360 / Mai 2015 London

1854, 6d. grey with superb large margins all round used with 1 s. vermilion, margin just nicked at top left on 1858 cover from Sydney to Genoa, Italy endorsed 'per Victoria via Marseilles', tied by dumb obliterators in black with reverse showing SYDNEY / NEW SOUTH WALES datestamp of despatch (April 9) in black. 'Australie v. Suez' entry marking in red on front (June 15) and Genova arrival (June 17) where charged 2 lire due.

1892/99, ½ d. slate, block of 3 and single tied by cds. "SHIPMAIL ROOM ..." to large size printed matter wrapper, originally sent from Germany, franked with 1889/1900, 25 pf. orange for the quintuple printed matter rate, to Sydney and from here re-directed to Auckland, New Zealand, some slight creasing; a remarkable and rare combination franking

1862/67, 6d. pale bluish green, imperforated single stamp with good to mostly enormeous margins with parts of 3 neighbour stamps and small sheet margin at top; lightly cancelled; a very fine and rare stamp; opinion Holcombe

1860/69, 2 d. bright vermilion, tied by clear cds. "ADELAIDE MY 29 66" to Newspaper wrapper "THE Australian News" via London, with red transit mark on front, to Leipzig in Saxony with arrival mark on reverse; a remarkable early printed matter to an unusual destination

1860 (Jan): 'Riverina' Combination Covers (2) from Moama, New South Wales via Echuca, Victoria on the Murray River to Huddersfield, UK both carried on the same ship to England, one franked by New South Wales 1854/59 Diadem 1 s. pale brownish red tied by rare MOAMA barred numeral '137' in black used in combination with Victoria 6 d. deep blue (2), each cancelled by manuscript pen cross. Reverse with Melbourne transit cds (Jan 17) and Huddersfield arrival (March 12) - ex Trevor Davis and Dr Ed Druce. Coupled with a registered 1860 cover from the same correspondence franked by New South Wales 1854/59 Diadem 1 s. pale brownish red and tied by rare MOAMA barred numeral '137' in black and Registration 1856/59 (-) orange & prussian blue similarly tied; again used in combination with Victoria 6 d. deep blue (2), which are tied by aging and the slight ink spots apparent on face. Transit of REGISTERED / MELBOURNE in red (Jan 17), reverse with MOAMA despatch cds of the previous day and Huddersfield arrival (March 12) in black. The registered cover with corner missing at upper right and with faults, but a dramatic and rare pair of combination covers. Cert. BPA (2009). Provenance: Baetgen (March 1994), lot 2724.  

1879, Black Swan wm. CC: 2d., the 'error of colour' mauve instead of yellow, nice fresh colour, unused with large part of fresh original gum, very fine; an attractive showpiece and one of the rarest errors of the Australian States, most of the unused examples of this error are without gum and originated from a half sheet of 60 acquired by Stanley Gibbons, a few original gum examples came from (presumably) the other half sheet from which all of the used examples emanated, certificate RPS (1977)