Cape of Good Hope: Cork Cancellations
These covers below do not show cork cancellers. The small orange 'buns' are discreet cork markers or identifiers. However, their method of manufacture was much the same as a 'cork canceller'. They have been made from the cork of presumably a small bottle. The cork has been quartered unevenly, as is often the way with such ad hoc solutions.
What their purpose was, I do not know but I guess they show that the letter was either to be censored or had been censored. It was an office admin mark. The two examples below and the one in Gawie Hugo's 'Table Mountain, The Inspiration' display, are the only examples I have seen. There must be more. As all three covers are from Stellenbosch, I assume that these office admin marks were applied there, not elsewhere as Gawie states.
The dates of my three recorded covers are: 26 August 1901; 21 September 1901 and 7 November 1901. Only the earliest cover has an 'OPENED UNDER MARTIAL LAW." label. Had they run out of labels by 21st September or were they no longer a requirement? If anyone has another example or knowledge of this, please share it with us here.
I have a theory. During the South African War there was a large Remount centre in Stellenbosch. Horses were key to mobility among the combatants by late 1901 when these covers were 'marked'. In April 1901, General Jan Smuts had invaded the Cape Colony. Born in Riebeek West in 1870, some 75km from Cape Town, he was educated in Stellenbosch. He rallied some 3,000 Cape Boers to the Republican cause, including my great uncle Elias Nel from Calvinia. For a time some of his Boer forces were based in the Hex River Valley, some 70 miles (112km) from Stellenbosch. At one point Smuts was said to be close enough to Cape Town to see Table Mountain. The possibility of Smuts capturing Stellenbosch and its Remount horses and igniting a wider rebellion among the Cape Dutch sent the British into a 'flap' between August and November 1901. Even Cape Town was a bit panicked at this time by the proximity of Boer forces. To reassure the citizenry extra security measures were introduced. Perhaps one was the tightening up of censorship. Letters from Stellenbosh were either marked with the small orange cork identifier to show they were yet to be censored, or more likely as all mail had to be censored, that the letter had already been censored and was approved for posting. This theory may have nothing to do with Jan Smuts or cork cancellers as we know them! If we could find earlier examples to show this was normal procedure, my theory would evaporate like Karoo rain.
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I found this in a 'Discovery of Diamonds' display. I think the comment that the diamond-shaped cork canceller was used in Kimberley is 'interesting' but, like all things to do with Cape cork canceller's, "where's the bloody horse?".
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And I thought 'Cork' Cancellers were Irish! (There was supposed to be a smiley there but don't know where to get it from!).
Q: Why does an Irishman wear two condoms?
A: 'To be sure, to be sure!'
I have now received the items below and as promised earlier I have replaced the internet copy with a decent scan. The item that has got me excited most is the CoGH 1/- green stamp with single 'bun' cork canceller. It is perforated with initials ascribed to 'Bagshaw, Gibaud and Co.' of Port Elizabeth. (BGL on perfin.) This suggests but does not conclusively prove that this cork canceller was used in PE. What this post does prove is the desperate measures cork canceller collectors go to to grasp at straws that suggest provenance. See next post.
The other two Cape cork canceller items are also nice to have. I believe that rather than using the top of a cork to make the canceller that worked like a standard handstamp that was pressed downwards onto the paper, these were cut into the body (length) of the cork and then rolled like a barrel over the parcel. This may have required a device rather like the roller shown. The cork or soft wood wood have been drilled through the centre allowing it to turn on a shaft. It should be easy to recreate. Perhaps when I have an idle moment I will do so.
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It is two years since the last post on Cork Cancellers. I believe we achieved a relatively comprehensive overview of the subject. Yannis' examples were superb, Underbidder's unique. However there is always room for improvement, particularly in identifying their provenance! So, further to the preceding 'BGL' on perfin, ('Bagshaw, Gibaud and Co.' of Port Elizabeth), can perfins provide a potential way to identify the originating post office of a cork canceller? Yes, I can hear the naysayers neighing "it's not a perfect science!"
I recently bought some more cork cancellers in a SACS auction. Included among this lot was a Block of four COGH 1896 yellow-ochre with a 'C & H' perfin. The Cork Canceller is the relatively common Double Circle enclosing 'C'. This was said by Goldblatt to have been used in Cape Town. Where is his proof? He also said the 'K B' cork canceller was possibly used in Kalk Bay. The fact that such an eminent postal historian as Goldblatt said so does not make it true. He was quite wrong about the 'K B' which was, as Yannis shows, used in Kimberley. I would like to see more uncontestable proof for their provence, like the 'K B' and Underbidder's covers.
This thread began with Yannis posting some beautiful examples of Cork Cancellers, absolute crackers. He showed several versions of the one below. He stated, presumably on the accepted wisdom of Goldblatt, that this was used in Cape Town. I have not seen any proof of this claim and would not know where to find butyes, I feel that as it has a 'C' in the centre it does suggest use in Cape Town. I now hope to add a little extra perfin proof of my own. It is not an elegant discovery. It is one that comes in via the back door
Circa 1898. 'C & H' (Cleghorn and Harris) perfin. Presumably Cape Town.
This block bears one of the several types of Double Circle enclosing 'C' cork cancellers that Yannis shows. The block also has a 'C & H' perfin, making the stamps once the property of Cleghorn and Harris of Cape Town, a prominent up-market 19th-century department store at the top-end of Adderley Street. This perfin establishes to some extent that this particular Cork Canceller WAS used on Cleghorn and Harris' parcels. But was it used in Cape Town? I believe it was despite Cleghorn and Harris having branches all over the Cape and elsewhere. This is not definitive proof. It is circumstantial evidence that supports Goldblatt's opinion.
If only more Cork Cancelled stamps carried a perfin!
Oh dear. The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men. I had imagined that if I found more perfins on stamps cancelled by a Cork Canceller I might be able to link them to the places where they were probably used. I never anticipated the result, below.
This was not what I was expecting. Cleghorn & Harris' perfinned stamps have been cancelled with three different cork cancellers, Cape Town in the precding post and these two above. This suggests one of two things, either Cape Town used more than one Cork Canceller as seen in the preceding post or that these are examples from Cleghorn & Harris' branches scattered across the wider Cape countryside.
I am none the wiser.