Help To I.d. Marking On Austria Covers

Hi Everyone,

I've noticed on some Stamped Covers from Austria there is a little mark that almost looks like a flower(?) and I was wondering if anyone might know what it is. Here's some examples of it.


Here it is in purple




Heres a pink one



The next 3 show it in black







If anybody has any info about it please let me know. If you happen to have an example of the same marking on cover from another Country It would be great if you could post a scan of it.

Thanks,
Kathy

Kathy.....


That's an odd one.......one I've never seen......anyone else have any ideas ?

In philatelic terms, if that character was part of a canceller design
it would be referred to as a "fleuron".

I'd suggest the physicians that originally owned these covers were stamp collectors, and this character was a rubber stamp placed on the covers for whatever reason. That's merely a guess :)

"Fleuron" ? I have to go look that one up! I think I just learned somthing new. Thank's Rod!

Fleuron
it is hardly ever discussed.

Askphil:
Fleuron: (Fr.) a circular date handstamp with a floral design element.

auction catalogue
3901 Syria 1920 Red Fleuron ovpt on 10p on 40c sg53B um, slightly browned gum c£90............. £18.00

Jamaica's first stamps
It was not until the second half of the eighteenth century that Jamaican letters were impressed with postal markings. The earliest marks consist of the name of the colony in a straight line, sometimes with a date below. About 1805, the 'fleuron' type of mark was introduced and used concurrently with other circular markings containing the name of the colony, the date, and the word 'Paid.'

Danzig
another shape described as "fleuron with bar"

These are the little doohickeys I refer to as fleurons.

Rod, Thank You for assisting in my quest to learn something new every day.

Thanks Revstampman,
and thanks to you for the encouragement to collect fiscals,
it's becoming a nice journey. :)

Ahhhhhh, Fleurons...













Kathy

Thanks Rod for the tasty tid-bit of trivia.

Here's a couple more that I have. (I'm just showing the closeup of them on cover)












Kathy

*** Funafuti Fleuron ***

Fleurontastic! :)
Thanks Guys and Gals, they do become important when identifying
forged cancellations. I am sure I have a discourse on them somewhere, but I have misplaced it somewhere.
Youngsters: this is the joy of getting old, you spend half your time playing hide and seek.

*****
* *
*****

Back to the mark at hand...I looked through a bunch (not all) of the Austrian covers listed on ebay (and there are a lot!...shocking, really), and I didn't notice another of the small stamped asterisks/stars/flowers. That might lend credence to rod's theory of collector-placed markings. They seem to have some variation in appearance, but then again there are varying return addresses.

Still a mystery to me...if I actively collected covers, I probably couldn't sleep tonight...