Lots 474, 486 & 488: Great Britain 1840 penny black, red brown and two penny blue, all with Maltese Cross in red

Classic Great Britain philately from the John Hillson Collections.

Lot 474 Great Britain #2 Plate 4. 1840 1d black Queen VictoriaLot 474 Great Britain #2 Plate 4. 1840 1d black Queen Victoria Imperforate, from position LI (sloping L), with four large margins, showing part of next stamp at left, and an ideal complete Maltese Cross in red, extremely fine. S.G. CV £400

Lot 486 Great Britain #2, 7 Plate 11. 1840 1d black and 1d red brown Queen Victoria Imperforate Matched PairLot 486 Great Britain #2, 7 Plate 11. 1840 1d black and 1d red brown Queen Victoria Imperforate Matched Pair, both from position DG and each having large balanced margins and moderate Maltese Cross cancels in black, very fine. Plate 11 is the scarcest, by far, of all the “Black” plates. Accompanied by a 2008 B.P.A. certificate for the matching pair. S.G. CV £4,730

Lot 488 Great Britain #5e Plate 1. 1840 2d blue Queen Victoria Imperforate, a horizontal strip of three from position II-IK, with good to large margins all around and three almost complete impressions of the Maltese Cross in red, fine-very fine. Catalogue value is for three singles only. S.G. CV £3,300

Lot 186, Canada 1875 six cent brown Small Queen, perf 12 used strip of three, Hamilton postmark

Lot 186, Canada 1875 six cent brown Small Queen, perf 12 used strip of three, Hamilton postmarkLot 186 Canada #39 1875 6c brown Small Queen, Perforated 12, a used strip of three postmarked Hamilton JUL.8.1875, from the “two dot stage”. With space between first and second stamps showing unpunched perforations, plus a small area where no perforations are visible at all. A very fine and interesting item, from the John Hillson Collections. Estimate $200.

Auction #30, May 22nd-25th

Things are going very well here at Sparks Auctions, with each auction surpassing the last, in realizations, new customers and lovely material consigned. This sale is no exception, and offers our usual very wide variety of material for all collecting interests and budgets, all in an unprecedented four day event.

The John Hillson Collections

Day One starts off strong with the John Hillson collections. These include Small Queens of Canada, Canadian revenues issued in the Small Queen era, British Commonwealth King George VI era stamps and postal history (including Canada), as well as an advanced collection of Great Britain Line Engraved stamps and postal history, including early Scottish postal history. Mr. Hillson only collected the highest quality material, obtained during a period of over 40 years.

Day Two of our sale is devoted to postal history of the world, featuring the Andrew Liptak (Philcovex) collection of Canada, Netherlands, GB King George VI and more.

Day Three is devoted to our usual extensive Canada and BNA offerings, with 750 lots from classic to modern material, featuring the “Windsor Park” comprehensive collection including better modern varieties, the extensive “Ames” collection of Admiral issues in just under 300 lots, advanced Centennial offerings, and more.

Day Four will include our popular lots and collections of the world, including a collection in 220 volumes offered intact by country or region, a massive worldwide collection in 93 Global Master albums offered intact as one lot, many retired dealer lots, part one of the Jerry Olesnyckyj holdings in 75 lots, and more.

Complete Session & Viewing Information can be seen here on our site.

Don’t forget that all our sales are conducted in Canadian dollars, with an industry low 15% buyer’s fee. We also proudly note that all lots which have been protected by the owner have the notation “Rsv.” in their descriptions, which denotes a minimum starting bid. All other lots start at $5 and are unreserved. Those who cannot attend our viewing sessions are invited to view the auction online at stampauctionnetwork.com, where we provide over 10,000 high quality scans. Here on our website you will find even more scans, PDFs of the catalogues, updates, amendments and other useful information. We will begin featuring interesting lots from the sales next week.

Enjoy the sale, and please contact us if we can be of any assistance!

Stéphane Cloutier
Director of Lotting & Consignments