Garden City Philatelic Auctions will present its fourth auction, titled Postal History of the World, as a one-day online sale scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026.
The sale will be conducted through StampAuctionNetwork, with bidding opening at 8 a.m. Pacific time. A total of 788 lots are offered, spanning a wide range of postal history categories. All lots are unreserved and open at $10.
While postal history remains the firm’s core focus, the fourth sale brings together several notable collections and specialized areas. Among the highlights is the first part of the extensive Rob Leigh collection of early Canadian postal history, with material ranging from the earliest periods through the 1920s and a strong emphasis on postmarks.
“Collectors will find a great variety of material across multiple countries and time periods,” said Stéphane Cloutier, FRPSC, FPHSC, auction manager for Garden City Philatelic Auctions. “All of the lots are unreserved, which gives bidders the opportunity to compete on material that is often difficult to find.”
Also featured is a collection of India postal history, extending from early stampless material to the 1930s, with particular strength in early Travelling Post Office markings and other postal markings.
“There is some very attractive and informative India material in this sale,” Cloutier said. “The emphasis on early TPO and other postmarks will appeal to both specialists and general postal historians.”
Worldwide aerophilately is represented by more than 50 lots of airship mail, including Zeppelin- and Hindenburg-flown covers.
“Airship mail continues to attract strong interest, and we are pleased to offer a solid group of Zeppelin and Hindenburg items within this sale,” Cloutier said.
Hong Kong postal history forms another major component of the auction, with extensive offerings of the Second World War censored mail and Treaty Port material, along with a broader collection spanning from stampless items through the 1940s.
“These Hong Kong sections are quite extensive and cover several distinct collecting areas,” Cloutier said. “They include material that reflects both wartime postal operations and earlier treaty port usage.”
In addition, collectors will find a strong selection of early worldwide trans-Atlantic and steamship mail, organized by country.
One of the featured items in the sale is Lot 634, a 1912 cover mailed from Nanking, China, to Victoria, B.C. The cover is franked with a pair of five-cent Chinese Imperial Post Dragon issues, tied by a Nanking city circular date stamp, and travelled via Shanghai, with Feb. 10 and Feb. 13 transit markings on the reverse.
“This cover tells an interesting story and reflects the international connections of the period,” Cloutier said.
Originating from the President’s Office of National Huazhong University in Nanking, the cover is addressed to “Mr. Lim Bang / The Bang of Vancouver” in Victoria, a reference believed to be a play on words connected to a well-known British Columbia banker. The accompanying album page includes a newspaper article published upon Bang’s death in 1974. Vertical Chinese characters on the cover translate approximately as “The gratitude of Lin Libin,” and the item was mailed shortly after the formation of the Republic of China. Minor pinholes are noted but do not detract from the overall quality of the cover.
Each lot in the sale is illustrated online, with more than 1,500 images available in total. A text-only version of the catalogue may also be downloaded or printed from the firm’s website.
Bidding is in Canadian dollars, with a buyer’s premium of 17 per cent. Registered bidders may submit advance bids by email, telephone or directly through StampAuctionNetwork, which is recommended. Live online bidding will also be available during the sale via StampAuctionNetwork’s AutoHammer platform. No in-person floor bidding will be offered.
Additional information, including bidding and payment instructions, is available at www.gcpauctions.com.