⇚ Position 19 - 2024-06-27 Transaction Summary
Purchase Date:
2024-06-27
How Purchased:
Auction
Where Purchased:
Siegel Auction Galleries
Auction No.:
1326-2024 Rarities of the World
Lot No.:
4184
Sound/Fault:
Fault
Catalogue Value:
$ 450,000
Realized:
$ 247,800
Seller:
Anonymous
Buyer:
Anonymous
Description
24c Carmine Rose & Blue, Center Inverted (C3a). Position 19, original gum, lightly hinged, deep rich colors with inverted plane perfectly placed in relation to the frame, choice centering, certificate notes "tiny thins" which are extremely minute specks that might not even be in the paper and are almost unworthy of mention
VERY FINE APPEARING AND WONDERFULLY FRESH EXAMPLE OF THE FAMOUS 24-CENT INVERTED JENNY. THIS STAMP WAS ORIGINALLY CONTIGUOUS WITH THE POSITION 20 STAMP OFFERED IN THE FOLLOWING LOT.
The original sheet of one hundred Inverted Jenny errors was purchased by William T. Robey on May 14, 1918, the first day the stamps went on sale in all three principal airmail route cities: Washington, D.C., New York and Philadelphia. Robey bought the sheet for its $24 face value at the New York Avenue Post Office window in the District of Columbia. On Sunday, May 19, Robey agreed to give Eugene Klein, a prominent Philadelphia stamp dealer, a one-day option to buy the sheet for $15,000. Klein exercised his option on Monday, May 20, in a late afternoon phone call, and he confirmed it with a registered letter to Robey sent in the evening mail. The sheet was delivered to Klein's office by Robey and his father-in-law on the following day, Tuesday, May 21, 1918.
No later than Monday, May 20, the day Klein exercised his option, he had arranged to sell the sheet for $20,000 to Colonel Edward H. R. Green. Half of the $5,000 profit went to Klein's partners, Percy McGraw Mann and Joseph A. Steinmetz. Klein was then authorized by Colonel Green to divide the sheet into singles and blocks, and to sell all but a few key position blocks.
Despite the great rarity and value of Inverted Jenny stamps, many of the original hundred have been mistreated by collectors over the years. Colonel Green himself allowed moisture to affect some of the stamps he retained. Eight straight-edge copies that Klein was unable to sell and returned to Colonel Green were found in Green's estate stuck together in an envelope (they were soaked and lost their gum). Other examples have become slightly toned from improper storage and climatic conditions. Hinge removal has caused thins and creases in numerous stamps, and one was physically Scotch-taped to an exhibit page. Another was nearly lost to philately forever when it was swept up in a vacuum cleaner.
Position 19's history can be traced back to Sir William Lindsay Everard, a British pioneer aviator, member of Parliament and airpost collector. Sir Lindsay exhibited the stamp in 1946 and 1947. He passed away in 1949 and his collection was sold at auction in 1953. Position 19 was not included in that sale, since it had been sold privately around 1951. It was exhibited in 1952 by Dimitri Tziracopoulo, a major collector of Italian Old Master paintings and philatelist who assembled a formidable collection of worldwide airpost material. Tziracopoulo exhibited the stamp in the August 1961 FISA exhibition in the Netherlands, where he won the Grand Prix award (Air Post Journal Nov. 1961).
The Tziracopulo collection was sold by Harmer, Rooke of London on October 1, 1965. The Inverted Jenny was described as sound. Our next sale record is a private treaty purchase in 1984. It then appeared at auction in Siegel Sale 833 in 2000, where it was purchased by Daniel B. Curtis, who held the stamp until he passed away in 2014. It was included in Siegel's sale of the Curtis collection in 2015.
With 1983 P.F. certificate issued to Richard A. Champagne. Signed in pencil four times, including the renowned Italian experts Dr. Giulio Bolaffi, Alberto Diena and Dr. Enzo Diena. Two backstamps: red "D.FORESTER", who backstamped a number of early worldwide airpost stamps, but we have been unable to locate any information about him; and a black "H/SC/NY" handstamp, which is also found on the back of each stamp in the "Princeton Block" (Positions 61-62/71-72)—this handstamp was previously misidentified as the similar mark used by Economist Stamp Co., but it is definitely a different stamp dealer's mark (we have not been able to determine which New York based company begins with the letter H).
