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My main collecting interest is in royal visits by members of the British royal family abroad. This includes the various Coronation Durbars as usually there was a member of the royal family, or someone representing them, there.

The covers I have cross into many of the different themes on the board so I thought as well as adding them there I would also put them in one place. They will not be in any particular order but will give an idea of the areas I cover.

This is not exclusive for me so please add any of your own covers or related material to this or any other royal visits.

The first cover is from the 1902/3 coronation durbar attended by Duke and Duchess of Connaught. It is registered and the special cancel shows the letters REG within it and the front shows a boxed registered cachet. I am told the stamp is rare on cover but not having a knowledge of Indian stamps I miss these sort of things. Added to the registered cover thread.





Colin

Another registered cover from the 1902/3 coronation durbar. This time with the boxed cachet inscribed Coronation Durbar Delhi and an oval registered mark over the top of it.

The stamp is cancelled by one of the many cancels available for this Durbar. The number 7 in the cancel would indicate the post office it was posted from.

I have limited information on the cancels of this durbar so if anyone has any knowledge/covers they would like to share I would be very pleased to hear from them.

What is a "Coronation Durbar"? I've never heard that term, could you expand that a bit.

If its Royal Visit material you're looking for, I have an entire album devoted to Geo VI and Queen Mum's visit to Canada in 1939, the first visit by a British Head of State to Canada. They spent a month travelling one end of the country to the other and back on a special train.

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Collecting Mongolia; Thailand; Indo-China; Mourning Covers; OHMS.
My online 'store': http://stampsfromaethelwulf.blogspot.com/

1902/3 coronation durbar cover showing the special horseshoe postage due marking inscribed Coronation Durbar Delhi

Hi

I may be a bit shaky on my history but I believe 1987 Queen Victoria decided she would become Queen Empress of India and held a durbar in 1877 to go through the ceremony. A durbar is basically a gathering of all the tribal leaders. At this Durbar it was said whenever there was a change of Monarch then another Durbar would be held to introduce the new King/Queen.
Therefore after Queen Victoria died a durbar was to be held but King Edward 7th could not attend as he was on another tour so the Duke and duchess attended. After he died the largest one was held in 1911 which was attended by King George 5th. It is estimated there are something like 140 different permutaions of cancels for this one.

Some are shown on this thread

viewtopic.php?f=29&t=13546

Can you email me re the 39 tour.

A post office was also set up in Maidens Hotel which was not on the site of the Durbar. Again this had a special postmark mentioning the Durbar. Although the Durbar finished in January 1903 this cancel is sometimes found used as late as 1904 though I do not have one.
It is very difficult to find a clrear strike of the cancel. The second cover shows a delivery cancel for the Hotel

1901 Tour by Duke and Duchess of Cornwall (To be George V). Official free postmark used on a special anotated envelope for the tour. Does anybody know anything about the official cancel?



The tour also had visited Mauritius where a special postcard had been produced. Unfortunately my copy is not posted whilst they were there but they do exist.

The commonwealth tour of 1953/54 had many special stamps produced and as such many commemorative covers exist. It is nice to get post from the royal party. This has a special NZ royal visit cachet which I believe was for postage free mailing priviledge. Similar cachets/cancels exist for later tours to NZ and found in different colours. The letter and envelope both have the royal crest on.

In Australia a special registered label was used for a post office made available to the Press. Numbers used are very low. I only have the Brisbane example (do have a spare to swap!)

Also shown is a telegram cancel in red on a cover sent to Buckingham Palace

Whilst I do concentrate on covers I have added stamps particular if they have a novelty factor. Perforation fold error .

Meter used on 54 cover of Australia sent to Buckingham Palace but with a zero amount. Probably very philatelic but still good. Copies of the meter with RV1 and RV2 in exist .

