The Grant Inman Collection, Part 2: Officials continued...

EXTREMELY FINE. THESE IMPERFORATE OFFICIAL SPECIAL PRINTING STAMPS WERE CUT FROM STRIPS OF FIVE ORIGINATING IN THE EARL OF CRAWFORD COLLECTION, WHICH WERE DIVIDED A CENTURY EARLIER INTO THREE SETS OF SINGLES AND ONE SET OF PAIRS. ONLY TWO INTACT SETS OF SINGLES ARE KNOWN TO EXIST—THE SET IN THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY’S MILLER COLLECTION AND THE SET OFFERED HERE.

Nearly all known genuine examples of the imperforate Official Special Printing stamps come from the set of strips of five sold to James Ludovic Lindsay, the 26th Earl of Crawford, one of the great collectors of stamps, essays, proofs and philatelic literature at the turn of the 20th Century. Lord Crawford died on January 31, 1914, and his estate executors eventually agreed to sell the entire United States collection for $60,000 to John A. Klemann of the Nassau Stamp Company. Klemann reported his acquisition of the Earl of Crawford’s collection in the November 1915 edition of The Philatelic Gazette. Among the spectacular array of items owned by Lord Crawford were strips of the 1875 1c-90c Continental Bank Note Company Special Printings with intact selvage (Scott 167-177), the set of Official Special Printing imperforate strips of five and a similar set of Newspapers & Periodicals Special Printing imperforate strips.

Klemann is almost certainly the person responsible for cutting up the Earl of Crawford strips into one set of pairs and three sets of singles, because one of the sets of singles was sold to Benjamin K. Miller, who was an active collector from 1917 to 1924 (his collection was donated to The New York Public Library and is now on long-term loan to the Smithsonian National Postal Museum). Miller probably acquired the imperforate set directly from Nassau Stamp Company, one of his dealer sources. We will refer to stamps from this set as the Miller singles (they can be seen on the National Postal Museum’s website).

The set of singles offered here, most of which have plate numbers in the margins, was sold to Colonel Edward H. R. Green. This set was subsequently acquired by the physicist Serge A. Korff and, in turn, by the late Robert Zoellner. In our sale of the Zoellner collection (Siegel Sale 804, lot 894), this set was acquired by Mr. Inman with Stanley M. Piller as his agent. We will refer to stamps from this set as the Inman singles.

The unique set of pairs was recently offered in our sale of the Golden collection on March 26, 2015 (Siegel Sale 1095, lot 501). The pairs were previously in the Hind and Sinkler collections before Mr. Golden acquired them in the July 8, 1966, John A. Fox sale of the Hollowbush collection.

Combining the pairs with the Miller and Inman singles, we can account for four of the five stamps in the original Earl of Crawford strips. The fifth set of singles was described, but not photographed, in the Phillips-Kennett auction catalogue of the Arthur Hind United States collection (November 20-24, 1933, lot 1041). At the time of the Hind sale, the dollar-value State Department singles were missing, and the remaining 1c-90c stamps had sheet margins. The incomplete set, with the sheet margins trimmed away, later appeared in the 1972 Rarities sale (Sale 409, lot 204) and in Sotheby’s November 20, 1978 sale (lot 562). We will refer to stamps from this part set as the Hind singles. We have not been able to locate the four State Department dollar-value stamps (all Position 1) that would complete this fifth set.

We compared the Inman set of singles with the other singles and the set of pairs. The following observations will be of interest to specialists:

-- The set offered here has only four stamps that do not show the plate numbers. They are: 2c and 24c Agriculture (top left and bottom left corner sheet margins respectively), 12c Post Office (part imprint) and 2c War (part imprint).

-- The 2c Agriculture Inman single shows top left corner sheet margin and is Position 1. The pair shows most of the imprint and is Positions 2-3. The Hind copy must show the remaining imprint from Position 4. The Miller copy shows N” of the plate number and must be Position 5, so this is not known with a plate number.

-- The 24c Agriculture Inman copy has bottom left corner sheet margins and is from Position 1. The pair has bottom sheet margin and no imprint or plate number. The Miller copy shows N” of plate number. The Hind single has had the margin trimmed off.

