Grosvenor auction of British Empire & Foreign Countries No. 159, June 5th–6th 2024
The strongest presentation of Falkland Islands and Antarctica at auction in the first half of 2024, over 500 lots on the first day of the June auction at Grosvenor, will prove an important test of the market as it stands currently and a likely indicator of how it is likely to develop over the next few years.
The range of material at offer is broad and of good quality, featuring as it does the collections of two well known Members of FIPSG – Mike Brown of California and the late Ray Rabbetts of Hertfordshire who passed away in 2022 (Obituary UG Vol XXVIII No. 7, Mar. 2023, p. 330).
Included in the sale are two Black Frank covers, one to Uruguay at the 4d. rate, the other registered (one of eight known) to England. There are also two Red Frank covers, one registered and judged to be the most attractive of the three known.
Amongst other Falklands ‘classics’ are two 1891 Bisect covers, five ‘Paid at South Georgia’ covers or cards (and a piece) and three 1928 Provisionals (one on cover).
The sale also includes many interesting (and more affordably priced) items that should attract good attention, one such being a letter sent by by Montague Craigie-Halkett to Karl Lellman in 1937 from the Colonial Secretary’s Office, thanking him for photographs that he had supplied of the Memorial and Upland Goose, selected for the forthcoming Pictorial issue, and the fascinating letter written in Stanley over the first four days of the 1982 Invasion.
Ray was the standout ‘Modern Man’ of his day and there is an expectedly strong QEII range including proofs of the vignettes for the 1953 Coronation issue and the 1960 Birds 6d Albatross, together with many rarer errors and watermark varieties.
Among the section of covers and cancellations are strong group of Post Office Parcel Cancellations (SH PSO.2) and formula registered envelopes. An unusual section of airmails includes two Zeppelin covers, the first one of only two known from the first flight to have carried mail to the Islands.
Opening the section and appearing at auction for the first time since the sale of the Dudley Styles collection at Harmers in 1988, is the very first and unique ‘Falklands Airmail’ item. Athough its time in the air was quite a small percentage of its journey the special postcard carried on the First UK Aerial Post between London and Windsor is addressed to Governor Allardyce and a F.4C arrival datestamp proves that it ‘went the distance’.
The offering of Antarctica provides a good range of items from the ‘Golden Age of Explorers’, including a postcard sent by Scott, a postcard and letter signed by Shackleton. From the Post-War era come the exceptional collections of Operation Highjump formed by Karlhans Liebl and of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition by Gerry Pearce, both offered intact.
