italy

Sale 29 Coming January 23rd-24th, 2019

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Download the PDF catalogue

Welcome to Sparks Auctions’ 29th sale, to be held in our offices in Ottawa on January 23rd & 24th, 2019. The sale is now live on Stamp Auction Network.

Our September 2018 sale was our largest so far, and our January auction promises to continue this great trend. We value the participation of collectors from around the world, and are committed to providing an exceptional bidding experience. To that end, we maintain our very competitive buyer’s premium of only 15%, which remains one of the lowest among philatelic public auction firms. We also continue our commitment to industry-leading transparency, by clearly indicating with a “Rsv.” which items are subject to a minimum reserve bid.

Collectors in every field are sure to find something of interest among our high-quality offerings of Canadian, British Commonwealth, and worldwide stamps and postal history. Highlights include our usual high quality singles and sets, from the classics through to rarely offered modern varieties.

We are also proud to offer the “Azilda” collection of Canadian registration stamps and covers, including gems offered on the philatelic market for the first time in over forty years. These are identified in the catalogue with the letters AC (Azilda collection) accompanying the description.

Our British Commonwealth and Worldwide selections including another installment of desirable SPECIMEN perforated sets, exceptional never hinged Italy and rarely-seen Italian States, a collection of “Number One” stamps of the world offered in several lots, as well as early Great Britain, United States, and more.

Our postal history section abounds with diverse material, including our always-popular postmark lots, featuring a lovely collection of Canadian fancy cancellations, offered in over thirty lots. Also of note are forty-five lots of Graf Zeppelin flown covers and cards from around the world, Western Express covers, and more.

One of the highlights of this sale is a world-class advanced collection of Great Britain squared circle postmarks, consisting of over 16,000 covers and cards as well as thousands of stamps. The collector diligently sought fully legible and quality strikes, including most of the rare ones, and more common hammers are often found on better items, such as unusual usages and exotic destinations. This collection contains most of the great rarities, much of it originating from the renowned collection of Stanley Cohen. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to acquire material from one of the best collections ever formed.

Finally, we are pleased to offer worldwide country lots from the Jack Gray collection. This collection was received in just under 100 large cartons, and is being offered principally by country, with each lot typically including more than one collection. Jack was a topicalist, and purchased country collections to extract the topical material he needed, and what remains is a very diverse offering. These lots are identified with (JG) accompanying the description. We recommend careful viewing of his material as the sheer volume of material may yield finds for the eagle-eyed collector.

As always, we are at your service if we can be of any assistance.

Enjoy the sale!

Stéphane Cloutier,
Director of Lotting & Consignments

Lot 912, Italy 1945 1.25 lira green Destroyed Monuments Special Delivery

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Session Three (Worldwide) begins at approximately 9:45am EDT.

Lot 912, Italy 1945 1.25 lira green Destroyed Monuments Special DeliveryLot 912 Italy #14 (Sassone) 1945 1.25l green Destroyed Monuments Special Delivery Overprinted C.L.N. / Ponte Chiasso in Red, by the Committee of National Liberation, mint never hinged and quite rare, with only 50 copies reported to have been issued. Accompanied by a 2016 Sergio Sismondo certificate. Sassone CV €18,750.

Lot 1082 — Italy 1863 10c yellow Postage Due, mint

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Lot 1082Lot 1082 Italy #J1 1863 10c yellow Postage Due, with small part original gum. Accompanied by 2012 Sergio Sismondo certificate stating “genuine, uncancelled, with small part of original gum. The stamp has complete margins, well clear of the design on all sides, and is free from hidden faults or repairs at the time of examination. Between January of 1863 and February of 1869 this stamp was used often without receiving a cancellation, and is therefore commonly found in this condition.”. Very fine. Scott CV$2,000.

Introduction to Auction #9

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Our ninth auction is the most varied and comprehensive to date. The 2167 lots offer something for every collector.

It begins with a strong Canada and BNA section of 589 lots. The Pence issues are well-represented with a good selection of very fine including multiple very fine examples of the scarcer 7-1/2 and 10 penny. The half-penny imperforate features a lovely red postmark, while the perforated half-penny has a foreign postmark. For the budget-minded we have lesser quality, for example a very fine appearing mint example of the rare Scott #10 with Certificate but repaired which we estimate at about 5% of catalogue value. The Cents issues and Large Queens each have a number of uncommonly very fine mint examples. Both the Small Queens and the Jubilees each has a standout large mint multiple — a six cent Ottawa printing block of thirty and a five cent block of twenty respectively. The session continues to delight for 460 more lots.

One of the gems in the British Commonwealth section is a four-margin used block of the 1840 two penny blue. Interesting and scarce lots abound in this session. Mauritius 1847 1d red and 2p blue Queen Victoria Compound Die Proofs on cardSpecial mention of Mauritius number one and two must be made. We offer the compound Die Proof of these fabulously expensive iconic issues. It is a post-contemporary production made from the original Dies which were found in 1912 and is scarce in its own right.

Our worldwide stamps with 324 lots begin with a few modest USA then the unusual and the rare appear frequently among the nice quality collector oriented lots. China includes the rare Formosa railway locals as well as a few modern including a 1980 monkey, France and Germany each have a great variety among more than a hundred lots. French Colonies #35a deserves special mention. Iceland and Italy each have some expensive a highlight being the used pair of Iceland Scott #32b. The offering of Japan has the Mayeda collection (ISJP member #2) in over fifty lots. We continue this session with classics, essays, and locals etc.

Postal history is a field where our consignors are, with each auction, offering increasingly interesting and collectible items and collections. This auction, in addition to many lovely single covers (including Canada pence, British Columbia high values, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia bisects), there are dozens of lots which might easily form the basis for a whole new field of collecting enjoyment. These lots were usually assembled over years and decades as the owner sought out the rare and elusive. The successful bidder can continue and expand the collection. Another option is to seriously consider developing an award-winning Exhibit. The extensive postmark collections in this session can lead to similar fun and achievement.

One group of twelve lots, the Viner military memorabilia collection, can be found in the catalogue with two-and-a-half pages of text and scans. However the complete write-up of this collection is more than ten times as lengthy. It can all be found on our website along with extra scans.

In our last auction we offered an extensive number of cartons, albums, and stockbooks in our large lots session. This time the emphasis is more on collector-built specialized offerings as well as generally more valuable and more diverse lots than in the past. And, this auction has even more bulk and with 728 lots has considerably more than last auction.

The auction has been posted to stampauctionnetwork.com. The printed catalogue is presently being mailed to subscribers. Watch www.sparks-auctions.com for additional images, corrections, and featured items as the auction dates approach.