British Postal Museum sale

Realizations of the British Postal Museum & Archive philatelic auction at Sotheby's was summed at a disappointing total of £400,920 (including buyer’s premium), with the estimated price for all 191 lot was £5 million in total. Sadly during this auction only 29 lots were sold. These unexpected results have placed the plans for the new museum in jeopardy.

The highest price paid for an item in this acution was £192,000 for the 1918-19 Bradbury Wilkinson 2s 6d, 5s and 10s registration blocks.

The George V registration blocks was also sold, but other than that only small items were purchased by auction participants.

The Philatelic Traders Society had contacted the museum with many dealers objecting to the holding of this auction. They indicated that some of the material was misrepresented, with catalogue values based on prices obtained for items sold in previous National Postal Museum sales in 1984-85.

In response to the accusation made stating that after the 19845 sales the museum would not release any more archive material, the museum issued the following statemenet: 'Although it inherited a number of National Postal Museum records, and was donated the material formerly in the National Postal museum’s custody, it is a wholly separate organisation. As such, it is governed by different rules, namely those for charitable organisations.'

Dealers also requested to have the material hand-stamped as proof of authenticity.

Sotheby's spokesperson response to the sale results were: 'The sale was presented to the widest possible audience and with appropriate estimates, but the British stamp market did not support this historic opportunity to purchase rare and important stamps.' The British Postal Museum & Archive spokesman declined to comment on this issue during the post-sale period when offers for unsold material could still be received by the auction house.