A Traditional Philatelic Auction House — Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Lot 814 Canada #387a 1959 5c St Lawrence Seaway with Inverted Centre, mint never hinged, with light fingerprint on gum as is often seen on this issue, due to the manipulation of the sheet, otherwise fresh and very fine. A scarce and sought after stamp with only 400 released, and a must have for any modern variety or inverted centre collector.
Accompanied by a 2007 Richard Gratton AIEP certificate.
Unitrade CV$12,500
Lot 575 Canada #63 1897 $3 Yellow Bistre Jubilee, a used block of four with a centrally struck Winnipeg c.d.s. dated OCT.13.1905, with a few other partial strikes. An exceptional block, with its luxuriantly rich colour and lovely centering of all stamps, extremely fine. Surely one of the finest blocks known. The $3 Jubilee is the rarest denomination, with only 13,500 issued.
Ex “G. Marnier” collection.
Unitrade CV$6,400
Lot 646 Canada #90c 1903 2c Carmine King Edward VII Imperforate Tête-Bêche Booklet Panes, an unused (no gum, as issued) booklet pane of 12, with 6 stamps inverted, very fine and fresh. With only 12 known têtê-bêche panes known to exist, this is an exceedingly rare item and the key item to any King Edward VII collection. Rarely seen this nice, as some panes have faults, and one of the gems of this collection.
Ex “JAL” collection.
Unitrade CV$30,000
Part One of Sale 45, The Athena Collection, has concluded. Prices Realized can be checked on our Stamp Auction Network listing or downloaded from our site. Invoices for the sale were sent out to successful bidders on January 22 by e-mail, please contact us if you were expecting an invoice and did not receive one.
Local customers please note that we will be coordinating appointments for those who wish to pick up their lots. If you want to have your lots shipped to you, please contact us.
We now move on to Part Two of the Athena Collection on February 11. In person viewing and advance bidding are ongoing. Our Mailing List is the best way to find out the schedule of future auctions, updates, and other information about Sparks Auctions.
Lot 16 Canada #3 1851 12d Black Queen Victoria Imperforate on Laid Paper, a mint single with large sheet margin at right, possessing full original gum and never hinged, very fine.
Definitely the star attraction of this collection, being one of only two examples of this stamp with original never hinged gum, the other being the “Black Empress” which sold for US$425,000 (plus buyer’s premium) at Spink New York in 2011. The stamp offered here is the “sister” of the magnificent mint sheet margin example sold by Sparks Auctions in 2017 for C$327,000, as it was formerly located just below it on the sheet, and was for a long time the bottom stamp of a famous sheet margin vertical pair. Only 1,450 were sold, and of those the Siegel census records only seventeen mint singles with original gum, plus four pairs.
A first class world rarity, and if you are working on completing a mint never hinged collection of Canada, this is a unique opportunity to acquire what is one of Canada’s rarest mint never hinged stamps. Catalogue value is for original gum only, and does not factor a premium for never hinged which should rightly be accorded to this superlative stamp.
Provenance:
This is the bottom stamp of the Charles Lathrop Pack vertical pair sold as lot 26 on Dec. 6, 1944 by Harmer Rooke in New York;
Robert Lyman, who apparently bought the pair at a Mar. 11, 1959 Robert Siegel sale in New York, and who then cut the pair into two singles;
Andrew Holtz, who bought it from a client of the above ca. 1986, and whose name appears on one of the accompanying certificates;
Arnold Nyman, who bought it from Holtz at a stamp show in Helsinki, Finland in 1987;
Saskatoon Stamp Centre, who bought it at a David Feldman auction in 2008;
Current owner, who bought it from above in same year.
Accompanied by a 1986 Greene Foundation certificate issued to A. G. Holtz, as well as a fresh 2022 Greene Foundation certificate. Unitrade C$320,000.
