Auction 250 - 256 Day 3

Competitors of the Austrian Lloyd - Turkey 1877 (July 13): Double weight entire letter from Constantinople to Trieste, bearing a horizontal pair of 1876 50 pa. blue & yellow, perf. 13½, tied by "P.I.O." in bars (Postes Internationale Ottomane) in double oval handstamp (Coles & Walker fig. 55) struck in blue. "CONSTANTINOPLE/TURQUIE" cds in blue alongside (July 13). Reverse with two Trieste arrival cds's (July 18). A fine and attractive cover, illustrated in 'Die Österreichische Post in der Levante' on page 314.