To the north of Cape Town’s central district lies Camps Bay, largely undeveloped for most of the 1800s. Lord Charles Somerset used the area for hunting, with his lodge at the Roundhouse. The first road, Kloof Road was built in 1848

Most combination covers which include the previous four colonies and Zululand fall into four categories: Pre-Union, Unofficial Interprovincial Period, Official Interprovincial Period, Union Group 1 September 1913 to 31 December 1937

We continue to explore CGH, Natal and Zululand themes with a combination of research, history and related matters and have including De La Rue’s Printing of the 1/- Stamp, The 1/2d Surcharge on the Cape 3d Claret, Cape Post Office Stones, Images of Early Natal on Postcards and Photos, Royal Hotel post-Christmas dinner

De La Rue’s first design and printing of a Natal stamp was that of the 1/- value. Previously, following its taking over of the contract to prepare Natal stamps from Perkins, Bacon, it had sufficed to use that company’s plates and prepare the 1d and 6d in new colours; this occurred between 1862 and 1866. 

The beauty of the Natal countryside, its parks, beaches, rivers, mountains, hotels, Zulu people, public buildings in the main towns and scenes made famous by the Boer War, were amongst the many topics which provided a fruitful source for South African post card manufacturers

TA unique type of combination cover, consisting of mixed Natal and Madagascar BIM frankings, was first highlighted (to this author’s knowledge) in the ‘Bill Hart’ Cavendish Auction of June 25/26, 1993.

Of the rectangular stamps of the Cape, one in particular stands out in terms of its rarity. A typical description when it appears occasionally at auction is that given in the Spinks Shreves Galleries Sale 101 of May 2008: “S.G. #46, 1882 "One Half-penny." surcharge on 3d Deep claret, watermarked Crown and CC, a desirable unused example of truly one of the rarest

Postal services in Southern Africa go back over 500 years, when engraved stones were left behind by sailors landing at the Cape. These were marked with the date of arrival, the ship’s name and that of its commander and date of departure.