Moll and Levius - Dutch-Indies to Bratislava 1938

Partially opened registered cover which was sent from Toelangan (Dutch Indies) to Bratislava on the 15th of November 1938. The Registered Fee to other countries apart from the Netherlands and colonies was 20c at that time. Add up the 15c rate to European countries and you're at 35c. Than you're still left with an extra 12c, so I guess that this is the additional Airmail Fee, although I'm not entirely sure about it. According to my resources the Airmail fee was 30c in 1938...  Nevertheless, it seems to me that all the 4 values of the Queen Wilhelmina Ruby Jubilee series of 1938 were correctly used to make up the rate to Bratislava. So this implies a non-philatelic franking!

In 1938 postal services between the Dutch Indies and other countries worldwide were already firmly established. Due to the increased volume of airmail and the introduction of telephone and radio the Indies seemed not longer 'out of reach' or on another planet in the latter half of the 1930s. Still, Queen Wilhelmina never visited her colony and governance remained very bureaucratic and rigid.

Reverse of the cover with 2 cds Prague transit machine cancellations  

The sender of the cover - Cornelis Lodewijk Moll - worked at SF. Kremboong. I discovered he was known as '1e Geëmpl." A chic name for an employee high up in the ranks of a factory. SF. Kremboong made sugar (SF stands for Suikerfabriek, Sugar Factory) and continues to exist as PG Krembung nowadays. When browsing through Google Streetview it seems to me nothing really has changed since the Dutch left in the 1940s. Many of the older architecture, infrastructure etc. still appear to be in use as of today!

SF Kremboong which is now known as PG Krembung. 

I couldn't find anything on Mr Moll by using Google of even the Dutch digital newspaper archives (Delpher.nl). The only time a 'C.L. Moll' pops up was in the obituary below.

Obituary of A.M. van Hamel 17-10-1925. She was the mother in law of C.L. Moll. 

Update 22-2-2020: "Mr Cornelis Lodewijk Moll was born on 28 March 1893 in Utrecht. He married Suzanna Antoinette van Hamel on 24 November 1921 in Haarlem. Suzanna was born on 22 August 1888 in Haarlem. Cornelis was a widower when he married Suzanna, and his profession is listed on his wedding certificate as ‘administrator’ (Suzanna had no profession)." All credits to Ben Jansen!

Still, Cornelis Moll remains a bit of a mystery person. But when compared to the addressee, we could state we almost knew him personally. I found nothing on the addressee. This Arpad Levius lived at the Fochgasse in Bratislava but I'm afraid he didn't survive WOII because of his Jewish sounding surname. Every combination of Arpad (not your ordinary first name) and Levius makes no sense when I put them in Google. This makes the relation between him and C.L. Moll difficult to interpret. Mr Levius might have been a customer of some sort - though Google gives me no clue if Levius or the Arpad family were merchants. Moreover, Moll addressed the letter to him personally, not using any company name etc.

Toelangan registration label and 'Long Beam' cds reading 15.11.38.8-9 V meaning the cover was sent between 8 and 9 a.m.

Prague transit postmark

Whatever their relation has been like, the cover itself is quite a gem - albeit an incomplete entire. The destination is odd (Bratislava only had approx. 140.000 inhabitants in 1939) as is the franking. The registration label might be quite scarce as well, although Toelangan was located on the important east-west Java railway and the big city of Soerabaja lied in close proximity of SF. Kremboong. I hope that the relation between Moll and Levius will become clear one day though - even if Levius only turns out to have been an avid Dutch Indies stamp collector!

Sluis & Groot - Seed trade and an insolvable postal rate

Seed

The devastating consequences of the rinderpest which caused many farmers to loose their livestock during the 18th century, made some affected farmer force to change their way of livelihood. In West Frisia some of them opted for a more stable profession in the seed-cultivation. Better drainage systems improved the (already) very fertile grounds in the region and the first generation of market gardeners / agriculturalists grabbed this opportunity not only to generate and cultivate seeds for their own usage, but for sale as well. At first these West Frisian entrepreneurs combined seed-cultivation and trade in one company, but in the industrial 19th century the (inter)national demand for good quality seed increased so strongly that the businesses of old had to be split in seed-cultivation and trade only companies respectively. To this day seed-cultivation remains one of the biggest industries in West Frisia. 

Trust

One of the most essential elements in the 'seed industry' is the trust between seed-cultivator-trader and trader/supplier-customer/agriculturalist. Whereas a greengrocer judges the crops he buys by checking the freshness of the foliage and the colour, a crop farmer who buys the seeds for these products cannot judge for himself if a particular batch of seeds will produce healthy crops. He has to trust his trader in good faith.

