Lot 603 Canada Selection of 102 Better Fancy Cancels on Small Queen Stamps, all displayed on black stock cards, this is a great selection including letters, sunbursts, geometric designs, Masonic, a crown, a bogey face, and more, many being easily identifiable to a specific post office. A nice quality group, ideal for collectors or dealers alike. Accompanied by a 2022 Ken Pugh letter attesting to their authenticity. Estimate C$400, sold for C$1,800.00 plus 17% buyer’s premium.
canada
Lot 1471, two vintage Canadian Hockey Team real photo postcards
Lot 1471 Two Vintage Hockey Team Real Photo Postcards, both showing teams outdoors, one team is wearing outdoor clothing and the other is wearing a three-leaf clover emblem on a white shirt (this card has a tear). While our extensive research did not give us any information as to who these teams were, the two cards came out of the same collection as the other two similar lots we offer in this sale, and we are convinced they are Canadian teams (and not from Arizona or Florida, for example). Estimate C$150.
Canada Small Queens photo mailer, sold for $518
Lot 1321 Canada 10c + 2c Small Queens on Photo Mailer to England, both stamps tied roller cancel on very ornate “Topley Studios, Photographer by Appointment to his Excellency The Marquis of Lorne and Her Royal Highness The Princess Louise, 104 Sparks Street.” Very fine and scarce. Est$ 300, realized $450.
Introduction to Auction #9
Our ninth auction is the most varied and comprehensive to date. The 2167 lots offer something for every collector.
It begins with a strong Canada and BNA section of 589 lots. The Pence issues are well-represented with a good selection of very fine including multiple very fine examples of the scarcer 7-1/2 and 10 penny. The half-penny imperforate features a lovely red postmark, while the perforated half-penny has a foreign postmark. For the budget-minded we have lesser quality, for example a very fine appearing mint example of the rare Scott #10 with Certificate but repaired which we estimate at about 5% of catalogue value. The Cents issues and Large Queens each have a number of uncommonly very fine mint examples. Both the Small Queens and the Jubilees each has a standout large mint multiple — a six cent Ottawa printing block of thirty and a five cent block of twenty respectively. The session continues to delight for 460 more lots.
One of the gems in the British Commonwealth section is a four-margin used block of the 1840 two penny blue. Interesting and scarce lots abound in this session. 
Special mention of Mauritius number one and two must be made. We offer the compound Die Proof of these fabulously expensive iconic issues. It is a post-contemporary production made from the original Dies which were found in 1912 and is scarce in its own right.
Our worldwide stamps with 324 lots begin with a few modest USA then the unusual and the rare appear frequently among the nice quality collector oriented lots. China includes the rare Formosa railway locals as well as a few modern including a 1980 monkey, France and Germany each have a great variety among more than a hundred lots. French Colonies #35a deserves special mention. Iceland and Italy each have some expensive a highlight being the used pair of Iceland Scott #32b. The offering of Japan has the Mayeda collection (ISJP member #2) in over fifty lots. We continue this session with classics, essays, and locals etc.
Postal history is a field where our consignors are, with each auction, offering increasingly interesting and collectible items and collections. This auction, in addition to many lovely single covers (including Canada pence, British Columbia high values, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia bisects), there are dozens of lots which might easily form the basis for a whole new field of collecting enjoyment. These lots were usually assembled over years and decades as the owner sought out the rare and elusive. The successful bidder can continue and expand the collection. Another option is to seriously consider developing an award-winning Exhibit. The extensive postmark collections in this session can lead to similar fun and achievement.
One group of twelve lots, the Viner military memorabilia collection, can be found in the catalogue with two-and-a-half pages of text and scans. However the complete write-up of this collection is more than ten times as lengthy. It can all be found on our website along with extra scans.
In our last auction we offered an extensive number of cartons, albums, and stockbooks in our large lots session. This time the emphasis is more on collector-built specialized offerings as well as generally more valuable and more diverse lots than in the past. And, this auction has even more bulk and with 728 lots has considerably more than last auction.
The auction has been posted to stampauctionnetwork.com. The printed catalogue is presently being mailed to subscribers. Watch www.sparks-auctions.com for additional images, corrections, and featured items as the auction dates approach.
Auction 7 Followup #5 — Strong Admirals
After yesterday’s highlight of the one cent lemon yellow we will look at two other strong realizations.
Lot 469 — Canada #111 1914 5¢ “Prussian” blue Admiral, deep fresh colour, immaculate, extremely fine, mint never hinged. A lovely shade. Unitrade CV$600; realized $606.
This five cent had several strong advance bids with the second highest being one increment below the high bid on the book. It took the floor only one bid and this lovely stamp sold to a discriminating collector from Ottawa.
Lot 490 — Canada #126a 1924 1¢ yellow Admiral part-perforate, vertical pair, mint never hinged, extremely fine. This issue is actually
surprisingly scarce in true extremely fine quality. Unitrade CV$60; realized $138.
Often these imperforate-between issues are frowned on as “philatelic.” However they are seldom this well-centered and as a result this attracted some strong bids to open at $120 which is double catalogue. Although no one wanted to challenge the high advance bid, this was our top bid and one more bid would have been successful.
In our pre-auction highlights we featured five unique (by virtue of being from the Madagascar Archives) lots from Canada and three unique lots in the worldwide section (two of these were proofs with printer’s notations and notes, the third some original artwork for an Israeli stamp). We cannot report world record realizations for these. Seven of the eight came from one consignor and he was happy because the items sold for more than he expected. However perhaps the fact that all were unique influenced our judgment in estimating. Three sold above our internal estimate and five just below; in one case the hammer was $800 on an estimate of $1500. That lot will please the new owner who had a top bid of $1100.
In writing these commentaries it is tempting to highlight the successes. When we overestimate we want to know why. Well, in the case of unique lots the collector instinct in us gets excited. We won’t apologize for that.