Shreves Philatelic Galleries, Inc. Sale

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Grenada continued...

1883 Manuscript Overprints continued...

Lot

Symbol

CatNo.

Lot Description

CV or Estimate

281

1883 1p Orange revenue with Gouyave diagonal manuscript provisional "postage" overprint, type with lower case "p" in "postage", fresh used example with identifiable "A" cancel of Gouyave, dated February 28, bright color, centered a bit into the design at bottom right, attractive fine example of this rare stamp; signed H. Bloch and W. H. Colson and accompanied by 1969 RPS certificate; ex-Messenger and Hackmey (Scott #19; $2,250.00). (Image)

£2,250

SOLD for $5,250.00
Closing..Jun-27, 01:00 PM

282

1883 1p Orange revenue with Gouyave diagonal manuscript provisional "postage" overprint, type with lower case "p" in "postage", used single, this being a slightly thinner paper than usually seen on the basic revenue stamp, light "A" cancel of Gouyave with clear March 2nd date, fine example of this rarity (Scott #19; $2,250.00). (Image)

£2,250

SOLD for $4,750.00
Closing..Jun-27, 01:00 PM

283

1883 1p Orange revenue with Gouyave diagonal manuscript provisional "Postage" overprint, type with capital "P" in "postage", attractive used example with distinct "A" cancel of Gouyave, an early use dated in February, this appears to be in a different hand than other examples being a bit shorter, fine and rare; 1976 PF certificate (Scott #19; $2,250.00). (Image)

£2,250

SOLD for $4,500.00
Closing..Jun-27, 01:00 PM

284

1883 1p Orange revenue with Gouyave diagonal manuscript provisional "Postage" overprint, type with capital letter "P" in "Postage", well centered, but tightly margined single with a few clipped perfs. at bottom, central "A/Feb 27 83 " c.d.s. of Gouyave, bright color, strong color (Scott #19; $2,250.00). (Image)

£2,250

SOLD for $5,000.00
Closing..Jun-27, 01:00 PM

285

1883 1p Orange revenue with Gouyave diagonal manuscript provisional "postage" overprint, the type with lower case "p" in "postage", a very attractive single with bright color and centered much better than the vast majority of the small number of known examples of this rare provisional, on an 1883 inland cover to St. Patrick's paying the 1p inland rate, tied by clear and unusually well struck "A/Mar. 2 81" double circle c.d.s. (error in date, should be "83", such errors are quite common in these parish post office cancels), an even better matching strike of this cancel is found on the reverse, portion of March 2nd, 1883 small c.d.s. of the General Post Office Post in St. George's on the reverse as well, back flap missing and cover has been expertly restored to enhance the appearance for display purposes, but most appropriate considering the rarity and importance of this cover, carefully done to maintain the integrity of all markings, the stamp and address, only affecting the white portions of the cover. The award winning collection of W. Danforth Walker has many rare and desirable items documenting the stamps and postal history of this tiny island country, and justifying the honors that have been bestowed upon it. This cover is the most important rarity by far in his collection, not only in its importance, but also in the eyes of the collector. It is a piece long known to collectors of Grenada and it establishes beyond doubt the legitimacy of these issues of which so few are known, being the only known example of any of the manuscript provisional "postage" overprints on cover. Its usage is also unique being the only known single franking of any of the provisional overprints, handstamped or manuscript, paying the inland rate. And finally because the internal postal system was so little used and cost inefficient, being discontinued for a long period in the 1860's, this is the earliest recorded Grenada inland cover. This is unquestionably one of the highlights of the sale and an essential key piece for an award-winning collection; 1967 RPS certificate prior to restoration; ex-Pilkington and Gilbert-Lodge (Scott #19). (Image)

