August's Auctions

July 12: Philasearch (DE) ~ Veuskens Stamp Auction Sale. Large international auction with over 8300 lots on offer.

August 6: Warwick & Warwick (UK) ~ Stamps & Covers of the World.

August 10: Leski #353 ~ Sporting and General Memorabilia. Download catalogue

August 18-19: Earl P.L. Apfelbaum (US) ~ International auction. Visit auction's site

August 20: Leski #354 ~ Stamps and Postal History. Visit auction site and download catalogue

Around the houses

Soler y Llach ~ Spain & Ex-Colonies Public Auction, 1 July 2009

Spain 1850 stamp "6 cuartos" black, from the Perpiñá collection made €3000 for plate I type 6 (18), €1300 for plate II type 39 (23) and €1500 plate II type 23 (28). Another stamp from Magriñá collection for plate II type 29 (22) made €3200. Three plate II reconstruction reached only around €2700 each (est. €6000). The 10 reales green estimate of €5650 made only €3600 for an exceptional piece (40). The 6 reales blue-green made a healthy €4000.

Notes
1. Soler y Llach (2009), Spain & Ex-Colonies Public Auction. Consulted 8/Jul/09.

Issue of the week ~ Australia's Favourite Stamp

2009 marks 200 years of postal services in Australia. In this very special year, Australia Post invited the public to vote for its favourite Australian stamp. The public was invited to choose from 150 stamps representing Australian culture and heritage, major events and significant achievements since the first stamps were issued by New South Wales in 1850.

The Results in order of popularity were: £2 Kangaroo and Map (1913-38), followed by the 5s Opening of Sydney Harbour Bridge (1932), 2½d Peace and Victory (1946), 8½d Gwoya Jungarai, "One Pound Jimmy" (1950) and 6d Kookaburra (1914).

The £2 Kangaroo and Map stamp was originally issued in 1913 as part of the first uniform issue of stamps by the Commonwealth
of Australia. It caused considerable controversy, as it did not include a portrait of the reigning British monarch.

The public’s second choice was the Opening of Sydney Harbour Bridge issued in 1932. The “Five Bob Bridge”, as the stamp became affectionately known, has long been an elusive item for generations of collectors. The stamp design is unusually free of embellishment to emphasise the bridge’s size and this is reinforced by the tiny image of R.M.S. Orford, one of the passenger liners on the Australia–England run, passing underneath the bridge.

The third choice, the 2½d Peace and Victory issued in 1946, features a seven-pointed star and wreath, the star representing the Australian states and territories, and was issued to celebrate the end of World War II. The 8½d Gwoya Jungarai, often known as “One Pound Jimmy”, issued in 1950 was the public’s next choice. Gwoya Jungarai was a member of the Walbiri tribe of Central Australia. The fifth choice was the 6d Kookaburra issued in 1914. It was part of a new series designed to replace the Kangaroo and Map stamps.

Technical details

• Date of issue: 26/Jun/2009
• Printing process: lithography
• Stamp size: 37.5 mm. x 26 mm.
• Sheets: Modules of 50

Visit Australia Post's online shop.

Notes
1. (2009), Australia Post's website. Consulted 7/Jul/09.

What's On ~ GPO London Walking Tour: 19 July 2009

The British Postal Museum & Archive (BPMA) develops a guided walk exploring over 100 years of British history through the Post Office buildings, letter boxes and telephone kiosks which have helped shape the face of the capital. The tour starts at Farringdon Station and finishes on London Bridge.

The notable sites visited on the tour are: Postman’s Park and Post Office Court, the former GPO Headquarters at Lombard Street and St Martin’s-le-Grand, King Edward Building (the former Chief Post Office now occupied by Merrill Lynch), the Central Telegraph Office where Guglielmo Marconi demonstrated wireless telegraphy to William Preece, Engineer to the GPO.

These in-depth tours and sessions offer an unrivaled opportunity to experience postal history first-hand under the expert guidance of our curatorial team. The tours last around 3 hours and are conducted by BPMA Curators. For more information and booking details please visit the website.

Philatelic Festival Italia 2009 ~ 21st to 25th October 2009

Italia 2009 is a great philatelic Festival to be held in Rome, at the Palazzo dei Congressi, from 21 to 25 October 2009.

Its organisation is taken care by Poste Italiane together with FSFI, the Federation of the Italian Philatelic Societies and AFIP, the Association of Italian Philatelic Traders.
Italia 2009 will include a competitive exhibition open to collectors from European and from the other Mediterranean countries, as well as from Canada, United States of America, Argentina, South Africa, and Australia, namely countries particularly close to Italy due to the large communities of Italian immigrants and their descendants.
The exhibition is structured in the following classes: aerophilately, thematic philately, traditional philately, maximaphily, postal history, and philatelic literature. It is under the patronage of FEPA (Federation of European Philatelic Associations), with the recognition of FIP (International Federation of Philately).

