India - 1934 Registered Cover With SC 135 & 137 From A Steamship?

Any idea what is written on the postmark and also on the registered label? Looks like "... stores"? Maybe ABN Stores?

I am also unable to detect most notes added on the cover...

any help will be appreciated :)

Filipo

There are lots of interesting things on this nice cover. The stamp on the registration label is likely to be A.B.N. Stores, which probably doubled up as a post office (as it looks like the CDs also reads A.B.N. Stores at the top and Calcutta at the bottom). There is still an A.B.N. Enterprises in Kolkata, but they are probably not related. Harrington Street, the sender's address, is in the centre of Kolkata to this day. "Await steamer" is written in red above the address, clearly a poste restante. I'm not sure why the rear has 3 Madras CDs for 10, 11 and 12 December 1934. Surely one would have sufficed as a receiving mark? The mail would have waited in the Lionel Edwards office after delivery, after all. I don't know why someone has written "Harleor" in indelible pencil. A mystery!

Thank you, Tim! I was also able to find a reference on Dr. Richard Lohde...

somehow connected to the Anzac, but not sure in which way...


http://discoveringanzacs.naa.gov.au...cords/434455

I wonder if it doesn't say "Harbor"? (But American spelling would me most unusual). Registration no. 544, 8 Dec. (date of posting)?

I had the same feeling Jenny does, especially since it says "await steamship". One usually does that in a harbor, and who knows, the person making the notation could have been an American.


Peter

The dispatch post office is indeed ABN Stores of Kolkata. ABN Stores is the Post Office name.

The oblong cachet on the resgistration label is called the Post Office Name Stamp. Nothing unusual that the stamps were canceled with ABN Stores REG. cds.

The booking clerk put the notations (in violet ink) 2-50 (weight 2½ tola?), Harbor (the place of proposed delivery of the cover) and 554/8/12 (the registered article no. 544 and the date of registration December 8).

The notes in red ink was entered at the Delivery Section of Chennai GPO where the address was struck out and await steamer in manuscript was written and the superscription Registered was underlined to emphasize that the cover had to be delivered on signing by the mailman directly to the recipient R Lohde, passenger of SS Uhenfels (Ulhenfels?) when it arrived at Chennai Port.

The cover was franked with Br. India 1932 9P SG 233 and 1932 3A6P SG 238 to pay total 4A3P postage which is the combination of letter postage 1¼A for 20.15gm (2½ tola) weight, the rate in effect from December 15,1931 to November 30,1940 after which the rate was applicable for 1 tola (11.66gm) weight, and the registration fee 3A per article, the rate in effect from October 1,1931 to March 31,1949.

Harbor it is as J2U correctly observe's (we non-American speakers struggle with the language sometimes ) and Joy's comments tie things together nicely. Good collective detective work! Doesn't the good doctor look a bit of a character. More like a convict than a doctor.

Here is an example of a "philatelically inspired" but commercial cover
(of one of the friends of a friend of mine) sent in 1912 from Kochchi,
addressed to a passenger of a steamship (SS Rani).





Mail from India to Srilanka was sent at inland postage rate.

The registration fee was 2A per article from August 1,1881 to September 30,1931.
The letter postage was 1A for weight between 11.66gm (1 tola) and
116.6gm (10 tola) from October 1,1907 to December 31,1918.

Jenny, too much must not be read into the notation "Harbor" in American spelling.
The booking clerks at the post offices were all Indians mostly with basic educational qualification of passed out Class 8, just enough requirement to get the job.
So, it could also have been "Harbar", the spelling I have seen on an 1863 Br. Indian cover, written by a postal clerk.

Thank you all in PHFIA for contributing to this most interesting thread - more of the same, please!
(Postal History Forensic Investigation Agency)

The tragedy of war.
Mr. Lohde married an English lass, and lived in Maryborough Queensland.
When war broke out, so did tensions between the couple.
Mr. Lohde (A German) was granted British naturalization.

This was revoked in 1919



Sydney Paper 1907
The German steamer Ulenfels and the P. and O. Himalaya, from Sydney for London, came into collision near Port Said. The damage which the steamers sustained is unknown.

Rod, interesting that it was revoked after the war. I guess the differences between the couple were indeed irreconcilable.

Tim, I read his story in the news of the time, we can only guess at what strain,
German Australians were under at the time.
I recall Postmarks indicating German names being changed in many Australian towns.

I think the Doctor prior to his revocation, took his son away from the mother, and hid him, possibly wanting to take him back to Germany.
He was taken to court, and found against him.
Very sad.