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Auction: 14031 - Great Britain from the Vestey Collection
Lot: 4

Great Britain
1840 Two Pence Blue
Plate 2 - The First Bisect
1841 (27 Mar.) entire letter to a solicitor in Beverley bearing the left half of FB tied by two strikes of black Maltese Cross, the Hull despatch c.d.s. has been struck across the flaps, but both halves are easily readable on the opened-out cover. The stamp is cut-into at top and foot with only a small margin on the left side; two vertical filing creases, clear of the adhesive, do not detract from this fresh and very rare cover. The sender was Joshua H. Hill

Also 1841 (27 Mar.) the right half of the same bisected stamp, again tied by two strikes of black Maltese Cross, on large piece with large part of the Hull despatch c.d.s. showing on the flap; again the stamp is cut into top and foot, the side margin is large. This piece is believed to have been used locally in Hull.

One of the great and charismatic Usages of Great Britain and probably the only opportunity of acquiring both halves of the Two Pence Bisect. Both items with B.P.A. Certificate (2007). Photo

provenance: D.M. Brown, November 1938

Note: In 1936, a solicitor in Hull discovered three bisected 1840 Two Pence Blue stamps in his office correspondence. He tore them off the letters and they were later sold at auction in February 1937, the pieces bore Hull or Lincoln postmarks.
A few years later, a solicitor in Beverley turned out some old papers and threw into the bin some old stamps on letters. A friend called round later the same day and reminded him that another solicitor had found some old stamps cut in half a few years earlier, so the letters were retrieved and one example was found, then a search among old files produced another.
Both entires were postmarked at Hull, the first on March 27 1841.

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Estimate
£80,000