Beiträge von Aabenraaer

  • Saargebiet 1920 - 1935

    Hi Pälzer

    I collect philately from the 1920 Schleswig plebiscit, and I share you interest in the Abstimmungsgebiete!

    A very attractive REC-cover - I really like the variant on the Sarre-overprint. Thanks for sharing!

    Viel Grüss

    Ole

  • FIRE RBS Verwendung in Bergedorf

    Hi Massimo

    Old thread and possibly less relevant, as I understand it was posted during a running auction - but still an interesting topic :)

    The Bergedorf line canc has five lines and I can not make out the fifth - that could have a natural explanation, though small traces can usually be seen of the fifth line. That, combined with Nordlicht's points plus that I can say for sure, that I have never seen FIRE RBS with that postmark, I would also say it is very unlikely.

    However, there is one detail, that actually counts in favor for being the Bergedorf postmark, and that is how the lines in the postmark end on the right - with small "hooks", which is also the case for the Bergedorf canc. '

    The stamp is DK#1 Thiele III print from 1854 (unless the photos color is very off :) ). If you bought it, you can try to measure the distance between the 1st and 4th line in milimeters and I can compare with my copy.

    Cheers,

    Ole

  • Wiesby / Visby Mølle

    Hi Nordlicht

    I have seen a (defective) dk#4 on a cover to Höyberg addressed to Visby Hedegaard. I didn't identify which print it was, but the last prints of dk#4 are actually from 1857-59, so that could naturally explain it.

    There is a Fire RBS (Thiele III print, 1854) further up in this thread. I have also not seen any other Visby covers with Fire RBS.

    All the best
    Ole

  • Stempel auf SH-Marken

    I wish my documentation was a clear as your knowledge, Nordlicht. I'm yet again impressed - and thanks a lot :)

    That postmark deserves a more indepth discussion, so I'll eventually create a new thread.

    All the best

    Ole

  • Wiesby / Visby Mølle

    Mojn

    I have updated earlier timeline post with below changes:

    "Aug 8th, 2022 Timeline updated (based on Höyberg's memoirs) with philatelisticly interesting dates (1854-58 and 1866) and the glossary entry about Höyberg."

    Additional note: Höyberg was appointed operator of the distillery in 1858, when he returned to Visby, after being away since 1854. I assume he got this position, partly because of his friendship with the Lausten-Knudsen family and partly because he had experience as distiller, when he worked for his brother's distillery in Ribe. As it seems, that the Visby archive was a business archive, I would assume the start date of the archive is 1858. Therefore, I also believe, that the use of stamps issued in 1854 on Visby covers (4 RBS Thiele III and DK#4) are late uses, rather than originating from letters sent to Höyberg in 1854.

    Thus, I estimate that the Visby archive spans from 1858 - 1866

    Cheers,

    Ole

  • Stempel auf SH-Marken

    Hi Nordlicht

    I actually didnt know exactly how the cancelling of ship drop-offs worked - thanks for clarifying the detail about postal processing due to private companies.

    Maybe a little off topic in this (brilliant btw) thread about postmarks on SH-stamps: As far as Ive been able to sort out, the boxed postmark "Aus pr Dampfschiff" (with or without written town name) was used in 1861 in Lübeck on the route to Stettin or Swinemünde. To my surprise, I've seen several uses on dk bicolored issues - I think even on øre-values, ie from 1875 onwards. Do you know the history/usage behind that postmark ? And do you know if it also exists on SH-stamps ? (in which case, this paragraph would be relevant for this thread😊)

    Cheers,

    Ole

  • Stempel auf SH-Marken

    Mojn Nordlicht

    Very nice impression of the postmark. I haven't seen that many DK duplexes on SH-stamps - mostly "high numbered" duplexes - don't even recall if I've seen duplex 37 before on 2 Sch. Probably delivered directly to the ship on the Kiel - Korsør route ?

    VG

    Ole

  • Herzogtum Lauenburg (Königreich Dänemark) nach Hannover

    Hi Hermann

    Thank you for sharing - that is an exceptionally beautiful cover!