Ex Col. Edward Howland Robinson Green, Sir William Lindsay Everard, Dimitri Tziracopoulo and Daniel B. Curtis. With 1983 P.F. certificate.
VERY FINE APPEARING AND WONDERFULLY FRESH EXAMPLE OF THE FAMOUS 24-CENT INVERTED JENNY. THIS STAMP WAS ORIGINALLY CONTIGUOUS WITH THE POSITION 20 STAMP OFFERED IN THE FOLLOWING LOT.
The original sheet of one hundred Inverted Jenny errors was purchased by William T. Robey on May 14, 1918, the first day the stamps went on sale in all three principal airmail route cities: Washington, D.C., New York and Philadelphia. Robey bought the sheet for its $24 face value at the New York Avenue Post Office window in the District of Columbia. On Sunday, May 19, Robey agreed to give Eugene Klein, a prominent Philadelphia stamp dealer, a one-day option to buy the sheet for $15,000. Klein exercised his option on Monday, May 20, in a late afternoon phone call, and he confirmed it with a registered letter to Robey sent in the evening mail. The sheet was delivered to Klein's office by Robey and his father-in-law on the following day, Tuesday, May 21, 1918.
No later than Monday, May 20, the day Klein exercised his option, he had arranged to sell the sheet for $20,000 to Colonel Edward H. R. Green. Half of the $5,000 profit went to Klein's partners, Percy McGraw Mann and Joseph A. Steinmetz. Klein was then authorized by Colonel Green to divide the sheet into singles and blocks, and to sell all but a few key position blocks.
Despite the great rarity and value of Inverted Jenny stamps, many of the original hundred have been mistreated by collectors over the years. Colonel Green himself allowed moisture to affect some of the stamps he retained. Eight straight-edge copies that Klein was unable to sell and returned to Colonel Green were found in Green's estate stuck together in an envelope (they were soaked and lost their gum). Other examples have become slightly toned from improper storage and climatic conditions. Hinge removal has caused thins and creases in numerous stamps, and one was physically Scotch-taped to an exhibit page. Another was nearly lost to philately forever when it was swept up in a vacuum cleaner.
Position 19's history can be traced back to Sir William Lindsay Everard, a British pioneer aviator, member of Parliament and airpost collector. Sir Lindsay exhibited the stamp in 1946 and 1947. He passed away in 1949 and his collection was sold at auction in 1953. Position 19 was not included in that sale, since it had been sold privately around 1951. It was exhibited in 1952 by Dimitri Tziracopoulo, a major collector of Italian Old Master paintings and philatelist who assembled a formidable collection of worldwide airpost material. Tziracopoulo exhibited the stamp in the August 1961 FISA exhibition in the Netherlands, where he won the Grand Prix award (Air Post Journal Nov. 1961).
The Tziracopulo collection was sold by Harmer, Rooke of London on October 1, 1965. The Inverted Jenny was described as sound. Our next sale record is a private treaty purchase in 1984. It then appeared at auction in Siegel Sale 833 in 2000, where it was purchased by Daniel B. Curtis, who held the stamp until he passed away in 2014. It was included in Siegel's sale of the Curtis collection in 2015.
With 1983 P.F. certificate issued to Richard A. Champagne. Signed in pencil four times, including the renowned Italian experts Dr. Giulio Bolaffi, Alberto Diena and Dr. Enzo Diena. Two backstamps: red "D.FORESTER", who backstamped a number of early worldwide airpost stamps, but we have been unable to locate any information about him; and a black "H/SC/NY" handstamp, which is also found on the back of each stamp in the "Princeton Block" (Positions 61-62/71-72)—this handstamp was previously misidentified as the similar mark used by Economist Stamp Co., but it is definitely a different stamp dealer's mark (we have not been able to determine which New York based company begins with the letter H).
Ex Col. Edward Howland Robinson Green, Sir William Lindsay Everard, Dimitri Tziracopoulo and Daniel B. Curtis. With 1983 P.F. certificate.