France massive mostly eighteenth century pre-stamp postal history collection of over 900 covers, these are collected as entire folded letters with very few exceptions, all are written up on pages telling about the towns and markings as well as often the contents of the letters and who they are written and signed by if they are personages of relevance, the collection is collected by departments (analogous to counties within states in the United States) with 29 different departments being represented with numerous individual post offices within the departments and thus hundreds of different towns in total, often a town has a number of different postmarks, the vast majority being in what is called the ancient period of postal history from the very late 17th century to 1791 when manuscript and locally produced handstamps identified the town of departure (reference is made to the works Louis Lenain on this area), while this period includes the start of the French Revolution, the period of the Revolution postally starts in 1792 with department numbers included with the town postmark which were more uniform and issued from Paris rather than locally made, there are often a few covers from this period to 1799 when Napoleon came to power and there are even a few covers in the early Napoleonic period mostly before 1805, the most important section are the variety of markings that were used prior to 1791 including manuscript markings as well as early handstamps, one of the largest departments is Department 12 of Bouches du Rhone with over 160 covers which includes the major cities of Marseilles and Aix, we note a rare strike of a "BARBA NTANE" straight line used only in 1721 when the Aix Parliament (Supreme Court) moved there because of the threat of the plague that was ravaging Aix and its environs, Department 78 of Var has over 85 covers including a nice section of Toulon with 39 covers, Department 10 of Aude has 79 covers and Department 33 has 70 covers, other scarce and unusual markings include a lovely strike of a "LARGENTIERE" straight line of Department 6 of Ardeche, the only handstamp of this short lived small town, also 1789 red "AURILLAC" and "P. PAYE" straight lines with both red markings and prepaid covers not being common in this period, plus a fancy Crown and "L" of Limousin of Department 81Haute-Vienne on two covers in black and red respectively, we also note over 50 covers of occupied territories of Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Monaco, condition will vary on a collection of this size and scope but the collector was quite selective and overall fine-very fine with few exceptions; a lovely collection containing a great amount of information about the covers collected and well worth examining to discover the treasures contained here.

Est. $10,000-15,000

France pre-stamp interesting postal history accumulation of over 475 covers that are largely unsorted and unwritten up, but this does not mean that there are not some rare and interesting covers contained herein, the large majority are 18th century covers though we note a couple of 17th century covers as early as 1637, plus there are some 19th century covers of the Napoleonic era and later, most covers have manuscript or strait line post marks of the towns of origin with a wide variety of different towns in the 1700s, we note some scarce and rare markings such as a red Crown and "P" handstamp on folded letter dated July 1, 1771 which according to Louis Lenain is the first day of this marking's usage, also a ca 1790 cover with st. line "VILLENEUVE" h.s. of of Villeneuve-sur-Verberie and a Fluer-de-lis and "P.P". receiving h.s. of Paris, plus a ca 1794 entire letter with red st. line "LE BOURGET" h.s., both of these straight lines are considered rare, other kinds of covers that we note are covers coming into France from the colonies with various "Colonies" markings, we note three with "MARTINIQUE" st. line h.s., plus covers from occupied territories around Europe with cities of Germany, Austria, Denmark, Switzerland and Italy all represented and including a few military markings of various armies and detachments, condition varies but the vast majority are entire letters as opposed to simply cover sheets and generally fine-very fine for the period; this is a very interesting accumulation and requires careful examination as we have only scratched the surface on the desirable items included.

Est. $4,000-5,000

France pre-stamp postal history collection of free franked mail in the period of the 18th century into the early part of the 19th century including the Napoleonic period, free frank privilege was granted to various government officials and agencies, military institutions and even some religious organizations for specific purposes, collected here are 119 covers and four postal receipts written up on pages, we note an early 1744 cover with ms. "Dijon" pmk. with very rare straight line "Affaires du Roy" handstamp, much attention is given to the history of the government offices of the French Revolution in the 1790s with various markings of the National Assembly followed by the National Convention, being the main ruling bodies during this period including related agencies and government offices, we note a very rare red marking "P/B.G" in circle handstamp of the "Postes Bureau du Gouvernement" this is believed to be the only departure marking used by the Special Office of the Government before the days of the Empire, often the collector identifies the signatories on these letters and notices when thy are officials of significance, one section is devoted to the Postal Department from the mid-1700s to 1835, with various signatures of high postal officials as well as the handstamp cachets of various bureaus within the department, condition varies but the vast majority are fine-very fine; an interesting collection with emphasis on the French Revolution and its aftermath; examine.

Est. $1,500-2,000

France eighteenth century Bordeaux pre-stamp collection of 36 entire folded letters, a wonderfully documented collection on pages with extensive write ups, starts with the single 17th century letter of 1697 to Nieuwpoort, Belgium with ms. "de bordx" marking which is rare on covers prior to 1700, a lovely feature of this collection are nineteen covers with the various "B" and Fluer-di-lis handstamp markings that were used by Bordeaux as a postmark of origin between 1704-1787, there are seventeen of the nineteen different types that were used in this period, the first type, which was used between 1704 and 1722, is on a March 25, 1704 cover being very early in its usage, several of these markings are scarce to rare, also includes later departure markings including two scarce circular Port Paye (prepaid) markings, three different circular Colonies entry markings including one with "B/Colonnies" and Fluer-di-lis from Fort Royal in Martinique, five covers are after 1791 to 1807 showing department numbers, in this case "32", and entry markings on foreign mail coming into Bordeaux, condition is clean and attractive, fine-very fine; an excellent collection featuring the "B" cancels which are considered to be France's first fancy cancel.

Est. $1,000-1,500

France mint and used stock to about 1920 housed in an old stockbook, somewhat messy, but we noted used #1 (4), 7 (3), 9 (2), mint 12 (2), used 13 (10), 19 (17), strong perforated Napoleon issues to 5Fr. (4), good Bordeaux issues, 1870-73 perforated Ceres including 25c (10), good Peace and Commerce types with mint #81, 82 (23) all but two n.h., 84 (3), 95 (3), 96 used (2), 101, Sowers with 133-37, 135 (4) and more, also includes an accumulation on stock cards and glassines with some better items noted, early classics in typical mixed condition, but not awful with many nice sound stamps as well as shades and cancel, later issues largely o.g., l.h., n.h. or used, fine-very fine; deserves a careful look as there are surprises.

Est. $2,000-3,000

France cover assortment of maybe a couple hundred nineteenth and twentieth century covers and cards, there is a wide variety of material here ranging from classic covers to maximum cards with some better items noted such as 1922 Semi-postal surcharge set cancelled on one cover, April 1914 Monaco air mail rally flight card, postal stationery, picture post cards and much more; worth a look.

Est. $300-400