Another Fun Misdirected Letter....

Here's another misdirected letter I sent a while back. This one went to a nice and sunny vacation spot on the Island of Wallis and Futuna, instead of going to the cold harsh winter of Estonia.

Not sure how it happened, I mean there is a big difference between Estonia and Wallis Futuna. It's not like Australia and Austria, where the mistake could have been obvious, but here?

I hope my next plane get misdirected to one of the beautiful islands in the South Pacific.....

Oh and yes, it's not a very philatelic cover... I wasn't sending stamps to a collector this time, so forgive me. I try to use stamps on all my letters, but from time to time things happen!

1931 Canada Advertising Cover for Silverwood's Windsor Dairy Limited

Depicting a glass bottle of 1/4 pint of whip cream. Silverwood's Safe and Jersey Milk. Dated from 1931.

Silverwood's Windsor Dairy Limited stamp cover

The Toronto Biscuit & Confectionery Stamp Cover 1894

Beautiful cover promoting  a few of The Toronto Biscuit & Confectionery Co. products. Namely the B.F.P. cough drops and the T.B.&Co. Sodas

You can see an advertisement for the B.F.P. cough drops this Canadian Grocer Magazine from 1896.

Other paper ads tout: "Lots of "between seasons" colds going the rounds soon. Are you prepared for the demand for Cough Drops ? B. F. P. Cough Drops are pleasant to the taste, sooth-ing and effective in all cases of coughs, colds or sore throat. Send for sample".

Can't find any information about the sodas.

Here's the cover:

France 2014 D-Day First Day Covers

I got lucky and manage to grab a few 2014 D-Day first day covers issued by France: 2 silk covers, 1 maximum cards and a few regular FDC. Cancels from Arromanches-les-Bains and Ouistreham. All bear the 0.66 euros Normandy D-Day stamp.

At the time of writing this post (July 5th 2014) I have only 3 left in store (here) and I doubt I'll manage to find more.

The Long Travel of an Ebay Package

This is a package I sent last November to a regular buyer of mine in Ukraine (not a stamp buyer obviously, otherwise I would have used nice stamps!). Anyway, she never received it. In my experience packages don't get lost. They get stolen and if not, they always find a way back to you or the buyer.

 So today, I receive back this package!!! It went all around the world..; but apparently never ever set foot in Ukraine (no single cancel from Ukraine on it). it went somewhere in the middle east (there is a blue stamp on front with some Arabic words), then in December according to the back stamp it has been sitting somewhere in another country (can't quite read it but it's in English). And now it's back in my hand and 6 months later that lovely t-shirt will fit my daughter so I am keeping it.

Here's the front and back of the envelope:

O-Pee-Chee Krackley-Nut Pop Corn Advertising Cover

Better known in Canada for their chewing gums and hockey card packs, O-Pee-Chee also used to produce pop corn and mint tablets. This is an advertising cover from 1935 for their Krackley-Nut pop corn and nuts confection. Back then, 5 cents was enough to buy a box of O-Pee-Chee pop corn!

Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) Advertising Cover From 1928

This is a lovely cover, advertising the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) Grand Lodge of Ontario. Dated May 22 1928 and franked with 2 one cent Admiral.

Another France Letter That Should Have Not Been Delivered

Same as last time (see my post here: http://stampcoversoftheworld.blogspot.fr/2014/01/this-french-letter-should-have-been.html) , here's another clever Delcampe seller cheating the postal service. See the intelligent use of a 0,50c French Francs instead of Euros stamp. Looks like the correct 0,53 euros franking to the postal service employee. Nice savings. Luckily for the seller I didn't have to pay to receive his letter....

Red Rose Tea and Coffee Advertising Cover From Newfoundland

Red Rose tea brings a lot of memories to Canadians. I remember my grand aunt Stella, in the 70's, who religiously kept those little Wade figurines she got in the Red Rose tea boxes for me. I was always exited to add a new one to my collection.

