Lot 30021 – 1871, 100 mon dark steel-blue, earliest printing, on cover

1871, 100 mon dark steel-blue, plate 1, earliest printing, position 26, well margined except for being touched in a very small place at right, rich colour, tied by large “Kensazumi” handstamp featuring three characters in clerical script (Reisho) and used in the West Zone, on cover from Otsu to Minakuchi, both in Omi Province. Manuscript date unclear, although presumably during the week after the establishment of postal services in Japan. Cover opened for display, backed up with two small portions of paper missing. Illustrated on page 96 in the “Dragon Stamps Plating Book” by Yamazaki published in 2017. Cert. Philatelic Federation of Japan. Cert. Philatelic Federation of Japan (2000).

Sixteen covers are documented to exist with this desirable cancellation in Reisho, half of them exhibiting a neat strike. (See the recent work by Yamazaki Yoshiyuki: “Dragon Stamps Plating Book”, Tokyo (Narumi) 2017, pages. 101-103).

Provenance: Takahashi private treaty 2001, used for the title page illustration (estimated at ¥4,800,000 = €35’000)