Worldwide Stamps and Postal History continued...

Superb Post Office fresh unmounted mint, with full original gum, set of four.

One of the most popular of modern QEII stamp issues featuring the most famous castles across the United Kingdom:

£1.50 - Caernarfon Castle, Wales

£2 - Edinburgh Castle, Scotland

£3 - Carrickfergus Castle, Northern Ireland

£5 - Windsor Castle, England

Get Market Data for [Great Britain 6/1/1993 12:00:00 AM] Visual Pricing Guide Sample Census

A superb Post Office fresh unmounted mint set of four with full original gum.

One of the most popular of modern QEII stamp issues featuring the most famous castles across the United Kingdom:

£1.50 - Caernarfon Castle, Wales

£2 - Edinburgh Castle, Scotland

£3 - Carrickfergus Castle, Northern Ireland

£5 - Windsor Castle, England

Get Market Data for [Great Britain 6/1/1993 12:00:00 AM] Visual Pricing Guide Sample Census

A lovely quality, clean and neat example of this extremely rare postal usage.

There are fewer than 10 known items of mail in existence from the Channel Islands during the Uniform Four Penny Post period.

Provenance: Ex. "Mayflower" Grand Prix Collection.

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The cover was sent the year before the Channel Islands Post Offices opened and is therefore without postal markings. The endorsement indicates the Southampton forwarding agent's 1d pre-PO unofficial charge.

Sent on 7 May 1793 from "H.L.M" (in London?) to T. de Sausmarez in "Guernsey" with a clear "Forw[arde]d p[er] P. Le Feuvre. 1d" endorsement on flap.

A fine example of this pre-PO unofficial postage charge and an interesting very early piece of Channel Islands postal history.

Provenance: Ex. "Mayflower" Grand Prix Collection.

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A very fine example of this rare early postal usage from Jersey.

Provenance: Ex. "Mayflower" Grand Prix Collection.

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Handstamps England Guernsey 1841 entire to London, rated "2/8", showing fine Guernsey double-arc date stamp (2.6) and very fine framed "guernsey/ship letter" (Type S.2) just touched by red arrival datestamp.

An attractive quality example which opens out well for display.

A rare piece of early Channel Islands postal history.

Provenance: Ex The Peter Stone Collection of Great Britain & Postal History (Spink sale 14/7/2010). Ex. "Mayflower" Grand Prix Collection.

The establishment of the Post Office in the Channel Islands brought with it the same procedures that were uniform throughout the United Kingdom. In the case of letters carried by private ships, it meant that these letters would be subject to the standard ship letter charges, at rates that were higher than the standard Post Office packet mail.

The setting up of the Ship Letter Office in London in 1799 saw the introduction of SHIP LETTER hand stamps. Jersey and Guernsey were not exempt from the use of these hand stamps. However, there was considerable opposition to the imposition of the ship letter charges within the Channel Islands, and people felt it was an “outrageous procedure”.

Consequently most of the mail was not handed over to the Post Office but delivered by other private means, thus accounting for the lack of use of these hand stamps on incoming mail and hence their great rarity, with only one or two examples existing of some types.

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Very fine unmounted mint with full original gum set of two.

The British Empire Exhibition stamps were the first ever commemorative stamps issued by Great Britain. These became affectionately known as “The Wembleys”.

The British Empire Exhibition was a hugely ambitious colonial exhibition to raise the country's spirits after the First World War. It opened at Wembley in 1924 and ran for two summer seasons showcasing goods and produce from the Empire countries and attracted 27 million visitors.

To mark the opening of the Exhibition in 1924, the British Post Office issued two commemorative stamps, the 1d scarlet and the 1½d brown. As the stamps proved so popular, they were re-issued the following year when the exhibition reopened for the second summer.

The design remains one of the most iconic and attractive of Britain's stamp issues amongst collectors. The designs were produced by the artist, Harold Nelson who was also responsible for the design of the 1929 PUC £1 stamp, now considered Britain's greatest ever stamp design. 

The design of the 1924 British Empire Exhibition stamps featured the British Lion (later known as the Wembley Lion) with rising sun.

The stamps were also produced to very high standards employing recess printing methods. It was customary at the time to use the much less costly photogravure process for low value definitive stamps. 

They were engraved and printed by Waterlow & Sons in the best intaglio style normally reserved for the highest GB stamp denominations. The quality of workmanship that went into producing these 1d and 1½d values resulted in huge praise and adoration from the general public.

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Very fine cover to Shanghai, prepaid at the 6d per ½ ounce rate for a cover routed via Southampton by a 6d deep lilac, neatly tied by a St. Helens "679" numeral. A St. Helens circular date stamp for NO.19.1858, a London transit circular date stamp for the 20th and a Hong Kong receiving circular date stamp for JA.15.1858 on reverse.

Routed via Southampton the letter was carried by P&O steamers "Pera" (Southampton-Alexandria), "Bengal" (Suez-Galle), "Cadiz" (Galle-Hong Kong) and "Aden" (Hong Kong-Shanghai).