    With regard to determining the year, I have looked up in ARGE, and it seems like the RATZEBURG line cancellations varies a lot over the years. If you measure in milimeters how wide and how high the postmark is, I can perhaps tell you in which time period that exact postmark was used.

    Btw - could it be "17. April" ? (I think the same date is noted on the right of the second picture - I think maybe it says "17 Apr i 30" - 17 April 1830)

    Beautiful and historic cover!

    Viel Grüss

    Ole

    PS: If we assume the cover is dated 17 April 1830, your RATZEBURG postmark would probably be Type IV (1819 - 1835) : 4mm x 38mm. Type IV is one of the rarer RATZEBURG line canc postmarks.

  • Wiesby / Visby Mølle

    Mojn!

    Höyberg's bio is a treasure of interesting information😊 For instance he mentions, that when he was a boy in Ballum-Vesterende, they could hear the guns from Friedrichsstadt in 1848!

    I can mention another quite interesting detail, namely about the end date of the archive.

    The distillery business was bad, because they couldn't get enough grain - and the distilleries in Flensburg were much more effective. Höyberg went bankrupt and all his personal belongings were sold on auction. He still owned the mil, but it was bought for loaned money

    Höyberg ends the chapter about Visby in his autobiography by saying "I left Visby in 1866 with literally only the clothes I wore and a few coins".

    So we can conclude: Visby covers to Höyberg after 1866 are unlikely - and would have been wrongly addressed.

    Höyberg also writes, that he was sad to leave Visby, because during his work, he had learned to know all farmers in the area, as he was often buying grain from them, and was sorry to end these good relations.

    I recently identified the sender of Visby Mill cover as a farm owner from Døstrup, which adds to the theory, that the covers were related to the business activities with the mill and destillery.

    I speculate, that the Visby archive was handed over to Lausten Knudsen, as he was the de facto owner. If so, my biggest question now is: for how long was the archive in the Lausten Knudsen family's possession and who did they hand it over to ? Carl Lange ? If Lange also wrote an autobiography, I'd be keen on reading it😊

    Cheers, Ole

  • Wiesby / Visby Mølle

    Hi all

    Since I wrote above post, I found new material regarding Visby Mølle, including Fredrik Höyberg's autobiography and an interesting postcard from 1903.

    One of the more curious new historical details I've found is, that since the 1950's, Frederik Höyberg has been referred as "The Visby Miller", due to almost all Visby covers are addressed to him at Visby Mølle. However, Höyberg states directly in his autobiography "I was never a miller" - even though he both built, lived in and also (for a period) owned the mill.

    This can best be explained with a "Greeting from Visby"-postcard, cancelled 1903, showing "Drehn's mølle", which is the same mill,that Höyberg built in 1863 and Drehn bought in 1887. The building in the lower right corner is Visby Hedegaard, which was an alcohol distillery, owned by Knud Lausten Knudsen, but operated by Höyberg. The mill was an annex to the distillery and grinded grain, to be mixed with yeast to produce alcohol.

    The background for Höyberg's job was, that Höyberg had been a friend of the Lausten Knudsen family since his childhood - and in his 20's he worked at a distllery in Ribe.

    I will (eventually, ehm...) revise the above timeline post, with updated information.

    Cheers,

    Ole

  • SH Markenausgaben 1864-67

    Mojn

    You are right, Nordlicht - quite a journey for that letter:-)

    Do you know why it had to pass by Hamburg? I guess the route would have been Kiel - Hamburg by train, Hamburg - Lübeck by train and then Lübeck - Plön by horse coach ? Btw, seems like the Kiel - Ascheberg train route opened 6 months after the letter was sent...

    Best regards

    Ole

  • Inlandsbriefe

    Hi Franz

    Yes: "FIRE RBS" = "4 Rigsbankskilling".

    Your stamp is DK#1, which is fairly scarce on Preetz covers. Based on burelage, date and color, I would guess it's the 1853 Thiele II print (DK#1II), but that needs closer examination.

