Lot# 4176 - Auction 321-332

Abnormal 1873 (March 15): 6 d. pale buff, Plate 13, wmk. Spray, lettered HL, a fine used example clearly showing the Plate number at left, cancelled by large part 'Leeds / 447' duplex in black. An extremely rare stamp. Cert. BPA (2005) Gi J82 = £ 25'000.rnNote: The 1873, 6d. pale buff from plate 13 is not simply an „Abnormal Plate“. It is much more: It is in fact an „Abnormal Stamp Issue“ for the following reasons:rnA new design compared to the preceding 6d. plate 12 showing the plate number ‚13‘ on the right and on the left placed in the middle of the hexagon (instead at the bottom above the corner letters) and with large coloured corner letters (instead of white corner letters)rnThis new design was never issued in pale buff colour!rnTherefore the importance of the 6d. plate 13 pale buff is much higher than any of the other „Abnormal plates“. All the other „Abnormal Plates“ were one plate in a series of ‚normal‘ plates which were issued in the same design and colour.rnThe existance of the 6d. altered design plate 13 in pale buff was not known until June when Philatelic Record reported on page 104: „A used specimen of pülate 13 of the Sixpence type of 1st. April 1873, has been found in light yellow-brown, the colour of the Issue of June 1872……“.rnFive years later, in the February 1895 issue of Philatelic Record, more details were published: „This variety was first disinterred by the late Mr. Firth, who sent the specimen to Mr. A.H.Wilson, for examination. It was duly perforated and post marked, and bore the letters AF/FA being printed in light buff (….). Mr. W.E.Jeff shewed the specimen at the exhibition of the London Philatelic Society, in 1890, to many who were present.“rnIn the same year, Mr. O. Firth wrote to The London Philatelist in regard of the 6d. plate 13 in pale buff: “The stamp (…..) passed into the possession of Herr von Ferrary in 1891“. It remained in the Ferrary collection until his death in 1917 and was then sold in part 9 of the Ferrary sales on 10 April 1924 , lot 200.rnIn an display given by the Earl of Crawford on 7 January 1909 to the Royal Philatelic Society, the Earl stated of „….one other copy“, which might have been the first 6d. pale buff offered on a public auction. This stamp was offered in the 63rd. Ventom, Bull & Cooper auction on 12 November 1895, lot 131, an auction that offered the F. West collection.rnNearly all specimens of the 6d.pale buff plate 13 known to date were used in „447“ LEEDS.