Lot 19 ½d Artists drawing ex. Burrus, nice set of two different colour drawings in ink on paper (19.4×10.2cm), signed by artist “Clinton Wright New York 1857”. Ex. Maurice Burrus and signed by him. Fresh, unique and very fine. Neatly mounted and annotated on page. Est $250, realized $375.
Auction #9
February 21-23, 2012
Six cent red brown Small Queen block, sold for $9775
We begin our auction highlights with this stunning block of the six cent red brown Small Queen.
Lot 80 Canada #43 1890 6¢ red brown Small Queen block of thirty. A gorgeous and fresh, mint never hinged block (five by six) from centre of left sheet, showing full imprint in left selvedge. We note a particularly strong re-entry in position 24. Very fine as a block and with very light gum disturbance on seven stamps and small reinforcement between two stamps, all mentioned for the record. Worthy of the finest collection. Catalogued as twenty-three never hinged and seven hinged. Unitrade CV$22,800, Realized $8500
Stamps and Not Quite Stamps
Any perusal of our catalogue shows we sell a lot more than stamps. Most of the non-stamps, however, are at least related to postal matters. We have cinderellas, locals, pre-production archival items, prints of Post Offices, a sterling silver stamp box (Lot 1614), and twenty literature lots highlighted by a wonderfully fresh complete set of the New Zealand “Handbooks” (Lot 1602). And there is the Viner Collection of militaria already featured.
One section we do not usually pay enough attention to is postcards. This auction has some very nice thematic postcard collections. We feature one at random, Lot 1624.
Lot 1624 CVR Collection of seventy 1909 Alaskan and Yukon Pacific Exposition Post Cards. Mostly all different and all unused. A wide variety of printers and illustrations. Small trivial faults on a few, else very fine. Est. $150.
A Surprise Among the Everyday
One consignor brought in an old-time collection which was not very exciting. During the lotting process, however, we looked carefully at every page and buried within something quite exciting showed up. Purchased from long-time Canadian stamp dealer Kasimir Bileski of Winnipeg, these items became lots 572 and 582. The existence of these two groups of proofs boosted the original valuation of the collection by a factor of about four.
Lot 582 Newfoundland #C6P-C8P E/P 1931 Airmail Pictorial issue plate proofs, set of three printed in black on thick unwatermarked ungummed paper, very fine. Est $500
Lots 1998 and 2012
One of the essentials in lotting is that every description should stand on its own and not be dependent on the preceding lot (except perhaps with two or more identical lots where the expression “as above” can safely be used). Lots 1998 and 2012 illustrate this.
Lot 1998 is one where perhaps the Commonwealth stamps should have been emphasized first. The individual stamps don’t catalogue as much as the Great Britain, but taken as a whole, the other Commonwealth is more appealing and more valuable than the British material, which is mostly used with typical commercial postmarks. We have added fifteen pages of scans to our image gallery to give a better idea of this lot.
Lot 2012 is owned by the same consignor. We have corrected the description where we used the misleading phrase “collector’s duplicates;” an expression that would only apply if the two lots were offered together, making it clear they are from the same owner. In this case, the “duplicates” are more accurately described as a second collection. Eight pages of new scans in our image gallery will show this lot to be more appealing than our initial catalogue description.
Please check our Image Gallery for hundreds of additional scans not found in the printed catalogue. These scans are enlarged 200-300% for detailed viewing. Many of the regular scans appear only on-line, as do all of the “A” and other “letter” scans. The Extra Scans section contains newer scans that do not appear on Stamp Auction Network or anywhere else. It is well worth checking these. Follow the links in this paragraph, or choose “Image Gallery” in the sidebar to the right or from the “Auction #9 pull-down menu above.