A quartet of the most important stamps in Hong Kong philately sold Sunday for a record 6.4 million Hong Kong dollars (US$820,000) to an anonymous Asian buyer.
The extremely rare 1865 96-cent stamps in mint condition features a profile of Queen Victoria. The image is based on sketches made by Sir Hercules G. R. Robinson, governor of Hong Kong from 1859 to 1865 (the city’s Robinson Road is named after him).
The block was sold by Spink, a London-based auction house, during a sale of rare stamps, coins, bank notes, bonds and shares Saturday and Sunday at the Landmark Mandarin Oriental in Hong Kong.
There were other notable lots, including a unique $1 Qing dynasty bank note of Henan (or Honan) province that sold for HK$2.4 million — a world-auction record for a classic Chinese bank note. But the prize of the weekend sale was the Queen Victoria 96-cent foursome.
The block is noteworthy to collectors for three main reasons: It was printed in early 1865, when stamps and stamp collecting were in their infancy. Its color — olive-bistre, in philately-speak — was a mistake, due to an error by the printing company De La Rue in London. Because of the color error — they were supposed to be a brownish-gray shade — only 52 sheets were printed, which makes them rare: Only 48 unused examples of this particular stamp exist today, according to Spink. The other 36 are believed to be single stamps, and this particular block of four the only multiple set of unused examples.
This block, highly coveted by collectors of Hong Kong stamps, was previously owned by well-known philatelists such as George Burghard of New York, Ryohei Ishikawa of Tokyo and Richard C.K. Chan of Hong Kong. It has appeared at auction only twice before, the last time in London in December 1980.
The purchase of this block by an anonymous Asian investor is part of a massive shift of Chinese collectibles back to China from the West.
“The passion of these Chinese collectors is amazing to watch,” said Olivier Stocker, chairman and chief executive of Spink. “The Chinese stamp market has been vibrant for many years because since the beginning of the Communist era, stamp collecting has always been a hobby that was encouraged.”
Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/scene/2011/01/25/the-820000-stamp/
The extremely rare 1865 96-cent stamps in mint condition features a profile of Queen Victoria. The image is based on sketches made by Sir Hercules G. R. Robinson, governor of Hong Kong from 1859 to 1865 (the city’s Robinson Road is named after him).
The block was sold by Spink, a London-based auction house, during a sale of rare stamps, coins, bank notes, bonds and shares Saturday and Sunday at the Landmark Mandarin Oriental in Hong Kong.
There were other notable lots, including a unique $1 Qing dynasty bank note of Henan (or Honan) province that sold for HK$2.4 million — a world-auction record for a classic Chinese bank note. But the prize of the weekend sale was the Queen Victoria 96-cent foursome.
The block is noteworthy to collectors for three main reasons: It was printed in early 1865, when stamps and stamp collecting were in their infancy. Its color — olive-bistre, in philately-speak — was a mistake, due to an error by the printing company De La Rue in London. Because of the color error — they were supposed to be a brownish-gray shade — only 52 sheets were printed, which makes them rare: Only 48 unused examples of this particular stamp exist today, according to Spink. The other 36 are believed to be single stamps, and this particular block of four the only multiple set of unused examples.
This block, highly coveted by collectors of Hong Kong stamps, was previously owned by well-known philatelists such as George Burghard of New York, Ryohei Ishikawa of Tokyo and Richard C.K. Chan of Hong Kong. It has appeared at auction only twice before, the last time in London in December 1980.
The purchase of this block by an anonymous Asian investor is part of a massive shift of Chinese collectibles back to China from the West.
“The passion of these Chinese collectors is amazing to watch,” said Olivier Stocker, chairman and chief executive of Spink. “The Chinese stamp market has been vibrant for many years because since the beginning of the Communist era, stamp collecting has always been a hobby that was encouraged.”
Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/scene/2011/01/25/the-820000-stamp/
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