Recent Acquisitions

Heydekrug, German Empire 1897 (now Šilutė, Lithuania)

Жеймели / Zheimeli 1913 (now Žeimelis, Lithuania), Ков (Kovna gubernia)

Wilno 1919 (now Vilnius, Lithuania) rare 1919-20 Polish occ.

Žarėnai 1924

Wilno 1927 (now Vilnius, Lithuania) rare Wilno 11 vertical line cancel 

Nowa Wilejka 1929 (now Naujoji Vilnia, Lithuania

Vilnius 1939

Arrival cancel Warszawa 1 on the back

I have few Gryżewski covers and this one is my personal favorite. It is a philatelic cover sent in 1939 from Wilno 2 to Warszawa (Warsaw) with a special postmark commemorating the 20th anniversary of Polish air links. According to B. Brzozowski's "The Vilnius Directorate of Post and Telegraph between 1919 and 1939", the illustration part and the date part of the postmark is separated but on my copy, it looks like a single ensemble or even a machine cancel of some sort.

Cancellations on Polish stamps - 2

Nowe Święciany (now Švenčionėliai, Lithuania)

Święciany Wileńskie (now Švenčionys, Lithuania)
First generation postmark

Święciany Wileńskie (now Švenčionys, Lithuania)
Second generation postmark

Święciany Wileńskie (now Švenčionys, Lithuania)
Second generation postmark

Podbrodzie (now Pabradė, Lithuania)

Vilnius 1923

Nice postmark of Wilno 1

This is a cover sent in 1923 from Wilno (now Vilnius, Lithuania) to Genève, Suisse, the French spelling for Geneva, Switzerland. Personally speaking, I find this block of 10 stamps of 10 Polish Marks very attractive. Poland in 1923 was in the middle of the hyperinflation and you will often see covers with multiple of stamps on it.
The sender have written the return address as "Vilna", again this is the French spelling for Vilnius, most probably coming from the Russian name of the city.

Druja-Dūkštas Railway post 1937

Well, unfortunately it is a damaged stamp... but I have my reason why I do keep this stamp preciously in my album. This stamp has a 1937 polish T.P.O. postmark of the line Druja (now Друя / Druya, Belarus) - Dukszty (now Dūkštas, Lithuania)! I have few books and documents talking about Polish railway post that operated in Vilnius region but none of them mention about this Druja - Dukszty line for some reason which I have absolutely no clue. According to the list of Polish railway post line, the line Druja - Dukszty existed and the number was 491 which supposed to be shown on the bottom of the postmark (it is missing on my copy). Philatelically speaking, that's about all the information I've got so far.
This narrow gauge line linked Dukszty / Dūkštas and Druja, the northernmost Polish railway station ever existed in Polish history, via Браслаў /Brasław (Breslauja in Lithuanian), the most populated town along this railway line. Originally, it has been built by the German during WWI which the Poles took over and converted to a 750mm narrow gauge line. There were some interruptions during WWII but the line was used until the late 1960's during the Soviet rule.

The line Druja - Dukszty on a 1929 Polish map

 Only 5 stations were actually in the present Lithuanian territory: Dukszty / Dūkštas, Berżeniki / Beržininkai, Rymszany / Rimšė, Biernaty / Bernotai and Czepukany / Čepukai (part of what used to be Czepukany extends on the Belarussian side as well). For more informations, look at the thread in miestai.net, the link is HERE

Vilnius 1926

This is a postcard sent in 1926 from Wilno (now Vilnius, Lithuania) to Dordrecht, Netherlands. The picture shows the church of the Holy Trinity of the Basilian Monastery taken by the photographer Jan Bułhak. The card has not been franked for the regular postcard postal tariff but as "Druki", meaning "printed matter" in Polish.

Vilnius 1926

Aušros Vartai / Ostrabrama / Gate of the Dawn

This is a postcard sent in 1926 from Wilno (now Vilnius. Lithuania) during the Polish rule to Argentan in the department of Orne in France. The church in the picture is the Church of the Holy Spirit / Šventosios Dvasios bažnyčia which belongs to the Dominican monastery in Vilnius. There is a hand stamped letter "T" in the back which is the abbreviation for Taxe Perçue in French meaning postage paid, this is because the postage stamp has been franked on the other side. The fact that the postcard has been sent from the post office Wilno 2 but the sender's return address is in Oszmiany (now Ашмяны / Ashmiany, Belarus) is interesting. The illustration on the brown one grosz stamp is the Gate of Dawn / Aušros Vartai in Vilnius also known as Ostrabrama in Polish.

