WM 3. 4d rose SG66

A fresh lightly mounted mint example with superb colour. Horizontal crease but with INVERTED watermark.  Un-priced for mint with this watermark variety but an estimated catalogue value is more than £3,000.  

Price:   £380.00 

1124 1857 4d Large Garter, SG 66a.

 rose shade: superb used block of 6 with ‘620’ numerals of Plymouth .  The block has a large part of original gum and four stamps have a clear Queen’s profile.  A rare multiple in this condition with a clear RPS Certificate.  

Price:  £635.00 

1208.  1/- SG72, 6d SG 70 and 4d SG66 

on a clean wrapper to Naples from London: the first three monetary values of the surface printed era used together, and in sequence of monetary order of issue.  All are in fine condition with the 1/- overlapping the wing margined 6d. This example is the best with this combination of stamps we have been able to offer and is certainly equal to the best of the small number of covers that have survived with these three denominations. 

Price:  £535.00 

1209.  1/-SG72 pair and 4d SG66 pair:

 tied to entire to Canada by Edinburgh duplexes, April 13^th 1859 with an additional strike clear of the stamps.  The right hand stamp of the 4d pair has a small fault at the right side but the 1/- pair is very fine with one stamp having the Edinburgh cds.   The 1/- pair have INVERTED WATERMARK and this is the first example we have been able to offer of this 1/- with a cds and watermark inverted even on a stamp alone.  An attractive and rare Scottish entire. 

Price:  £695.00

WM 7.   2/- SG120a

A very fine used example in the rare COBALT shade with clear Certificate signed by Robson Lowe.  Small paper adherence and hinge remnant on the reverse and the light cancel leaves both the Queen’s profile and most of the Head clear thus allowing this distinctive shade to be seen to advantage.  Rare stamp so fine but made exceedingly rare by having an INVERTED watermark.   A catalogue value allowing for the inverted watermark and the premium for lightly used is well in excess of £10,000.   First we have seen with inverted watermark.  

Price:  £2,475.00   

  SG123 6d a Certificated Unrecorded Variety

Very fine copy of 6d SG123 plate 11 with plate damage to a number of areas including the base of the Queen’s head.  The item has a 1994 RPS certificate. A major new surface printed variety.

 Price:  £240.00

1212.  6d plate 12 SG124a, PALE CHESTNUT: 

 a fine/very fine example of this ABNORMAL on clean entire to Messina from London, January 9^th 1873, with clear 1977 RPS certificate.  Used in conjunction with a 1d plate 154(fault) and is offered with an example on cover to Genoa of the 6d plate 12, SG124, in the issued pale buff shade.  A considerable surface printed rarity with only a few examples known on full cover.  

Price:  £4,375.00

1210.  6d plate 12, SG125, (RG)

A very fine example on neat, clean wrapper to Palermo from London, 24^th February 1874. The stamp is just tied by part of the London no 12 duplex and then cancelled by a complete RED PD in circle with another strike of the same PD in circle a little way below the 6d.  Attractive and rare example on cover of this usage of the PD to cancel a stamp. 

Price:  £475.00  

1129 1867 5/- plate 1 SG126

A remarkable and unique ‘matched pairing’ of two fine used examples.  Each has the same lettering ‘HJ’; each has the same off-centre printing and each is cancelled by the rare Liverpool ‘466’ roller canceller with this cancellation applied virtually in the same position on the stamp.   This unique pair would make a memorable Exhibition item.  

Price: £680.00 

 SG126 1867 5/- Rose plate 1

 with C88 Cancel of St Jago de Cuba. A superb used copy of SG126, plate 1, cancelled by the very scarce C88 of St Jago de Cuba.  Gibbons records this as existing, (Z32), but no price is quoted. A very rare stamp,  The stamp has a PEGB Certificate.  

Price: £885.00

1211.  5/- plate 4, SG130 

on blued paper: a fine used example, very small expertisation mark on the back bottom left and a very small corner wrinkle but cancelled by a fine strike of the VR London Scroll for July 13 1883. This has Code A which is associated with Royal Household Mail, Code A being much scarcer than Codes B and C.  We have seen only one other VR Scroll Code A used on this stamp.  A rarity with the basic stamp catalogued at £4,000 and at £7,000 allowing for having a dated cancellation.  

Price:  £950.00   

1130 1884 April 3 5/- rose plate 4 SG130 (GE)

With Registered oval date stamp and slight wrinkling:  the famous and unique example with a large portion of the design missing caused by under-inking of the plate on three sides of the design.  This remarkable ‘Dry Plate’ variety was first published in ‘British Postage Stamp Varieties illustrated’ by Alcock and Meredith in 1949 and illustrated on page 14.  It has been featured in various publications down the years a notable one being with an illustration in an article by H W Fisher in the Great Britain Philatelic Society’s ‘GB Journal’ in May 1965 - a photocopy is provided with this item.  One of the great and unique surface printed rarities, rarer and with more visual impact than any of the surface printed abnormals.  

Price: £10,000.00  

SG130 1883 5/- plate 4, AB-AC

Very fine/fine used pair with a Lombard Street L1/LS5 duplex. AB with almost clear profile, AC corner crease, excellent colour and perfs with good centering.  Catalogued £8,000 as singles.  Attractive and a rare multiple in such fine and overall condition.  

