A full auction review will be published in CSN Vol. 46 #4.
CSN also previewed the auction in a two-part series in Vol. 45 #26 (“Sought-after Admirals to lead next Eastern sale“) and Vol. 46 #1 (“Strong Canada section offering more than Admirals at next Eastern sale“).
Of the 1,073 lots crossing the block during last weekend’s Eastern Auctions sale, nearly all of them sold—and some to record prices, according to auctioneers.
The three-session sale, held April 30-May 1, offered a comprehensive 215-lot section of “Admirals” – named after the King’s Admiral of the Fleet uniform – including some of the finest examples available on the market in recent years. Several major rarities and high-quality mint never-hinged (NH) stamps from the long-running 20th-century series sold on May 1, during the third and final session of Eastern Auctions’ latest major sale and first webcast live auction.
“Our first webcast live auction was a resounding success,” said Yohann Tanguay, a stamp specialist and chief describer with the New Brunswick-based auction house, who described the sale as “incredible.”
“We did some amazing record prices,” he added, referencing some Admiral singles that hammered down for about $10,000. “We (Eastern) probably had the record before that, with an Admiral, mint single, going for $4,000. That would be a pretty high price back then, but now we trumped even that.”
Among the sale’s top highlights was Lot 731, a 50-cent silver black 1917-20 Admiral (Scott #120i) from the scarcer wet printing in Extremely Fine never-hinged condition. Accompanied by a 2014 Vincent Graves Greene Philatelic Research Foundation certificate and a 2020 Professional Stamp Experts certificate, the stamp realized $12,440 (including the 18.5 per cent buyer’s premium).
The lot description calls it an “extraordinary mint example of this tremendously difficult stamp, extremely well-centred with well-balanced large margins, intact perforations and exceptional colour and impression, the unmistakable and scarcer shade with full pristine original gum.”