Est. 15,000-20,000

SOLD for $37,500.00
Closing..Jun-27, 01:00 PM

286

1883 1p Orange revenue with Grenville diagonal red manuscript provisional "Postage" overprint, a used example identified as a provisional of Grenville by the clearly identifiable "D/Jun 6 83" double circle cancel of this post office, the manuscript is in a different style and hand than either the black manuscript provisionals of Gouyave or the rare manuscript provisionals that exist in red and black of Sauteurs in 1886, the black ink of the cancel is clearly on top of the ink of the overprint confirming its proper usage, the stamp has the normal fine centering of these revenue issues and is quite attractive; the discovery of this marvelous provisional from a different town and used in June rather than the February/March usage of the Gouyave provisional set the collector working to authentic and explain its usage, his research revealed a pair of the printed "Postage" 1p Orange revenue provisional and similar unsevered pair overprinted for the 1/2p bisects (S.G. #27, 29a), both of these were used on the same day of June 6th and well after their intended use in the first three months of 1883, indicating that the Grenville post office had run out of 1p stamps and were pressing anything available into service to meet their need, more exciting yet was his discovery of a second copy of this manuscript provisional in the Tapling collection used on exactly the same date confirming that more than one of these had been made, to date this is the only known example in private hands with the only other copy being in the British Museum; a truly remarkable rarity in the history of Grenada's provisional issues; accompanied by his exhibition page with the corroborating 1883 printed provisionals. (Image)

Est. 3,000-4,000

SOLD for $10,000.00
Closing..Jun-27, 01:00 PM

287

1886 1p Orange revenue with Sauteurs diagonal black manuscript provisional "postage" overprint, usual just fine centering of these orange revenues, with the distinctive long manuscript overprint of this post office, clear "Grenada/C" single circle c.d.s. with date just off the stamp, but clearly the proper type for the period as this cancel was put into use in 1886 replacing the old double circle cancels, a fine and attractive example of this very rare provisional; it is interesting that a shortage of the 1p stamps necessitated this measure to meet the needs of this post office, a similar circumstance three years earlier at the Gouyave and Grenville post offices was solved in the same way; only three examples are known of this provisional in black, and one of these is in the Royal collection, which also has one of the three examples of this same issue with red overprint; 1987 PF certificate (Scott #19 var.). (Image)

£3,250

SOLD for $8,500.00
Closing..Jun-27, 01:00 PM

288

1886 1p Orange revenue with Sauteurs diagonal red manuscript provisional "postage" overprint, an attractive stamp with bright color, usual fine centering for the basic revenue issue and tiny corner perf. crease at top left, clear single circle "Grenada/C" c.d.s. of Sauteurs just showing the "86" year date, a fine example of this very rare manuscript provisional; produced to meet a shortage of 1p values in this post office and probably used in September of 1886; like this same issue in black there are only three examples known, one being in the Royal Collection; 1961 RPS certificate; ex-Messenger and Hackmey (Scott #18; $3,000.00). (Image)

£3,250

SOLD for $15,000.00
Closing..Jun-27, 01:00 PM

1883-1896 Issues

Lot

Symbol

CatNo.

Lot Description

CV or Estimate

289

1881 Trial color presentation sheet from De La Rue archives, this page is titled "Appendix" and has a total of seven essays in ultramarine, carmine and mauve, similar to the 1883 tete-beche issue but with only "Grenada" in the top label, the purpose of this page was to show "fugitive" and "double fugitive" inks on surface printed stamps, and the affect of trying to remove cancels with various chemicals, one of each color are as issued, the other four stamps have the color seriously damaged to illustrate the affect of the chemicals, this page was sent to Grenada on December 23, 1881 and is initialed "B.B./22. 12. 81" at bottom, archival note across the face of the page in red, very fine; this page was prepared as part of the marketing effort of De La Rue to win the 1882 stamp contract of Grenada away from Perkins, Bacon & Co, part of their sales pitch was that by using the cheaper surface printed method of printing they could use inks that prevented the removal of of either handstamp postal cancels or manuscript revenue cancels thus being more secure, Perkins, Bacon & Co. used engraving and thus could not use fugitive inks, engraving was better at preventing forging but engraved stamps could be cleaned easier and that was the bigger problem; one of two sheets so prepared and bearing rare essays. (Image)

