Today in Postal History

Belgian Congo to France
November 23, 1925

This early airmail cover was sent from Thysville (now Mbanza Ngungu, Zaire).
Thysville was about 110 km south southwest of Leopoldville (now Kinshasa).
The sender requested Avion Dakar Casablanca so a boxed AVION was added when it was sent.
The cover received four strikes of the Thysville CDS.

The cover would have been carried by surface mail to Dakar.
There it would have boarded the Latecoere Line which provided early service via Casablanca to Marseille.
P. G. Latecoere was the aviation pioneer who created the Latecoere Line.
Direct service was not available until much later.

The cover was franked with three 1920 airmails and a 1923 definitive.
The airmails were two 1fr dull violet and black Congo country store and
a single 50c orange and black wharf on the Congo River (Scott C1 and C2).
The definitive is 1fr buster brown making pottery (Scott 103).

The addressee was A. Emptoz, a prominent airmail dealer and expert in Grenoble.
Grenoble is in southeastern France in the Alps about 180 km north of Marseille.

There are no receiving or transit marks visible on the front.

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