Description

1916(Apr 28) Carlowitz & Co., Hamburg crested envelope (hold to strong light look under flap) that is splitting on 3 sides to Hankow bearing Germania 20pf with perforated indents (Perfin) tied Hamburg machine cancel & with red circular Cologne censor . Violet framed tablet shaped P B C partially beneath Arms / OPENED BY CENSOR label with another on opposite side of cover that hides a UK OBC 1464 label. On reverse both of these labels are tied by a smudged yet readable British P.O. Shanghai (21 Sep) cds. While on the opposite side beneath the other Blue-Grey Arms / OBC is a Hong Kong / IV ( 19 Sep) cds plus a Smudged Shanghai despatch cds with unreadable date & a Hankow (? Oct) arrival cds…My take on this is that after leaving Germany it was intercepted by UK censorship & allowed to Pass. Arriving H.K. 19 Sep it receives a PBC handstamp & sent to Shanghai where it appears the Shanghai censors attempted to cover from sight the HK marking why such pedantic treatment I do not know yet it does add greater interest to an extraordinary item.