Lot 61506 – “Official” Overprints of South Africa collection

‘Official’ Overprints of South Africa

The Robert Hisey ten-frame gold medal-winning collection is beautifully mounted and expertly written up on 160 pages, with the collector’s knowledge in the stamps printing methods reflected throughout.

The collection aims to show the development of the ‘Official’ overprints over its 28-year life as it went through large and small changes in the three basic overprint types. The strength of the collection lies in the collector’s lifetime research on the subject, and this is revealed by the more than one hundred new discoveries highlighted in red throughout the album pages.

The ten frames are ordered chronologically by the small, medium and large overprint formats.

These ‘Official’ Overprint Issues are shown in practically every possible facet with some of the highlights being the 1928 With stops reading upwards 2d Specimen ovpt, 6d mint marginal pair (SG O4, £700), 6d mint pair with misplaced ovpt, cert. RPS (SG O4, £700), 6d mint marginal block of four (SG O4, £1400), 6d mint marginal block of four showing deformed “O” and “L” (SG O4, £1400), 6d mint marginal pair with rare inverted wmk (SG O4, £1800), 1/2d mint marginal pair double ovpt, one inverted (SG O12f, £650), 1d double ovpt in a mint & used pair (SG O13da, £700), 6d strip of six one showing rare OFFISIEEL reading up (SG O16c, £2250), 1935-1949 1d five singles on fragment with single 1/2d, showing two of the single 1d stamps with the extremely rare “OFFICIAL OFFICIAL” error (SG O21aa, £9000), ex Matheson, cert. BPA, 1949-1950 2d blue and violet mint pair, cert. BPA (SG O35, £4250), 1949-1950 2d blue and violet mint horizontal pair of pairs (SG £8500), 1950-1954 2d mint pair, block of four and cylinder block of four, all showing overprint reading up (SG O45a, £5500), 1930-47 2s6d blue and brown mint pair (SG O19a, £3000), cert. RPS, the rest of the collections shows mint and used, with blocks and larger multiples, part sheet or complete sheets, an extensive array of major and minor overprint varieties including shifted or dramatically misplaced ovts, transposed languages off and on cover, postal history with a wonderful array of usages from printed matter, single frankings, airmail, registered usages etc.

A truly wonderful assembly for the connoisseur and specialist and an excellent basis for study and expansion (1000’s)