Lot# 7031

uprated with a half-cent coiling dragon stamp, cancelled by the extremely rare "大清郵政分局 / KIANGNAN ARSENAL / 江南製造局 " double-circle date stamp. On the back, there was a Shanghai bilingual bisected c.d.s. (Day 7th of the first month, the year Shen), with the character "Shen" used to represent the year, Kyoto arrival c.d.s. The card is partially trimmed. Kiangnan Arsenal was one of the two shipbuilding arsenals in Qing Dynasty, China , located at the Southern part of Shanghai. The other arsenal is Foochow Arsenal in Fukien Province. These two have evolved unique type of bilingual double circle postal cancellation with Chinese inscription「大清郵政分局」 and 「江南製造局」, both between concentric circles and English inscription KIANGNAN ARSENAL inside the inner circle. This Kiangnan Arsenal special dater is entirely different from the prevailing “CUSTOMS” or “DOLLAR CHOP” inscriptions. Less than a handful of this scarce dater has been recorded and even rarer when appeared in a C.I.P. stationery card for international mail.