Top Participation at Corinphila Auctions May, 20th to 24th 2014

Dear Friends of Corinphila,

We would like to thank all bidders, whether successful or unsuccessful, for their participation at our Auction sales 186-190 which took place last week from May 20-24 It was a pleasure to meet and welcome so many collectors to our premises in Zurich. We all experienced five exciting days in our auction rooms enlivened by numerous bidders in person, via Agents, by telephone and most especially on the Internet via our live bidding system.

There is continued and sustained demand for valuable Stamps, Collections and Postal History from all periods from Classic to Modern, this was reflected in spectacular bidding and top results: our "Switzerland & Liechtenstein" catalogue which had start prices of CHF 1.7 million was sold for an impressive CHF 3 million!

The Auction room itself was packed, literally standing room only, during the sale. Another huge success was the outstanding collection formed by Pietro Provera of "Austria & Hungary 1850-1885" with an 1850 vertically bisected 2 Kreuzer on cover realising CHF 85'000 amongst other highlights.

Numerous bidders were also in the room, as well as online, for the Large Gold Medal collections formed by Dr. Hugo Goeggel of "Colombia - Colonial Postal History", "Colombia 1859-1864" and "Colombian Airmail 1919-1930" as well as the first part of the "Classic Peru 1857-1873" collection formed by Julian Lugon Badaracco. All were sold with much spirited bidding and top results, as were fine collections of Romania, Turkish Airmails and Egypt.

Another sale highlight was the collection "Queen Elizabeth II Printing Varieties & Errors" which proved, once again, that modern philately is not to be underestimated. One of the most extensive and complete collections ever formed on this topic, bids were received from all over the World as collectors vied to own one or more of these modern rarities: for example lot 2031, the 1963 Red Cross Centenary 3d. block of four with Red Cross omitted, start price CHF 25'000, sold for CHF 60'000.