Eastern Auctions has two collections heavy on postal history coming up in the Oct. 16, sale, the Harvey Poole collection of Canada and British North America, and the Jack Wallace Collection of British Columbia and Vancouver.
The Poole collection, first started in the 1950s, has expanded for several decades. As with his Newfoundland collection, sold in 2008, the auction is strong in essays, proofs and imperfs.
The collection offers a large selection of presentation booklets.
The booklets, produced for government and postal officials include a rare Jubilee booklet, and issues from the 1920s through to the 1950s.
The essay section is virtually complete, with only some colour variations missing, as well as many stamps never issued.
Lot 39 is a block essay of six two-cent Queen Victoria, printed by Canadian Bank Note in green on thin Japanese paper showing the running horse overprint and sample handstamp. Previously in the Vincent G. Greene collection, it is estimated at $2,000 plus.
The sale also includes an 1851 12-penny black on laid paper, with fresh finish, and three large margins. The stamp also has most of its original gum with mild hinging, uncommon for the stamp. It has a catalogue value of $160,000.
Lot 65 is an imperf pair of 10 pence Cartier, Unitrade #7a, blue on thick white wove paper, with full intact original gum with hinge marks. The catalogue value is $54,000.
There is a pristine example of the Prince Albert 10-cent black brown, Unitrade #16, front printing order 1A, the first printing. Attributed to the Philipp von Ferrary and Dale-Litchentein collections, it has a catalogue value of $20,000.
A se-tenant strip of five large queen greens, four one-cent and one six-cent stamps, printed on a card with the British American Bank Note imprint, is estimated at $10,000 plus. According to the catalogue, the strip is the only trade sample sheet to show all four impressions of the cent, while only one other six-cent is known on sheet.
Lot 230 is a complete set of large die proofs of the 1946 peace issue, Unitrade #268-273. It is printed in issued colours on India paper sunk on full size cards. The catalogue states that some stamps, the 10 cents, 14 cents, 20 cents, and $1 values, were not listed in the Minuse and Pratt handbook on essays, and that no die proofs of these values were present in the 1990 American Bank Note Company archives sale. It is the first complete set to be sold by the firm. The estimate is $10,000 plus.
In more modern stamps, the sale has a Mint Never Hinged example of the famous 1959 St. Lawrence Seaway invert error, with a 2014 Greene Foundation certificate. The catalogue value is $12,500.
Another modern error is lot 255, a se-tenant imperforate pair of eight-cent royal Military College Centenary. The catalogue value is $3,000.
Jack Wallace was a collector whose interests spanned colonial British Columbia and Vancouver Island, as air mails, and British Colonies.
An avid postal historian, he worked with the late Gerry Wellburn to attempt to identify all the B.C. numeral cancels.
Prior to joining Confederation in 1871, Vancouver Island and British Columbia were first two, and then one separate colony. As such they ran a separate postal system, and relied on large number of private express services, particularly to and from the gold fields.
In the colonial era, post offices in B.C. were issued numbered cancels, however how a number was selected and when it was put in use was not documented, forcing researchers to resort to scanning covers for clues.
Wallace also exhibited, starting locally in 1956 and internationally in 1980. Over his exhibiting career he received more than 35 medals and awards.
The session opens with a series on the numeral grid cancellations, organized starting with post office one, New Westminster.
Lot 457 is a letter mailed from Nanaimo, Vancouver Island, to New Westminster, franked with a two and a half-pence dull rose cancelled at origin and a grid 35 cancel in blue.
The cover is interesting because, according to Wellburn, the 35 was the commonest of all cancellations on later B.C. colonial stamps, and yet this is the only cover with a two and a half pence stamp, one of the workhorses of B.C. philately.
Among the private courier items is a letter from Victoria, Vancouver Island to San Francisco from 1871 with a B.C. three-pence bright blue on a Wells Fargo Victoria and B.C. PAID envelope. While express couriers were popular and expensive, a stamp was still required to honour the postal monopoly.
The sale is being held Oct. 16 at the Lord Nelson Hotel, 1515 South Park St., Halifax, Nova Scotia.
For more information go to www.easternauctions.com.