Auction 321 - 332 Australian States & Commonwealth of Australia, St. Helena, Basutoland, Bechuanaland, Swaziland, Brazil 1843 –1870 - Day 1

Recess by De La Rue 1863: 1 d. on 6 d. in lake, imperforate, wmk. Crown CC, variety "ONE PENNY surcharge Double", a used example (position 143) with large even margins on three sides, just shaved at base and imperceptible nick in left margin, fresh rich colour, cancelled red-brown and black manuscript ink. A fine example of this rarity - twelve examples should exist as the surcharging forme (4 rows of twelve impressions) missed the lower horizontal row of the sheet, leaving the "6d. lake" variety (Gi 3b), this error came from the row above: leaving the Surcharge doubled on this stamp. A superb example of this error. Cert. Holcombe (1997) Gi = £ 4'250.rnrnProvenance: Collection 'Tomasini', SG, London, 4 Oct 1973, lot 106; Collection Cecil Donne; Collection 'Justine', Christies, London, 16 Sept 1992, lot 50.