The 1934 visit to Australia and New Zealand by the Duke of Gloucester has lots of interest with various themes that can go off from it such as the MacRobertson air race as he presented the trphy to the winner. The main postmark interest is the royal train but he was also the first Royal to fly in Australia. Various special covers were produced. Bizarely this one is numbered number one but did not have a stamp applied so picked up a postage due.

This is an intriguing cover. It is in the hand of the Duke of Gloucester and has the royal train postmark of 10th December. This was the day he officially opened the first commercial mail route between Australia and England. The question is did it travel on that first flight. Why would 3/- postage be used?



I will see if people are interested before posting more

Hi Colin
Some very nice covers and an ineresting topic I have a Reg cover for George VI and Family vist to South Africa in 1947









the scans show the front and back of this cover and close up of the postmarks on the back

The stamps Are SG111/13

Tony H
http://www.worldstamps.co.nz

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Tony H
http://www.worldstamps.co.nz

Hi Tony

The emblem on your cover is the triangle. There were six such emblams, three in the english version and three in the south african cancels. Depending on the emblam used you can tell if the cover came from the train itself or the central post office. However due to demand all of them were used at the post office on the day of issue of the stamps which is 17th February as yours is.

Another Lismore cover but number 176.There were various stages of the flight but thought only 200 covers done in total. (AAMC 465 $A225)




Then one for the Newcastle stage (AAMC 467 $A200)

Postcards that were used on the 1933 flight were also specially overprinted to be carried on these 1934 royal flights and it is said 50 exists

I know little about this. (AAMC 468 $A275)

Again on the 1934 Royal Flight topic The City of Grafton accompanied thr flight. Below is a cover signed by K A Virtue who was the pilot.

My old copy of Eustis states covers are known at Lismore and Newcastle but this one is cancelled at Coffs Harbour.
Again I know little else re this. Why was there a second plane?

(Admin note AAMC says SYD-Coffs, Cat #466 $A200.)

My final cover from the 1934 Royal Tour is not a true flight cover but a rocket mail cover for the arrival of the Duke in Brisbane.

A special vignette was put on the back. My cover is not in the best condition. The vignettes I believe came in minature sheets of 4 stamps that I am still on the look out for.


(Admin note - cover is AAMC R1 cat $A100. 897 flown. Label is $15 single (R1c) and the sheet of 4 is R1a cat $A75.)

Very interesting and a nice collection of covers.

Thanks for sharing them. I'm sure alot of air-mail and Royalty collectors have found this all very intersting so please continue. The rocket mail-Tibet is a curio.

I just bought an album of cigerette cards of the 1937 Coronation. I had never heard of the term 'durbar' before.

Anyone enjoying this should read the thread on Coronation cinderellas started by 'pertinax' last year. I will try and hunt the link up, unless a Mod can beat me to it. I'm rather busy checking my 2/6 'One Pound Jimmy's.

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Interested in Stamp Replica cards. E-mail me for numbers.

My apologies.

The forum is' Great Britain Commemorative Coronation Labels" by Tallanent. Pertinax added to the conversation, but Tallanent started the ball rolling

http://www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=9048

Hopefully this link will work.

Knowing me ,probably not.

colinscovers - the most recent Eustis has a ton more info on many areas, not sure about these, as do not have older versions to check. I've added update info in RED above.

It says the Duke piloted the plane from Coffs to Newcastle.

Glen

From the next Prestige sale:





Oh yes, and estimate is AUD$6000

_________________
Collecting Mongolia; Thailand; Indo-China; Mourning Covers; OHMS.
My online 'store': http://stampsfromaethelwulf.blogspot.com/

Glen: Thanks for the up dates. I have had a look and mine is a 1984 copy and they are priced at $60 to $75

aethelwolf: I saw that also and was stunned by the estimate. As I know nothing about stamps and their catalgue values is the value mainly in the £1 value or does mine below have a value.

I have shown a scan of it fully opened (apart from one more 1/6 stamp) and how I show it in my display. By my recockening there is £1 10/- of stamps on the piece. Can anybody calculate what that relates to in weight for the 42 negatives in tin case so I can do a nice write up as the auction description.

