1857 10k brown & blue, margins all around, tied by "Riga Mar 12" pmk on complete outer FL addressed to Twer, with "Polucheno Mar 17" (received) arrival datestamp on reverse, fresh and v.f. Russia Number One on cover, ex-Faberge, with 2015 Eichele certificate (Cat No. 1) (Image)

Est.US$2,500

1857 10k brown & blue, large margins on three sides, including sheet margin at left, close but clear at bottom, with closed tear, canceled by pen cross and tied by two-line "GAYSIN 4 Mar 1858" datestamp on small cover addressed to Kobrin, fine appearing example of Russia Number One used on cover from Gaisin (Ukraine) to Kobryn (Belarus), with 2017 Eichele certificate (Cat No. 1) (Image)

Est.US$1,500

1858 20k lilac & green, perforated proof on unwatermarked stamp paper, h.r., fresh and v.f., signed Mikulski, with his 1985 certificate, cat. $1000 (Cat No. 3P) (Image)

Cat. $1000, Est.US$500

1860 (13 May) stampless cover with contents sent by a soldier in Tiflis to Prince Emil Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, Colonel and Aide-de-Camp to the Emperor of Russia, in Wiesbaden, then forwarded to Schlangenbad. Postmarked Tiflis, Tauroggen, Frankfurt and Wiesbaden on arrival, fine (Image)

Est.US$100

1864 (18 Feb) cover franked with 5k black blue, tied by red "St. Petersburg 17 Feb 1864 Local Post 6" double ring pmk in large Cyrillic Caps, repeated on back, used locally, filing fold away from the stamp, v.f., with 1995 Mikulski certificate (correctly used on cover prior to July 1864) cat. $4500 (Cat No. 11) (Image)

Cat. $4500, Est.US$2,500

1865 10k stationery entire envelope, with indicia on back canceled by pen, sent from St. Petersburg (7.3.65) to Prince Vasily Andreyevich Dolgorukov, Director of the Third Department of His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery and Chief of the Corps of Gendarmes. Dolgorukov was Director from 1856 to 1866. After Tsar Alexander II was almost assassinated in April 1866, Dolgorukov resigned and was named Head Chamberlain of the Court (Image)

Est.US$100

1866-70 vertically laid paper, 5k black & lilac, h.r., fresh color, tiny toned speck, fine and very rare stamp, ex-Small collection, cat. $10000 (Cat No. 22c) (Image)

Cat. $10000, Est.US$2,500

1872 (21 Apr) outer FL franked with two each 1k and 3k (horizontally laid) and 10k (vertically laid), paying 28k from Odessa to Leipzig, filing fold away from the stamps, one 3k defective, with "Aus Russland" and "Frankirovano" (paid) handstamps, arrival pmk on back (Image)

Est.US$150

1899 (7 Dec) an autograph mourning cover, franked with 10k Arms, sent from Gatchino by Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich (1878-1918) to his former tutor Ferdinand Thormeyer in Carouge, Switzerland. The cover has Michael's wax seal with Romanov crown and cipher (Michael became heir to the throne when his brother Grand Duke George died of tuberculosis in the Caucasus in June 1899) (Image)

Est.US$150

1904 (20 Feb) an autograph cover franked with 10k Arms, sent from the Warsaw railway station in St. Petersburg by Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich to his former tutor Ferdinand Thormeyer in Carouge, Switzerland. The envelope has an embossed crown and Michael's cipher and wax seal. Michael was heir to the throne (Image)

Est.US$150

1945 1r blue & orange, single and vertical pair, imperf. at left, used, v.f. (Cat No. 1018var) (Image)

Est.US$150

1903 (3 Aug) picture postcard franked with two 3k Arms, sent by a soldier on maneuvers to Sophia, Bulgaria. Postmarked "Field Post-Telegraph-Telegraph Office XX Army Corps" (only recorded examples), "Main Field Post-Telegraph Office Southern Army, Verro" (4.8.03), Postal Wagon No. 125 (Pskov-Pernov rail line), Roustchouk and Sophia. The sender wrote his message in the Estonian village of Rauge "Third day on maneuvers. I am an orderly at the headquarters of the 20th Army Corps of the Southern Army. The Southern Army consists of the 1st and 20th Army Corps, and the Northern Army consists of the Guards and 18th Army Corps. We have a day's rest after almost dying. You cannot imagine - on the first day we marched 30 kilometers, and the second day another 30 kilometers, all at the quick march. Only ten-minute breathers. The village of Rauge contains Estonians and Germans - a beautiful place. We meet the enemy in the morning.") The grand maneuvers of 1903 took place from 1 August to 9 August in an area around Pskov. A fine and scarce card, illustrated in Rossica No.165 (Image)

Est.US$250

1905 Russo-Japanese War Issue, set of four, overprinted Specimen (Obrazets) in horizontal strips of eight, sensibly hinged, fine-v.f. (Cat No. B1-4S) (Image)

Est.US$1,200

1875 (29 Sep) 5k stationery card from Krasnoyarsk to London, sent by John Milne (a mining engineer, geologist, and the father of modern seismology. In 1875 the Japanese government offered him a position as Professor of Mining and Geology at the Imperial College of Engineering in Tokyo. He left home on 3 August 1875 and traveled for seven months across Siberia, Mongolia, and China. During his 20 years in Japan, Milne became one of the leading experts on earthquakes and co-invented the Gray-Milne seismograph). The message, written in Krasnoyarsk reads, "My dear Mother, I am now en route for Irkutsk with General Smirnikof and Baron Stackelberg. We muster 4 carriages in all. At every station now we are in Eastern Siberia (which is the General's territory). The post horses and drivers neatly dressed are in waiting when we stop at a village to take tea or supper". The 5k postcard was sold for the current rate of 4 kopecks and could not be mailed abroad until 19 June 1875, some ink discoloration, illustrated in BJRP No.107, ex-Wortman (Image)

