Legendary collections realize $3.2 million
Electrifying is how the chief describer at Eastern Auctions sums up the bidding at part two of the Brigham and Lundeen sales.
“We are still startled over what happened during this two-day auction,” says Yohann Tanguay. “It took more than nine hours to call a total of 295 lots, where many of the lots took in 60 to 90 bids before finally selling to a phone bidder, to the internet or to an auction agent. It was electric!”
Tanguay says part two of the Ron Brigham estate Province of Canada sale on Aug. 18 “brought many very impressive results on unusual proofs and covers right across to the major rarities.”
“The 157 lots on offer fetched over $2.4 million hammer (before buyer’s premium), with an average of more than $15,000 per lot,” says Tanguay. “We firmly believe these are unprecedented numbers for any sale of Canadian material sold at auction.”
Part two of the Glen Lundeen Admiral collection, held on Aug. 19, also achieved “outstanding results.”
“Die proofs and plate multiples often fetched multiples of their pre-sale estimates, at times stunningly so,” says Tanguay. “The highest price ever paid for an Admiral item was also achieved in Lundeen part two – Lot 601 – consisting of the set of three part-perforate gutter blocks of 12 with guide arrow at right from the Norris and Jephcott collections, which sold for a whopping $145,000 hammer.”
The 137 lots in the Lundeen sale realized slightly more than $873,000 hammer.
All prices listed do not include the 18.5 per cent buyer’s premium.
Both sales garnered significant interest from collectors worldwide.
“We did see a larger audience online competing for the lots this time around,” says Tanguay, which he also attributes to Eastern’s commitment to “advertise extensively in major philatelic publications.”
The electricity felt at the Brigham sale ignited right away with Lot 1, the famous “Dale-Lichtenstein” mint block of Canada’s 1851 three-penny beaver.
“Of only two known with no larger multiple extant,” the lot description says despite two pressed vertical creases – one between the stamps – and small flaws and esthetic repairs in the lower corners, “this block is in much better condition than the other known block.”
“We have recorded no less than five different prominent sales between the famous Dale-Lichtenstein sale in 1968 and the John Foxbridge private treaty in 1988,” says Tanguay. “However, since this block was acquired privately in 1992, it has remained in Brigham’s collection ever since.”
Eastern calls Lot 1, with a pre-sale estimate of $150,000-plus, “a world-class rarity of the highest order that will appeal to serious collectors of Canada as well as connoisseurs of first issues of the world.”
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