Philatelic products
An excellent, wide range of philatelic products were issued. The first two specific stamps (€ 0.60 and € 0.65 ) were issued on March 7th 2008, featuring the Palazzo dei Congressi and the Colosseum, which together symbolise the past and present of Rome. A further two stamps (€ 0.85 and € 2.80, the latter printed on gold paper, were released on the 10th of October, both featuring the “Bocca della Verità” (the Mouth of Truth), one of the biggest tourist attractions in Rome.

More information could be found in the exhibition's website.

Around the houses ~ Cavendish Philatelic Auction: 10 June 2009

The Gilbert Wheat Collection of Great Britain Victorian (1840-1901) stamps on cover was outstanding for quality, the destinations and the rarity of many of the frankings.

The sale opened with a few pre stamp items and then an early “star” was the 1/- + 6d embossed franking to Madeira at £1495 (18), followed by an 1855 cover to Paris, the quadruple rate being paid by a block of 4 of the 4d deep carmine at £2760 (34). An 1860 cover to Corfu at 1/- rate reached £2070(49) and then an outstanding 1858 cover to Moscow with 1/- block of 6 and a pair plus 1d stars and 2d blue was taken to £4370 (61). It was a slight surprise that the 1865 cover to Rome with a possibly unique franking of a block of 8 of the 9d bistre reached only £1955 (109) but the back cover illustrated cover from Gosberton to Ohio (Est £750) made a healthy £1840 (118).

It was soon eclipsed by the £5290 paid for the 1880 Registered internal cover franked with a 2/- brown, and other adhesives, an apparently unique usage (136A), followed by £4140 paid for the beautiful 1874 cover to New York with a strip of 3 5/- rose, 2/- blue, 1/- green a two x 4d vermilion (180). Another very pretty cover was the 1878 cover from St Andrews to the USA with 8d orange, 4d sage-green and ½d plate 11; estimated at £750, it made £1092 (236). A few moments later a beautiful single franking of the 4d sage green to the Falkland Islands in 1879 made £1380 (239) (see image). Another quite stunning cover was the 1901 registered cover to Rouen with 10/- ultramarine, Jubilee 1/- green and red block of 4 and Jubilee 4d, making a healthy £2300 (275). Also very eye-catching was the 1884 cover to Venezuela with 5/- plate 4, 1/- orange brown and a pair of 4d grey-brown, only two covers recorded with this 5/- stamp and, accordingly, it made £4600. (303).

A rare cover to Thayetmyo, Burma with a 1/- embossed and 4d rose-carmine with Aberdeen experimental duplex cancels was taken to £2530 (estimate £400) (557). Malaysian destinations proved very popular with an 1878 cover to Perak franked 8d orange and a fine Laroot arrival cds on the front went from a £750 estimate to £2070 (597). The next lot, an 1857 cover to Sarawak, franked 6d, 4d and 1d, via Agents in Singapore, reached £2070 (598) while £2760 was paid for a beautiful 1861 envelope to Sarawak from Torquay (Photo on front cover of catalogue) (600).

The best was yet to come - with an 1858 “Insufficiently Stamped” cover to Foochow, bearing 6d lilac, 2d blue and 1d red stars, Hong Kong transit backstamp (Webb type 12 - only 6 examples recorded) reaching the top realisation of the day, after much competition between phone-bidders, agents and collectors in the room, at £6900 (679). An 1858 cover to Ningpo made £1100 (682) while another Ningpo destination cover of 1859, at quadruple rate, was fought over from the estimate of £500, ending up at £4600 (683). Another popular cover was the 1898 registered envelope from Armagh to Mukden (Manchuria) which was estimated at £300 and hectic bidding took to £2300(689), followed by another “Big item”, the 1881 cover from Lurgan to Tamsui Formosa with 4 x 2½d plate 22 (photo on back cover) which finally ran out of bidders at £5750! (691). An 1860 cover to a Sailor at the 4d Concession rate, and returned as the ship was lost off Japan made £1380 (700).

A fine section of GB used abroad had highlights of an 1880 cover from Gibraltar to Bordeaux with 4d grey-brown pl.17 Large Garter watermark and 1d Venetian red at £1150 (717), the 1881 envelope from Haiti to France with the 1/- orange-brown plate 13 watermark spray and 1½d Venetian Red at £1725 (729) and just before the end, a beautiful cover from Ecuador to Barcelona (photo on front cover of catalogue) with 2/- blue, 4d bright vermilion and 1d red plate 116 was taken to £2300 (734).