-- The 1c Executive is from Position 7 with etched-out number 81. It adjoins the pair which is from Positions 8-9 with plate number 82” above Position 8. The Miller copy is corner-margin Position 10. The first stamp in the strip (Position 6) is the Hind single.

-- The 1c Post Office Inman single shows part of the plate number and also the left half of the guide arrow, and adjoins the top-margin pair, which has most of the No. 43” at right (they are Positions 8-9 Left and 10 Left on the 200-subject plate). The Miller single has part of the imprint and comes from Position 6 Left. The Hind single Position 7 Left has had the margin with a trace of the imprint trimmed off.

-- The 6c Post Office bottom-margin pair has part of the imprint from Positions 94-95 Right on the 200-subject plate. The Inman Position 92 Right single has the plate number 47”, which adjoins the Miller Position 91 Right single with the right half of the guide arrow. The Hind single Position 93 Right has had the margin with small parts of the plate number and imprint trimmed off.

-- The 12c Post Office Inman single shows a small part of the imprint at bottom right and comes from Position 91. The bottom-margin pair comes from Positions 92-93 with the majority of the imprint. The Miller Position 95 single has the N” of No.” (the original strip of five did not include Position 96 with the plate number). Position 94 is the Hind single.

-- The 3c State shows the plate number. The top-margin pair comes from Positions 9-10 and has large top-right corner sheet margins; they are the beginning and end positions of the original strip of five. The Miller single comes from Position 7, and Position 8 is the Hind single.

-- The 7c State Inman single comes from Position 95 and shows shows just the N” of No.” (the original strip of five did not include Position 96 with the plate number). The bottom-margin pair comes from Positions 92-93 and shows most of the imprint, while the Miller single comes from Position 91 (showing a bit of the left end of the imprint). Position 94 is the Hind single.

-- The State Department dollar-value pairs come from Positions 3-4 (10-subject plate), directly adjoining the set of Inman singles from Position 5, which combine to show the No.” and plate numbers of the vignette and frame plates in their respective black and green colors. The Miller singles come from Position 2 and show part of the imprint. The Position 1 singles (with part imprint) were missing from the Hind set of singles and have not been located.

-- The 1c and 2c Treasury Inman singles both come from Position 10 Left and show the plate number 44” (1c) and 2” of 42” (2c) along with the left half guide arrow. The top-margin pairs both come from Positions 8-9 Left and show the No.” above Position 9 (2c with 4” of 42). The Miller singles come from Position 6 and show the right half of the imprint. The 1c and 2c Treasury Position 7 stamps are the Hind singles.

-- The 3c Treasury Inman single is the corner margin Position 10 Right. Position 9 Right is the Hind single. The top-margin pair shows a small part of the imprint, which adjoins with the Miller single with the right half of the imprint; these must come from Positions 6 and 7-8 Right on one of the 200-subject plates (Plate 29 or 33).

-- The 24c Treasury Inman single is Position 6, with a nearly complete plate number 64” and a small part of the imprint (in this unusual configuration, the plate number is to the left of the imprint). The pair is from Positions 7-8 and has a large part of the imprint. The Miller single is a corner-margin Position 10. The Hind Position 9 single has had the margin with the right end of the imprint trimmed off.

-- The 2c War Inman single is from Position 6 Right and has a significant portion of the imprint. The pair comes from Positions 7-8 Right (200-subject plate) and shows the right end of the imprint; together they form the first three stamps of the original strip. The Miller single comes from the corner-margin Position 10 Right. Position 9 Right is the Hind single. None show the plate number.

-- The 3c War Inman single comes from Position 10 Left, which shows the left half guide arrow and 2” of plate number 32.” The Hind Position 9 Left single has had the margin with the No. 3[2]” portion of the imprint trimmed off. The pair comes from Positions 7-8 Left (200-subject plate) and shows the right end of the imprint, which adjoins the Miller Position 6 Left single with the imprint.

The Scott value for an entire set of normally perforated Official Special Printings (1st Printing) is $318,662.50 for singles, including $227,500.00 for the four dollar-value State Department stamps (Image)

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