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| Country: St. Vincent Grenadines Clear Subject: All | Sort: Newest listed first |
(3 May 2020) These colourful illustrated items are infrequently met and add both character and appeal to album pages. The 1904 cover used from Barbados shows the Toronto Lith Company factory, and the 1972 cover from Mustique came by way of holiday maker previously at the Hotel Abacoa, St. Andres, Isla, Colombia.
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The PML handbook Page 97 notes that the population of this small island, 9 miles south of Kingstown and first port of call in the Grenadine chain of islands stretching south down to Grenada, was a mere 969 persons in 1871 and 1,118 in 1881, and states “The reason for the long delay in opening the Bequia office has not been explained but on its eventual opening on 9th July 1894 the old “BEQ” datestamp was available for use there". The neighbouring islands of CANOUAN (population 443 in 1891), MAYREAU (population 283 in 1891), and UNION ISLAND (population 889 in 1891) had their extended cds proofed at the GPO, London on 2nd November 1894 and therefore those instruments could not have been present when the offices opened on 1st October 1894. The PERUVIAN VALE cds was also proofed at the GPO, London on 2nd November 1894 nearly seven years after the Peruvian Vale had been opened, and the long gap plugged by provional use of an obsolete ST. VINCENT inscribed datestamp. There appears to have been no request for an extended BEQUIA cds for the mid 1894 opening, and it is just possible that the postmasters were in a quandery, like at the other Grenadine island offices, as to what to do, or use, during the opening days or weeks until an instrument was at hand. Perhaps Bequia left mail uncancelled for the first 10 days as the ERD for cancelled mail is JY 19 94 with the old “BEQ” datestamp, or was the Kingstown Postmaster well aware that sitting in his drawer for the past 22 odd years was the “BEQ” datestamp that had been presumably been proofed alongside the other abbreviates for the opening of mainland village offices on 2nd December 1872. It is possible that any one of these four islands saw a provisional use of the obsolete circled “PP” in black on DLR QV 1d red (SG.48 grouping) as only a single strike is known befitting a very short period of use.
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My only references to the four labels (produced in orange, blue, yellow, and mauve) comes from an article in the British West Indies Study Circle Bulletin No.72, March 1972), and the pricing of flight covers and printing quantites as listed after St. Vincent Grenadines in the old Urch Harris catalogues. If you have any additional information, or have mint labels, I would be interested in scans etc.
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