A Traditional Philatelic Auction House — Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
This attractive plate proof appealed to many—including seven who placed advance bids plus a telephone bidder—before selling on the floor for $230.
Canada #15TC 1859 5c orange vermilion Beaver plate proof on India paper, from top sheet showing full imprint, very fine, choice piece. Unitrade CV $225 Realized $265 including premium.
Canada #28b 1868 12½¢ deep blue Large Queen on thin paper, pair from an early printing with deep rich colour, and full early AP 20, 1868 Saint John datestamp, fresh and extremely fine. A lovely item for the connoisseur. Unitrade CV $360 Realized $575 including premium.
This pair with deep colour and the dated cancel truly earned the extremely fine designation. There were eight advance bids with the lot opening at $400 and selling for $500 to a bidder who is very happy to have purchased it. Incidentally, the owner originally consigned an even dozen Scott #28 as one lot. The other ten became Lot 47 and were sold for a respectable but very reasonable price of $325. I doubt very much that as a lot of twelve stamps it would have received $825 in total.
We begin our first full week of post-auction commentary with the Canada #1 on cover. This realized about twice what similar covers were selling for only a few years ago.
Canada #1 1851 3d red Beaver on laid paper on cover, an extremely fine stamp tied by 7-ring cancel and postmarked Toronto NO 26 1851 to Quebec with receiver on back dated DEC 3 1851. A rare small cover, tear on back flap, very fine. Accompanied by 1981 Greene Foundation certificate. Unitrade CV $2000. Realized $1840
An excellent realization to start, the set of 1897 Jubilee plate proofs.
Canada #50-65, 1897 Jubilee set of large die proofs, with 16 different values in issued colours, die sunk on card. Cards measure 280 x 160mm and sunken area measures 65 x 62mm. Extremely fine and rare set worthy of the finest collection, and the cornerstone to any exhibit of this issue. Estimate $35,000, Realized $29,900 with buyer’s premium.
We would like to thank all of our bidders and consignors for another successful auction.
There is much to say about the sale, and we will post often in the coming days. Please watch the site.
The phones will not be answered on Friday while we get a handle on the huge volume of material that needs to be sorted, invoiced and readied for shipping. If you have any questions, please leave a message or send us an e-mail (info@sparks-auctions.com).