    Btw, the Danish Mail actually changed the inscription from DK#1's "FIRE RBS" to DK#4's "4 s.", because the German speaking part of SH had trouble understand what "Fire RBS" means - "4 s(chilling)" was comprehensible for both Danish and German speaking Schleswig-Holsteiners :)

    All the best

    Ole

  • Wiesby / Visby Mølle

    In this post I will try to consolidate information about the Visby Mølle archive by using a timeline and a glossary. I will also provide an estimate of the size of the original archive.

    It is likely that new information will be available in the future; I would like to keep a consolidated view of the Visby history, so if any additional information becomes available, I will update this post by adding/correcting. To support this purpose, I have added a change-log in the bottom, which I will update with change description in headlines.

    ESTIMATE OF THE SIZE OF THE ARCHIVE:

    To my knowledge, there does not exist a complete inventory list of the Visby archive. However, collector Folkart Thielen has done comprehensive research in this field, and has been able to document 48 known covers*, which can be traced back to the Visby archive. Add to that a few items that has been traded privately plus lose stamps/cut-outs (again, using the assumption that lose stamps cancelled DSTRP, BBRO, REISB, BRNS all originate from the archive). Based on that, I would estimate the archive to have contained less than 100 items.

    Obviously this number is uncertain, as for instance, if the archive contained a large number of single stamps from Tønder, these will not be included in the estimate, as these can not be traced back to the archive, if they have been removed from the original cover.

    * For more information on Visby covers, I can warmly recommend Thielen’s article “Esrom-Stempel und handschriftliche Entwertungen auf Briefen nach Wiesby”, which, as the name indicates, focuses on ink cancellations on Visby covers. However, the article also holds a wealth of other interesting information.

    MILESTONE LIST:

    1347 Trøjborg (aka Valdermar’s castle) is first mentioned. Trøyborg, btw, is a “danification” of greek “Troya”

    1745 Thomas Clausen was allowed to demolish Visby Mill (#1) and build Visby Mill#2

    1832 Frederik Höyberg is born

    1851 Farmer Knud Lausten Knudsen buys the Trøjborg castle ruin and builds Visby Hedegaard with the bricks from the castle. According to local legend, the bridge over Trøjborgs surrounding water grave crashed during the movement of the bricks, which explains why there is so much left of the ruin as of today.

    1854 Possible start year for the Visby archive, based on the oldest stamps seen used on Visby covers (Fire RBS Thiele III ,1854 and DK 4, 1854)

    1854 - 1858 Höyberg was not in Visby in these years (exact start and end dates not known). Thus, it is unlikely to find any "Frederik Höyberg, Visby Mølle" covers, at least from 1855 - 1857 - which would have been wrongly addressed.

    1855 The Knudsen family, including Knud and Kresten, is listed in the people’s count (“Folketællingen 1855”) as living at “Visbyhedegaard”

    1860 In the people's count of 1860 (“Folketællingen 1860”) had Höyberg address at Visby Mill. Though listed as both a miller and a "house father", Höyberg was not married. Further, the Visby Mølle household included four "tjenestefolk" (servants / employees).

    1862      The five SH ESR’s (BBRO, BRNS, DSTRP, REISB and SKJBK) are introduced.

    1863      Frederik Höyberg builds Visby Mill#3

    1865 Letter sent from BBRO to “Chresten Knudsen pr Hedegaard”. Kresten Knudsen (b 1836) was son of Knud Lausten Knudsen and died at Visby Hedegaard in 1922.

    1866 Possible end-year of the archive, based on stamp usage. One could imagine, that there exist Visby mill covers until 1875, but this has not been evidenced. A possible but unverified explanation could be, that Höyberg did not operate the mill after 1866 until he sold it in 1875.

    Update August 8th, 2022: End year confirmed by Höybergs memoirs, where he writes about 1866, that he stayed to participate in his friend Kresten Laust Knudsens wedding, whereafter he left Visby to never come back. Any letters addressed to "Höyberg, Visby" from 1867 are unlikely and would be wrongly addressed.

