Lot# 8031

tied by violet double-ring “TAIWAN REPUBLIC – TAINAN” cds, with “LOCAL POST OFFICE AMOY SE 20 95” arrival alongside, addressed to “H. A. Petersen & Co., Amoy.” Mailed during the brief postal operation following the proclamation of the Taiwan Republic in May 1895 (Kuanghsu 21), this cover bears the first officially issued stamp of the Tainan Post Office, used for handling foreign commercial correspondence. The letter originated in Tainan and was conveyed via private shipping to Amoy, where the local post office applied its arrival marking, clearly showing that postal communication between Formosa and the Chinese treaty ports continued even after Taiwan’s declaration of independence. It represents a rare surviving example demonstrating the continued functioning of the Republic’s independent postal system on the eve of Japanese occupation, and serves as an important document for the study of the Taiwan Republic’s postal administration and its links with South China. One of the most representative and rare commercial covers in the postal history of Qing-era Taiwan. Mizuhara "Huayou Jijin II" vol. 7, p.270.