Great Britain is Alive and Kicking
The Specialised Great Britain auction held at Grosvenor on October 29th-30th exceeded expectations, producing a final sale total of £534,448.
Interest was well spread throughout the major collecting areas and the usual strong response to the opening section of Collections & Mixed Lots resulted in most lots comfortably exceeding their estimate.
The star lot on the first day was a group of fascinating material from The Mercantile Committee on Postage, being the Correspondence and Pamphlets of Sir Henry Cole presented in two bound volumes and separate gold-tooled file boxes [lot 484]. This unique assembly provided remarkable contemporary insight into this critical period and found a new home for £18,960. Equally popular was Cole’s bound volume of a selection of important early postal tracts [lot 483] which reached £7,585 and a further bound volume of the 1838-39 issues of “The Post Circular” [lot 485] that soared to £10,744.
The postal history section included the Brian Asquith collection of Wakefield and an 1839 entire to Leeds [lot 291] showing the “TOO LATE” and bold handstruck “4” mark, used only during the four weeks of the 4d. rate, here caught the eye, selling for £986. A ‘third day’ Penny Black on cover [lot 571] sold for £2,528 and a ‘first day’ Mulready envelope [lot 505] £3,160. Both might have expected a little more. From the Richard Hobs collection of propaganda and caricature envelopes an attractive used example of the the Universal Brotherhood Valentine Design State 4 [lot 535] sold well for £822.
Amongst the Queen Victoria issues the Line Engraved was strong and Surface Printed even stronger, showing a noticeable improvement. The sale featured an important presentation of “SPECIMEN” stamps, not always fully appreciated by collectors, including the early collection formed by Sir John Purcell. The Inland Revenue 1884-88 watermark orbs £1 brown-lilac [lot 1163] sold for £4,045 and a beautiful pair of the 1887-92 Jubilee £1 green [lot 1157] reached £1,580.
Queen Elizabeth II varieties have been in the doldrums recently but, featured on the front cover of the sale catalogue, the rare lemon omitted variety on the 1972 Polar Explorers 3p. [lot 1393], with slight creasing but established as one of just three known examples, here achieved a very pleasing £6,588.
Realisations quoted include buyer’s premium.
Grosvenor is home to the only regular major sales of specialised Great Britain with the next auction scheduled on April 29th 2026 with consignments accepted until February 20th. For further information please contact Tom Margalski or Verity Smith at the Grosvenor London office.