Shanghai Local Post Office - I was surprised to not see any examples of the first issue shown on this thread.
The earliest description of the large dragon stamps appeared in The London and China Telegraph
of October 10, 1865. Printed in London, with Shanghai dates to August 16, 1865 it mentions:
The new local postage stamps are great curios, and should be bought up in quantity to
send home for the illumination of postage stamp albums. There are four kinds, viz. two
candareens in black - four candareens in yellow - eight in green - and sixteen in red. The
size, the superfices, as compared with a Hong Kong stamp, is as 528 to 270 - that is to
say, they are almost as large again, and exhibit the following expression. In the centre a
device intended to represent a dragon, though unmistakable as as a caterpillar
glowworm. On the top, in English, Shanghai L.P.O. , and the Chinese characters for
Shanghai. On the bottom the value, say 16 candareens, and the Chinese characters for
Kungpoo, and the local designation of the municipal council. On the dexter side the value
in Chinese characters, as one mace and six fun, and on the sinister side, Shuisinkwan,
Post-office. In use, both scissors and paste are required, the one to clip, the other to effect
adhesion. As we say, the local post stamps are curious, figuratives of the time.(background add-on:In 1863 the multinational Shanghai Municipal Council opened a subscription-based post office to collect and distribute mails between the foreign settlement in Shanghai and Hong Kong and to deliver local Shanghai letters for both the resident foreign and Chinese populations. The Shanghai Local Post Office soon became one the most important communications hubs in nineteenth-century China. So, it was not a "local post" by any standard definition.
Here is an example from Printing #1:
(is this the first stamp issued to portray a dragon?)
Posted 02/05/2021 5:22 pm