All the stamps on the piece and only one where I can make out the date of the 10th December , the same as written on the label. This was the day the D of G opened the official airmail route to the UK. Did they travel on it or just have pictures of it taking off do you think.





Colin

I do have some covers for the 1939 royal tour of Canada that included photos and these have been a wealth of scarce cancels even if it is doubtful they have been used correctly.

This large cover has the purple oval cancel used as a marking but the exact use of this is not exactly known. It is usually found on the back of some philatelic covers back dated early in the tour. There is a French version in the proof books but not seen used.

A front of a parcel but this time with a square special cancel in purple. The official use of this is thought to have been to cancel money orders but only one example (numbered one) has been seen. The cancel does occasionally appear.

The final one does show official use of the USA cancel. This is very common found cancelling philatelic covers but when used in purple it is thought these are official covers off the pilot train

Just put this into favourite flight covers

This is my favorite flight cover as it is from the Kings Flight that went to S Africa and S Rhodesia during the 1947 royal tour of those countries. It is commercial usage and is said to be one of only three known copies with the Royal Air Force at the top and The Kings Flight at the bottom. What attracts me more is the contents of the airletter which describe the flight going out and also mentions polishing the Kings plane

And this one

This cover shows the commoner (but still quite scarce) flight cancel but this time with The Kings Flight at the top and Royal Air Force at the bottom. While a philatelic cover and the stamps are not actually cancelled it also has a certifying type cancel that is not listed in the catalogues that also refers to the Kings Flight. It is signed over it by W Tacon who came from New Zealand and was a highly decorated pilot during WW2 and was the Commanding Officer of the royal flight for this tour. The envelope is addressed to his old schiool in NZ

This is on the registered cover thread

Registered cover from the 1947 royal tour to South Africa and S Rhodesia. The cancels on the cover are the standard oval bilingual cancel but with the maltese cross ornament half way up the sides of the oval. This shows it was actually posted on the pilot train. The boxed registered cancel but the best one is the the official paid cancel used on official mail from the royal party.

Not quite a royal Visit but I bought this today; something a bit different.


Many thanks to Colinscovers for some wonderful advice the other day; that's the beauty of Stamp boards; always having an expert at the end of an email.

1934 royal train cancel.

Just bought this one as has gone from Cape Town to Cape Town but via London. Obviously done philatelically but can anyone give me a description as to how this would be done and the GB stamp added. I want to write it up for a display on 6th December but a bit lost what to say.

Many thanks

Colin

Here is an item from KGV coronation Durbar at Delhi in 1911.The sheet has 14 stamps both of KEVII and KGV.The beauty of this item lies in the fact that it is cancelled at KING EMPEROR'S CAMP POST OFFICE on 10 JAN and "A":.Very few people had access to the King Emperor's camp P.O. and only used pieces with single stamps on cover found.This piece was in possession of a Royal family of princely state of Central India.I feel it is the only example of similiar item.If any member has any similiar item I would love to see it.













opkedia

Hi opkedia

An interesting tem but from my point of view for the date. The King left the camp before Christmas so you would presume the cancel left around the same time so 10th January is a very late usage. I have an example of the cancel and the smaller King Emperor's camp cds but nothing this late.

You may want to add it to this thread.

http://www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=13546

colinscovers,

Have you ever read the 1903 book 'The Durbar'?

Written by Dorothy Menpes and illustrated by her father, the famous Australian artist, Mortimer Menpes.

I found a copy in a second hand bookstore a few years back, read it and then sold it on eBay for a GIGANTIC multiple of what I paid.

It was a fascinating read.


Scott

Hi Scott

I have never been a reader and it is a fault and something I should do to back up my knowledge of the tours and royalty in general.

I have a few royalty books all unread by me.

There are some good books for the 1903 Durbar but I do not have any but as you say they do go for high prices.


Colin

I really fell behind in keeping up with this thread (and I recall you sent me an email through the board that got pushed far down in the inbox out of sight and never got replied to).

