MARKET INSIGHT
The latest auctions and internet sales. Plus, your price guide to New Zealand’s classic ‘Chalon Head’ stamps
A registered cover sent from Pest, Hungary to the Pope in Rome was recently offered by Cavendish Philatelic Auctions and quickly surpassed the modest £100 pre-sale estimate. The cover dated 23 July 1868 was addressed (translation) ‘To His Holiness Governing Successor to Christ, to the Glorious Reigning Pope Pius Ixth, the Supreme Head of the Holy Roman Catholic World Church, most Hallowed, Revered and Benevolent Father, in Rome’. The cover featured a boxed ‘AJANLOTT’ on the front along with pair of 25kr stamps, just tied by a single very fine ‘PEST’ circular date stamp. The reverse of the cover featured a pair of 3kr tied by the same ‘PEST’ cds. The cover’s journey was recorded with transit cds on the reverse including ‘TORINO-FIRENZE/2-B’ and ‘VENEZIA’ as well as a smudged Rome arrival cds.
SOLD FOR £4,400
The recent two-day Worldwide & GB auction at Cavendish Philatelic Auctions saw nearly 90% of the lots selling on the day, at a total close to £100,000 over pre-sale estimates. Amongst the highlights was a selection of hand-drawn pictorial covers, such as this unique hand-made envelope in the shape of a fish with fins, scales and eyes, sent locally within Taunton and dated February 1843.
SOLD FOR £1,800
The ‘Legend of the Dragon Collection’ of Imperial China was recently sold by Kelleher & Rogers in Hong Kong, with the iconic Large and Small Dragon issues of the Ching Dynasty being the highlights of the sale. The selection included a ‘dazzling’ complete sheet of the 1878 5ca orange Large Dragon on thin paper, with selvedge all around.
SOLD FOR £64,800
‘Once considered as variations of issued stamps of little interest and frequently ignored by stamp catalogues, unusual watermark varieties today count among the most highly sought philatelic rarities,’ write the experts at Grosvenor Philatelic Auctions. Their recent British Empire & Foreign Countries auction achieved a total figure of £520,771 ‘due in no small part to the prices achieved by these popular varieties’. Amongst the watermark varieties on offer was a Falkland Islands 1881 4d grey-black showing watermark upright reversed.
SOLD FOR £3,348
The Professor David Rockoff Reference Collection of Maltese Crosses went under the hammer at Cavendish with a very fine and distinctive Kelso cross on cover selling for £340. The cover was dated January 1843 and sent to Edinburgh with the Kelso cross cancelling a four-margin 1d red, TL plate 24.
SOLD FOR £340
A 1938-49 3c ‘Adam’s Peak’ value from Ceylon, with the watermark inverted was recently sold at Abacus Auctions in Australia. Featuring a ‘GAMPOLA/12DE/43’ circular date stamp, the lot was described as being ‘very rare error and the only example we have seen.’
SOLD FOR £1,522
An ‘insurance cover’ from NASA’S Apollo 13 mission was recently offered in Daniel F Kelleher’s sale of Aerophilately, Rocket Mail and Astrophilately. Featuring a mission emblem designed by the astronauts’ friend Al Bishop, the cover was autographed by Lovell, Haise and Mattingly prior to the flight, with the envelopes serving as an ‘insurance policy’ in the event of disaster. After Mattingly was replaced for medical reasons the mission experienced a catastrophic explosion that cancelled the planned moon landing, as recreated in the award-winning film Apollo 13. The auction description added that the stamp, ‘as often seen’, is not tied to the cover.
SOLD FOR £1,540
Spink recently sold this 1931 envelope which was carried on the RAF survey flight preliminary phase by Flying-boat S.1162 from Brunei to Singapore. The cover is marked ‘By Air Mail’, franked at 30c. with a framed ‘AIR MAIL/ BRUNEI’ cachet and shows a Brunei datestamp alongside with arrival datestamp for 9 April on the reverse. The item was described as being rare since ‘only ten items of mail were carried.
SOLD FOR £2,000
Christoph Gaertner recently sold an 1897 Red Revenue 4c on 3c small figure stamp of China. The stamp was described as ‘very fine and wonderfully fresh, good colour, cancelled copies are much rarer than mint.’
SOLD FOR £13,260