Sluis & Groot

It goes without saying that some traders had more reliable contacts in the seed industry than others, which made customers opt for the best-quality traders. The early start of seed-cultivation and trade in West Frisia wouldn't do the reliable dealers any economic harm in the increased international trade of the 19th century. On the contrary: some of the them became fabulously successful. One of them was Nanne Janszoon Groot (1771-1855) who lived in the small village of Andijk. After his death his sons Pieter and Simon continued the business. In 1867 Nanne's grandchildren Nanne Sluis and Nanne Groot formed the company Sluis & Groot and two brothers of Nanne Sluis, Jacob and Pieter began a company called the Sluis Brothers (later on called Royal Sluis). Both companies became part of large multinationals recently (Syngenta, Seminis, now Monsanto).

Sluis & Groot company in Enkhuizen. Shows the room where all seeds were assembled and prepared for being sent away.

Enkhuizen and the world

At the end of the 19th century both companies moved to Enkhuizen due to better means of transport over water and from 1885 the rail connection with Amsterdam. Already in 1855 certain international contacts were established when the company was still stationed in Andijk (seed traders as Vilmorin-Andrieux in Paris and Ernst Benary in Erfurt). After 1855 the international trade exploded due to the trustful relationship and personal contact between Sluis & Groot and the Sluis Brothers with their customers. They even visited their customers and inspected the quality of the grounds and climate in situ to judge how their seeds would grow there and which seeds would perform better. This research was also in the interest of the seed industry in West Frisia as the companies could inform the cultivators to which standards their seeds should comply. A real win-win situation.

Seed and administrative boom 

It should be no surprise that with such expertise the companies rocketed: in 1905 Dutch seed firms exported a 'mere' 750.000 kilos in seed abroad, but already in 1925 they exported a staggering figure of 5.000.000 kilos to every country in the world. Together with the increased interest in Dutch seeds, both companies had to manage their contacts by means of a large administrative office. In the posts on this blog to follow I will often refer to this one as we'll see many postcards, envelopes, bills etc. addressed to and sent by seed traders, agriculturalists etc. The first example is shown below:

Cover (front only) from Sluis & Groot to a crop farmer (landbouwer) in Avereest in the Dutch province of Overijssel. 22th of August 1905. 

The cover above was registered and weighted 30 grams. It was sent registered and insured since an amount of ƒ210,00 was enclosed. The rate was made up as follows: 10c for a domestic destination (2nd weight class 15-50 grams) + a 10c registered fee + 3 times 2,5c for insurance. Per ƒ100 it would have cost the company 2,5c. So that would be (10 + 10 + 7,5 = 27,5) 27,5c.... 27,5c? Yes, according to the handbook by W.S. da Costa on Dutch rates, but why is there a Wilhelmina fur-collar stamp of only 22,5c attached to the cover?

Wilhelmina fur collar 22,5c stamp

The reason why there could be a 22,5c stamp on this cover could have resulted from a (for the PTT) unprofitable arrangement. Until the first of March 1921 the registration fee was (partially) included in the assurance fee. So, Sluis & Groot only had to pay a 2,5c registration fee on top of  the 7,5c insurance costs. Then the sum should tally: 10c 2nd weight class + 7,5c + 2,5 = 20c.......... Ooopsss....

Maybe the postal clerk forgot to charge the 2nd weight class of 10c: the first weight class which goes up to 15 grams needed a 5c stamp in 1905. 5 + 10 + 7,5 = 22,5. However, it is odd to forget such a basic rule and moreover he completely forgot the registration fee inclusion as well.

I cannot believe though that I've more knowledge than a 1905 postal clerk. The rate has to be right, but the difficulty remains: how was is composed?

  

Dutch Field Post Office (NAPO 880)

During my stay in Sliema (Malta) this spring I payed a visit to the local stamp shop, aptly named Sliema Stamp Shop. The owners were very polite in helping me when I asked for Dutch covers. My search turned into a real quest though! Initially they thought that had only some Dutch stamps. After some minutes one of the owners found a stock book entirely filled with European stamps other than Malta, Italy and the UK. Alas, there were no gems inside, as the Dutch stamps were mainly Juliana and Beatrix definitives. So I turned to a large bookcase opposite of the counter which was stuffed with a range of boxes containing a mix of European covers. Apparently, the owners never sorted this material because I bumped upon some great Dutch covers. All post-war era, but interesting combinations and registered items nevertheless. It remains a mystery how these covers finished up on Malta though! One of the covers is shown below, a registered Dutch field post cover:

