of The British North Borneo (Chartered) Company by L H Shipman. Shipman was a very well revered past president and editor of  The Sarawak Specialists' Society.

This cover to USA was rather unusual in going via Manila and not Hong Kong. Normally, mail bounded for the US would get a backstamp as it was sorted in Hong Kong. There is no such backstamp here from HK or Manila. Apart from Hong Kong there was also a direct surface mail connection between Manila and San Francisco as the Philippines were an American possession. A ship from the Eastern & Australian Steamship Company usually called on Sandakan on its way from Australian ports to Japan via Manila and Hong Kong towards the end or beginning of each month. In the BNB Herald, SS Arafura arrived from Australia on 1st December 1924 and left the next day for Manila. The ships Hinsang and Mausang were the usual ships that carried mail via Hong Kong on a fortnightly basis.
This is commercial mail from C S Lam & Co in Sandakan dated 24 NOV 1924 has the correct 12c rate for foreign mail to USA. It would have been a lot more interesting if it was a registered letter. Little is known about C S Lam and an advertisement in the Herald gave some indication of his business. But the addressee, Barr Rubber Products Co in Ohio actually made toys out of rubber.

This is an attractive philatelic cover with part of the 1909 set. It has a total of 51c in stamps when the correct imperial rate would have been 6c+12c for registered post to Britain. It was posted on 27 DEC 1926 with a registration I label with various arrival backstamps. The envelope was from the Sandakan Hotel and it was a very pleasant surprise to find a brief note inside with the corresponding stationary paper.

  

This is a very uncommon early incoming mail from Singapore in the Straits Settlements to Kudat. The sent date was SE 28 91 but unfortunately there was no arrival cancellation. The stationary used was from the Chartered Bank of India Australia & China with the embossed seal at the back of the envelope. And also the 5c Straits stamp has the letters C B I. The UPU rate from SS from 1 1 1891 was 5c but it was 8c for outgoing mail from North Borneo.

This was the wax seal from the Chartered Bank of India Australia & China used in Kuching on one of my covers.

Some Tenom covers

I do not have much in way of Tenom postal history as these are very uncommon pre 1940s  but these ones here are worth showing. It was a small quiet place in the hills servicing the agricultural enterprises in the area. And besides, nearby Beaufort was the administrative centre for this area of the Interior Residency in the south west of North Borneo near to Labuan and Brunei. Easy accessibility is still a problem to this day.

This is a tatty cover with a missing 10c stamp but it is an important item of postal history from North Borneo. It was sent from the Tenom internment camp over the WWl period. Prior to the first World War, there were significant numbers of Germans working in North Borneo and in British Asian territories in general. The most well known German national in North Borneo was probably Paul Brietag who managed the Batu Puteh Estate near Sandakan. And also the personnel on the various German Norddeutsche Lloyd Bremen steamers which were a life line to Singapore and Sooloo. 

During WWl, these German nationals and their allies were interned at Tenom at the residency. Only the single men were interned and the married with their spouses were allowed to leave the country. They were probably treated very well as the war divided people who were very good friends. The hospitality of the Germans particularly on the ships was said to be legendary. USA being neutral, their consul Hanson acted on behalf of their interests. He was known to visit the Batu Puteh estate regularly for this purpose. Unfortunately, any more information on this aspect of our history is particularly lacking and very little was mentioned in the British North Borneo Herald. As usual, it was the bearer of good news and anything unseemly was simply brushed aside.

This uncommon cover was addressed to the Private Committee for International Correspondence  at Lausanne in Switzerland and sent from Internment Camp, Tenom, B N Borneo. The sender's name is not eligible. It was post dated 17 May 1916 with Tenom D2, transited at Jesselton on 18 May 1916 with D7. It passed through Singapore on 30 May 1916, then censored at Bombay before going to Switzerland. It has a faint Tenom registration cachet, R2 which is uncommon with a recorded use span of 25.4.16-29.5.16 (Proud). It was also censored at Tenom by A N M Garry who was the acting assistant district officer at Tenom. Garry was a great railway enthusiast. There were only 4-5 of these covers known. 

Airmail covers are popular and commands a premium especially those which were carried by the Dutch airline, KLM. Proud mentioned that airmail rates were introduced in North Borneo by 1932 and I have an Imperial airmail cover sent in March 1931. These covers have to go to Singapore first by sea. Mail by Imperial Airways went by train to Penang, then by ship and train to Karachi for the air service in stages to Croydon near London. The time taken from Penang was about 18 days and from Sandakan, an additional 7 days. 

