This is a wonderful and incredibly valuable old time stamp collection housed in a thick Richard Senf album. The album combines two volumes, the first covering the period 1840-1890 and the second 1890-1897.
There is a wealth of high value material throughout the album, but the main draw has to be the volume of mint/unused early issues - something incredibly hard to find in such quantity. This is seen from the very start of the album and the GB pages with a mint penny black although noting a slight surface rub, discolouration and the gum has not been confirmed as original. There are mint penny reds (imperf, stars and plates) followed by a pleasing number of surface printed mint (mainly with gum). Also included inthe GB section is a very nice Mulready envelope with an early posting date of May 31st 1840. The GB pages alone will have a catalogue value of around, and probably over, £50,000!
The high values continue throughout the album with Europe issues being a focus for the mint, with plenty of individual stamps running into the thousands of pounds catalogue value, including France,strong Italy, and also more unusual areas such as Russia and Turkey. Hong Kong and USA also have very strong showings of mint/unused stamps, again with many again reaching well over £1,000 each. Not all mint stamps are with gum, but this hardly detracts given that, in the main, colours are very fresh and vibrant.
Of other areas, there is the usual strong showing of classics from German and Italian States.
The stamps in the 1890-97 section do tail off in terms of value as expected, however there is still good volume and some later (but still early stamps) have been added.
Please be aware that given the volume of stamps, the high values and this classic period of collecting, there will no doubt be some reprints, forgeries and more dubious stamps mixed in. I do not have the time to check through with a fine toothcomb, or have the expertise in all areas to validate everything, so you will need to use the images provided to satisfy yourself before bidding. I have provided many close up images to help with this.
That being said the collection looks to be very well collected with much time being taken to pick correct stamps and even taking the above into account, the value of this collection is enormous.
There are just under 500 images below to look through, showing all pages with three or more stamps, unless more noteworthy. Please do take the time to have a careful look through to fully appreciate what is on offer and to also judge the collection as a whole. Condition will of course vary from poor to fine, but a lot of important material is good to fine.
Please see my other items. I will combine postage if possible.
Any postage costs DO NOT include any import/customs charges that may be due. These are the buyer's responsibility and so you should take this into account before placing your bid. Any item sent internationally as anything other than standard will be sent 'registered' to cover any insurance for me if the item is lost. As such, a declaration of value has to be made and so import charges will be based on this.