Great Britain market remains strong

Auction of Great Britain Postage Stamps & Postal History featuring a further portion of the Davenport collection of QEII Commemorative Errors Friday 11th December 2009

The specialised Great Britain auction held at Grosvenor’s Strand salerooms on 11 December amply demonstrated the current strength of the market. It made over £733,000, bringing the tota amount realised in just three days by this and the British Empire sale held on 9 & 10 December to over £1,570,000.

As usually happens, there were many highly competitive bids for collections and mixed- lots. In the line-engraved section, a 1d. black first-day cover (lot 2225) fetched £40,950, the highest price of the day; other highlights in this section included a set of 1870 1/2d. imprimaturs (lot 2454), which made £8,368, and a used block of six of the 1/2d. plate 9 (lot 2463), which sold for £3,510. Unusual surface printed unfailingly attracts serious competition. Lot 2477, an 1855 6d. with missing rose watermark bit, went up to £6,575, and the extensive study of the Jubilee 1/2d. (lot 2540) found a very happy new owner at £8,368.

The twentieth century section included more items from the fabulous ‘Aurelius’ collection. As expected, they attracted keen bidding from many quarters. The best prices achieved were £33,474 for the set of 1929 PUC 1/2d. to 21/2d. presentation proofs (lot 2774) and £17,932 for the control block of six of the PUC 21/2d. with inverted watermark (lot 2787).

There is no doubt about the continuing popularity of Queen Elizabeth II errors. A strong section featuring some further items from the ‘Davenport’ collection included a strip of the 1961 POSB 21/2d. with black omitted (lot 2862), which made £18,720, and the 1967 Paintings 4d. with new blue omitted (lot 2903), which sold for £9,945.