Lot number 3848 - Auction 160
PHILATELIEGESCHICHTE - NIEDERLANDE /

HISTORY OF PHILATELY - THE NETHERLANDS / BELGIUM / INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMACY VARIOUS POSTAL AREAS A compilation from various fields of collecting. An exceptional philatelic souvenir album belonging to a Dutch collector or stamp dealer with international contacts, circa 1925-1928. An extensive original souvenir album containing several hundred mounted items, stamps, vignettes, complete counter sheets, dealer and official cancellations, registered post and telegram slips, as well as numerous contemporary autographs and official seals. The volume, titled in Dutch 'Mijn Philatelistische Reis' ('My Philatelic Journey'), impressively documents the international history of philately and postal services in the 1920s. The album was evidently compiled by a dedicated Dutch philatelist or stamp dealer and combines, in an exceptional manner, classic philately with a personal record of the international postal and collecting world of that era. Particularly noteworthy are the numerous pages featuring original postmarks, seals and signatures from diplomatic missions in The Hague, including, amongst others, those of the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Greece, Romania, Egypt, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, Turkey and Cuba. The album is complemented by numerous original postmarks from Dutch postal, telegraph and railway authorities, as well as from well-known stamp dealers and philatelic associations in Belgium and the Netherlands. The collection also includes complete counter sheets, including some from the Belgian Congo and Belgium, early charity and commemorative vignettes, historical postal memorabilia, telegram and registered post slips, express and insured post labels, as well as numerous philatelic promotional and club vignettes from the interwar period. The album is less a traditional stamp collection than an extraordinary historical document of international philately and postal history from the 1920s, offering a rare insight into the close links between the stamp trade, postal administrations and the diplomatic corps in The Hague immediately after the First World War. Original binding. Condition reflects age and use. Overall, a remarkably complete and well-preserved document of considerable documentary and cultural-historical interest