Need Help With Two 19th C. Russian Area Covers.

Hello All,
While sorting through my covers I've come across two that I have problems with trying to correctly identify country, town, date, purpose, etc. Neither has any stamps. Any information about these two covers would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Will

1st cover: Front has a lot of handwriting. Any address in there? The back has a wax seal. It's hard to see the detail, but it looks like there is a little horseshoe with a cross on top and flanked with two little crosses on each side. Possible wreath/floral design around it. Not the best impression. There's a handstamp above there - not sure what it reads. Someone also wrote in pencil above that Raseiniai which is a town in modern day Lithuania. Any ideas as to what kind of cover could this be? I presume it's 19th century, but cannot say much more - Russian? Lithuanian?









2nd cover: Hard to mark heads or tails from the front of the cover. I think there's an address in there someplace, but handwriting is difficult. There is a partial postmark in Russian alphabet, but not really readable. The only thing I can really read from the front is the number 5457, but not sure its purpose. I unfolded the letter for the scan and from the first picture there is a paper seal that's on the back. The seal is a weak embossed impression, but some features are visible. It's circular with some unreadable text around the inside edges. It looks like a little shield divided into quadrants surrounded on the left, right and top by drapery with a little crown on top. The inside of the cover is a official looking document that is partially printed and handwritten. This is dated 1864. Any chance there's a location name in there as well as what the purpose of this letter is for?

Battlestamps,

one piece of information about your first postal history item. It is from the pre-adhesive period of postal services in the Russian Empire (circa 1820's-1830's), posted from the town of Rossiyany / Raseiniai in the Kovno (Kaunas) guberniya of present-day Lithuania (then part of the Russian Empire).

Here is a map of Kovno guberniya in 1863 with Rossiyani circled in red:



The postmark of Rossiyany on the back of your cover is shown by Dobin in his book "Postmarks of the Russian Empire. Pre-adhesive period" on page 171 (Dobin type 22-2-04 / 1.01):

http://www.standard-collection.ru/e...-po-200.html

Degree of rarity of postmark = 5 (in a 1-10 scale, with 1 being the more common, see Dobin, page 37).

Cannot be of help with the address - it appears as if there are both Cyrillic and Lithuanian (?) wording, but a Russian speaker should be able to help here. If you can post big scans of the seal on the first cover and the postmark on the second, maybe we can glean some more information.

Vasia,
Thanks for the help. Every bit of information is big step forward towards understanding these more difficut covers.
Here's what I hope are better views of the wax and paper seals.
Thanks, Will

Here's the postmark from the second cover too!

The 2nd is from the "Principality of Serbia" of that time... "Republic of Serbia" today... or just Serbia, if you want.

It is printed and handwritten on the archaic cyrillic script.

It is a court document (bankruptcy)... it was issued and handwritten in the city of Pozarevac, and the postmark should be also of that city (readable letters AREV on the postmark coincides with the name of the city).

It was addresed to the district court in Belgrade (the capital of Serbia).

Document is dated 12 March 1864.

filipo: Thanks so much. I was way off on the second cover in terms of location, but glad I can give the cover a location and purpose as well.

Second one is pretty cool piece, I have been looking for something like that for years. Postmark has really weak print but in serbian stamp catalog there is pre philately section and I can look it up for you, to find this type of postmark to see value,

The first page is in Polish :) as Poland was divided in 18th century between Russia, Prussia and Habsburg Monarchy the lands that previously used to be polish, got incorporated into this countries. But the people stayed ethnically Polish. So the area of Lithuania was basically Polish land before - and Kovno as well Polish city. That is why this document is in Polish. Although the administration was russian, and the people were opressed they still spoke Polish.

'Ja¶nie wielmo¿nemu jejmo¶ciu Szumskiemu, Komer Jejmowi Dworu Jegomo¶ci I Kawalerowi Krzyza Legii Honorowej, staro¶cie Botaczkiew, Panu dobrodziejowi, wpo³am Ja¶nie Wielmo¿nego Pana Senatora Ogiñskiego na Nadmiekiej Ulicy w Wilnie.'

'To the very noble Mr Szumski, the... (some function of the tsar's court I dont know) of the Tsar's court and the Man of the Honourable League Cross, the landlord of Botaczkiew (the area in Lithuania ?), Mr of the good will and actions, from the Most Noble Mr Senator Ogiñski from the Nadmiekiej Street in Vilnus"