The KLM was much faster as all stages from Alor Star was by air. It was estimated initially to take about 23 or 24 days from Sandakan to reach London and a day or two faster from Jesselton.  But it was actually much faster as the service became established. The 9,000 mile journey between Batavia in the Dutch Indies and Amsterdam took on average 12 days and with favourable conditions, as quick as 10 days. So for urgent letters it was preferable to use the KLM service even though it was more expensive. The above cover has the right rate of 60c whereas the rate was 25c for airmail carried by Imperial Airways.

This cover was sent  on 7 JUL 1936 from Tenom and received a back stamp at Jesselton on the same day. This is the only Dutch airmail cover from Tenom that I know of. Come to think of it, I can not recall an Imperial Airways cover from Tenom either.
Correction: 01/03/2019. I went to a display last night and there was this very nice U registered Tenom KLM cover. 

This very beautiful Sanbride postcard showing Tenom was actually sent from Sandakan and not Tenom unfortunately. It shows an idyllic scene of the police station and jail. The postcard received a Sandakan T mark as it was underpaid by 2c for the prevailing imperial rate of 4c. This Sanbride postcard is rare.

 Tenom in the 1950s.

This is a 1948 FDC with the 8c  from the Royal Silver Wedding issue. It has the uncommon Tenom T mark UP4 for underpaid mail. The imperial rate was changed from 8c to 10c on 1 April 1948.

Labuan 1880 issue

The 1880 issue came 7-8 months after the 1879 issue which was quite surprising. It was said that the 1879 stamps ran out due to buying by philatelic collectors in England. A repeat print of the 1879 stamps was ordered. But the printer, De La Rue, used a different paper with a watermark of Crown CC. It is the usual paper for the printing of stamps rather than the paper for fiscal stamps with a large watermark of CA over Crown for the 1879 issue. There were also additional 8c and 10c values. This was therefore considered as a different issue. And besides, the 2c has a different colour of yellow-green in contrast to the blue-green of the 1879 2c stamp. 

There are few 1880 2c as superbly used as this. The red diamond dots imply an early used copy as subsequently the dots were in black and after that, the 9 bar cancellation which is more common. There were 5,360 copies issued.

I am excited about this 6c used stamp. It has an uncommon 5 or  more thick equal length horizontal bar cancellation. It is possibly an unrecorded Labuan cancellation or was it an arrival cancel? I do not think it is fiscal as this is usually "PAID"  written in manuscript. It is not found on Straits or HK stamps. The Pakua cancellations from China has thinner bars. One of  my SSS friends showed me his copy with 4 clear thick bars of equal length on a 1885 2c stamp which makes it more likely to be of Labuan origin. There were 5,200 copies of the 6c issued.

The 8c is the unusual one of this set. 16c was the letter rate to England. But the UPU later fixed the rate as 6c per half oz for letters to Europe in August 1880. However, an extra 2c was required for letters going overland via Brindisi in Italy. This was where this 8c was required. An order was put in for this value. In the meanwhile the 12c stamp was surcharged with various overprints to make 8c. The 8c carmine were printed by De La Rue and sent to Labuan in July 1881 but it was not till April 1882 when it was issued at the post office after the surcharged stamps were used up.

6,100 copies were issued. It appears that the plate used in the printing was either worn or the ink used was not of the highest quality as residues are left after the printing. Some vendors even described this defect as a double or triple printing and wanting more money for it! There is the usual 9 thick bar cancellation, K3 here. K3 was used between 1882 and 1908.  

The 10c was an additional value when compared to the 1879 set. We know from the Pollock letters of 1881 and 1882 from Sandakan that this was the rate from North Borneo to England before the post office in North Borneo opened in 1883. That would compose of 2c to Labuan and 8c for the UPU rate to England via Brindisi. Here we have the diamond dot cancel K1 in black. K1 came into use in 1864 and it was in black initially. By 1879 it was mostly in red and most unusually there is a very early example in red in 1865 on an Indian stamp on a front piece addressed to Charles Brooke, subsequently Rajah of Sarawak. K1 was last used in July 1882 and all the later copies should be in black. There were 5,050 copies of this 10c issued.

There were 5,330 copies issued but this is the most expensive stamp of the set because a significant proportion of the total was used in the various 8c surcharges. Again the red dots for K1 would indicate that this item was used in the early days of its issue.

This looks like another example of the thick bar cancellation of even width. There are possibly 6 bars shown here. 5,500 copies were issued but copies of the 16c blue which was surcharged with a "6" in red were from the earlier 1879 issue. 

  

 1883 issue watermark Crown CA

Copies issued

2c 10,500

8c  5,200

10c 5,200

16c 3,150

40c 4,100

 

1896 issue

Reference: LABUAN by Major a D V Rudolphi translated from German by Commander M.S.L.Burnett