Rare example of British postal history where an international postcard, originating from Japan, has bypassed a postage due charge on redirection, within the UK.

Vintage Japanese photograph of 'Ganman at Nikko' (ref 321) - a hand-coloured image of the famed Kamangafuchi Gorge, likely by Kusakabe Kimbei (1841-1934), one of Japan's eminent photographers whose famous Meiji-era photograph entitled "100 Stone Images at Ganman Nikko" depicts the stone Jizo statues along the Kamangafuchi Abyss in Nikko, Japan. The postcard, with an undivided back and address details on the front, allows for personal message script on the right panel of the image on the reverse. 

From a postal history perspective:

This is a rare example of British redirection rules where the postcard has bypassed a postage due charge because the Universal Postal Union (UPU) regulations and British Post Office rules at the time, where international postcards could be redirected within the destination country free of charge, provided they were fully pre-paid to their initial destination, Barton-on-Humber, UK. Because the Japanese postage was valid to the UK, no additional UK postage stamp or postage due was required for its domestic forwarding to Ilkley, UK.

A. Japan to Barton-on-Humber, UK

(i) Posted from Japan, to Barton-on-Trent, England featuring a 4-sen carmine/rose Japanese stamp, issued during the Meiji period, with the design, from the Chrysanthemum Series, the central Imperial Chrysanthemum crest flanked by stylised post town horns/bells. The cancellation type is a single circle postmark with the location and date unclear; 

(ii) In addition a partial purple handstamp (with a second partial imprint), a transit or dispatch cancel, likely for the major port city of Nagasaki, from the partly visible 'NAG... and JAPA..' mark. Nagasaki was used as one of the primary ports of departure for international mail, steamships and naval communications due west towards Europe during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05.  [The purple handstamp was commonly used by Japanese post offices during this era for transit notes, secondary receiving/routing marks alongside the black circular date stamps].

B. Barton-on-Humber, UK to Ilkley UK

(i) The postcard has a 3 VOD thimble cancel (handstamp) with Bristol Post Office Mark of 51, a numeral allocated to Barton-on-Humber since 1844 for mail processed through the Barton-on-Humber Head Office system and sub-offices and receivers in the area. [From the 1st May 1844, in England and Wales the Maltese Cross obliterator was replaced by an oval shaped barred numeral obliterator that gave an indication of the place of posting by means of the number allocated to the office (Barton-on-Humber - 51), with introduction of uniquely different shaped obliterators in offices in Scotland (rectangular shaped) and Ireland (diamond shaped) in June 1844. In the mid to late 1850s "duplex" cancellations were introduced which combined a date stamp and an obliterator as shown here, with the principle of the duplex remaining a core feature until the early 20th century].

(ii) The example here is a 3-bar Vertical Oval Duplex Time in Full and Obliteration with the thimble cancel showing location (Barton-on-Humber), date (JUL 3 04) and time in full (1.45PM) and the barred numeral obliterator for Barton-on-Humber (51). 

(iii) Although obliterators were primarily designed to cancel stamps, post clerks routinely struck incoming or redirected mail to serve as a receiving or transit mark. The Barton-on-Humber "3 VOD" handstamp is used here as a transit and forwarding mark, applied using the post office's standard duplex handstamp as a receiving and redirection mark.

(vi) Free UPU Forwarding - No postage due: Under 1904 Post Office Regulations, a postcard redirected to a new address in the UK did not require extra postage, with the postal clerk simply crossing out the initial address, Barton-on-Humber, writing in the new address, Ilkley, and striking the card with the Barton-on-Humber duplex to log it through their office before putting it back into the sorting stream.

Condition: Fair/Good with slight corner bumps. Please see photos.

FMRA 1192