Russian 1889 Cover. Translation & Postal Marks.

Hello everyone. I have this Russian letter from 1889. I can not proparly read the adress. I would like to known what the adres is. Also, can anyone tell me what kind of postal marks the circle with triangle canvcellation on the stamps are? Kind Regards, Johan.

I thought it may be a "Saint Petersburg" cancellation.
However Number 1 was in a diamond, not a triangle.

Scan by SCF member Nigelc.

This stamp is listed on Delcampe as a "St Petersburg town cancel"
Don

A great introduction to Russian postmarks of this period is "Russian Postmarks, an Introduction & Guide" by A.V. Kiryushkin & P.E. Robinson.

In this is noted that the St. Petersburg circle numeral cancellations were introduced in 1880. Each sub-office had a distinct inside shape such as squares, triangles etc. allowing each to be identified even if the number was illegible.

St. Petersburg circle numeral cancellations


In the 1870's Moscow sub-offices started using OVAL numerical cancellations, which is what we have on the above cover.

Moscow oval numerical cancellations


These numerical cancellations were used only to cancel stamps while in 1860 circular datestamps were introduced. In the 1880's an attempt was made to standardise Russian postmarks with post-horns in the lower part, the example here being one of them.

Moscow circle postmark


The postmark on the cover reads -
Moscow - 29 November - 1889 - 2 (o'clock) - Posthorn (obscured by writing) On the left of the post-horn is the Russian letter "G", on the right "P", "Gorodskaya Pochta" (Town Post)

I'm afraid my Russian script reading is poor & I can't make out any of the address.

Inscriptions on this cover:
To the town of Libava
Kurlandia
[Round postmark: Moscow 29 November 1889]
To Gracious Mrs.
Pavla Yakovlevna Gahn
Ambarnaya street, house No. 29, apt. 12

Postmarks are those of the Central Post Office in Moscow.
Note that Russian dates before 1917 are Julian calendar dates. Gregorian (Western) calendar dates were 13 days behind in the 19th century (thus, the date on the postmark would be November 16, 1889 in Germany or in the USA).

Hello everyone.

I would like to thank everybody for their reaction.

Thanks for the pictures of other identically canceled stamps.

Thanks for the pictures of the St. Petersburg and Moscow circular and oval stamp cancellations.

Thanks for the Translation, I would never been able to translate it myself.

I and I think we all learned a lot and I can now start writting a note with all the information.

I hope that in the future I will be able to help you out.

kind regards,

johan.

Hi,

This is an important point but is not correctly stated here.

New Style/Gregorian/Western dates are ahead of Old Style/Julian ones and not behind.

The difference between the two was 13 days in 1918 when the Soviet government adopted the Gregorian calendar but it was 12 days at the time of this cover in 1889.

So 29th November 1889 (Old Style) was the same as 11th December 1889 (New Style).

In the eighteenth century the difference was 11 days, and there are stories of riots in England in 1752 when the Gregorian calendar was adopted with crowds shouting, "Give us back our eleven days!" (although this seems to have been a late 18th century urban myth!)

The work (in Britain) of Lord Chesterfield, who wrote the wonderful Letters To His Son, characterised by Johnson as teaching "the morals of a whore and the manners of a dancing master".

Great information, thank you Yea Polska.

For a number of years the city posts of St. Petersburg (1880-1904) (Fig.23) and Moscow (1875-1900)
(Fig.24) used their own individual designs of postmarks for cancelling stamps