Dutch field post cover, registered NAPO 880, 1993

The cover dates from 1993 and was sent from field post office (veldpostkantoor) 880. After some research I found out the field post office was located in Seedorf (Germany) between Bremen and Hamburg. In the late 50s of the previous century the NATO embraced a new strategy which was called 'forward defense'. This implied that NATO's first line of defense was to be relocated from the rivers Rhine and IJssel to the Weser river in Germany a few hundred kilometers to the east. NATO asked the Netherlands to relocate their forces to this new line of defense, but this move created a range of logistical problems as all the Dutch active divisions were stationed in the Netherlands at that time. The West-German and Dutch governments therefore reached an agreement to let the Dutch units stay in a German base in Seedorf where there were plenty of facilities. From 1963 until 2006 the 41st brigade of the Dutch army was stationed there.

Queen Beatrix visits the base in 1986. Copyright: ANP photo, Royal Images, Marcel Antonisse. 

The '41' mark in both the senders' address box as the almost illegible black/purple hand stamp point to the 41st brigade. The cover was processed in Utrecht, where all Dutch field post is still collected. The meter mark reads ƒ 8.50,- which comprises both the then valid domestic rate of ƒ 1.00 and the extra ƒ 7.50 required for registered mail. As in other countries, field post was (and is) only liable to inland, domestic rates. I am puzzled a bit why this cover was franked in Utrecht, instead of Seedorf. Similar covers from Seedorf used Beatrix definitive and were cancelled with a Napo 880 postmark: see here: http://www.hsp-veldpost.nl/oefeningen/1993/napo-0880_1993-11-02_vp69.jpg.

I guess that the envelope was sent by the Ministry of Defense, so that the cover was essentially classified as official mail. This might explain the absence of stamps.

New Rembrandt discovered!

Rembrandt van Rijn - Newly discovered portrait of a young man - circa 1634

Exciting news in the Dutch quality newspaper NRC this afternoon: after ages a Rembrandt painting has resurfaced!

"A painting of a young man bought at a London auction house has been identified as the work of Rembrandt, making it the first unknown painting by the Dutch master to turn up in 44 years.

Amsterdam art dealer and historian Jan Six discovered the painting, which dates from around 1634 and may be part of a large double portrait. He bought the work, undated and unsigned, 18 months ago at an auction at Christie’s in London."

See for more information: https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2018/05/15/new-rembrandt-masterpiece-identified-in-amsterdam-a1602966

Out of interest I traced the painting down on christies.com and it apparently was sold on the 9th of December 2016 for a mere £. 137,000. Now it has been identified as a Rembrandt, it will probably sell for over 5 million euro. Very painful - to say the least - that Christie's misidentified the artist as a painter in the circle of Rembrandt...ouch! In a Dutch late night talk show a former employee of Christie's Netherlands said this find does add to the 'mystique' of the auction: apparently it is still possible to discover a Rembrandt in such a renowned auction house! Still, he had to acknowledge this sleeper should have been identified as a Rembrandt. He said that the shift in expertise from old masters to modern art (which is more profitable) could be the reason of the error.

The portrait had been in the possession of the Neave Baronetcy for ages, but the current baronet sold it two years ago to the auction house. Today he wasn't able to give comments about the situation... 

TNT Post issued a series of six stamps in 2006 as Rembrandt was born in 1606: his fourth centenary.

Etching of an old woman seated (Probably Rembrandt's mother)

Etching of a man with beard in eastern garments (maybe Rembrandt's father)

Rembrandt's son Titus

Saskia van Uylenburgh: Rembrandt's wife

Woman standing in the doorway (maybe Rembrandt's later partner Hendrickje Stoffels)

The stamps were sold in sheets of five. Each stamp could be used for a normal postcard or letter within the Netherlands. Until 01-01-2007 the domestic rate was € 0,39: now you have to lay down € 0,83 for one stamp! A special stamp to be used on registered items was issued simultaneously with the stamps above. The then already crazy rate of € 6,45 was the price to acquire the stamp, but it has to be said you received a very specially crafted item in return. The printing was done by means of copper plates, adding to the 'special' effect which made the etching's lines tangible. A very special stamp indeed! I only do not get how my copy was postmarked by an ordinary cancelling machine...that was (and still is) not the procedure for registered items in the Netherlands. I gather the sender made an expensive mistake by using this stamp for an ordinary letter...

Etching portraying Rembrandt and his wife Saskia van Uylenburgh. Registered rate € 6,45.