We start all our auction lots at 99p with no reserve.
Provenance: Ex Adolph Koeppel Collection, guaranteeing elite specialized pedigree for Middle Eastern fiscal history.
The Document: A substantial, multi-page handwritten Hebrew contract executed on the official bilingual letterhead of "A. SHOHAT, TEL-AVIV - Palestine, Contractor & Manager of all Kinds of Building Construction"
The Revenue Stamps: The document features a massive franking of provisional revenue stamps. These are obsolete Ottoman Public Debt Administration (O.P.D.A.) fiscal stamps that were captured and overprinted with E.E.F. (Egyptian Expeditionary Force) and new millieme denominations by the British military administration
The Cancellations: The E.E.F. revenues are heavily tied by multiple, crisp blue rectangular municipal datestamps reading "Township of Tel-Aviv" (עיריית תל-אביב) in Hebrew and English, dated 19 OCT 1925
The JNF Labels: Adding massive cross-collectible appeal, the top of the contract bears two early Jewish National Fund (JNF / KKL) fundraising labels, including a portrait of Theodor Herzl, functioning as a voluntary Zionist tax on the civic transaction
Historical Significance
The year 1925 marked the absolute peak of the Fourth Aliyah (wave of Jewish immigration to Palestine), which triggered a massive, frantic construction and architectural boom in the rapidly expanding township of Tel Aviv. This contract physically embodies the literal building of the city.
Philatelically, it is a masterpiece of the transitional British Mandate bureaucracy. It shows Ottoman imperial paper stock, overprinted by the conquering British military forces, being utilized and officially canceled by the newly formalized local Jewish municipal authorities of Tel Aviv—while also bearing voluntary Zionist fundraising labels. It is a complete snapshot of 1920s Palestine in a single document.