The Prestige piece is listed in the PR for $7250 (that might include the buyer's premium?). Probably the use of the 1Pound Roo contributed to the high price, but the early date and the high franking are important also. Yours has great 'eye appeal' for the smattering of stamps.

_________________
Collecting Mongolia; Thailand; Indo-China; Mourning Covers; OHMS.
My online 'store': http://stampsfromaethelwulf.blogspot.com/

This (and the other 2 pieces from the '39 Royal Tour) you showed are great, I have nothing like that in my collection, and don't recall even seeing anything like them.

Don't recall seeing the square cancel either. I thought I was doing well at a stamp fair a few years ago when a dealer came over to me and said another dealer from whom I had picked up some Tour FDCs told him I was looking for them, and he showed me the 1 piece he had -- an oversize cover franked with the commems and the period Air and Special Delivery stamps, and sent Spec Dev from train, and with the Train cancels with a date other than the common 15 May. In retrospect I wondered why I hesitated when he asked $25 for it.

_________________
Collecting Mongolia; Thailand; Indo-China; Mourning Covers; OHMS.
My online 'store': http://stampsfromaethelwulf.blogspot.com/

And finally for me tonight, picked up a pile of items from a local dealer's cover (and miscellany) box today. Found this album page interesting.



They make a nice display together, and with the sample of the cancel (cut from a cover obviously, with the blue crayon mark. Often collectors just show a hand-drawn image of a postmark when writing-up a display. Although to get this effect required sacrificing the full cover (but hey, on the other hand maybe it was damaged so not really a loss).

I'll be taking them off that old album page soon (and giving them a little bath to clean them up just in case).

_________________
Collecting Mongolia; Thailand; Indo-China; Mourning Covers; OHMS.
My online 'store': http://stampsfromaethelwulf.blogspot.com/

Hi

Thanks for the responses. On the last item these covers are very plentiful so no losss to cut one up particularly as the 17th Feb was the first day of issue and are the most commonist. The blue line is probably part of the registered markings that many of these covers were given as they had two sets of the stamps on.
If I read the bottom ones they are showing examples of the errors. I am in a dilemma as there are many listed varities and I have some complete sheets. I cannot display the varieties in a full sheet but a little voice tells me not to split the sheet.

Re the Canadian cover did you just hesitate but buy or hesitate and not buy? Large covers are difficult to display but are often the most interesting. It sounds as if it was definately commercial mail from the train which is much scarcer than the thousands of souveneir covers produced.

Colin

Hi,
The King left India on 10th Jan 1912 and the above cancellation is of the last date of king's visit to India.I presume the camp P.O. went with the king during the intervening period from leaving his camp in Delhi to his last day in India.It would be very interesting to find cancellations of intermediate dates.

Question.

Would this have come from a Durbar?



Huanga.

Hi Huanga

Not a Durbar. It was used for the Prince of Wales (Edward VIII) extensive visit of India in 1921/2. The "camp" (not necessarily what the name suggests) post office visited him around the country for the whole tour. There are some other cancels available which I will try and scan on later if interested

Colin

Thank you Colin, I would be interested in seeing them.
Regards,

Huanga.

This is a George King cover (god bless him) which has been registered and shows the registration receipt also cancelled with the same cancel. This cancel is said to have been used for registered items but is not seen exclusively on this type of mail.



Sorry for the delay in not adding these earlier

Colin

There was also a postage due cancel used during the tour as below



Colin

This is the commonest cancel but much scarcer to find it on official mail from the royal party

There was also a delivery cancel supposed to be used on incoming mail



These are the only cancels I know of for this tour.

There were some very similar cancels for the Duke of Connaughts visit a year earlier but I only have a copy on piece on one of them. If anybody has any such cancels I would be very pleased to hear from them.

Colin

Nice ones, Thank you, I enjoyed viewing and am now a little wiser in regard to that cancellation.

Huanga.