Month: October 2010

Highlight #3 — Unique Lots

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In a scene from the TV show "The West Wing," fictional President Bartlett chewed out an official for misuse of the word unique. Stamp collectors often cringe when unique is used synonymously with interesting but we are losing the battle to the admen and real estate agents and countless others. In Auction 7 we offer a number of items that are truly one-of-a-kind.

Lot 446 — Canada #104/120 1911 1¢ to 50¢ Admiral Madagascar Specimens, 7 original values from early printings on portion of ledger page tied by red Madagascar "Collection de Berne" handstamps, fine-very fine. A rare and perfect exhibit item. Estimate $500.

There are five lots of these Madagascar Specimens in the auction.  Three are from the Admiral era including Lot 476 and Lot 686, and two are from the 1927 Historical series, Lot 505 and Lot 689.

Lot 689

Lot 689 — Canada #E3P 1927 20¢ orange Special Delivery Madagascar Specimens, strip of 3 on small portion of ledger page tied by red Madagascar "Collection de Berne" handstamps, very fine. Rare and perfect exhibition item. Estimate $200.

There are other truly unique lots and some of these will be featured next week.

Highlight #2 — “C in Circle” postmarks

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The scarce "C in circle" postmark is found on more than 20 stamps spread over 6 lots in the first session.  It is found on Large Queens (Lot 281), Small Queens (Lots 281, 294, 315, and 321) as well as the 1897 Leaf (Lot 371) and 1898 Numeral Issue (Lot 391).

LOT 294 — CANADA #35 1889 1¢ yellow Small Queen, selected used with perfect strike of fancy "C" in twin rings cancel from Ottawa House of Commons, very fine. Estimate $40.

Many other postmark specialties can be found throughout the catalogue for Canada and worldwide. A sample of the Canadian ones includes Lots 1514, 1558, 1603, and 1644 to 1655.

LOT 1558 Canada Collections — Queen Victoria era group selected for cancels, mostly Large and Small Queens and some registered mail stamps. A wonderful selection for the collector interested in postmarks. There are over 130 Small Queens, mostly 2¢ and 3¢ values, but with high values to 10¢ and 8 Large Queens. Better items noted including 3¢ Large Queen with #43 2-ring, 15¢ Large Queen with Halifax straight line, 3¢ Small Queen with fancy "EM" cancel, 5¢ RLS with K in 2-ring from Kentville, two blocks of 3¢ Small Queens. Inspect for other better and interesting items. Estimate $250.

Highlight #1 — Boy Scouts

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One collection of Boy Scouts on stamps offers the scarce "wide" Baden Powell on piece as well as the founder in the regular size Lot 957 (COGH #178) and Sergeant Goodyear Lot 956 (COGH #179), both on piece.

LOT 958 — CAPE OF GOOD HOPE #180 1900 Used 3p blue on blue Baden-Powell, 21mm wide, perf 12, on piece dated MY.11.00, very fine. Scott CV$1500.

The balance of the collection in 16 volumes is offered as Lot 2052.

LOT 2052 — Scout collection includes both Boy Scouts and Girl Guide stamps, over 5,000 stamps in 16 binders and including over 660 souvenir sheets (hinged and never hinged), over 580 imperfs, 265 gutter pairs plus other miscellaneous items such as covers. A major portion of the collection is mint. About one third of the carefully assembled collection is British Commonwealth. We noted 1938 Lithuania athletic set overprints (NH), 1920 Siam semi-postals #B18-B30 (hinged, B30 thinned), 1963 Cyprus 50th anniversary souvenir sheet (NH, trivial stains), 1969 Sierra Leone #382-387 and C100-C105 (both NH) and 1973 Tonga #322-326, C130-C134, CO79-CO71 (NH). Est. $2000.

Catalogues for Sale #7

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Catalogues for Sale #7 have been mailed. If you are a subscriber in Canada, you should have yours in a day or two, and USA-bound copies should arrive by the end of this week. International customers will see theirs next week.

Of course, you can see the entire catalogue on your computer by following the Auction #7 link at the right to get to the PDF pages, as well as additional images.

Auction #7, November 8-10th, 2010

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Sparks Auctions is pleased to announce our Auction #7, to be held at our premises from Monday November 8 to November 10th, 2010.

We begin Auction 7 with The Healy Pass Collection, a one-owner specialized collection of sufficient caliber to merit a separate session. This plated collection of the Canada Three Penny Beavers, named for a hiking area in the Canadian Rockies, was assembled by a collector and student of the issue.

Better items from our Canada section include more than 200 lots of pence issues with some extremely fine examples. Nearly 100 lots of the 1859, 1868, and 1870 issues offer something for many specialized collections. The Jubilees are represented by a set of Die Proofs and considerable choice in the high values. The balance of Canada offers extremely fine stamps, major varieties, rarities such as the 1908 Quebec Die Proof set, and back of the book including semi-officials and locals.

Worldwide stamps include the high values of Victorian Great Britain, key values from Bangkok, Mafeking, Rhodesia, USA, France and Germany.

Postal History offers many attractive single lots and a cornucopia of carton lots, most of these from the estate of the original addressee. Non-BNA postal history is the strongest we have offered.

Finally, there are 611 lots containing collections and cartons of fun, more than doubling the 278 such lots in our last auction. The extra weeks of work to adequately describe these, as well as the hundreds of scans (available in detail in our Image Gallery, linked at right), should help bidders and viewers assess the interest and value. It is an overwhelming scale and assortment of previously owned and cherished collections..

The catalogue will be mailed to all regular bidders and subscribers when it returns from printing, likely the week of October 11th. Next week, we will begin featuring interesting and noteworthy items in more detail each day here on our site. With the image gallery of additional and detailed scans, the opening bids, and links to bidding at Stamp Auction Network, we believe you will have all you need to bid in a comprehensive and interesting sale.

Happy Thanksgiving to our Canadian customers, and may our American cousins have a good Columbus Day weekend!

-Sparks Auctions

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