Gaertner auction June 15-19 offering worldwide material

By Michael Baadke

The Christoph Gaertner auction firm in Germany describes its June 15-19 public auction as showing “an attractive cross-section of international philately from all five continents.”

Gaertner also notes that while there are high-priced rarities in this sale, collectors will also find many items that are available with much more modest bids.

The four catalogs for this auction offer Asia, Europe and worldwide single lots, large lots and collections, as well as material from Germany and associated areas, and Germany large lots and collections.

One remarkable rarity on offer is the 1879 7-kopeck gray and rose Arms stamp of Russia on horizontally laid paper with the rose center inverted (Scott 27d).

The 2020 Scott Classic Specialized Catalogue of Stamps and Covers 1840-1940 lists the stamp without a value, and a catalog note states that “One example of No. 27d is recorded.”

The Gaertner auction description says that “Only two examples of this variety are recorded,” and this one includes a 2018 certificate from Russian expert N. Mandrovskiy.

The stamp’s condition is described by Gaertner as “used and lightly cancelled by circled datestamp, with two short perfs at lower left otherwise fine.”

Bidding on this Russian invert starts at €25,000, which at the beginning of June equates to roughly $27,970.

The same year that the United States issued its first postage stamps, the owner of the Lady McLeod, a steamer in Trinidad, issued an imperforate blue lithographed stamp to prepay his 5¢ rate for carrying letters.

The 1847 Lady McLeod stamp is considered an unofficial local issue by many, but it has the appeal of being the first adhesive postage stamp relating to “post by sea,” according to Tom Lera’s description for the Smithsonian National Postal Museum.

The stamp doesn’t have a Scott catalog number, but it is pictured in the Scott Classic Specialized catalog with a description and values.

The Gaertner sale includes one example of the stamp, “used and cancelled by crossed pen-strokes in red, of fresh colour, with complete to wide margins.”

The stamp is described as a new discovery by Gaertner and is offered with a starting price of €3,000 (approximately $3,360). The Scott catalog values a used stamp with pen cancel at $12,500.

The Germany selections include an East German stamp set withdrawn as a result of the Eastern bloc boycott of the 1984 Olympic Summer Games in Los Angeles.

Prepared but never issued, these stamps in denominations of 5 pfennigs, 25pf, and 20pf+10pf (semipostal) are offered in mint corner blocks of four, all three from the same lower left corner position.

The same stamp vignettes and denominations were later used (along with three additional denominations and vignettes) for stamps issued in 1988 for the Olympic Summer Games in Seoul (Scott 2690-2695).

The starting bid for the set of withdrawn East German stamp blocks is €14,000 ($15,670).

The lots in this Gaertner auction can be viewed online, with online bidding options available.

For additional information, contact Auktionshaus Christoph Gaertner, Steinbeisstrasse 6+8, 74321 Bietigheim-Bissingen, Germany.

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