Est. 1,500-2,000

SOLD for $1,300.00
Closing..Jun-27, 01:00 PM

290

1882 1p Ultramarine hand-drawn watercolor essay, by De La Rue being a proposed design to obtain the contract for Grenada's stamps, this is modeled after an 1879 25c stamp design of Mauritius, on tracing paper measuring 64x85mm, dated "Febry 27th 82" in red at top, normal wrinkling and creasing to this extremely thin paper, not affecting the appearance and otherwise very fine; this is actually one of two nearly identical essays (they differ in small details being drawings), one comes from the De La Rue archives, this is one that was sent to Grenada for approval; a later proposal by De La Rue was accepted, rather than this design, that resulted in the tete-beche issues that could be produced more economically, a very rare and desirable essay. (Image)

Est. 750-1,000

SOLD for $1,500.00
Closing..Jun-27, 01:00 PM

291

S.G. #30a-36a

S.G. #30a-36a, 1883 1/2p to 1/- Victoria tete-beche issue cplt., an attractive well centered set of tete-beche blocks of four, all are well centered with bright colors, o.g., lightly hinged, very fine-extremely fine; strangely this issue was not printed in tete-beche format for collector purposes, but proposed by the printer so they could justify a better contract to Grenada than they were giving to other Crown Colonies; the key 1/- high value was printed in the exceptionally small quantity of only 6,000 stamps and the number of tete-beche pairs preserved is a tiny fraction of that; a most difficult set (Scott #20a-26a; $2,444.00+). (Image)

£2,840+

SOLD for $3,500.00
Closing..Jun-27, 01:00 PM

292

S.G. #30s

S.G. #30s, 1883 1/2p Dull green with large diagonal "Specimen" overprint, very fresh and attractive, o.g,, lightly hinged, extremely fine; a very rare specimen, which is not recorded by Samuel or Bendon, it is the only example of which we are aware (Scott #20S). (Image)

Est. 400-500

SOLD for $300.00
Closing..Jun-27, 01:00 PM

293

S.G. #30,32, 40

S.G. #30, 32, 40, 1883-87 1/2p-2 1/2p Victoria tete-beche issue, the 1p being the 1887 new 1p value, singles of each very neatly tied to 1888 cover to the United States by "Grenada/C/88 JY 7" single circle c.d.s. of the parish post office at Sauteurs, on reverse Grenada transit of St. George's and New York transit, backstamped Coeymans, New York, an exceptionally attractive three-color franking, extremely fine; while this may appear to be a philatelic cover, in reality the shortage of 4p stamps for the foreign UPU rate resulted in the provisional 4p surcharges on revenue stamps to be produced in 1888, in some of the outlying post offices even these provisionals were used up, this is a scarce and attractive improvisation to accomplish the proper rate (Scott #20, 22, 30). (Image)

Est. 300-400

SOLD for $450.00
Closing..Jun-27, 01:00 PM

294

S.G. #30,32, 40, 42

S.G. #30, 32, 40, 42, 1883-87 1/2p-2 1/2p Victoria tete-beche issues, including a pair and single of the 1/2p Dull green and pair of the later 1p Carmine issue, the 2 1/2p Ultramarine when applied was so faded as to appear blank (these stamps were printed in fugitive ink), all are tied by the extremely scarce "Grenada/E/88 SP 29" c.d.s. of the little used parish post office at St. David's to a registered cover to England, on reaching St. George's an 1888 "4d/Postage" provisional surcharge, 5mm spacing, on 2/- Orange revenue was applied and tied by "Grenada/SP 29/ 88 c.d.s. with additional strike below, it is unclear whether this was applied because of the unrecognizable 2 1/2p or because the cover was determined to be double rate, backstamped Colchester, cover has small piece missing from a backflap and some professional restoration of edge flaws to give it a very fine and attractive appearance, not affecting stamps or markings; the "E" cancel of the St. David's Parish is one of the least used and extremely desirable on an interesting cover such as this (Scott #20, 22, 30, 32a). (Image)

