Boulaide to Prinkipo, Iles des Princes, Turkey, in December 1921, showing registered sole use of the one-franc Marie-Adélaïde

 

Unusual origins coupled with exotic destinations—that’s what adds gusto to a cover collection.  Here’s an example.

 

 

Boulaide, 19 December 1921, to Prinkipo,
on Turkey’s Princes’ Islands

The one-franc Marie-Adélaïde definitive nicely pays the 50c UPU 20g letter rate and the 50c registry fee, both rates having taken effect on May 10, 1921.  The backstamps show transit through Galata in Istanbul on December 26th to Prinkipo, on the big island of Büyükada, the largest of the nine so-called Princes’ Islands in the Sea of Marmara, near Istanbul.

One can only wonder what the writer from Wiltz, who posted this letter from Boulaide during the winter of 1921-22, was telling his correspondent in Turkey, who might have been sunbathing that winter’s day on the Prinkipo beach.

Here’s an old postcard showing the beach near Prinkipo:

 

I seldom find a Marie-Adélaïde cover that I dislike (just ask the German dealers who visit Bangkok!), but this well-preserved gem is a very special addition to my collection of one-franc Marie-Adélaïde covers.  I’ll surely be thinking of it my next visit to the quaint villages around the Lake of the Upper Sûre.