Sparks Auctions, of Ottawa, Canada, offered the Daniel Cantor collection of Canada’s Small Queens issue on Nov. 24. Cantor, a retired Ottawa businessman with a lifelong passion for stamps, has sold several parts of his Canada collection over the years. Most notably, his “Pence and Cents” collection, covering the issues pre-dating Canada’s confederation in 1867, won an international large gold at London 2010 and was sold in 2011 by the firm of Matthew Bennett for close to $1.5 million. The Small Queens were Canada’s third series of definitive stamps, issued over a relatively long period, from 1870-97. They followed the similarly designed Large Queens of 1868-76, but were — not surprisingly — slightly smaller.

A featured item from the first session of the Harmer-Schau auction is a used line pair of the U.S. 1915 2¢ red George Washington Type I rotary coil stamp (Scott 449), pictured on page 10. The top and bottom perforations on this pair are intact because the stamps were separated from the rest of the coil by cuts at the top and bottom that left parts of the adjoining stamps attached on both ends.

Grosvenor Philatelic Auctions held a series of sales in London Nov. 9-12 to mark the firm’s 100th auction, a culmination of an 18-year run. The series reaped a total realization of more than £2 million. A scarce, unused 1882 £1 stamp on blued paper with an anchor watermark (Great Britain Scott 92) sold for £35,612 (or about $52,750), including the 19 percent buyer’s premium levied by Grosvenor, even though the stamp lacked gum. An 1885 £1 brown-lilac stamp, overprinted “I.R. Official” for use by the Inland Revenue (Scott O10), once belonging to King Carol of Romania and later to the American industrialist Arthur Hind (who also owned the famous British Guiana 1¢ Magenta), sold for the equivalent of $22,900.

The next auction of material from the Brigham collection of Canada will take place Jan. 23 outside Toronto at The Brampton Golf Club, 7700 Kennedy Road, in Brampton, Ontario. Brigham Auctions will offer almost 400 lots of material divided between King Edward VII (with issues from 1903-11) and Queen Elizabeth II (from 1953-95). As has been the case with most of the previous sessions offering the Brigham material, the Edward VII selections include not only stamps and postal history, but also a considerable number of essays and proofs.

Cherrystone Philatelic Auctioneers is holding a two-day public auction Jan. 12-13 at the firm’s West 57th Street gallery in New York City. The sale offers a range of United States and worldwide material comprising 1,483 lots of stamps, covers, collections and more. It opens with classic United States, beginning with unused Providence, R.I., postmaster’s provisionals, the 5¢ (Scott 10X1) followed by the 10¢ (10X2). This session also includes two plate proof sheets of 50 on card of the 1875 reproductions of the 1847 issue.

The Gaertner sale included tens of thousands of lots in a catalog that ran to 10 volumes, ranging from single stamps and covers to large lots and estate holdings, covering the world from old German States to faraway lands, including an extensive array of stamps by topic.

The firm of Schuyler J. Rumsey held its Fall Sale from Oct. 20-23 in San Francisco, including many fascinating items with great stories to tell.

Victoria Stamp Co., operated by longtime dealer Phoebe A. MacGillivary of Sharon Springs, N.Y., held an auction of British Commonwealth stamps and postal history at the Collectors Club in New York on Dec. 5. Items ranged from inexpensive single stamps to large lots and collections. A newly discovered lower-margin plate-number block of four Northern Rhodesia 6-penny stamps (Scott 68), showing Queen Elizabeth II and several African animals, boasted another kind of variety generally not listed in the Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue: an inverted watermark. The error is listed in the Stanley Gibbons catalog as number 68w, and in Pierron’s online catalog of Great Britain and Commonwealth stamps during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, including errors and varieties, as ZMB136a.

H.R. Harmer celebrated its 75th anniversary with a large sale spanning Oct. 29-31 at the firm’s headquarters near Los Angeles. A broad array of U.S. and worldwide material included numerous exciting items. A May 1, 1901, first-day cover of the U.S. Pan-American Exposition issue (Scott 294-299) bore a fabulous gold embossed cachet for the fair, depicting two allegorical figures nestling into the outlines of North and South America.

Spink, in New York, offered the Charles Adams collection of United States and Canada on Nov. 18, and held its Fall Collector’s Series sale Nov. 18-19. A beautiful, unused example of Canada’s 12-penny black Queen Victoria of 1851 on laid paper (Scott 3) sold for $83,475, including Spink’s buyer’s premium of 15 percent plus $100 on items selling for more than $2,000. This stamp, never popular with the public at the time of issue and withdrawn after just 1,450 examples were sold, is far scarcer unused than used.

In Melbourne, Mossgreen auctioned the Arthur Gray collection of Australia on Oct. 30. Gray, an international exhibitor who died earlier this year, had built a collection that the auction firm called “the most extraordinary collection of Australian stamps of this generation, or any other.”

It’s time to catch up on the week that was in stamp-collecting insights and news. Linn's Stamp News is looking back at its five most-read stories of the week. Click the links to read the stories. Here they are, in reverse order.

Aix-Phila of Aachen, Germany, is one of 80 to 100 active stamp-auction firms in that country. It has been run by the same team since 1987 and holds two auctions a year, in May and in November. Its Nov. 27-28, 2015, sale was previewed on the front page of Linn’s issue of Nov. 23. The standout item was a newly discovered watermark variety on a Germany 2-mark Germania definitive stamp of 1920. The normal (and quite common) 2m stamp, with a watermark consisting of a continuous pattern of lozenges, is listed in the Scott Classic Specialized Catalogue of Stamps and Covers 1840-1940 as Scott 131, with a value in unused condition of 60¢, rising to $2.25 if the gum has never been hinged.

In October, Daniel F. Kelleher auctioned a sheet of six of the modern United States rarities known as the $2 upright Jenny Invert stamps. About 29 of the 100 sheets printed are known. This example, expertized and graded superb 98, sold for $67,850.

Eastern Auctions, based in Bathurst, New Brunswick, held a sale of Canada and British North America stamps and postal history on Oct. 23-24 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The sale included a lengthy run of what many consider Canada’s most beautiful stamp of all time, the 50¢ “Bluenose,” a 1929 pictorial definitive showing the schooner of that name.

The upcoming sale In New York City from Robert A. Siegel International includes stamps from the F. Christian Killien, M.D., collection.

Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries held a sale of U.S. material on Oct. 27-29, and a sale of Hawaii on Oct. 29. Both sales were previewed in Linn’s issue of Oct. 26. Siegel’s Hawaii sale featured a number of the famous early Missionary stamps, including a pair of the 13¢ issue inscribed “H.I. & U.S. Postage” (Scott 4).

If there’s a secret to Christoph Gaertner’s success, it’s a simple one: He might be one of the hardest working people in the stamp business. In just a few years, Gaertner has built his firm from scratch to the point where, three or four times a year, he conducts what is probably the world’s largest philatelic auction by volume.

Cherrystone Auctions of New York City will present three sales Dec. 1-3, offering United States and worldwide stamps and covers, the John Pedneault collection of Ireland, and specialized Brazil from 1843 to 1893.

Matthew Bennett International is conducting an unreserved public auction Dec. 11-12 in New York City.