Lot 1373 British Commonwealth extensive mostly Used Collection of Queen Victoria to King George V Era in Six Lighthouse Binders with Matching Slipcases, 1840 to 1937, all on Stanley Gibbons pages for all countries (Aitutaki to Zululand), with most countries well represented. A lovely and very valuable collection left intact, and loaded with better singles and sets, way too many to list here. We estimate 90-95% of the collection to be used, rest is mostly mint hinged but we noted some never hinged in black mounts. Starts with Great Britain, with Penny Blacks (x4) and a Penny Blue, a mint #4 with original gum, four embossed QVs (3 are cut to shape), perforated Penny Red plated up to #224 (223 is mint), plus a number of other plated issues such as the ½d rose (all plates but #14), and much more (owner catalogued the GB long ago at $36,900). The owner catalogued many of the pages or countries long ago, many pages having a high catalogue value, several in the $500 to $1,000 range and more. For example we catalogued Malta alone at $3,775 (owner had $3,067). There are also a large quantity of expensive single stamps and sets in this collection, many cataloguing in the $50 to $200 range (and often much more), with many Shilling and Pound values throughout. The postmarks are for the most part clean, with most of the high values being postally used (a few are not). A much better collection than is normally seen. We have scanned over 150 pages online, just as a small sample. We highly recommend viewing this one in person to further appreciate the better than average quality, variety and very high catalogue value of this lovely collection. Overall fine to very fine. Estimate $15,000, sold for C$11,500.00 plus 17% buyer’s premium.
zululand
Auction 7 Followup #6 — More Highlights Revisited
In Auction 7 we tried some “under the radar” promotion and it seemed to be successful. In Auction 6 we had a solid total of 378 different bidders; in Auction 7 that number jumped beyond our expectations to 540 different bidders. The number of successful bidders also increased from 240 to 294. E-mails and other comments we have received are uniformly complimentary. Thank you everyone. It is less than three weeks since the end of the auction and the consignments already in hand promise a bigger and better auction in the spring.
Two of our pre-Auction highlights were headed “What appeals to you?” and we listed or offered a bit of a write-up on on seven lots and one group of lots which were interesting in one way or another.
The group of lots from the Lindhurst collection had some incredible realizations especially in the British Commonwealth sections. Lot 1805 had Oman to Zululand was estimated at $200 and opened at $120 but just kept going up and up, the floor not prepared to lose this one until it reached $1100. Other British Commonwealth lots from this owner — as well as other consignors — sold for multiples of the estimate. Another Lindhurst lot mentioned in the highlights because there were twenty pages of scans on the internet (but none in the catalogue) was Lot 1880 Germany estimated at $750, opened at $400 and sold to the internet for $900.
The individual lots we talked about which appealed to us had mixed but mostly positive results. In Lot order they are:
- Lot 1928 a collector’s worldwide accumulation estimated at $500 opened at $300 and sold to the floor for $850.
- Lot 1957 Four old-time albums estimated at $250 opened at $275 and sold to the internet for $675.
- Lot 1962 An 1896 Excelsior Album estimated at $750 opened and sold for $800 to the book.
- Lot 1963 the “I will never get it finished” lot estimated at $500 had 11 advance bids (two at $525, then $500 and so on) and sold to the internet for $575. (In a later highlight I will give some figures on lots which received more than ten advance bids.)
- Lot 1986 a specialized Eastern Europe estimated at $500 opened at $190 and sold to the floor for $275.
- Lot 2021 a large volume of modern Poland unlisted labels etc. estimated at $300 opened at $160 and sold to the floor for $190.