The Collection of Captain Conrad Charles Viner represents a departure for us. The owner, a grandson, brought in a remarkable archive with some philatelic content. The potential intrigued us and we commissioned military postal history expert Ron McGuire to write up these lots. The extensive results are presented as lots 1449-1460; the more detailed commentary can be found on our site. This group is impressive. Will it attract bidders in a stamp auction?
Month: February 2012
Red on Red
At the recent auction of the Danny Cantor Collection, the coloured cancels on pence issues were bid up to very strong realizations. In our last sale, a six penny with red target cancel sold for $3680. Here’s a stamp with similar characteristics which would, in the past, have found a home in the Cantor Collection.
Lot 16, Canada #8 1857 ½d rose Victoria, used with a bold red target cancel, deep colour, very fine. Unitrade C$1,000
Extensive Japan
The late H. T. Mayeda was Member #2 of the International Society for Japanese Philately. He willed much of his collection, contained in more than twenty cartons, to the Society for reference and/or sale. Sparks Auctions was chosen to offer the balance. We are confident the family will be happy with the result.
Lot 1129, Scott #435 100y Blast Furnace watermark wavy lines, fresh block of four, mint never hinged, very fine. (Sakura Yen380,000 for hinged). Scott CV$2,400
Impressive Victoria
This lot came from an old-time collection. The collector, who served in the cabinet of Canadian Prime Minister R. B. Bennett in the 1930s, obviously liked the look of the 1897 Jubilees. This block, as fresh as the day it was sold in 1897, comes from that collection.
Lot 101, Canada #54 1897 5c deep blue Jubilee, mint never hinged block of 20, minor perf separation on a few stamps. CV is for fine-very fine. A real showpiece with deep fresh colour from an old-time collection. Unitrade CV C$3300.
Intriguing Formosa
There are some stamps which potentially inspire several pages of commentary. Quite possibly this lot would fit into that category except that we know very little about these two intriguing stamps! Nearly everything we know is in our description, which is taken from the Michel catalogue.
We do know that these are much scarcer than stamps from China with a similar catalogue value. It will be interesting to see how much attention and bids this lot attracts.
Lot 950 China (Formosa) #4, 5 1888 20cash green and carmine red, set of 2 Locals used along the rail line from Taipei to Keelung. Green (#4) is fine, lightly hinged, Red with imprint is fine-very fine, lightly hinged with a light diagonal crease. Michel E 1,350