Before Ian McQueen published his study, references to these markings were scattered across various regional articles and auction catalogs. McQueen gathered these disparate threads into a cohesive, scientific study. He meticulously categorized the markings, analyzed their postal rates, and mapped the specific air routes that triggered their use.
A significant finding is that no British or US “Jusqu’à” marking exists in official postal use; Britain used “By Air Mail To…” cachets, which McQueen distinguishes as functionally similar but philatelically separate. Jusqu-a Airmail Markings- A Study Ian McQueen
(The British and American equivalent).
The term Jusqu'à is French for "as far as" or "up to." In postal history, a is a specific handstamp or annotation used to indicate the limit of a specific service or route. Before Ian McQueen published his study, references to
Before Ian McQueen published his specialized study, information on these markings was scattered across short journal articles, auction catalogs, and club newsletters. McQueen undertook the massive task of collecting data, verifying covers, and cataloging every known variant of the marking. A significant finding is that no British or
Airmail required complex accounting between nations. When Country A sent mail through Country B's national airline to get to Country C, Country A had to compensate Country B for that aerial transit based on weight and distance.
Ian McQueen's Jusqu-a Airmail Markings remains a masterclass in specialized philatelic literature. It turned an overlooked aspect of airmail routing into a rich, structured field of study. For any serious collector of 20th-century postal history, understanding McQueen’s findings is essential to unlocking the true historical value and story of international airmail covers.