Ceylon CAVE overprint

[guyana1230]

Found this stamp in my possession, does anyone know the significance of the "CAVE" overprint?

[khj]

Private overprint made by the Cave Company of Colombo. Used to prevent employee theft of postage. I guess it was cheaper than buying a perforator to make perfins. The eventually got a perforator and stopped using the overprint in 1908.

[khj]

I found a link with more detailed info (sorry, getting lazy to type these things, plus my memory is even more unreliable than it used to be): Cave Overprint

In case the link disappears, here is the pertinent info from that webpage:

Henry William Cave came to Ceylon in 1872, at the age of eighteen, to work as the Secretary to the Archbishop of Colombo. Four years later he established a bookstore. Soon the business expanded its merchandise to include musical instruments and eventually a wide variety of other consumer goods which found a ready market amongst entertainment hungry planters. Cave returned to England in 1886, the year in which this stamp, bearing the imprint of his company was issued. However, he continued to be interested in H.W. Cave and Company until his death in 1913.

These private overprints, similar to private "perfins," were intended to prevent theft of stamps for non-business use by employees. They are the private equivalents of various official overprints such as "On Service".

Guess the official name of the company was "H. W. Cave and Company". Unreliable memory blah blah blah...