Lot 1313 Spectacular Collection of Karl Lewis Hand Painted Covers of the World, with 102 covers plus 3 post cards. The post cards are some of Karl Lewis’ first creations, as he was a photographer early in his career and sold post cards to earn a living. An extensive and beautiful collection, containing many “crème de la crème” of Lewis’ works of art, all displayed and neatly written up on album pages. The collection contains first day covers of newly issued Japanese stamps, covers mailed from the summit of Mount Fuji and covers with Japanese or American ship postmarks. In the first half, the collector uses mostly Japanese covers to illustrate his chronological story of Karl Lewis. In the second half, he presents all his better foreign covers, first day covers, Mount Fuji and Ship covers and ends it with some of his postcards. We also included a non-illustrated cover with a Karl Lewis return address mailed to Marks Stamps in Toronto, Canada (probably mailed while he worked as a manager of an automobile sales company, as there is an automobile-themed label on back). Listing the better illustrated covers would be difficult, as they are all masterpieces, but collectors who know his work should rest assured that the collection is packed with goodies of all sorts, with many rarities. In many instances the owner wrote on the opposite side of the page how much he paid, and from what auction house he bought items, with several priced in the $400 to $850 range, with the lowest priced at $175. Each cover is scanned on our website, and the lucky buyer of this remarkable collection will also get a publication listing all of the Lewis post cards offered in his 1905 catalogue, as well as a few article clippings and an issue of Japanese Philately which includes a very detailed article on Karl Lewis covers, one of a long series published in this magazine from 2011 to 2017, plus the useful 2019 auction catalogue (and PR) for sale of Dr. Steven J. Berlin’s impressive collection. We are offering this collection without a reserve starting price, as we are certain that it will attract competitive bidding. All of the items in this lot are of the highest quality, with fresh, bright colours and very fine or better. Estimate $15,000, sold for C$14,000.00 plus 17% buyer’s premium.
