Seeking Information About A 1838 German Letter

Hello all,

First, Happy New Year to you all.

I need some help regarding this 1838 letter. I bought it in a flea market for a couple of dollars as an example of a postal item pre postage stamp era. However, I'm intrigued by it. It looks to me as a commercial correspondence in German Gothic, dated Aug 6, 1838. It seems that it has a postal stamp dated Aug 2nd. I'm not looking for a translation but I will welcome any additional information about this letter. Particularly, I'm baffled by the discrepancy between the date on the letter and the date of the stamp.

Thanks in advance.

I think this has been a double sheet letter and the half with the original message has been removed. And what we see is a copy of the answer.

aolsson, since I have the original letter, it doesn't look as if there was another page inside, if this is what you think. I have tried to use some handwriting-to-text apps, and it seems that this indeed a response to an earlier communication. However, I didn't discover much beyond this.

The "6 August 1838" is part of the brief docketing note added by the recipient. Note it's positioning compared to the folds and front address panel. It would not have been there when the letter passed through the post. And the chronology then also matches what would be expected.

Another explanation I that it was a double sheet letter where the address was written on page 1 and the message on page 3. The addresse has then written an answer on page 2 and the addrress on page 4 and folded it with page 4 out. Such German letters can be seen now and then. This letter has then probably been divided in two parts by a cover dealer.

Both replies are interesting. So you think that this is just one part of the letter and therefore some information is missing. Can you identify the postal stamp? Is it the destination or the drop-off point? What about the "55" to the left, and the character that looks like "4" to the right?

The postmark is from Dinkelsbühl and the address is Wassertrüdingen. W..en seen before the date is also short for Wassertrüdingen. Both these places are close to Ansbach. The first line under the fold reads "Mit vorzüglichen Grüssen"equal "With best regards" so what we see here is not a docketing. It is the ending of a letter. The 55 I probably not a postal marking.

Most interesting. So this was in Bavaria. And the character that looks like "4", could it be the mailing cost, 4 Marks or whatever currency they had back then?

The "6" in the date at the end is very similar to that in the text.

Also, the "2" over the "8" in the Dinkelsbühl date stamp is offset to the right, suggesting it was "12" and not "2".

Kreuzer and Gulden. Unless the cover contained a ship, it will not have been the Gulden.

I doubt it is a 4.

To sum it up so far, originally it was a two sheets commercial letter. I have only the second sheet, where each side of it was written by a different person. The second page was singed on Aug 6, 1838, and then sent out from Wassertrüdingen and was received at Dinkelsbühl's post office, both near Ansbach, Bavaria, on Aug 12. Did I get it right?

Other thoughts?

No, my explanation is the following: It has been a double sheet letter. You have page 1 and 2. The original letter has been written with the address on page 1 and the message on page 3. The address you have is from the first letter and it is sent from Binkelsbühl 2.8.1838 to Wassertrüdingen. The addressee of the first letter has written an answer in Wassertrüdingen 6.8.1838 on page 2 and 1 and folded the letter with page 4 out and written the adress on this page. An other alternative may bay be that the writing on page 1 and 2 is a copy or draft for the answer and the answer has been written on a new sheet. Page 3-4 has then been removed from your sheet as it has no postal history interest or that page 3-4 have been kept in the archive and page 1-2 has came out on the market.

Thank you, aolsson, for your explanation. Now I understand how this worked. Since page 1 was the original cover, can we tell how much it cost to deliver the letter?