The auction was a great credit to Gilbert Wheat in his choice of material and his persistence in tracking down some of the most obscure frankings and destinations.

Notes
1. Cavendish (2009), The Gilbert Wheat Collection of G.B. Victorian stamps on cover. Consulted 8/Jul/09.
2. Cavendish (2009), The Gilbert Wheat Collection of G.B. Victorian stamps on cover 1840-1901. Consulted 8/Jul/09.

London 2010 Festival of Stamps ~ 8th to 15th May 2010

London 2010: Festival of Stamps is a year long programme of exhibitions, events and activities to mark the centenary of the accession of George V, the philatelist king. The festival includes a major international stamp exhibition at the Business Design Centre, Islington for stamp collectors.

The British Postal Museum & Archive is co-ordinating wider festival exhibitions, events and activities at venues across London, aimed at all ages.

The London 2010 International Stamp Exhibition has been granted full FIP Patronage as a World Exhibition, and all the competitive part of the exhibition will be run according to FIP standards. There will be the following FIP competition classes:

• Class 1 Traditional
• Class 2 Postal History
• Class 3 Aerophilately
• Class 4 Revenues
• Class 5 Postal Stationery
• Class 6 Thematic Philately
• Class 7 Youth One-Frame
• Class 9 One-Frame Exhibits with a link to George V

The exhibition in numbers:

• 2400 competitive frames
• More than 90 postal administrations represented
• More than 120 trade stands (from all over the world)

More information could be found in the exhibition's website.

July's Auctions

July 15: Stanley Gibbons (UK) ~ British Commonwealth & Great Britain. Noteworthy sections in this auction include Australia, Barbados, Bermuda, Canadian Provinces, Cape of Good Hope, Hong Kong, Rhodesia and Great Britain.

July 15: AB Philea (SE) ~ International auction. More than 2000 lots from all over the world with special focus in Nordic countries. Download catalogue

July 15-16: Spink (UK) ~ Stamps & Covers of the World. With special focus in British Commonwealth & Great Britain. Visit auction's site. Download catalogue

July 18: Philasearch (DE) ~ 5th Christian Arbeiter Auction. Noteworthy sections in this auction include a large selection of JEIA covers, Czech fieldpost in Sberia, cover rarities from post-war Germany, German Occupation Zones during WW-II.

July 22-23: Cherrystone (US) ~ United States and Worldwide. This sale features an unusual array of seldom offered stamps and covers from around the world, including United States Postmaster's Provisionals Millbury (MA) and New York (NY), 1847 issue, 1857-61 issue and more. Visit auction's site

July 25-26: Philasearch (DE) ~ Interasia Auction. Special focus in China and Hong Kong.

July 29: Millennium Auctions (AU) ~

Around the houses ~ Robert A. Siegel: The "Ice House" cover

As the only fully documented and authenticated example of the US 90¢ 1869 stamp used on cover, the Ice House cover has long stirred the imaginations of postal historians. The existence of the cover was fantasized for years before it was found. Then, four decades after its discovery, it was stolen and thought lost forever. Then, after another four decades, it resurfaced almost magically, only to spend several more years in a legal limbo. Now, with this sale, it will finally rejoin the collector community in which it has so long been celebrated.

The Ice House cover was last offered at auction in April 1943, as lot 175 in the J. C. Morganthau sale that contained some of the Ackerman collection. The lot number is written in pencil on the back of the cover. Estimated at $1,000, the cover sells for $380 to Emmerson C. Krug. Krug subsequently returns the cover and it is acquired anonymously by G. V. Luerssen, a metallurgical engineer from Reading, Pennsylvania.

The letter was sent from a New England ice merchant to one of his ice warehouses in Calcutta, then part of Britain’s East Indies colony. It was franked with a total of $1.12, a large sum of money in those days, which paid the two-ounce foreign letter rate. Markings on the envelope reveal that it traveled across the Atlantic, by train through Germany and Italy, by ship to Egypt and again from Suez to Bombay, and then by train across India. Before the advent of the Universal Postal Union the next year, the sum reflected rates negotiated between the United States and Britain to encourage growing international trade.

The buyer on Saturday 13th June 2009 was Dr. Arthur K. M. Woo, who is renowned in philatelic circles for his worldwide exhibits of rare covers. He paid a total of US $431,250, including buyer’s commission.

Notes
1. New York Times (2009), $431,000 Paid for Envelope and Its Stamp. Consulted 30/Jun/09.
2. Robert A. Siegel (2009), The "Ice House" cover auction catalogue. Consulted 30/Jun/09.