By Jesse Robitaille
A highly touted collection of colonial Nova Scotian stamps and postal history will cross the block in New Brunswick this fall.
Eastern Auctions will offer the 135-lot Yuichi Tada Collection, centring on the former British colony’s 1851-67 Pence and Cents issues, on Nov. 17. It features proofs, stamps, multiples and postal history spanning the colonial period, which saw just 10 different issues, including four pence values (Scott #1-7) and six decimal denominations (Scott #8-13). Built over more than 20 years, the collection stands as an “important offering … and one of the finest to come on the market in recent years,” according to Yohann Tanguay, a stamp specialist and Eastern’s chief describer.
“Due to the significant number of rarities and the comprehensive showing of postal history rates and combination frankings, and at the request of the collector, we are showcasing the collection as a single-owner specialized sale,” said Yohann Tanguay, a stamp specialist and the chief describer with Eastern Auctions. “We are confident it will become a lasting reference for present and future collectors and researchers.”
Despite Nova Scotia’s limited issues, the colony had “a rich history that extends well beyond a simple collection of mint or used stamps,” Tanguay added.
The collection’s namesake Yuichi Tada, of Japan, assembled it beginning in the late 1990s. Some of the pieces came from the Grand Prix collection sold by Spink in April 1999 and formed by Singapore’s Koh Seow Chuan, who won the Grand Prix National at CAPEX 96 in Toronto.
“Since then, the client was active in nearly all important sales that featured important items related to Nova Scotia,” Tanguay said about Tada.
Eastern organized the catalogue to mirror the 1963 sale of the Nicholas Argenti Collection: the Pence and Cents are respectively separated with proofs and stamps followed by postal history listed by postal rates.
“A high-resolution digital copy of the catalogue is available on our website to anyone wanting to peruse and study this impressive collection,” said Tanguay, pointing to easternauctions.com.
NOVA SCOTIA PHILATELIC MARKET
British collector Nicholas Argenti’s 1962 book, The Postage Stamps of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, spurred more collectors to dive into the philately of Canada’s former colonies.
While Argenti died a few months before his book’s publication, he posthumously received the Crawford Medal for literature from the Royal Philatelic Society London (RPSL).
The RPSL has awarded the medal since 1920 for “the most valuable and original contribution to the study and knowledge of philately published in book form during the relevant period,” according to the society’s website.
Before Argenti’s book, the only published philatelic work dedicated to Nova Scotia that Tanguay could find was the 20-page monograph, The Postage Stamps of Nova Scotia, written by U.S. philatelist Bertram Poole circa 1920.
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