Lot# 8032

tied by double-ring “FORMOSAN REPUBLIC / TAIWAN” English datestamp dated October 12, 1895. Addressed in pencil to C. A. Walker, the red-band envelope represents the typical format of late-Qing commercial correspondence from Taiwan to foreign treaty ports, reflecting a distinctive period style and export-mail format. Posted during the final, unsettled weeks before the fall of the Taiwan Republic, the cover shows that the postal administration continued to maintain outward sea-mail connections despite political and military turmoil, an important testament to the final phase of Taiwan’s autonomous postal service. According to Meiso Mizuhara's research, this issue (30 Cash, 50 Cash, and 100 Cash, Die III) was printed on imported European paper, thin to medium wove with horizontal watermark lines, perforated before hand-overprinting, usually showing uneven perforation at the edges, a characteristic feature of the series. In total about 8,000 stamps were actually used, of which covers bearing genuine postal usage are exceedingly few. This envelope is not only a key item for studying the late postal operation of the Taiwan Republic and its commercial communication with South China, but also one of the most symbolically important and academically valuable surviving postal artifacts in the postal history of Qing-era Taiwan. Mizuhara "Huayou Jijin II" vol. 7, p.272.