Lot 271

✉ GUADALUPE. 1883. Grand Bourg unpaid postage due folded letter to FRANCE, posted from the smaller Island of Marie Galante with a very rare use of the larger size GUADELOUPE/GRAND BOURG (MIE. GTE)/9 FEVR. 83 double-circle cds on entire folded letter, a confirming POINTE-A-PITRE transit of the same date on the reverse, 10 c. black and 40 c. black French postage dues (Yvert #15, 19) tied on arrival in Paris by triangular due handstamp paying double the 25 c. U.P.U. rate, soiling to the back of the cover, very fine. DUBUS records that this rare postmark was used from January 1888 to 1892, this cover establishes that it was used far earlier than that; Ex-Grabowski.