Est.US$250

1892 (26 Mar) 4k stationery card sent from Kola to Berlin, with "P.O.V+G Kola", with hand-drawn map on back, showing sender's route from Norway to Kola, skirting Lake Enare in Finland. The message, datelined Kola, reads, "Greetings from 69th north, 52nd east of Ferro, where I arrived in the following manner: ("picture of reindeer 1 pulling the guide/interpreter in a sleigh, followed by reindeers 2 and 3 each pulling luggage, reindeer 4 without a sleigh, and reindeer 5 pulling the writer, sometimes like this (picture of the writer falling off the back of his sleigh after his reindeer is frightened by a wolf). The day after tomorrow I will journey back and tell you more."). Kola had a population of 600 at this time (Image)

Est.US$150

1896 (9 Sep) postcard sent from Vladivostok, via Nagasaki and Yokohama to Munich by a sailor on the German armored cruiser SMS Kaiser, part of the German East Asia Squadron. The message reads, "On board SMS Kaiser, Greetings from Siberia", with arrival pmk (Image)

Est.US$100

1897 (18 Aug) 4k stationery card sent from Vladivostok, via Nagasaki and Yokohama to Schleswig, Germany by a sailor on the German cruiser SMS Arcona, part of the German East Asia Squadron, with arrival pmk (Image)

Est.US$100

1901 (12 Oct) picture postcard mailed from Vladivostok, via Nagasaki and Yokohama to New York. The message reads, "On the deck of Graf Ignatieff. Now I am on the steamer named G. Ignatieff and am near Blagoveshchensk. Wonderful to tell you that the Amoor River is going very sandy year after year, and so often our steamer lost its movement." The Graf Ignatiev transported passengers on the Amur River from 1894 until 1957 (Image)

Est.US$100

1902 (31 Aug) a folding postcard with a panoramic view of Vladivostok, sent from Vladivostok to Tsingtau, China, postmarked "Postal Wagon No.265" (3.9.02, earliest recorded postmark from the Harbin to Port Arthur direction), Port Arthur transit and Chefoo arrival pmks; also included is a 1903 cover from Khabarovsk to Vladivostok, stationery of Enoch Emery, an American merchant with general stores in Siberia, sent in care of American Commercial Agent Richard Theodore Greener (who was the first African-American to graduate from Harvard and was US Commercial Agent in Vladivostok from 1898-1905) (Image)

Est.US$200

1906 (1 July) folded panoramic view card of Vladivostok mailed on a Chinese Eastern Railway train and sent to France, franked with 1k and 3k Arms, tied by oval Vladivostok-Harbin pmks, with St. Die, Vosges arrival on back (Image)

Est.US$100

1907 (10 June) 3k stationery card uprated with 1k Arms, written on an eastbound Trans-Siberian Railway train "near Omsk". When the sender reached Vladivostok he posted it on the ship "Baltica" of the Russian East-Asiatic Steamship Co. which was sailing to Tsuruga, Japan. The card was then transported by rail to Yokohama and placed on a ship to Seattle. Postmarked "Paraxod Ob. R. V. A. P." and Yokohama (23 June), with framed "Paquebot" applied in Tsuruga (Hosking 3441 "very rare"). The sender was Samuel Vestey, whose family was one of the richest in England. The message reads in part, "My address will be British Post Office Hankow. These are the new Russian cards. I will try to get the whole set at Vladivostok but doubt whether they will have them there yet." (Image)

Est.US$150

1908 (25 Sep) U.S. picture postcard from East Orange, New Jersey, via Tsuruga to the American Consul Lester Maynard in Vladivostok, with transit and arrival pmks. Maynard was consul in Vladivostok from 1908 to 1911 (Image)

Est.US$100

1909 (14 July) picture postcard franked with 1k and 4k Arms, sent from Vladivostok to Dresden by sailor Karl Ernst Wilhelm Apelt on the German armored cruiser SMS Scharnhorst, part of the German East Asia Squadron. In December 1914 she was sunk by the Royal Navy near the Falkland Islands. The Russian cruiser Askold can be seen (with five funnels) in the photo of Vladivostok harbor on the back of the postcard (Image)

Est.US$100

1911 (3 Aug) 4k stationery card with additional franking (1k-14k Arms, paying total of 45k) sent from Vladivostok to Leipzig by sailor Alfred Hahndorf serving on a German warship. The SMS Scharnhorst, Emden, Leipzig, and Nurnberg were visiting Vladivostok. Hahndorf was taken prisoner in 1914 when the Japanese captured Tsingtao. He returned to Germany in 1920 (Image)

Est.US$100

1911 (5 Aug) an illustrated Japanese envelope, franked with 10k Arms, sent from Vladivostok to Hamburg (by Chief Stoker Sandberg on the German light cruiser SMS Nurnberg, part of the German East Asia Squadron. The Nurnberg was sunk by the Royal Navy at the Battle of the Falkland Islands on 8 December 1914), minor cover creases and wear, otherwise fine (Image)

Est.US$100