Est. 750-1,000

SOLD for $600.00
Closing..Jun-27, 01:00 PM

295

S.G. #30, 33, 40

S.G. #30, 33, 40, 1883 1/2p Dull Green and 4p Grayish slate, and 1887 1p Carmine, a multi-stamp franking on front and back with eight 1/2p stamps including a tete-beche pair (one stamp missed being cancelled) and two pairs of the 1p including a "head-to-head" tete-beche pair, all representing a triple rate franking, and tied to 1886 2p Gray registry envelope (H&G #C1a; 152x96mm) by "Grenada/MR 19 87" c.d.s. to New York, backstamped, couple trivial perf. flaws otherwise very fine; this is an early use of the 1p which was not issued until early 1887 (Scott #20, 23, 30). (Image)

Est. 200-300

SOLD for $290.00
Closing..Jun-27, 01:00 PM

296

S.G. #31P

S.G. #31P, 1882 1p Mauve miniature tete-beche proof sheet of twelve, in the selvage at top and bottom are the top labels only of what would be the next stamps in a larger sheet laid out in this tete-beche format, marked "B.B. Spec." in red manuscript in the top selvage, piece missing from selvage at top left, bottom left stamp has been separated from sheet and hinged back in place, plus other perf. separations are present, the top selvage is affixed to piece of a page where it was mounted in the De La Rue archives, marked on the back "approved 12 Oct. 1882", a fine and extremely rare proof; this proof comes out of the De La Rue archives where it resided after being sent to Grenada in a successful marketing ploy to take the Grenada stamp contract away from Perkins, Bacon & Co., De La Rue had most of the colonial stamp printing business at good rates but could not obtain the contract for Grenada because Perkins, Bacon & Co. printed the stamps so much cheaper, De La Rue had to figure out a way to be competitive in price without having to lower the price for their other printing contracts, printing the stamps tete-beche was their marking ploy for being able to cut their price to match Perkins Bacon, it worked and Perkins, Bacon & Co. was forced out of the stamp market, a wonderful unique proof of historical importance for this interesting issue; ex-Russell Jones (Scott #21P). (Image)

Est. 2,000-3,000

SOLD for $4,000.00
Closing..Jun-27, 01:00 PM

297

S.G. #31s

S.G. #31s, 1883 1p Carmine with "Cancelled" overprint, affixed to piece of card and from the De La Rue archives, very fine and extremely scarce example of an archival specimen of which very few are in private hands (Scott #21S). (Image)

Est. 300-400

SOLD for $150.00
Closing..Jun-27, 01:00 PM

298

S.G. #31a

S.G. #31a, 1883 1p Carmine, tete-beche pair, left sheet-margin block of sixteen containing eight tete-beche pairs, bright color and fresh, o.g., bottom four tete-beche pairs are n.h., very fine; being the most used value, few mint were saved, especially in such scarce large multiples as this (Scott #21a, $1,800.00+). (Image)

£1,800+

SOLD for $900.00
Closing..Jun-27, 01:00 PM

299

S.G. #32P

S.G. #32, 1883 2 1/2p Ultramarine imperforate plate proof, top sheet-margin plate no. 1 single, in the issued color and with the issued watermark and original gum, so that this is really an imperforate, but considered a plate proof as imperforates were not issued, exceptionally fresh and hinged only in the selvage, extremely fine and very scarce (Scott #22P). (Image)

Est. 300-400

SOLD for $475.00
Closing..Jun-27, 01:00 PM

300

S.G. #32

S.G. #32, 1883 2 1/2p Ultramarine, single franking tied to unusual 1884 folded cover to London, docketing indicates this cover originated in Grenville, for some reason not cancelled by the "D" cancel but explains the manuscript "7th January/1883" date written across the stamp (should be 1884 because of the recent year change), on reaching St. George's stamp was tied by "Grenada/JA 07 84" c.d.s. with index letter "A", additional strike below and marked postage due by bold "T", "3d" in circle applied in London for amount to collect and various London receiving postmarks, file fold at bottom, otherwise very fine; an exceptionally interesting underpaid cover from an outlying post office (Scott #22). (Image)

Est. 300-400

SOLD for $190.00
Closing..Jun-27, 01:00 PM