Sale No: 247
Lot No: 843
Symbol: F
Cat No: Collection
RED OVERPRINT: 'W ' (No Stop) on Rouletted 2d vermilion, rouletting only at the top otherwise cut from the sheet to preserve the design at left & the base & just touching the design at the right, GPO cds of JU10/68. Rated RRRRRR, but one other example has been recorded so it should be rated RRRRR. Ron Butler's listing was based on the institutionalised example in the Sir George Murray collection. [Date range 14.4.1868 to 10.6.1868]
The overprint is significantly misplaced to the right. From this it might be thought that the stop was simply printed on the next unit. However, if that were the case, the stop from the adjoining unit at left would appear at the left of this stamp.
RED OVERPRINT: 'W.' on Rouletted 2d vermilion, rouletting on all sides, a trifle aged, very fine GPO cds of NO3/68. Rated RRRR: unrecorded unused. The similar 'Tamiami' example sold for $688. [Date range 2.9.1868 to 3.11.1868 only]
BLACK OVERPRINT: 'W.' on De La Rue Crown/SA Wmk Rouletted 2d dull red-orange with the Watermark Reversed, rouletting on all sides, GPO cds of SP4/70. Rated R+. [Date range 16.12.1868 to 9.9.1870]
BLACK OVERPRINT: 'W.' on De La Rue Crown/SA Wmk Rouletted 2d dull red-orange Printed on Both Sides, the pale original printing showing portions of four units & Inverted Relative to the Face and consequently with the Watermark Inverted, rouletting on all sides, GPO cds of DE16/68. Rated RRRR: unrecorded unused. Ex Rev James Mursell and Colonel Harry Napier (III). [The only date recorded by Don Pearce]
BLACK OVERPRINT: 'W.' on De La Rue Crown/SA Wmk Perf 10 2d dull red-orange tied to small OHMS piece by very fine GPO cds of AP28/73. Rated S. [Date range 3.11.1870 to 22.7.1873] The illustration is above Lot 845.
Sale No: 247
Lot No: 848
Symbol: C
Cat No: Collection
BLACK OVERPRINT: 'W.' on De La Rue Crown/SA Rouletted 2d dull orange, tied by GPO cds of FE28/71 to local OHMS cover-front with 'Adelaide and Port/Waterworks Office' at lower-left, straight-line 'UNCLAIMED' handstamp & superb 'DEAD LETTER/71/AP6/ADELAIDE' cds. The stamp is rated S. Ex AE Fryar: sold in a group of similar fronts with 'T.' or 'V.' adhesives. The only 'W.' cover in Anthony Presgrave's Census.
The addressee, Catherine Helen Spence, arrived at Adelaide with her parents in 1839. She penned the first novel about Australia by a woman & several other fiction titles but abandoned the genre to become a non-fiction author, literary critic & social commentator. Spence was also an active social & political reformer. She was co-founder of the Boarding-Out Society, providing orphans with foster care. Her book 'The Laws we Live Under' was the first social studies textbook used in Australian schools. She promoted proportional representation in the Colonial, & later, the federal parliament. In 1891, she joined the Women's Suffrage Movement, which achieved votes for women in 1894. Her portrait is on the Australian $5 polymer banknotes.