Spink London offers St. Kitts-Nevis and worldwide auction

By Michael Baadke

The Spink auction firm in London, England, will offer two sales over the course of three days, Jan. 23-25.

The auctions open Tuesday morning with the Brian Brookes collection of St. Kitts-Nevis, and continue Wednesday and Thursday with the Philatelic Collectors’ series sale of British Commonwealth and worldwide material.

The Brookes collection is described by Spink as being “about as replete as one could get.” Assembled over the course of 40 years, it includes a 1669 entire mailed from Amsterdam to St. Christopher, as well as several of the very scarce 1967 overprinted issues of Anguilla following that entity’s independence and separation from St. Kitts-Nevis.

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Only 100 examples of the overprinted 60¢ issue (Anguilla Scott 13) are known, and a mint example is offered with an estimate of £2,500 to £3,000 (approximately $3,390 to $4,070). The Scott catalog value for the single stamp is $6,500, listed in italics to indicate an item that can be difficult to value accurately.

Along with stamps and an extensive run of St. Kitts postal history, the Brookes collection auction offers essays, die proofs and other important varieties.

The Philatelic Collectors’ series sale features more than 1,100 lots ranging from single items to full collections.

A margin strip of five 1866 6-anna purple Queen Victoria stamps of India with the tall green “postage” overprint (Scott 29) is on offer; the strip shows a segment of attached margin at left with the number “204” imprinted.

“A wonderful multiple and certainly the most important surviving mint multiple,” Spink notes. “Exceptionally rare and a famous showpiece with a wonderful provenance.”

That provenance includes the collections of Count Philippe von Ferrari and Maurice Burrus.

The Spink estimate for the strip is £15,000 to £18,000 ($20,330 to $27,110).

A single unused example of the India 1866 6a purple with short green “postage” overprint (Scott 30) is also offered in this auction.

Additional material from this sale includes Cape of Good Hope, China, Malaya States during Japanese occupation, a collection of South African railways, and much more.

Auction catalogs for both sales can be viewed online, with online bidding options available.

Information is also available from Spink London, 69 Southampton Row, Bloomsbury, London WC1B 4ET, England.