door At first glance, this letter cover of the Dutch East Indies looks nothing special.
The stamp used is commonplace and of little value. The stamp Padang (Sumatra) is also quite ordinary.
What does stand out is that the sender – printed on the front of the envelope – is not at Padang and the Padang stamp was not placed on the stamp.
If we then look a little closer, we see – not very clearly – a multi-line stamp in violet on the stamp image.
Reason to study this more closely.
The sender is Otto van Arx at Tojo Lawa, Nias. On the island of Nias, in other words. Tojo Lawa (now written Toyolawa) is the cape in the extreme northwest of the island. Von Arx had a ‘klapper’ (coconuts) company there.
The purple stamp cannot be fully read, but what is clear are the words ‘connossement’ and ‘stuurmans reçu’ (mate’s receipt).
No KPM ship arrived in Tojo Lawa. The letter was taken with a merchant ship and taken to Padang in Sumatra and sent from there. The first officer on board was responsible for the cargo and took care of the necessary documents and placed the stamp with the mate’s receipt on it. So here he placed the stamp directly on the postal item and thus provided a very special philatelic document.
