A Traditional Philatelic Auction House — Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Sparks Auctions Auction Sessions times can be seen at this page. We start off today with Canada and British North America. Tomorrow is Commonwealth, Worldwide, Postal History and Literature. Thursday will see the Lots & Collections.
Here is a gem that will be called in the first minutes of today’s sale:
Lot 18 Canada #5d Used 1855 5d grey violet Consort on thick hard paper. Light target cancel and four margins. A very fine stamp. Accompanied by 2012 Greene Foundation certificate. Unitrade CV$4,000
The Madhukar Belkhode Collection of Canada Admirals is an award-winning collection which won high distinction at several international competitions.
It is featured in lots 146-238 of the sale.
The Exhibit itself can be seen in our Image Gallery, or downloaded in PDF form (the file is very large).
If you wish, we can send a printout for $65 in full colour, or $15 black and white, shipped to North American addresses. Please contact us if you wish to receive one.
Our Literature offerings have expanded to 120 lots filling seven bookcases. In addition to a number of lesser consignments, we are pleased to offer the specialized New Zealand of Geoff Leech and a large part of the Jim Hennok philatelic libraries. We decided to increase the offerings of single works as a service to our literature buyers. Items which we valued at $30 (and sometimes as low as $20) are offered as single lots.
This greater selection comes with a trade-off. As those who’ve checked the opening bids will note, there will be minimum bids (typically 60-67 percent of the estimate) on the single lots and on some of the group lots. A few literature buyers whom we consulted advised that a broader selection of lots with reasonable opening bids was a worthy goal, much preferable to bidding on a heavy carton and incurring expensive shipping just to acquire one item in the box.
Dr. G. B. Leech was a longtime collector with a special interest in the challenging area of New Zealand, a place he visited often. Geoff held that a stamp was most “collectable” that had done its duty in delivering mail. Then it would belong in the collection if it had no faults, reasonable centering, original colour and either a light cancel or a postmark of interest. It would also belong if it had an interesting characteristic such as a different paper or mesh, or perforation, or watermark, or position on a printing plate, or plate variety or flaw, or an unusual postmark.
We offer Geoff’s used New Zealand Collection as Lots 745-840, as well as many items from his other collecting interests including Canada, and specialized literature.
Lot 754 New Zealand #10 Used 1861 1sh blue green Chalon on soft wove paper, with horizontal mesh, four well clear to full margins and face-free cancel. A lovely stamp with clear 1967 RPS London certificate. Very fine. Scott CV$1,950
Lot 1106 Canada #9a 1859 7½d deep green on Cover to UK. Stamp is tied to Lady’s Cover by ring numeral cancel from Montreal (AUG 19, 1859) to Birkhenham, England (AUG 30, 1859 receiver). The stamp (catalogues $5,000 alone) has four jumbo margins, shows part of stamp above and was used in the decimal currency period. Very fine and accompanied by 1953 Royal Philatelic Society London certificate. Unitrade CV$6,000.