Rocket mail

Unused/Unissued Rocket Mail labels by Gerhard Zucker for the 1934 Apex event in London. Mr.Golightly on board, on his way to the California Gold Rush !!

These appeared earlier this year in our TSF Newsletter. Used at a later 'firing' in Holland on a few covers.











Can you spot the error ?
OK, I know, it's easy !

Londonbus1.....a soft touch.

I dug this out while looking for something else--can't remember where I got it or what I paid; it must have been around a long time (I started inventorying everything I get about eight years ago).  The nice Cinderella label is a bonus!

This is a good batch of Gerhard Zucker's earliest rocket mail stamps from 1933 in a variety of colours perforated and imperforates. Produced for a cancelled flight in Duhen, Germany. Flights took place on 31st August 1933 in Hasselfelde and in Stiege on 4th November 1933.


Scan_20200807 by Daniel, on Flickr

A couple of covers from 1933 sold as souvenirs but not flown (this display page was not written by me). Almost all flown covers from this era are expensive to very expensive, In themselves, the stamps are interesting and more affordable as many collectors seek only flown covers. I've picked up some nice stamp rarities this way.


Scan_20200807 (2) by Daniel, on Flickr

This is the second lot of Gerhard Zucker's rocket mail stamps from later in 1933. For these, as with the previous stamps shown above, Zucker used printers Meisenbach, Fiffarth & Co. in Berlin. They depict a rocket in front of Ursa Minor with the Pole Star. He would also ensure there there were limited edition rarities, in this case with switched values.

The top two blocks are half sheets, below are singles with lighter shades, the next part sheet has one of the switched values. Finally, an unflown souvenir cover.

Flights took place on 6th and 10th November 1933 from Stiege.

Scan_20200807 (5) by Daniel, on Flickr

This next lot show a different format which was a puzzle to me at first until I came across  the cover at the bottom. These sheets are little known and rare. next to the red sheet is another rare switched value (in red) and imperforate. Again, the cover was a souvenir item only and not flown, it shows that the sheet was perforated and cut into 4. Zucker seemed to like multiple products for each flight.


Scan_20200807 (6) by Daniel, on Flickr

At some point in 1933 Gerhard Zucker gave a presentation with a 13 foot rocket to a crowd of Nazi officials claiming his rocket to be 'the largest rocket ever built'. In a photograph that Zucker would use in his next rocket mail flight, Zucker can be seen gesturing towards his rocket lying on a carriage and in the background can be seen a lineup of jack-booted Brown-shirts. Zucker was seeking backing for his alternative bomb carrier. This picture is shown here as a flown postcard on his next rocket mail flight on 28th January 1934:


Scan_20200617 by Daniel, on Flickr

For this particular flight at Hextanplatz Zucker was promoting the National Socialist German Workers' Party Winter Relief Fund. Three new stamps were produced on honeycomb watermarked  paper by Duvel in Hamburg. They were the 1/2 mark in red-brown, 1 mark in olive green and 3 mark in silver. This is the front of the above postcard:

Scan_20200617 (2) by Daniel, on Flickr

Here are the stamps as a perforated set, the reverse showing the noneycomb watermark and imperforate pairs:

Scan_20200808 by Daniel, on Flickr

There were also very limited edition colour variant stamps produced for covers and these, and other, unwatermarked colour variants which were either sold at the time as souvenirs or produced much later:

Scan_20200808 (2) by Daniel, on Flickr

Thanks for your post chrischross. Karl Roberti was an even more controversial figure than Gerhard Zucker and, indeed, they knew each other. Roberti had to flee his native Netherlands after the philatelic press pointed out that his rockets were simply fireworks. The attempts to fire rockets across the Channel were never feasible at that time, 1935. Not even Wernher von Braun was achieving such a distance with his experimental rockets at Peenemunde until 1942. About this time Zucker also attempted cross channel rocket flights which were unsuccessful but still exaggerated by him and would see him imprisoned for fraud in 1936.

