HONG KONG.- A very rare cover sold for HK$1,495,000/ US$191,667 to a telephone bidder in the stamps auction of Zurich Asia held in Hong Kong on 31 August & 1 September 2014. More than 3,000 lots of philatelic treasures were offered in the sale which attracted enormous interest among collectors.

Bidding was intense for this exceptional 1895 registered cover from Tientsin to Hamilton, New York, redirected to Brooklyn with USA and Dowager franking. In excellent condition, it is believed to be the earliest Dowager cover sent through the US Postal Agency in Shanghai.

The cover's front is franked with a USA 5 cents brown stamp and 10 cents green stamp tied by single ring 'U.S.POSTAL ANENCY/SHANGHAI/5.1.95' duplex '1' cancellation. On reverse, it bears Dowager first printing 1 candarin vermilion stamp and 2 candarins green stamp, together with a 6 candarins chocolate stamp, tied by 'TIENTISN' seal chop in blue. This fabulous offering comes with a Peter Holcombe certificate (1996) and is notably from the same correspondence as the cover in Grand Prix collection of renowned collector Huang Ming-Jeng.

Further highlights were two very fresh complete sheet of 1980 Year of the Monkey (“Golden Monkey”) stamps in unmounted mint and each realized HK$1,380,000/ US$176,923 after spirited bidding.

An extremely rare complete pane of 1897 large figures 1 cent surcharge on 3 cents stamps with plate number '1858' fetched HK$437,000/ US$56,026.

An 1897 small figures 4 cents surcharge on 3 cents Red Revenue stamp, mint with large part original gum and J.R.Hughes' pencil signature on reverse realized HK$345,000/ US$44,231.