Warszawa-Vilnius Railway post 1935

This is an express letter sent in 1935 by the railway post line number 7 Warszawa - Wilno (now Vilnius, Lithuania) to Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia), Germany. I'm not sure where exactly this letter has been sent from but the sender's address is on the back and it's Slonim, today a town in Grodno region, Belarus. This TPO line 7 ran from Wilno (Vilnius) - Grodno - Białystok - then to Warszawa, so my guess is that it has been sent from Grodno then changed the line at Białystok then to Königsberg via Grajewo. Two arrival cancels on the back as well, one is Königsberg - Telegraphenamt and the other is Königsberg 5.

Recent Acquisitions

Here are some of the recent acquisitions of stamps:

WWI German occupation with a postmark of Schaulen (now Šiauliai, Lithuania) 1916

a stationery cut out (what a pity!) with a postmark Heydekrug (now Šilutė, Lithuania) 1895

Polish occupation period with a part of machine cancel of Wilno 2 (now Vilnius, Lithuania) 1938

Soviet stamps with a postmark of Vilnius C. 1941 during the first USSR annexation 

Postmark: Lekėčiai 1929

Postmark: Višvilė 1928 (present Viešvilė, former Wischwill, Memelgebiet)

Postmark: Alunta 1937

Vilnius 1931

Wilno Katedra by J. Bułhak

A postcard of the Vilnius cathedral sent in 1931 from the post office Wilno 2 to Myszkowiec, Poland. The picture is a work of a famous Polish photographer Jan Bułhak (1876–1950), described in Wikipedia as a pioneer of the Polish photography. I have seen many postcard using his work, who knows how many there are. The Polish postal authority even issued a stamp of his work.

Picture of the St Casimir chapel inside the Vilnius Cathedral

Vilnius 1928

Góra Zamkowa by L. Wysocki (High resolution)

Mickiewicz street (now Gediminas avenue)

semi-postal "na oswiate" 10 gr. + 5 gr.

semi-postal "na oswiate" 20 gr. + 5 gr.

2 nice postcards sent in 1928 from Wilno (now Vilnius, Lithuania) to Bezons, France, now a suburb of Paris. Both postcards have a semi-postal stamp "na oswiate" which was on my wanted list for a long time, I finally got the chance to obtain it with a Wilno cancellation. This semi-postal set has only these 2 stamps so I was lucky to complete it in once. The picture of the first postcard has been taken by a photographer L. Wysocki. I have posted in high resolution because it is a pretty rare picture of the Góra Zamkowa (castle hill).

Vilnius 1921

This is a postally unused postcard cancelled in 1921 in Wilno (now Vilnius), Litwa Środkowa / Central Lithuania. The postcard is published in Munich, Germany, probably targeting the market of German population during the WWI occupation. The Republic of Litwa Środkowa / Central Lithuania is a funny state that has never been recognized internationally, created by the 1st Lithuanian–Belarusian Infantry Division led by General Lucjan Żeligowski who believe or not, supposedly acted against the will of Warsaw by invading Vilnius region on its own. The fact that the head of the state is a military General and called it a "Republic" sounds like a joke too. But history can be ironic. If the Poles did not push away Soviet Russia from the region, would the Lithuanians have been able to keep their republic during the entire interwar period? I know the "if" in history is ultimately useless but it is certainly a question to ask before labeling the Poles as the "bad guys". What do you think?

Švenčionys 1938

Arrival cancel of Wilno on the back

This is a registered cover sent in 1938 from Święciany (now Švenčionys, Lithuania) to Wilno (now Vilnius) during the Polish occupation period. It has been addressed to urzędu wojewódzkiego (Voivodeship admistration office) which in this case, it is the Wilno voivodeship (Województwo Wileńskie in Polish). Wydział Społeczno Polityczny is the department of social policy. The sender's address is not in Święciany but in Ustroń, a village in Żukojnie municipality which is part of Powiat Święciański (Švenčionys county) but this part the former county is now in Belarus.

Recent Acquisitions

Lately I haven't been able to have enough time to neither acquire new covers nor time for posting threads... However, here are some stamps I have found recently in various sources.

Memel Local issue
Postmark Memel 25.03.1939

Not new to this blog but another copy of Fuhrer's 50th anniversary
 with an illustration of the Municipal theater in Memel

Central Lithuania (I personally prefer to translate it "Middle Lithuania")
Postmark Troki (now Trakai, Lithuania) 7.1922

Вилыкомıр/Vilkomir (now Ukmergė, Lithuania) 15.IV.190?