Sale 75 Asian Stamps & Postal History

China, 1894 Dowager Empress 1ca. to 24ca. master die proofs, large format, set of nine, made by R.A. de Villard from his original drawings for the accepted designs on thin semi-transparent paper. A very fine and rare set of these elusive proofs.
Estimate HK$ 20,000 - 25,000

According to Major James Starr, there were only ten such sets of the original proofs on thin paper, and six of these sets had scored lines across the design, meaning that only four unaltered sets of the original proofs could exist.