Recent Acquisitions

A Brunei stamp with a Brooketon cancellation at last. It is uncommon rather than rare but a superb example like this one here is very difficult to find. They were used only in 1907 from January to May. Consequently, they are only found on the Brunei 1906 and 1907 issues.

The earliest Brooketon postmark was in 1893 (Proud) and these were on Sarawak stamps. In February 1907, the control of the post office was formally transferred to Brunei even though Brunei were on sale there from 1 January 1907. Prior to this date, Labuan and North Borneo are also found with Brooketon postmarks. It is assumed that they were used on ship and paquebot mail. The North Borneo items are the rarest and I only know of less than half a dozen copies in existence. You can see my copy on this blog by clicking here.  
There is no cover with a Brooketon cds known so far I am aware. There is a postcard from Brooketon with a non cancelled Brunei stamp which was disallowed and dated in July 1907 after the post office was closed. Alas!

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I bought this recently from our society auction at a good discount because it was unsold. This used 1906 1c Straits Settlements overprint is catalogued £180 each by SG. Admittedly this item is not pristine but pairs are very uncommon. I also like the clear Labuan D7 cancellation.

I also bought the first stamp of the pair shown here at our auction. It has a very nice K2 cancellation on a 1883 10c yellow brown stamp. This is in contrast to K1 shown on the second 1880 10c brown stamp. Proud says usage circa 1883 but I also have high value NB stamps with K2 and manuscript year 1889. The latter were most likely used fiscally.

Lester Maynard was the American Consul (USA) at Sandakan between 1906 and 1908. This is an uncommon incoming postcard written by one of his friends who was probably travelling back from the Orient through Russia staying at Hotel Orient Basar. Does anyone know where this was? It was posted on 12 8 07 and transit at Jesselton 11 OCT 07 and arrived at Sandakan on 14 OCT 1907. You can read a bit more about the American consulate at Sandakan in this blog by clicking  here. 

Strangely enough, there is also this postcard from Russia from the same sender which was posted a few days later on 15 August which arrived in Sandakan on the same day after transiting at Singapore and Jesselton. The picture side shows a steam paddle on the Volga River.
It appears to me that the sender is probably not British as he made the mistake of adding Esq after using Mr in the name. He also got it wrong with "North British Borneo", probably from some sort of direct translation. Again, it is rather usual that it was all correct on the earlier postcard. One could perhaps lay the blame on too much Russian vodka.