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Auction: 173 - The Philatelic Collector's Series Sale
Lot: 464

The exceptional and comprehensive King George V mint collection, hinged onto black custom-engraved album pages of archival card stock with glassine interleaving, the contrast highlighting the superior quality and precise centering of the stamps therein, precisely arranged for superior aesthetic appeal, the pages housed in nine custom-designed luxurious Italian leather albums of remarkable beauty, each country prefaced by a detailed introduction of the nation’s political and philatelic history.

The collection is comprehensive missing only thirty seven stamps that would form part of the "sets" listed in the Stanley Gibbons catalogue for the years 1910-36. The albums are a joy to review, with highlights too numerous to mention, however we note Great Britain including Waterlow £1 Seahorses, 1929 £1 Postal Union Congress, Antigua 1908-17 complete, 1921-9 De La Rue including £1, Australia 1913 Kangaroos to the 5/-, 1915-25 Kangaroos to the 5/-, 1932 Sydney Harbour Bridge complete, 1931-6 10/-, £1 and £2 Kangaroos with Specimen overprints, Barbados 1912-16 De La Rue complete, 1916-18 Badge of the Colony complete, Basutoland 1933 George V set, Bechuanaland 1932 Pictorial set, Bermuda 1918-22 George V Keyplates complete, 1922-34 Keyplates complete, Brunei 1907-21 set to the $5, North Borneo 1922 Pictorials complete, the key 1911 Coat of Arms set complete, 1931 Pictorials complete, British Solomon Islands 1914-23 including the scarce £1 value, 1922-31 issues complete, Canada 1903-8 King Edward VII complete, 1908 Quebec Tercentenary complete, 1938 Scroll Issue complete,
Cayman Islands 1912-20 definitives complete, 1932 Centenary complete, 1935-6 Pictorials complete, Ceylon 1912-25 to the 20r, the 50r with "Specimen" overprint, 1921-7 series to the 50r, 1927-35 chalky paper complete, Cyprus 1903 King Edward VII complete, 1924-28 watermark multi Crown & Script CA complete, 1928 50th Anniversary commemorative set complete, 1934 Pictorials complete, Dominica 1923-33 Badge of the Colony complete, 1912-21 issues to the 20r, Falkland Islands 1904-7 King Edward VII complete, 1912-14 King George V complete, 1929-31 Perkins-Bacon complete to the 10/-, 1933 Centenary to the 1/-, Fiji 1912-23 De La Rue issues complete, Gambia 1912-22 De La Rue complete, 1922-9 De La Rue Pictorial issues complete, 1912 De La Rue complete, 1921-32 De La Rue to the £1, Gold Coast 1913-21 including the 10/-, Hong Kong 1912-21 to the $5, 1921-27 to the $3, India 1902-9 KEVII to the 15r, George V 1911-25 complete, 1926-36 issues complete, Iraq 1931 Faisal issues to the 10r, Leeward Islands 1921-32 includes the £1, Malaya 1922-34 complete to the $5 green, Kedah 1912-21 De La Rue issues complete, 1921-36 complete, Kelatan 1911-15 Symbols of Government complete, Perak 1935-7 Sultan Iskandar complete, Trengganu 1910-19 Sultan Zenalabidin complete to $5, 1921-38 Sultan Badaru'l-alam to the $3, Johore missing only the key 1918-20 $10 Sultan Ibrahim, and the 1921-40 $10 to the exceptionally rare $500 value, Mauritius 1924 50R Coat of Arms represented by "Specimen" overprint, St Helena the 1922-7 Badge of the Colony present to the 5/-, the chalky paper issues including the key £1 value, the 1934 Centenary issue complete, St Kitts-Nevis 1920-22 to the 10/-, 1923 Caravel to the 2/-, Sierra Leone 1920-21 to the £1 value, and the 1921-7 issues to the £2, 1933 Wilberforce complete, New Guinea 1931 Bird of Paradise complete, 1932-4 Bird of Paradise complete, Papua 1932 Pictorials complete, Southern Nigeria 1907-11 to the 10/-, Northern Nigeria 1912 De La Rue to the 10/-,Nigeria 1914-27 including the £1, 1936 Pictorials complete, Nyasaland 1912-13 to the £1, 1921-30 De La Rue complete, Rhodesia Double Heads including 1/-, 2/-, 2/6, 3/-, 5/- and 10/- values, Admirals including the 10/-, Southern Rhodesia 1924-29 Admirals complete, Kenya & Uganda 1922-7 issues complete to the £1, 1935 Pictorials complete, Tanganyika 1922-5 Giraffes complete, 1927-31 George V set complete, Somaliland complete, South Africa missing only the scarce 1916 £1 value, else complete through the bilingual pairs, Southwest Africa complete for the bilingual pairs, Sudan complete from the 1902 Camel Postman issue through to 1935 General Gordon, Swaziland complete, Tonga complete through the 1920-37 Queen Salote issues, Transjordan short the key 1927-9 1000m gray, Trinidad and Tobago includes both key £1 values, also includes an album of mostly Victorian-era Canada, with Jubilees to the 20c, Leaf issues complete, and Numeral issues complete.

The collector's emphasis was to illustrate the stamp makers’ art, with the George V era allowing tremendous opportunity to illustrate the engraver’s skill and the diversity of printing methods of the time. This being the goal, errors and overprints were deliberately omitted from the scope of the collection. At the same time, in order to provide a comprehensive view of the stamps that would have seen use during the George V era, the collector chose to include many issues of King Edward VII. Very fine quality being of the utmost importance, the collector painstakingly sought out stamps individually, rather than as part of sets or collections. Accompanied by a book entitled “George V – the portraiture and philatelic influence of a Sovereign,” which was released on occasion of selections from this collection being exhibited at A.P.S. AmeriStamp Expo, where it was awarded a Gold.

A COLLECTION OF SIGNIFICANT VALUE AND EXCEPTIONAL QUALITY, IMPRESSIVE IN ITS COMPREHENSIVENESS, AND UNPARALELLED IN ITS BEAUTY. A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY TO ACQUIRE AN EXQUISITE ILLUSTRATION OF THE ART OF PHILATELY.

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