Siegel To Sell Bleckwenn Collection Of First Issue Revenues

Just received my copy of the USPCS Chronicle and there is a two-page ad for Siegel Auctions announcing the sale of the Brian Bleckwynn Bleckwenn collection of first issue revenues in December. This will probably be the best sale of first issue revenue material since the Joyce auction in 1991. I was fortunate to see Brian's material on display at the Collector's Club show at the Hilton on 6th Ave in New York about 8 or 9 years ago (?).

FYI-It's Bleckwenn. A great philatelist who I have been privileged to be friends with for more than 50 years. One of the great experts in US philately and a major mentor, not only to me but to anyone who has ever approached him.

The Siegel ad has the spelling as "Bleckwynn" in 3 places. I checked an old e-mail from Brian and see it should be "Bleckwenn" I fixed the spelling in the title and my earlier post.

Siegel has been on a roll. Must be the Bid Baller cache!

i echo rervcollector and have also been privileged to know and learn from him. I hope that he will now turn his hand to writing and preserve some of his vast knowledge for the benifit of future collectors.

It would be great if some of those who know him well could grab a video camera and setup some interviews. If it is challenging to do this in person, then it can be easily be done via Zoom (I would be happy to setup the Zoom meeting and record them).
This point, getting folks to share their stories, experiences, and knowledge, should be paramount in all of our minds. I think that the constant 'brain drain through attrition' in our hobby is one of our greatest sins.
Don

He has been having some serious health issues for a while now, so I am not sure if that is possible at the moment.

I expect the offering to be wonderful, although almost entirely beyond my means. Hopefully Siegel offers PDFs of lots the way Kelleher has so that they can be preserved for reference purposes.

Having been lucky enough to have seen a good deal of his collection over the years, I can assure people that it will be astonishing. Also largely beyond my means. But hope springs eternal.

i will echo that for the items that I saw and needed over the years. don I do not know if he follows what goes on here, but one of us will pass along your thought.

Siegel has posted scans of Brian's collection to its webpage - https://siegelauctions.com/exhibits
There are 5 .pdf files:
1) Essays and proofs
2) 1st issue including multiples
3) 1st issue varieties
4) 1st issue cancellations
and
5) 1st issue revenue documents.

Thank you for that update.

I assure everyone that this is just the tip of the tip of the iceberg.......

The only time that I can recall, that I met Brian, was when he was running Spink New York auctions. Dick Celler and I went, in person to, I think it was the Tito sale around 1999. It was actually held at Christie's office.

Days prior to the sale, we viewed lots, and it was just Brian, Dick and myself - and we got to see, in person, the Dawson 2c+5c Missionary cover, along with some other pretty stunning material. We had a nice chat with Brian that day. I had no idea that he had such a powerful collection, as he made no mention of such.

He has collected first issues exclusively since he was 16. And he has always been in a fortunate position when it came to finding and acquiring material.

Just based upon what is contained in those 5 PDFs, there are some true world class rarities in his collection when it comes to 1st issue revenues. I imagine the competition will be quite fierce, as some of the items are ones that only appear on the market once in a generation, if that.

It will be interesting to see what gets lotted as singles vs. group lots.

There are more than a few cancels and plate varieties that I would love to acquire, but I am very pessimistic as to my ability to compete; I just don't have the resources that I believe it will take to be successful. Even beyond individual collectors, I expect Eric Jackson, Richard Friedberg, and Michal Aldrich to be very active bidders, and they just have gobs of money to throw at this material...

Oh well, at least the auction catalogue will be a great reference work moving forward.