A scarce and fascinating postal history destination item.

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Very fine and fresh, lightly mounted mint original gum example. Rare to find in such quality.

Accompanied with a 2016 Philatelic Traders' Society Certificate of Authenticity.

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Very fine unmounted mint, with full original gum, set of three.

Issued to mark the meeting of the Universal Postal Union in London on 10 May 1929. The selected designs were due to be submitted to King George V for his approval, however, the King’s illness at the end of 1928 prevented this, so Queen Mary approved them.

Scarce in unmounted mint condition with the watermark sideways.

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Very fine mint example with original gum printed by Harrison & Sons.

GB Specialised Catalogue No: M21(1).

A very appealing colour combination and a handsome King Edward VII stamp.

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Very fine unmounted mint, with full original gum, bottom right hand corner marginal block of four showing Phantom "R" variety from Cylinder 41 no dot.

GB Specialised Catalogue No: S74c.

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Very fine unmounted mint, with full original gum, example printed at Somerset House.

GB Specialised Catalogue No: M10(4).

Provenance: Ex. "Minoru" collection of King Edward VII, one of the most prestigious KEVII collections ever assembled.

The Stanley Gibbons catalogue value is £55.

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A very fine used set of three (3d, 1s3d, 1s6d).

Initially, in 1959, when the Earl of Woolton and Chairman of the British Red Cross Society asked the Postmaster General whether stamps could be issued to mark the centenary of the international conference, which was held in Geneva on 26 to 29 October 1863 the answer was “No”. This was because the policy at the time was that the Post Office did not issue stamps to mark past events.

Thankfully, this policy was reviewed and changed and stamp issues were permitted to mark historical anniversaries of outstanding importance. As the international conference in Geneva ultimately led to the foundation of the Red Cross in August 1864, a stamp issue was permitted to mark this historically significant event.

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Superb Post Office fresh unmounted mint, with full original gum, example with bluish violet (embroidery) omitted. Offered with normal for comparison.

The error of missing colour is most noticeable as a thinning of embroidery detail at the top of the tunic and the loss of colour from one of the pinstripes along the shoulder.

A scarce and reasonably priced QEII stamp error. Pierron records only 100 mint examples in existence.

Stanley Gibbons catalogue value: £225.

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Very fine unmounted mint, with full original gum, horizontal imperforate pair.

Scarce.

GB Specialised Catalogue No: U228a.

Stanley Gibbons catalogue value: £325.

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A very fine unmounted mint, with full original gum, example with olive-brown (Faces) omitted. Offered with normal for comparison.

The missing colour results in the loss of shading on the hands and faces of the people, and the leftmost soldier's rifle.

A rare and reasonably priced QEII stamp error of colour. Pierron records only 100 mint examples in existence.

Stanley Gibbons catalogue value: £600.

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A very fine mint positional block of four with lovely fresh colour. The top two stamps are unmounted mint, otherwise large part original gum.

A scarce and handsome multiple of this classic King George VI stamp issue.

Stanley Gibbons catalogue value: £1,200.

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A fine mint example with original gum.

A very scarce variety.

Accompanied with an American Philatelic Society (APS) certificate of authenticity (1997) as Scott No. 31b.

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A very fine and fresh mint block of four with original gum, (three of the stamps are unmounted).

A scarce and handsome multiple of this classic King George VI stamp issue.

The Stanley Gibbons catalogue value is £560+.

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A brilliant quality mint example with original gum. An exceptionally fine example.

"SPECIMEN" examples were used solely by postal administrations for reference purposes to help spot any attempted forgeries.

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A fine mint positional block with large part original gum. The central pair with trivial gum tones, but overall very fine and fresh. Most importantly, the printing variety is unmounted mint and very fine.

An attractive and very scarce multiple.

Stanley Gibbons catalogue value: £550+.

The Chalon Head stamps are considered one of the most beautiful stamp designs from the Victorian era. The design is based on the 1838 painting of the young Queen Victoria by Alfred Chalon.

Undenominated revenue stamps of Grenada featuring the Chalon Head design were used from 1875 and surcharged with a value and a "POSTAGE" overprint making them valid for regular postage. These were used until 1891.

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A fine and attractive mint block of four with large part original gum. Tiny perforation tones and left pair with vertical bend, but remains much better condition than normally seen.

A very scarce multiple with very lovely fresh colour.

The Stanley Gibbons catalogue value is £450+.

The Chalon Head stamps are considered one of the most beautiful stamp designs from the Victorian era. The design is based on the 1838 painting of the young Queen Victoria by Alfred Chalon.

Undenominated revenue stamps of Grenada featuring the Chalon Head design were used from 1875 and surcharged with a value and a "POSTAGE" overprint making them valid for regular postage. These were used until 1891.

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Mint example with original gum and fine appearance. Yellowish gum as often seen and a few shortish perforations, yet much higher quality than normally seen of this rare error.

Accompanied with an American Philatelic Society certificate of authenticity (1990) as Scott #37e.

The Stanley Gibbons catalogue value is £550.

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