Lot 50025 – British Columbia & Vancouver Island – 1865 Issue 5

British Columbia & Vancouver Island – 1865 5 cents: group of 37 items comprising the important retouched master negative on film, six celluloid clichés of which two transparent impressions, 11 glass support clichés including six reversed impressions, these all exhibiting a fascinating array of colours (rose, dark violet, black, sepia, orange); one tracing paper with cancellation of the barred numeral 35 and the “Paid” postmark, two celluloid clichés for the “Paid” pmk. and the oval “Post Office / Victoria Vancouver”, six glass support clichés for the previously mentioned cancellations accompanied by nine printed ink trials with annotations. With regards to the stamps, the annotations indicate Sperati undertook the working process between November to December 1942, whereas the dates for the cancellations range from July 1943 to January 1953; by far the most significant assembly ever recorded – in fact, the B.P.A. only mentions one cliché dated in November 1942; only one exposure trial, which is a primitive step of the definitive reproduction of the stamp, and four single definitive reproductions were offered in the “Ultimate” collection sale of Sperati.