Argentina: Stamps and Covers

[Hugh]

Got this interesting cover from one of Roy's recent auctions. 

It's a commercial airmail cover from Buenos Aires to German-occupied Paris that was returned to sender in 1941.

   

It was posted on February 19,1941 and routed by the Axis-controlled Condor–LATI South Atlantic service.

The single-ring CDS reads VIA AEREA*BUENOS AIRES*E*ARGENTINA* inside the ring and 19?FEB41.19½ in the centre.

   

I don't have a comparator, so my working assumption is that the 'E' after Buenos Aires stands for Expedición ... the dispatch section of the Buenos Aires Central Post Office. I don't think it means Exterior based on a discussion I read on an Argentine forum. 

Source: https://foro.filateliaargentina.org/view...t=60&t=601

The 19½ after the posting date would appear to be a time-stamp ... 7:30PM.

   

The typed instructional marking POR AVION – via CONDOR LATI. indicates that it was to be sent by air mail using the Condor-LATI route. LATI (Linee Aeree Transcontinentali Italiane) inaugurated a regular Rio de Janeiro to Italy service in December 1939. Although it extended it's route to Beunos Aires in July 1941, when this cover was sent the connection between Rio and Buenos Aires was supplied by other airlines ... in this case Condor. From Rio it would have travelled via LATI to Cape Verde, Spain and Italy.

The stamps total 1 peso 45 centavos ... not an inexpensive flight.

There is a large purple hand-stamp on the front. It reads, COMMISSIONE PROVINCIALE DI CENSURA TORINO inside the ring and VERIFICATO in the centre.

That is, the Provincial Censorship Commission in Turin and the word 'Examined'. During this examination, the cover was opened on the left side and resealed with a buff-coloured tape [Verifi]cato par censura / TO = Examined by censorship, Turin. 

   

There is evidence that the Italian censor stamp was also applied on the back. It is partially covered by a German examiner tape used over the flap reading Geöffnet = Opened. On the tape is a large black circular hand-stamp with the German Eagle and Oberkommando der Wehrmacht. There is also a lower case 'e' at the bottom of the hand-stamp indicating that the cover was examined in Frankfurt am Main by the Auslandsbriefprüfstelle (Foreign Letter Examination Service) which was one of two offices tasked with examining mail to and from North and South America. Another German hand-stamp, in purple, has been applied with the number '2' under the eagle. Possibly an additional control or examiner's number. 

Source:  https://www.postalcensorship.com/example...codes.html

   

Following the Italian and German examinations, the cover appears to have been sent to Marseilles where the following three-line purple hand-stamp was applied:

   

RETOUR À L’ENVOYEUR = Return to sender
RELATIONS POSTALES = Postal relations
INTERROMPUES = Interrupted

I say Marsailles based on a specialist French Postal History study which labels this unframed hand-stamp as the "griffe retour de Marseille" and records its dimensions as:

ETOUR À L’ENVOYEUR — 37 mm
RELATIONS POSTALES — 32 mm
INTERROMPUES — 23 mm

These measurements match those on my cover. According to the study mail addressed to the occupied zone of France (in this case Paris) but entering through unoccupied France was redirected to Marseille where this hand-stamp was frequently applied. It noted that the hand-stamp was applied in red ink until October 1940 and, after that, in purple. The exact reason for the return is not clear as Argentina was a neutral country.

Source: https://www.histoire-et-philatelie.fr/pa...cupee.html

Cheers, Hugh

Note: One marking on the  cover I can't explain is this one. It's not German (too big). Is it an Argentine censor mark? The number of the examiner in Italy? A ghost impression. Suggestions welcome.