Austrian DDSG P.O. in Beirut 1839 (Sept 14): Entire letter from
Beirut to the Sardinian Consul in Aleppo, struck by extremely
Austrian DDSG P.O. in Beirut 1839 (Sept 14): Entire letter from
Beirut to the Sardinian Consul in Aleppo, struck by extremely rare
double-circle "D.D.S.G. / BAYROUTH / P.P." handstamp in black,
applied on the DDSG shipping line Smyrna - Beirut - Alexandria,
internal archival note gives September 24 as date of receipt. Cert.
Puschmann (2000). Note: The DDSG was founded in 1829 and was
originally thought to provide transport and postal services on the
Danube and some of its tributary rivers such as Tisza and Save.
However, already in the 1830s it extended its services far beyond
that river into the Black Sea and even into the Marmara and Aegean
Seas. At the end of this decade postal services from Beirut and
Jaffa were offered. Tranmer mentions in his treatise on the
Austrian Post Offices abroad, part 8 (1976) on p. 21 that the
creation of a Constantinople - Beirut - Alexandria line of the DDSG
was decided in 1838 but no material is recorded. With a first
journey on 1 June 1839, the vessel ‘Seri Pervas’ was running the
line Smyrna - Chios - Cos - Rhodes - Larnaca down to Alexandretta,
from August 1839 further via Beirut & Jaffa down to Alexandria. But
already in July 1840 during the Egyptian - Ottoman War and finally
with a severe accident of the 'Seri Pervas' the history of this
line found its end. DDSG services in the Eastern Mediterranean in
general have been short living, as already in 1845 all DDSG
agencies outside the Danube (and Odessa as exception) were taken
over by the Austrian Lloyd, the two companies were dividing 'the
world of shipmail' between themselves. The present cover is one of
three recorded with a DDSG BAYROUTH handstamp, the second written
two weeks later on September 23, 1839 and directed to the Sardinian
Consul in Alexandria, and the last one accepted by the Beirut DDSG
agency as late as July 1841, one year after closure of the DDSG
Syrian coast line. All were unknown to Müller in his monograph
dealing with Austrian pre-stamp mail (1960) and its two
supplements, and as already mentioned also in Tranmer - Austrian
Post Offices Abroad, part 8 (1976). The present BAYROUTH cover
shows the earliest postmark recorded from any postal service used
in Beirut, much earlier than any French or Russian service
available. Provenance: Collection Cihangir, Corinphila sale 121
(May 2000), lot 1892
