360 / Mai 2015 London

1840: 'VR Official' 1 d. black, Imprimatur lettered RI, one of just 33 examples removed from the first registration sheet (before hardening of the Plate), of rich colour and large even margins all round, without gum. An outstanding and very rare stamp in superb quality. Cert. Holcombe (1988), BPA (2015) Gi = £ 35'000. Proveance: Maurice Burrus (Oct 1963), lot 565.  

1840, VR Official 1 d. black, lettered K.K., full to large margins all round and of fresh colour, unused without gum; a very fine example of this rarity, not being from the Dublin Sheet ex Crawford, Certificate RPS (1968) Provenance: Auction H.R. Harmer (1935) Auction Robson Lowe (1952)

1840 (April/May): 'VR Official', 1 d. black, a used example lettered OJ, with good to large margins all round, utilised (by Rowland Hill) for canccellation Trials, cancelled by a Trial strike of the Maltese Cross cancellation in black. After the stamp was cancelled, an attempt has been made to remove the cancellation, fortunately with little success. A splendid and extremely rare stamp in wonderful quality for such a rarity. Signed Holcombe. Certs. Holcombe (1989), BPA (2015) Gi = £ 35'000.

1882/1901: I.R. Official 1 s. green & carmine, fresh mint example of excellent centering and bright colour, minute crack below first perf. at upper left corner, otherwise an exceptional example of this rare stamp, with large part original gum. Signed Holcombe. Certs. Holcombe (1993), BPA (2015) Gi = £ 4'200.

1902 (April 29): 'I. R. Official' 10 s. ultramarine, unused example of excellent centering, from the famous block of nine stamps found in a small leather jewel box in 1947 (photo of the original block with the lot, this being the third stamp in the lower row) and illustrated in the 'The British Philatelist' in June 1947. The Karl Louis index lists a total of 32 examples, of which a pair is in the Royal Collection, a block of four in the National Collection of Ireland (donated by the Duke of Leinster in 1894) and a single example in the Evans collection in the City Museum & Art Gallery in Birmingham, with 5 in used condition. An extremely rare stamp, minor faults in common (incl. trace of vertical bend) with all of the stamps in the 1947 find. This particular example has not been offered on the philatelic market for 57 years, a rarity for the connoisseur. Cert. RPS (1955) Mi 62 = € 70'000/Scott O25 = $ 120'000/Gi. = £ 95'000. Provenance: Harmer Rooke (1947), Corinphila sale 45 (April 1958), lot 3842.

1941/43, extremely comprehensive collection with many rare items including Guernsey Michel Cat. No. 2aMU as vertical strip of three, Michel Cat. No. 2aU as block of 12 with complete imprint, never hinged, also a cover from "GRANVILLE" to Italy, also Jersey Michel Cat. No. 1yU with right sheet margin and as vertical from from the upper left sheet corner, Michel Cat. No. 1yUl pair with normal stamp, 1yUo block of four with two normal stamps, 1yUmw block of four with sheet margin, Michel Cat. No. 1P horizontal pair, Michel Cat. No. 2P two blocks of four in black on carton paper from the upper left resp. right sheet corner, Michel Cat. No. 3-8 complete sheets including gutter pairs and printing date, many "Epreuves des Luxes", Essays, "Half Size Essay", "Mise en Train" rare printing dates and many more special items, virtually everything is expertized with BPP certificate! 

Jersey: 1940, Swastika overprint ½d.-1 s., mint never hinged, very scarce as only 60 of each were printed, certificate Möhle BPP GB 198, 200-208, 210-11

1854, 6d. grey with superb large margins all round used with 1 s. vermilion, margin just nicked at top left on 1858 cover from Sydney to Genoa, Italy endorsed 'per Victoria via Marseilles', tied by dumb obliterators in black with reverse showing SYDNEY / NEW SOUTH WALES datestamp of despatch (April 9) in black. 'Australie v. Suez' entry marking in red on front (June 15) and Genova arrival (June 17) where charged 2 lire due.

1892/99, ½ d. slate, block of 3 and single tied by cds. "SHIPMAIL ROOM ..." to large size printed matter wrapper, originally sent from Germany, franked with 1889/1900, 25 pf. orange for the quintuple printed matter rate, to Sydney and from here re-directed to Auckland, New Zealand, some slight creasing; a remarkable and rare combination franking

1862/67, 6d. pale bluish green, imperforated single stamp with good to mostly enormeous margins with parts of 3 neighbour stamps and small sheet margin at top; lightly cancelled; a very fine and rare stamp; opinion Holcombe

1860/69, 2 d. bright vermilion, tied by clear cds. "ADELAIDE MY 29 66" to Newspaper wrapper "THE Australian News" via London, with red transit mark on front, to Leipzig in Saxony with arrival mark on reverse; a remarkable early printed matter to an unusual destination

1860 (Jan): 'Riverina' Combination Covers (2) from Moama, New South Wales via Echuca, Victoria on the Murray River to Huddersfield, UK both carried on the same ship to England, one franked by New South Wales 1854/59 Diadem 1 s. pale brownish red tied by rare MOAMA barred numeral '137' in black used in combination with Victoria 6 d. deep blue (2), each cancelled by manuscript pen cross. Reverse with Melbourne transit cds (Jan 17) and Huddersfield arrival (March 12) - ex Trevor Davis and Dr Ed Druce. Coupled with a registered 1860 cover from the same correspondence franked by New South Wales 1854/59 Diadem 1 s. pale brownish red and tied by rare MOAMA barred numeral '137' in black and Registration 1856/59 (-) orange & prussian blue similarly tied; again used in combination with Victoria 6 d. deep blue (2), which are tied by aging and the slight ink spots apparent on face. Transit of REGISTERED / MELBOURNE in red (Jan 17), reverse with MOAMA despatch cds of the previous day and Huddersfield arrival (March 12) in black. The registered cover with corner missing at upper right and with faults, but a dramatic and rare pair of combination covers. Cert. BPA (2009). Provenance: Baetgen (March 1994), lot 2724.  