Here are a couple of nice recent additions to my Gerhard Zucker collection.

Firstly, some rare proofs/specimens of his early rocket mail stamps from 1933.

Followed by a flown and signed postcard for the 1934 Winter Relief Fund sent through the German postal system. Shown back and front.

{It was the convention with Rocket Mail that flown covers be posted through the mail, although this wasn't the case with the postcard shown previously for the Winter Relief Fund, both of these cards were flown on the rocket flight at Thale on 28th January 1934.}

Scan_20201124 (3) by Daniel, on Flickr

Scan_20201124 (4) by Daniel, on Flickr

Thanks Don stamphinger , a nice cover and an amusing write-up,  such mishaps were not uncommon with Rocket Mail and the truth is it was never very practical. I have a few items of American Legion Rocket Mail. The man behind these was Keith E Rumbel, he was a scientist who studied at MIT and later went on to develop solid propellants for Polaris missiles. All covers from the 1936 launches are valuable running into 3 figures and beyond my affordability.

So, here we have one of the 1936 triangular vignettes in green and red used for the launches from Mexico to USA, the USA to Mexico versions were red and blue, examples can be found on page 1 of this thread including a rare complete sheetlet of 4.

Then we jump forward to 1961, the 25th anniversary of the 1936 rocket flights. There is a mint postage stamp and a cover from 1961 sent by rocket from USA to Mexico then posted back to the USA with a special overprinted Mexican Rocket Mail postage stamp, on the first day of issue, 2nd July 1961. A US commemorative Rocket Mail label has also been added.

Finally, a damaged cover from 1961 re-flown by rocket in 1966 with 2 Rocket Mail stamps.

Scan_20210406 by Daniel, on Flickr

A couple of Paisley Rocketeers' Society, Scotland related items. Firstly, an envelope sent to John D Stewart pioneer rocketeer who flew rockets from the 1930s. It was sent by Doc Nichol from Tigard, Oregon of Doc's Local Post fame, He liked his very busy covers as you can see from the scans showing the front and back with various home-made stamps:

Scan_20210508 by Daniel, on Flickr

Scan_20210508 (2) by Daniel, on Flickr

Secondly, a flown by aquajet cover signed by Stewart. Paisley items are highly collected and these are the only covers that I have.

Scan_20210508 (3) by Daniel, on Flickr

International Philatelic Exhibition New York 1936

Having achieved some fame, albeit with a limited amount of success, Gerhard Zucker was invited to America to demonstrate his rockets and various flights were planned. However he had claimed that one of his attempted cross channel rocket launches from Ostend to Dover had achieved a much greater distance than was actually possible. A failed rocket attempt was one thing, and quite common, but he had covers overprinted with a handstamp clearly stating (in English translation) "Fished up 5° east longitude, 55° north latitude, Danish motor glider Hennrietta". Zucker would be arrested and charged in Germany for fraud. He was sentenced to 16 months in prison and so was unable to attend the New York Exhibition. Covers, unflown of course, were sold anyway at the exhibition.

This is an uncut sheet.

Albert C. Roessler Cover Dealer and Innovator

Roessler announced a rocket mail cover for 'Professor Lo Russo', almost certainly Roessler himself. Roessler and Sam Rosen launched the rocket on 31st January 1936 near Newark Airport. The rocket would release a parachute and a container with tiny rocket mail but due to gales was blown  east of Newark Bay.

Newark postal officials objected to the stamps and the rocket cancellation and confiscated them. They would later be released and, in some cases, postage stamps added.

The covers were tiny and I'm showing one next a Penny Red as a comparison of size. Mine doesn't have a postage stamp attached to the rear.





After the Second World War, these 'Sample' sheets were released in different colours. I acquired these recently at a very good price.

Today’s post on this thread reminded me of this envelope of clippings I posted before on another thread, maybe in Hong Kong. They may just be trash but they have always intrigued me since stumbling across them in a box of junk a few years back. Google searches have not turned up anything related on torpedo post.