IT HAPPENED ON THE FORUM !Yes it did !
January 1st 2012 will be a special day. You can read how it unfolded here;
https://goscf.com/t/21102&whichpage=1...but some may have missed this special occasion and I believe it warrants a thread of it's own.
filipo posted a bunch of lovely Cinderellas he had purchased and among them were two lots of Mercury Airmail Exhibition labels.
Nothing too special one might say, but let me explain. I did so on the aforementioned topic but it deserves a second showing here.
In 1923, the Junior Philatelic Society of London [Now the National] ran a fun competition to design an airmail stamp for Great Britain and it was won by a J Bickerton Sifton. The design was used for labels offered at the London International Stamp Exhibition of the same year.
Printed by De La Rue in the colours of the KGV definitives of the day they went on sale at 1d per label.
The collector King paid a visit to the Exhibition and two sheets were ordered by the organizers to present to His Majesty, one sheet in Royal Purple and one sheet in Gold.
Later, it was found that another sheet or sheets were printed as a small number of Gold and Purple examples came onto the market. The exact number is unknown but judging by the quantity seen, a small number.
I have never seen either either in auction, for offer anywhere or on display. I have only seen a picture in a book....until today !
I immediately noticed that two purple examples were in filipo's amazing purchase. Then two Gold examples came to light, much harder to see from scans but it appears they are Gold. They have the correct
watermarks as does one of the purple examples. These are extremely scarce.
In the British Exhibition Catalogue [2010] they are given a market price of $70 each. In reality they are worth much more.
But it appears that through our posts and filipo's tireless efforts to answer my questions, a previously unrecorded example has been found......and it's been found right here on the
SCF!One of filipo's Royal Purple labels has no watermark and is on gummed paper when it should have a Multiple Planes watermark and be on ungummed paper, as his other copy is.
This is unrecorded thus far and I will be asking filipo to write to the catalogue authors to record the discovery. I will recommend our forum be mentioned in the letter.
First, double checks will be made, but it has been a great and interesting 1/1/2012.
YIPPEEEEEEEE!
THREE CHEERS FOR FILIPO.....HIP,HIP...
Posted 01/01/2012 4:16 pm
k
