THE « ALMOST » UNUSED EXAMPLE OF 4 CENTS ON PELURE PAPER
1850-51, 4 cents black on pale yellow, pelure paper (very thin and transparent, almost onionskin), Townsend Type A, with initials of postal official Lorimer « WHL », cut square with clear to large margins all round, with part of extremely light Berbice datestamp, natural wrinkles, small stain and pinholes at foot; (SG £130’000).
We have recorded only sixteen examples of this stamp in private hands (two on cover, both included in this sale), of which six are cut square, this having the added significance of being used with the lightest strike, which makes it appear almost like an unused stamp, and it is additionally enhanced by being one of three showing full margins all around. A very much underrated great philatelic rarity.
Provenance:
Philipp von Ferrary (Lot 173, Sale X, June 1924)
John E. du Pont (Lot 60029, David Feldman SA, June 2014)
Expertise: Signed Alberto Diena, Cert. BPA (2014)
Census of the cut-square 4 cents on pelure paper:
– Used on 21.3.1851 on piece, complete margins, very fine, ex Hind, Dale-Lichtenstein and Cartier, currently in the Greenwood collection
– Berbice cds (very light), complete margins, ex Du Pont (David Feldman, June 2014), (the example offered here)
– Unreadable cancel, complete margins, closed tear, ex « Tatiana » (David Feldman, June 2016)
– Berbice cds on 4.11.1851, touched margins, ex Ferrary and Burrus, currently in a private collection
– Demerara cds on 20.7.1851, touched margins, currently in the Greenwood collection
– Used on cover from Plantation Woodlands on 9.5.1851, ex Burrus and Du Pont, (lot 30052 in the current « Imperium » sale)
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