Sale 72 The Jane and Dan Sten Olsson Collection of Large Dragons Sale 4

China, 1882 (2 Dec.) envelope to Exeter, England (30.1.83) bearing on reverse Large Dragons thin paper 1ca. and wide margins 3ca. and 5ca., cancelled by "Customs/Newchwang" double-ring d.s. of "2 Dec 82" and additionally tied by "Customs/Tientsin" double-ring transit d.s. of "Dec 11 82" and "Exeter" arrival c.d.s., with "Customs/Shanghai" double-ring transit d.s. of "Dec 18 82" in red alongside, and on front France 25c. bistre on straw, cancelled by "Shang-hai/Chine" c.d.s. (20.12) and showing "Modane à Paris" French entry c.d.s. (28.1.83) in red adjacent, the France 25c. has a tiny corner fault, and, as is typical with many envelopes from the Bandinel correspondence which are on flimsy paper, this was originally tatty and subsequently has had some restoration mainly around the edges, as well as a tiny portion of the Tientsin Customs dater drawn in where the envelope was a little roughly opened. A highly desirable and appealing cover with this rare tricolour franking representing all three values of the Large Dragons, especially so with the wide margins 5 candarins. Chan 1, 5, 6.
Estimate HK$ 350,000 - 400,000

Provenance: H.B.R. Clarke, Robson Lowe (London), 22.4.1953 lot 42. A founder of the China Section of the City of London Philatelic Society (later the China Stamp Society) and Fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society of London, "China" Clarke was quoted as saying: "If had spent as much effort and thought on my business as on collecting my stamps I should have been a millionaire."
Allen Gokson
L.Y. Woo
Joseph K.C. Wong
Robson Lowe (London) Rarities Auction, 8.5.1980, lot 44
Stanley Gibbons (Hong Kong), 26.11.1980, lot 199
David Feldman (Geneva), 13.4.1984, lot 2004.

References: James B. Whang, A Comprehensive Illustration on Covers of Chinese Large Dragons (Taipei: Whang's Philatelic Foundation, 1997), pp. 305-307.

The 9 candarins single rate to Europe

The sender, Jane Gill Bandinel, was the wife of James J.F. Bandinel, who had founded the Bandinel Company in 1881, which grew into an extensive commercial enterprise in both the import-export and shipping sectors in Manchuria. James J.F. Bandinel also held honorary consular positions in Newchwang for various countries including the United States.