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The beauty of our hobby is that we not only get to handle items of great interest and study history through philately, but we have the opportunity to meet wonderful people. I first met Bernard Clancy, or, as everyone called him, Barney, way back in the early 1980ʼs when we both frequented the New York ASDA shows that often fell at the same time as St. Patrickʼs Day. Barney at heart was the consummate Irish American with all that entailed. Always full of life and a rye sense of humour. It was obvious that it was to the stamps of Ireland that he would turn to. His three great passions were Postal Stationery, the Pre-Decimal Booklets and the Political and Propaganda Labels. 

 

The coming June auction offers almost 200 lots, including Barney’s three award winning collections, plus much more from stampless postal history, through GB used in Ireland, and many mixed and specialised collections throughout.

Lot 40793: 1721-1867 County Down Postal History: Exhibition collection of postal history entitled “MOURNE MAILS” 

Lot 40940: 1922-1935 Overprints:Old-time estate lot, attractive, valuable, and specialised collection of mint overprints, neatly mounted and housed in a special Davo album, showing a useful array of proofs in singles, pairs, and multiples, a practically complete collection of overprints showing complete sets, singles, multiples, varieties.

Lot 40938: 1922-1992 Gutter Pairs: Attractive and valuable collection of mostly mint n.h. gutter pairs

Coming back to the Clancy estate, Barney’s true love was the study of Ireland’s Postal Stationery for which he co-authored the definitive handbook catalogue with Otto Jung, being published by the FAI. In the case of the postal stationery we decided to leave his exhibition collection intact as one lot (Lot 40960) as a tribute to a lifetime’s passion for the subject and give the buyer an opportunity to acquire a truly wonderful study of this fascinating collecting area. In addition to this, Barney also had an important hand in helping Cyril Dulin with his Handbook of Irish Stamp Booklets.

Lot 40848: 1922, Perkins, Bacon & Co: Hibernia Seated 3d, engraved die proof in red, imperforated on card and cut down and mounted on board

Lot 40913: 1941-44, 2 shilling, complete unexploded booklet, black on red front cover with larger Harp above “éire”

Lot 40960: Postal Stationery 1922-1942: Award-winning exhibition collection neatly mounted and knowledgeably written up on 160 album pages.

His passing is certainly a very sad loss for us all and in particular Maria Clancy; her two children and their spouses; 11 grandchildren; his sister, Helen Clancy-Manning (Jim), and her four children and their spouses; and 11 grand-nieces and nephews. In addition to the various Irish philatelic associations whether in his native USA, or in Ireland and Germany, we will all miss him. His contributions to the ÉPA and to Irish philately in general are too numerous to mention in this brief remembrance. In 2022, the ÉPA nominated him for the Role of Distinguished Philatelists of Ireland, the highest award given in the area of Irish philately. Sponsored by the Federation of Philatelic Societies of Ireland, Barney was honored with this distinction; only the third time since 1980 that it has been awarded to a philatelist from the United States. Most of the lots in the June auction come from Barneyʼs collection and I know he would be delighted for them all to find new homes.

 

Marcus Orsi – Senior Philatelist