Previous Lot Next Lot

Auction: 1016 - Important Stamps & Covers
Lot: 64

x Fiji 1870-71 Fiji Times Express, 1/- black on rose on laid batonné paper [12] affixed to 1871? front addressed to "C.W. Lomber Esq., c/o U.S. Appraisers Office, San Francisco", cancelled by manuscript grid, used with U.S. 1870 10c. brown tied by "cork" obliterator with San Francisco c.d.s. (6 Oct.) alongside and showing "san francisco/steamship" transit datestamp at lower left; some minor faults. Extremely rare, one of two recorded usages of this issue, and one of two Times Express fronts addressed to the USA, this being the only one which uses US Postage stamps for onward forwarding. The other front addressed to the US is extensively damaged and repaired, sold in the Joseph Hackmey New Zealand sale last year for US$22,000. Estimate £ 15,000-18,000 Note: The Lomber correspondence was related to mining interests in Australia. This item is No. 8 in Geoff Kellow´s article "The Postal Arrangements for the Fiji Times Express" published in the Australia Philatelist, March 1988. In his census, only six covers, two fronts and a large piece (the last lost in a bushfire that destroyed John Garnter´s collection) are recorded. According to Colin Tabeart, this item was carried on the last voyage of the "Wonga Wonga" which departed Sydney on 1st September 1871, Fiji on 11th and Honolulu on the 25th, arriving at San Francisco on 6th October. The ship was chartered by Halls Line. provenance: John F. Seybold, March 1910 Col. Hans Lagerloef, May 1953 J.R.W. Purves Peter Robertson, June 1992 Frederick Mayer

Sold for
£12,000