David Feldman auction offers worldwide in eight catalogs

By Michael Baadke

The David Feldman international auction firm will hold its next auction series Dec. 3-7 at its galleries in Geneva, Switzerland.

Feldman has published eight catalogs for the upcoming series. The catalogs range from specialized collections to more general worldwide, featuring Egypt, Persia, Great Britain and British Empire, Indian States, France and colonies, Europe and collections, overseas, and Switzerland.

The catalogs can be downloaded in PDF format, and online viewing and bidding options are available at www.davidfeldman.com. Estimates for the various lots are listed in euros, British pounds or Swiss francs depending upon the material.

The wide range of material offered includes single-item lots, multiples, large lots and collections.

Among the early British items is a complete plate reconstruction of the 1840 1-penny black Queen Victoria stamp consisting of 240 of the famous Penny Black stamps.

According to the Feldman lot description, the stamps all show four margins, many with clear strikes of the Maltese Cross cancel, and the assemblage includes a strip of six, a block of four, two horizontal pairs and one vertical pair, “the rest being fine to very fine singles (incl. two with inverted watermarks).”

The lot carries an estimate of £90,000 to £100,000, which converts to approximately $118,300 to $131,440 in early November.

The same catalog of British Empire material includes a lightly hinged unused example of the East Africa and Uganda Protectorates 1912 500-rupee red and green King George V stamp on greenish chalk-surfaced paper watermarked multiple crown and CA (Scott 59).

The stamp is described as extremely fresh and very fine, and is accompanied by a 1999 British Philatelic Association certificate.

The 2019 Scott Classic Specialized Catalogue of Stamps and Covers 1840-1940 notes that this high-denomination issue was available for postage but nearly always was used fiscally. 

Scott values the unused stamp at $40,000, with the value in italics to denote that it can be difficult to assign an accurate value. Feldman’s presale estimate is £30,000 to £35,000 ($39,430 to $46,000).

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The Feldman sale offers a number of intriguing postal history items, including an 1859 folded letter mailed from an English merchant in Bogata, Colombia, to his brother in Hamburg (then part of Prussia).

The first-issue Colombian stamps paying postage on this three-color franking are the 5-centavo and 20c on the front, tied together by a bold “9.” handstamp, plus a pair of the 20c and one 10c similarly tied on the reverse. 

Additional markings on the well-documented cover include a British post office Cartagena dated backstamp, a London dated transit marking and a Hamburg Prussian mail dated backstamp.

All stamps franking the cover sport ample to huge margins, according to Feldman, which calls it “one of the most important first issue covers from anywhere in South America.”

With a 1980 Royal Philatelic Society certificate, the cover is estimated at €30,000 ($34,420).

Among the many other appealing lots in this auction series are a set of three imperforate sheets of Israel’s 1948 Doar Ivri 250-mil, 500m and 1,000m stamps, one of three such sheet sets known, according to Feldman.

United States collectors will find what is described as an extensive and specialized collection of the 1865-90 Waterbury, Conn., cancellations, comprising 123 stamps and 220 covers or cards in a single lot, with the provenance identifying Bill Gross as an owner.

For additional information about the upcoming Feldman auction series, contact David Feldman SA, Box Petit-Lancy 1, Route de Chancy 59, 1213 Geneva, Switzerland.