Hallo Leute!
This post is about danish skilling issues on letters sent to Visby. Similar letters also exist with the SH stamps.
Some SH collectors may have stumbled on these kind of objects. They are distinct in the way, that they are usually only coverfronts and addressed to Frederik Höyberg, Visby Mølle and in a few cases to Frederik Höyberg, Visby Hedegaard.
Höyberg was a miller and all these coverfronts originates from what I presume is the mill's business archive. This could at least explain why only the coverfronts are existing, while the business contents has been removed.
The archive contained letters from nearby small villages (on the Tønder - Ribe mail route) and to my knowledge there are a few postmarks which are only known to originate from the Visby Mølle archive. These include the so-called Esrom-type postmarks, with three rings and a village abbreviation: DSTRP(Døstrup), REISB (Reisby), BBRO (Bredebro), BRNS (Brøns). Other quite rare postmarks from the archive are SKJBK (Skjærbæk) and numeral 161 (Ballum), though these are known from sources other than the Visby Mølle archive. The archive also contained more common postmarks, e.g. from Tønder.
I have not been able to find out much information on the discovery of the archive. I know that Danish auction houses has sold a few of these, and sometimes several objects on the same auction.
I wonder if anyone knows any details on the circumstances of the finding ? And for how long objects from the archive has been around on the market ?
For instance, have you seen references to these coverfronts in philatelistic articles or auctions that predates 1970 - or even 1930 ?
Here are some examples from my collection. I do not have any Esrom-types in my collection except SKJBK and would be very interested in seeing such.
(1) Numeral 73 - Tønder
(2) Numeral 161 - Ballum
(3) Esrom-type SKJBK - Skjærbæk.
(4) Letter, inside-dated Visby Mølle. Only few franked covers are known from Briefsammlungsstelle Visby Mølle. The content does not indicate any relation to Höyberg.
Cheers Ole