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Lot# 4745 - Auction 274-283

  • Lot# : 4745 Malaya Sarawak

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    Sarawak 1856/64: India 2 a. yellow, 8 a. pale carmine and 1860 8 p. purple on white used on 1864 cover from Sarawak addressed to Miss Burdett Coutts in London endorsed 'via Marseilles' , tied by nine barred obliterator twice in black and over-struck by octagonal "B/172" in black applied in Singapore. Double ring "POST OFFICE / SARAWAK" handstamp at left with manuscript '28/12/64' date inserted in ink, the 2 a. also tied by London datestamp in red. Reverse with 'SINGAPORE / P.O.' transit in red and London arrival cds (Feb 15). A wonderful cover and surely one of the finest and most significant of all Sarawak classic period covers.rnrnNote: The Rajah of Sarawak, James Brooke needed money to 'create' the country of Sarawak and he struck up a relationship with Miss Angela, later Baroness Burdett Coutts, at the time the richest heiress in England; a relationship detailed in the letters of Brooke and Miss Coutts from 1859 onwards available in book form published in 1935. Their correspondence continued unabated until his death in 1868. To quote Robert Payne from "The White Rajah of Sarawak", Brooke met Miss Coutts at a party hosted by Queen Victoria "Born to great wealth, she was determined to use her money as a weapon to advance her humanitarian ideas, and when the Rajah spoke to her about the Dyaks and Malays plagued by their feudal Sultans and by Ilanun pirates, still living in the Middle Ages, her heart went out to them" (and, allegedly, to Brooke himself, although rumours also abounded on Brooke's homosexuality). rnrnProvenance: Christie's, Singapore, 26 March 1994, lot 1242.
    Starting bid : 30,000 CHF
    Hammer price : not sold