When I saw that cover on eBay I knew I was going to buy it for my advertising collection. The cover, dated 1941, is from T.H. Estabrooks Co. Limited, direct importers & blenders of high grade tea and coffee in St-John's Newfoundland. T.H. Estabrooks was the maker of the famous Canadian Red Rose tea. The company changed named to become Brooke Bond and was eventually assimilated by Unilever.

Jantzen Swimsuit: Red Diving Girl Advertising Cover

1934 Canadian advertising cover featuring the iconic red diving girl from Jentzen.
 Founded in 1916, Jentzen is still in buisness today: http://www.jantzen.com/

Librairie Beauchemin Larousse Almanach du Peuple Advertising Cover

1939 advertising cover, sent to France from Montreal, Canada. Opened by censor.

Advertising cover for Librairie Beauchemin Limitée. Front also has the famous Almanach Beauchemin (better known as Almanach du peuple) advertising. Librairie Beauchemin is known as the first French-Canadian publishers in Montreal. Everyone in the province knows about the Almanach du Peuple.

The back of the cover, features an advertisement for the famous Larousse dictionary. It reads: "Le seul dictionnaire français approuvé par le Conseil de l'Instruction Publique de la Province de Québec" which translates as "the only dictionary approved by the Public Education of the Province of Quebec". The Larousse (a publication coming from France) is also marketed to the French-Canadians by having an extra supplement especially for the French-Canadian language.

Advertising covers for 2 Val D'Isère hotels in France

Lovely advertising covers from hotels in Val D'Isère, France. Hôtel Bellier and Hotel de Bellevarde. Both covers and from the mid 50's. Would fit nicely in a ski or mountaineering stamps collection.

Hotel Bellier is still in activity today. The hotel is a 3 stars hotel, located close to the ski stations all commodities downtown Val D'Isère.

This French Letter Should Have Been Postage Due

Sometimes in 2011 I received this letter. I was very surprised because I didn't have to pay for it. This is an obvious postage due letter. Grossly underpaid by the Delcampe seller who sent it. Luckily for him, it went through without any problem.

French Franc postage stamps are still valid for postage, except for a few notable exception such as the Petain issues. So what is the problem then?

The problem is that the sender used 4.50 old French Francs, which amount to 0.05 New French Francs which equals to .... 0.01 euros. So he underpaid by 0.57 Euros! This letter should have been franked with 380 FF, not 4.50!

What a way to save money! But I wouldn't do it. Seems it didn't bother that seller tho.

France Coat Of Arms FDC (YT #951) from 1953

My father collects France and when I was a little kid (and before I started to collect stamps) I was fascinated by France's coat of arm stamps. Nothing to do with history or heraldry. As a 7 year old I was just finding them pretty. And there we so many issues of them.

Here's a pair on a FDC. I got this one (and a few others coat of arms FDC's) in a large lot of French first day covers I bought a couple of years ago. Some of these are quite nice looking and make for a nice colorful collection.

If you want a kid to grow interest in philately I'd say these are pretty cool. He can learn about the meaning of each coat of arms (that mean a bit of knights and armor in the mix since most of them come from the medieval period).

And anything's better than Mickey Mouse CTO stamps from Sand Dunes don't you think?

Yvert et Tellier #951 on FDC: Picardie region coat of arms stamps and woman dress in folkloric clothes.

Vintage 40's Bulova Watches Cover From Canada

Before Christmas I bought a few covers from sportster on eBay. This seller specialized in Canadian stamps and covers and he has a nice selection of advertising covers (and more). Great service by the way, fast and everything. Highly recommended.

This is an advertising cover for X.P. Mayhew jeweller, located in Stirling Ontario. They advertise themselves as an authorized distributor for Bulova watches. This jewellery store is still around today (but now located in Picton).

The cover is dated from the mid 40's.

I fancy 40's watches. Watches had a lot of class back then. But then again, I love the 1930's to 50's design and architecture.