There are days when it’s a true privilege working for Stanley Gibbons. I’ll be honest with you… I’m not a philatelist, nor even a collector of stamps, but occasionally the enthusiasm and wonder coming from our specialist philatelic teams when they get hold of something truly special is palpable.
Please forgive me a little bit of a build up – but there’s very good reason…
Our Philatelic Director and Head of Commonwealth & British Empire department is Dr. Philip Kinns; he’s been with Stanley Gibbons ‘man and boy’ since his university days at Caius College Cambridge. He is renowned as the expert’s expert when it comes to rare and premium Commonwealth stamps (and he’ll be embarrassed when he discovers I’m including him in this e-mail). Not the easiest man to deal with on occasion, mainly, to be fair, because of his fierce devotion to philately and an equally ferocious adherence to quality, when he gets a certain twinkle in his eye and a spring in his step, it’s invariably worth trying to find out why.
Last Tuesday, he had just such a glint on his eye and when I pushed him about a lack of rare material from the Commonwealth department he burst out in a mixture of glee and righteous indignation, “what about the New Zealand SG1/3? – it’s simply superb; it’s the most beautiful set I have seen in as long as I can remember.”
Philip Kinns is not a man given to hyperbole; when he says a stamp is out of the ordinary, it must be truly special, the finest in private hands and a wonderful opportunity. Here is his ‘technical’ description for catalogue and website:
“A magnificent set of the highest rarity and importance and exceptional quality…”
1855 Perkins Bacon printing 1d dull carmine, 2d dull blue (on blued) and 1s pale yellow-green (on blued), watermark large star, each with crisp part strike(s) of the 'CANCELLED' handstamp.
From the collection prepared in 1861 for presentation to Ormond Hill, eldest son of the great postal reformer Rowland Hill, the man responsible for the first ever stamp.
The 1d and 2d matching are from position 6 of the original vertical blocks of six (2x3), the 1s is from position 3. (From the six examples of each value all the 1d and 1s have survived, but only four of the 2d have been recorded, with one set now in the Royal Collection, and one 1d now in the New Zealand Post collection, as detailed by Peter Jaffe in his book 'CANCELLED by Perkins Bacon').
A magnificent set of the highest rarity and importance, and exceptional quality, the individual stamps being uniformly superb with fresh colours and large margins - the finest of the three sets that could be assembled in private hands. Ex 'Samos' (Ivy, Shreve and Mader 6/91, lot 817) and CRL 11/10/89 lot 1072, with the 1d and 1s previously ex Agabeg (RL 10/3/71, lots 1003 and 1011) and the 2d previously ex Currie (RL 2/3/66, lot 23). A wonderful opportunity for the connoisseur.
To some extent, it’s almost that last line which is key – you have a real opportunity here; an opportunity to get onto the ‘inside track’ for the true connoisseur. You could own something of both exceptional value and of course, potentially exceptional returns in the future. You’ll combine the pride of ownership with the likelihood that top collectors, speculators and investors in future will be equally keen to get their hands on such a set.
And the next best bit? It won’t break the bank – the NZ SG1/3var is available for you to purchase today at £75,000, which I’d say was very good value for a set of this rarity.
If you’re interested, just let me know straight away by emailing me on kheddle@stanleygibbons.co.uk or call my specialist adviser team on
0845 026 7170 (in the UK) or 00 44 1481 708 270 (from abroad).
I only have the one set to offer you after all.