Our 58th sale was an online auction only, comprising 582 lots offering a wide range of material.
In the Australian Colonies the most extensive group is from Tasmania, with an emphasis on Registered Mail, including some rare markings and usages, also a range of registration envelopes. There is an interesting range of Frank Stamps, that includes the earliest known date of use.
Australian Commonwealth has a range of Kangaroos to suit all pockets, and includes many SPECIMEN overprints; there is also a superb 9d Second Wmk with watermark inverted. The King George V issues are notable for a wide range of 1d Reds, mostly with Drury Certificates, including a number of scarce combinations of shades with plate varieties and/or inverted watermarks. Highlights are a punctured OS Die I/II substituted cliché pair, a plated Salmon Eosin, and the Large Multiple Wmk Harrison Printing with watermark inverted in very rare used condition. Another King George V lot of note is a Single Wmk 1/4d Deep Turquoise. We do not recall the two blocks of the 1935 2d Silver Jubilee with offset being offered for a long time.
The King George VI issues have some good plate numbers and rare first day covers, and other interesting specialist material. Queen Elizabeth II is highlighted by a good range of presentation die proofs, all of which have been removed from their sunken mounts; in some ways these lots, showing the full size of the proofs, present better than the mounted proofs. Included is a set of the Navigator proofs, offered as one lot, and a set of the Navigator presentation cards. The decimals have some good errors, plate numbers, and perhaps best of all, a die proof of the 1972 Prime Ministers W.M. Hughes design with unissued 6c denomination; this is previously unrecorded. The Commonwealth is completed by good ranges of booklets and lettercards, and a nice lot of the B.C.O.F. overprints, the latter including the 3d double overprint used on cover.
The best of the Rest of World is a fine range of German Colonies with Yacht high values in fine condition, and Great Britain, with QV surface-printed SPECIMEN overprints, including some very rare items. The highlight, however, is a mint example of the exceedingly rare £5 Orange Telegraph stamp. Other lots include a set of Nauru 'Freighter' definitives in imprint blocks of eight, and a fine '72' numeral obliterator of Norfolk Island on 4d Courier on piece. |