Why Postal History Collectors Get Excited

Ebay Still Delivers Nice Finds

This postcard of a group of children from Assuan (Aswan), Egypt, posted in 1911, and addressed to Singapore was listed recently on Ebay Australia. 

The TPO (Travelling Post Office) postmark on the front of the card was reason enough for me to buy it

The message on the card is difficult to read, despite being in English, but appears to be quite mundane. Although the online picture was faint, I thought that the postmark on the stamp was from the Cataract Hotel, and that appears to be correct

The Cataract Hotel, a very famous venue in it's time, and still a very exclusive hotel ($455 per night according to Google!), is located in Aswan. The card was posted in Aswan on 18 February 1911 and carried to Ismailia (a distance of almost 1,000 kilometres) overnight, probably by train. On 19 February, the card was sent via Travelling Post Office from Ismailia to Port Taufiq (also known as Tewfik, now known as Taofik) at the mouth of the Suez canal, a distance of 94 kilometres.

The card was sent to Port Taufiq to "catch" a ship to Singapore. Although I'm unable to identify the ship at this stage, the very scarce postmark of the Penang-Singapore Marine Sorter, a paquebot marking, identifies the ship that delivered the postcard to Singapore.

The postmark is Proud D6 (rated 100 on cover), and the date of 10 March 1911 is the date of receipt into Singapore.  Proud's list in his Postal History of Malaya Part 1, shows that the P&O steamer "SS Devanha" sailed from Penang on 9 March and arrived in Singapore on 10 March 1911.

The Devanha is well documented online, and this image is courtesy of http://www.photoship.co.uk

If this basic Egyptian stamp had been removed from the postcard, none of this information would be available to us. As the postmark is faint, and the "ACT" of "Cataract" is on the postcard, we wouldn't know where it originated. We wouldn't know that it travelled from Aswan (somehow) to Ismailia and subsequently to Port Taufiq to catch a ship to Singapore. We certainly wouldn't know that Mrs. Stewart's postcard was delivered into Singapore by the SS Devanha!

This lovely card cost me less than $20. I'm now lucky to own a piece that fits comfortably into a number of my collections.

Patient searching of online auctions will still reward your diligence.