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Lot# 3333 - Auction 250-256

  • Lot# : 3333 Great Britain

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    1840: Prepared for use but unissued, "VR" 1 d. black, lettered HG-HH / IG-IH, the wonderful unused block of four with large margins all round, fresh and very fine, superb large part og., one stamp unmounted og. The block comes from the 'Dublin Find' which consisted of a large part sheet of 228 stamps found in the Dublin GPO in 1899. The remaining large part sheet of 207 stamps (some having been sold by Plumridge & Co. in the interim) was sold to the Earl of Crawford between 1901 and 1906. The Earl's collection was sold, in 1913, to Captain R.B. Sparrow intact. In 1914 the VR block was entrusted to Charles Nissen for resale and he proceeded to cut the multiple up into singles, pairs, strips and blocks of various sizes. Faultless, a truly magnificent multiple of the greatest rarity. Cert. BPA (1967) Gi VR1 = £ 280'000.rnProvenance: Dublin GPO (1899); Collection Earl of Crawford, the block of 207 exhibited at the London International Exhibition in 1906; Illustrated in Stanley Gibbons Monthly Journal, 31 May 1906; Collection Capt. R.B. Sparrow (1913); Charles Nissen stock (1914).rn                       This multiple:rn                       BPA certificate 58487, signed by Robson Lowe, A.L. Pemberton, W.E. Lea, 15 Feb 1967; Harmers, London, 31 March 1981, lot 753; Sotheby's, London, 18 July 1990, lot 3001.rnNote: For further information see 'The Dublin Find' by Don Madden & Karl Louis (2006).rn 
    Starting bid : 50,000 CHF
    Hammer price : 55,000 CHF