Graf Zeppelin 1929 Interrupted Flight

This cover seems correct. It was supposed to be the second flight across the Atlantic, leading to the "around the world flight". It departed May 14th but had mechanical issues. The mail was held while repairs were completed. The arrival in Lakehurst was Aug. 5th.

I also like this cover because it has, what I believe to be, the in flight Luftpost cancel. I did not have one.

Now, I know that most Zep covers are contrived. Fair enough. But... no dealer or collector could have anticipated mechanical problems...

The cancel on this one is just the ordinary German air mail cancel applied at Friedrichshafen, it is not the "An Bord des Graf Zeppelin" cancel. It is a nice clean and colorful card even though the stamp is not well centered.

Kimo, thanks for the clarification! I was hoping the "luftpost" was a version of the in flight.

The upper margin of the stamp does jump out and grab the eye.
But I agree that the blue, red and black have a nice look together.

I'll have to keep working on an in flight cancel.

Luftpost simply means air mail, in German. There was a supplementary cachet that was worded "An bord des Luftschiffes XX/XX/XX (the date) Graf Zeppelin" that translates as "On Board the airship Graf Zepelin" that was applied to covers mailed on the Zeppelin by the passengers or by favor to those who asked for it. Other legs of this flight that were mailed on board have no cachet and that is how to tell they were msiled on board. On flights flown from March 25, 1929 and thereafter there were two new cancels that were used for on board mail - both look the same and the only difference is one was a bit larger than the other. These are cancels rather than cachets. They read "Luftschiff" around the top of the cancel and "Graft Zeppelin" around the bottom of the cancel. The date is a straight line in the middle of the circular cancel.

Zeppelin mail with on board cancels is not hard to find or rare. Keep your eyes open for the on board cachet/cancels I mention and you can pick them up for about the same cost as the mail that was mailed on the ground.

Kimo!! thank you. I'm going to print your post and put it in my folder.

There was a Frost catalog listed on ebay, but it was German. Eventually I will snag one.

stampcrow, google "Michel Zeppelin Specialized Stamps And Air Mails Catalogue 2003 - English Edition" - it's priced at around $40 from booksellers and might be useful to you.

I just grabbed this on board canceled version. I believe it's the contrived dealers version. Mr. K. Lissiuk was a dealer and an author.

This style of "On Board" cancel was introduced on March 25, 1929. It was a metal cancellation device and wss used only on the Orient Flight. Another almost identical rubber stamp version of this cancel was introduced on the Mediterranean Flight in April and was used there after. The cover you show is one of the later covers with this marking.

I read somewhere, maybe this site, that there were two on board cancels for this flight.

One was used per request in advance. Presumably by collectors and dealers. The other was for actual in flight mail being posted by crew and or passengers.

I think we can assume mine is the 'per request' type.
The information I read also mentioned that one cancel was slightly smaller.