Price: £1195.00 

1880 Advertising Envelope, London to Vienna , January 6 1880. Rare printed envelope from The Royal Alhambra Theatre London advertising ‘Rotho Mago, The Magic Watch’ with a golden pocket watch showing the time of the performance. The 3d rate to Austria has been paid by a 3d plate 15 SG143.  Rothomago or The Magic Watch was a grand Christmas musical fairy spectacular in 4 acts and 17 tableaux by H B Farnie. It opened on December 22 1879.  A superb and rare item.  

Price: £235.00   

 VR Scroll Cancel and Board of Trade Perfin with Certificate

 4d SG160 plate 18 with an almost complete and upright strike of the VR scroll cancel for September 1884.  The stamp has some clipped perfs on the left but is perfinned Crown/BT of the Board of Trade.  A very scarce/rare combination of cancel and perfinning.  The stamp has a 1995 PEGB Cert.

 Price:  £165.00

SG162 1883 very fine 6d on 6d

 tied to small piece by the VR  London Scroll JY 1884.  Stamp also perfinned by the  Crown BT of the Board of Trade.  A  rare combination of cancellation and perfin and possibly unique on this stamp.          

Price  £195.00

1131 1899 August 4 2/6 SG178

On envelope from London to Chicago postage paid by a very rare SINGLE usage of this high value indicating a letter weight of more than 5.5 oz or 156g.  At a period when many postal administrations were members of the UPU, high value stamps were only needed in exceptional circumstances.  The stamp is fine and tied by a London cds for August 4 1899. Brauers in ‘Scarce Victorian Postage Stamps of Great Britain on Cover’, records only one other commercial single usage of this 2/6 value and that is on a printed Registered Envelope but the stamp is damaged.   The reverse side of the envelope is toned on half of the rear but the front is clean with only the one vertical filing fold.   A rarity which displays well.  

Price:  £1,775.00  

July 2 1890: 3d British Empire card posted at the Exhibition to Australia with an interesting message on the reverse together with a Melbourne receiving cds. Some wrinkling at right but this is an exceptional item. In The Report of the Controller of the London Postal Service, R C Tombs, for the May 1890 Exhibition, of the 20,508 ordinary postcards sold on its first day, only 1,208 were of a type for the foreign service and only about 12 were addressed to Australia. In The Report of the Controller about the July 2 1890 Exhibition, he mentions that 2,166 postcards were sold there and of these only 311 were sold as were used for the foreign service. Hence the number of the 3d cards sent to Australia from the Exhibition will have been very small and very possibly less than the dozen sent from the May 1890 event. Hence this item is of exceptional rarity and may well be a unique survivor.   

Price: £825.00  

July 1890 Harry Furniss black printing of his caricature of the Post Office Jubilee envelope and insert with each of them signed by him.  Both the envelope and insert are in wonderful condition. Rare item.  

Item: £575.00  SOLD

July 31 1890: Harry Furniss caricature of the Post Office Jubilee envelope. Very fine/superb envelope used locally in London with 1d lilac tied by a superb Lombard Street cds for July 31 1890.  An extremely rare used example with only three or four contemporarily used examples known.  This is the third earliest usage with the earliest recorded just 5 days before this one.  Exceptional and a rare opportunity to acquire such an item.  

Price: £750.00  SOLD

1132 1887 ‘Jubilee’ 1 1/2d, SG198 deformed leaf variety

A superb block of 4 in virtually Post Office fresh condition, three stamps un-mounted and the fourth stamp – with the variety – has the smallest trace of being hinged.  A superb example of this well known redrawn/retouched leaf variety, Duty plate 4, row 19 stamp 1, spec K29e. The other left hand leaves of the variety stamp and those on the stamp below, ie row 20/1, also show possible retouching and strengthening.  Superb and rare item.  

Price:  £575.00 

The QV ‘Jubilee’ 2d Printed in the Intense Carmine Shade

A superb unmounted mint marginal Block of 12 in this known and distinctive, but as yet uncatalogued, shade even though Gibbons offer it themselves occasionally. We have considerable experience of the ‘Jubilee’ issue and this shade is scarcer than the catalogued Green and Scarlet, SG199.  

Price: £2250.00

1134 1900 ‘Jubilee’ 1/2d green SG213  

Envelope, Registered from London to Budapest.  Registration fee of 2d and the ordinary postage of 2 1/2d paid by a superb block of nine 1/2d green and tied by Charing Cross Registered Ovals for APRIL 17 1900 – the DAY OF ISSUE of SG213. On the reverse is another Charing Cross Registered April 17 1900 date stamp and a Budapest arrival cds for April 20 1900.  This is the largest used multiple of this stamp on Day of Issue that we  have seen.  The largest previously is a marginal pair which we sold in 1986 and a block of 4 that we saw in an Exhibit in 1995. A truly remarkable item with almost certainly the largest such block extant used on its day of issue.  

Price:  £3,275.00 

1136. 1900 ‘Jubilee’ 1/- green and carmine SG214

A fine/very fine used cds example, with the only known catalogued variety on this stamp – frame broken at left, Spec K41b – row 19 stamp 1.  Mint examples are very scarce but this is not only the first used example we have been able to offer but the ONLY USED example we have ever seen.  The cds leaves the variety fully clear.  A rare item and grossly under-catalogued by SG at £450 including fine used premium.  

Price:  £390.00