1879, Black Swan wm. CC: 2d., the 'error of colour' mauve instead of yellow, nice fresh colour, unused with large part of fresh original gum, very fine; an attractive showpiece and one of the rarest errors of the Australian States, most of the unused examples of this error are without gum and originated from a half sheet of 60 acquired by Stanley Gibbons, a few original gum examples came from (presumably) the other half sheet from which all of the used examples emanated, certificate RPS (1977)

1914, stamps of Marshall Islands surcharged: 1 d. on 3 pf.-5 s. on 5 m. complete incl. the rare overprint variety ".GR.I." and straight top serif of 1 d. on 3 pf., all cancelled by favour with backdated violet oval "RABAUL NEW BRITAIN JAN 14 1915" to large piece, two folds between the stamps, otherwise very fine. A very rare set with the unique ".GR.I."-variety. Certificate BPA (2015)

4 d. on 40 pf. with variety "d omitted", setting II, pos. 6, tied by oval date stamp "RABAUL NEW BRITAIN JAN ... 1915 to piece. According to Gibbs only two examples of this variety have been recorded, both used, this the only one on piece; signed Kilian BPP and certificate BPA (2014)

5 s. on 5 m. carmine and black, setting III, pos. 4, fresh deep colour and good perforation, tiny faint corner crease at upper left, unused with large part of original gum, small private signatures; a fine copy of this rare stamp

1915, 5,5 mm spacing: 1 s. on 1 m., a fresh unused copy with large part original gum; slight surface marks at upper right (possibly printing colour), overall very fine and fresh, a rare stamp, several signatures and certificates Hoffmann-Giesecke (1967) and BPA (2014)

1874, 'THREE PENCE' on 1 d. rose-red, nice fresh colour and typically slightly off centre to the left, unused o.g.; a fine copy of this extremely rare stamp, certificate RPS (2013) SG £ 18.000,-

THREE PENCE' on 1 Sh. green, overprint type 6 with 'P' and 'R' different, unused (large) part o.g., fine and scarce, certificate BPA (2015)

1852, Waterlow 1 c. black on magenta, deep nice colour and large margins, cancelled by almost central "DEMERARA MY 7 1852"; faint creasing and (invisible) pin holes; very attractive and rare in this condition; certificate RPS (2013)

1915, Coronation issue 2 kr. carmine, slate and silver (type 2, setting IV) with regular issue 2 ch. (type 4, setting I), tied by cds. "BOUCHIR (DEPART) 12.IX.15" to envelope to Shiraz with green British censor label, fine and scarce, certificate Holcombe (1986)

1860: 2½ d. deep reddish rose, perf. 14 used on small envelope addressed to 'The Camp, Westminste'r; tied by unclear numeral '3' of Hope in brownish ink. Reverse with label 'This P. O'Reilly cover has about the pinkest 2½ d. I ever saw, a very pretty shade. H.C.Hitt' and manuscript notation 'Harmer Rooke & Co, March 1942'. A very rare stamp on letter Scott 2 = $ 1'250 / Gi. = £ 1'800.

1851, laid paper:  Beaver 3 d. red, fine example, slightly oxidised with ample to large margins, used on 1852 Money Letter to Cayuga lightly tied in black. 'Toronto / Canada' despatch cds at left (April 1) and two strikes of straight line MONEY LETTER in black alongside manuscript endorsement 'Paid - Money'. Reverse with 'Hamilton / CW' arrival cds (April 2). Spike hole in centre and consequential closed tear in panel but an attractive and rare usage. Cert. Graves Greene (1995) Scott 1 = $ 1'900.

3 d. red, vertical strip of 3 with clear to large margins with black target cancel used on large size envelope with adjacent clear red "PICKTON JU 12 1851" to Toronto with transit and arrival marks; a very fine and rare triple-rate letter, with stamps on laid paper a unique item Provenance: Nickle, Lubke, Wilkinson (2007), Joseph Hackmey (2011)

3 d. red and 2 copies 6 d. slate-violet, one 6 d. cut with the outer frame line at top, otherwise good to very wide margins, 6 d. very nice deep colour, tied by black target and red "MONTREAL JU 20 1852" to small envelope with original contents to Carnarvon in Wales (short-paid 1 d.) with transit mark of Chester and arrival mark; the cover skillfully repaired in the folds with 3 d. cleaned and pressed, one 6 d. tiny corner crease, still very attractive and of greatest rarity; the only known cover with both first issue stamps Provenance: 'Foxbridge' Collection (John du Pont, 1989) Warren Wilkinson (2007) Joseph Hackmey (2011) Illustrated in Arfken, Leggett, Firby & Steinhart and in 'Gems of Canadian Philately'