Lot 40222 – 1911 Registered internal envelope with very rare dead letter usages

1911 (Dec 26) Large registered envelope addressed to Peking, franked by 1905-19 2c, 4c and 10c vertical pair, tied by « TSINGTAU/KIAUTSCHOU » cds’s, reverse with « TSINANFU/DEUTSCHE POST » (27.12) and Peking (29.12) cds’s, the mail being undelivered and almost two months later showing ms blue notation dated 21.2.12, indicating the addressee to be unknown, then bilingual green/black instructional label denoting that the addressee had departed and overstruck with violet « Ausschuss für unbestellbare Postsendungen bei der Kaiserlich Deutschen Postdirektion in Shanghai, den… » three-line hs with inserted date on 23.12 and two postal-clerk signatures, then the letter was opened to find out the sender in order to return the mail, with opening slits closed with three paper seals of the German Postal management in Shanghai which were applied in cases of opening for unknown senders, which was revealed to be a guest in Hotel Prinz Heinrich as denoted by the red notation, Tsingtau arrival cds on 26.2; a very rare dead letter office usage of marking and paper seals (unrecorded in ARGE handbook).