LONDON.- Spink announced that the 19th September will see the second sale of the Arthur Gray Collection of Australia King George VI Issues, the first of which was dedicated to his collection of Queen Elizabeth II Pre-Decimal Issues and sold in April this year. Many fine prices were achieved and Spink have similar hopes for his King George VI Issues. The sale commences at 10am and is comprised of 295 lots.
There are many items or great rarity from this fascinating area of collecting, but the star of the show is lot 648, a Kangaroo 2/- (1945-48) maroon, variety watermark inverted, cancelled by part Kooyong c.d.s. Extremely rare, the only other example is a pair. R.P.S. Certificate (2006). S.G. 212a, £24,000; BW 41a, $45,000. Estimate: £10,000 12,000
Lot 673 is also worth noting, and is made up of four die proofs of the Arms Issue (1949-51) on white wove paper and were presented to Sir G. Chippendall, Director-General of the P.M.G.'s Department. 5/- carmine, 10/- purple, £1 blue and £2 green die proofs, each mounted in a sunken frame, fine. Eight die proofs of each were produced for presentation purposes. They are numbered "33", "10", "10" and "11" respectively. A magnificent and colourful set. BW 268DP (1) - 271DP(1), $24,000. Estimate: £5,000 6,000
Another show stopping item from this sale is lot 740 of the Seventh Series, New Royal Portrait (1950-52) 3½d. brown-purple horizontal pair, variety imperforate between, unmounted mint. Three examples are known which originally comprised a vertical block of six, the lower pair was damaged. The block is believed to have been a booklet pane, the omission of the perforations being caused by a paper fold. A major rarity from the George VI reign. S.G. 247a, £18,000; BW 253b, $22,500. Estimate: £4,000 5,000