Several sought-after Canadian “Pence” covers owned by Israeli insurance executive Joseph Hackmey are back on the market.
The 22-lot offering – presented in a private treaty sale by Spink & Son – is one of many acclaimed collections amassed by Hackmey, who’s considered one of the world’s top art collectors.
Among the highlights of his Pence collection is an 1857 double-rate mourning cover mailed from Barrie, in present-day Ontario, to London, England. It was carried aboard the Cunard Line’s Arabia, which departed from New York on Nov. 25 of that year.
Offered as Lot 7, the cover is franked by two 7.5-pence yellow-green stamps (Scott #9) and two three-pence beavers on hard wove paper (SC #4), both issued in 1857. The stamps are tied by three strikes of a four-ring “1” cancel, with a Nov. 21, 1857, despatch datestamp to left. A registered cover, it also features straight-line “REGISTERED” and crown “REGISTERED” handstamps in red. An arrival datestamp of Dec. 7, 1857, is on the reverse.
Auctioneers describe it as a “magnificent and important cover” and “superb exhibition showpiece.”
Valued at £70,000 (about $120,000 Cdn.), its provenance includes Gerald Wellburn, Henry Lubke Jr., Horace Harrison and Warren Wilkinson.
Hackmey is a Fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society London, a member of New York’s Collectors Club and the winner of several Grand Prix medals at Fédération Internationale de Philatélie world exhibitions (most recently at Praga 2018 in Czech Republic).
To view his Pence collection, visit bit.ly/37l94d6.