    1875      Frederik Höyberg sells the mill to Johannes Schmidt

    1887      Johannes Schmidt sells the mill to the Drehn-family

    1912      Carl Otto Drehn inherits the mill from his father. He dies in World War I.

    1917 Carl Otto Drehn’s widow marries Frederik Damgaard, who operates the mill likely into the 1930’s. Hereeafter Ive seen no further mentions of the mill.

    1919 Frederik Höyberg dies

    1940 Article in NFT on the SH ESR’s (I have not seen read this article)

    1944 Images of the SH-ESR’s in NFT

    1948 In NFT, Svend Arnholtz refers to the five SH ESR’s in an article about the ESR-ABILD postmark. Later studies determined, that the ABILD mark has never existed and the item which Arnholtz discussed, was a forgery.

    1953 Svend Arnholtz publishes his work “Danske poststempler”. The catalogue does not show actual usage examples of the SH ESR’s, but all five are priced (SKJBK 50,- DKK and the others 100,-), which indicates these cancellations were available on ther market in 1953.

    ca.1995 A collection with several SH ESRs is started. The collection is described as “based on Carl H Langes collection”.

    2007 Above mentioned collection is sold from 2007 onwards at Thomas Hoiland,Copenhagen. The collection was not sold in it’s entirity, but as single objects.

    2008 The Jacob Engel collection is sold on auction. As forum member Nordlicht pointed out to me, it is remarkable, that Jacob Engel’s exceedingly wide-spanning SH collection, did not include any Visby items. This underlines the general picture of the Visby Archive being a very closed archive until 2007.

    Some important milestones, which we do not know:

    - It is not known when Höyberg’s archive was sold – before or after his death – and to who

    - Hamburg philatelist, proofer and auctioneer Carl H Lange, aquired the archive – or apparently a major part of it. It is not known when or how Lange acquired the archive. As the 1990’s collection (see above) is said to be based on Langes collection, it is possible, that the collection was in the Lange family until the 1990’s.

    Glossary:

    ESR / Esrom Cancellation type, resembling the better-known 3-ring postmarks with a number inside. The Esrom type cancellations was used at several Briefsammlungsstellen in Denmark from the late 1850’s, and five of these was used in the Slesvig-Holstein area.

    Höyberg, Frederik Miller in Visby in the 1850 - 60’s. Was later involved in promoting the 1920 referendum (Plebiscite). There is a road in Visby named after Höyberg (Höybergsvej).

    Update August 8th, 2022: Höyberg was never a miller - he was a distiller. The mill processed grain to be used to produce alcohol at Visby Hedegaard

    Knudsen-family Local Visby farmer family. Knud L Knudsen was the head of the family in Höyberg’s time, and the family resided at “Visbyhedegaard”, as it’s listed in the people’s count of 1855. The family consisted of Knud, his wife and their children and 22 employees, including a teacher. Kresten (see timeline above) was the only boy among his three sisters.

    NFT Nordisk Filatelistisk Tidsskrift (Danish stamp magazine)

    SH ESR Esrom type cancellations from the Slesvig-Holstein area. These includes the rare SKJBK postmark and the very rare REISB, BBRO, BRNS and DSTRP postmarks.

    Trøjborg Castle ruin in Visby (near Bredebro) in Southern Jutland

    Visby mill Is in reality three different mills. Höyberg operated the second mill and build the third, which had a wingspan diameter measuring 22 meters. Visby Mill also included a small farm, which in 1992 had 8 ha. land and concentrated on sheep.

    Visby archive Archive of mostly cover fronts, mainly sent to Frederik Höyberg, Visby Mølle. There exist a few covers with other receipients/ destinations (Knudsen, Hedegaard), but due to the similarity in geography and appearance, I consider all these part of the same Visby archive.


    Cheers, Ole

    Change log:

    Jan 5th, 2020 Initial post

    Aug 8th, 2022 Timeline updated (based on Höyberg's memoirs) with philatelisticly interesting dates (1854-58 and 1866) and the glossary entry about Höyberg.