Prices Realized

lot # 7 - 1: China Large Dragons Essays and Proofs

Saturday Jun 16, 2018 09:30 Asia/Hong_Kong

China, Proofs : Large Dragon with Extra Circle removed 3ca. brown-red imperforate on thin wove paper, Setting I, complete sheet of twenty-five with selvedge all round, pale colour and "dry" printing with uneven impression particularly noticeable at lower right, inconsequential nick in outer extremity of sheet margin at top right, there are creases in the margin at foot, one of which diagonally crosses the lower left stamp, very fine and an exceptional sheet.
Estimate 400,000 - 500,000


Provenance: Philip Ireland, Christie's Robson Lowe (Zurich), 25.5.1989, lot 2036.

References: Jeffrey S. Schneider, "Essays and Proofs for the First Customs Issues", China 2009 International Philately Peak Forum, Symposium, p. 162.

According to our records, there are seven complete surviving sheets. Impressions vary considerably, as the printers endeavoured to get the decoupage ("make ready") perfect. Given the more consistent uniformity of printing and impressions of the 1 candarin and 5 candarins values, the 3 candarins may well have been the first value from which proofs were pulled. The sheets from the Mizuhara and Major Starr collections are interesting, in that both show overinking in the fourth row of stamps, and the latter has extraneous ink running diagonally across the lower left.

The seven complete sheets are from the following sources :

1.) Sir Percival David, Robson Lowe (London), 28.1.1964, lot 1297; "Twyste", Spink (Hong Kong), 28.11.2005, lot 1007

2.) Mizuhara Meiso, Spink (Hong Kong), 17.1.2016, lot 1603

3.) Richard Canman, Stanley Gibbons (London), 19.10.1972; Giulio Mochi, David Feldman (Geneva), 26.10.1984, lot 40564; Anna-Lisa and Sven-Eric Beckeman, Sotheby's and Corinphila (Hong Kong), 15.5.1997, lot B24

4.) Philip Ireland, Christie's Robson Lowe (Zurich), 25.5.1989, lot 2036. This is the Olsson sheet

5.) Major James Starr, Sotheby's (London), 11.9.1991, lot 38

6.) Sotheby's and Corinphila (Hong Kong), 12.11.1998, lot 201

7.) "Selected Treasures Kept by the Chinese National Postage Stamp Museum" (1999), p. 31.

P
Estimate: HK$ 400,000 - 500,000

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