£8,500 FOR TWO STAMPS.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 1915, 8 September 1921, Page 3

£8,500 FOR TWO STAMPS.

SALE OF FERRARI COLLECTION. Part of the noted Ferrari stamp collection was sold by auction .a few weeks ago in Paris. The desires ol philatelists all over the world were centred in this crowded hall, where stamps so rare as only to be on sale once in a generation were being bought for millionaires. The most memorable prices paid were 210,000 francs (£8500) for two British Guiana two-cents, black on rose, original lettering, engraved in 1850. It is said that this pair is the finest in existence. A Hawaii twocents blue, of 1851, fetched 150,000 francs. A penny Mauritius vermilion was bought at 24,000 francs, and a twopenny indigo or deep blue 60,000 francs. The British Colonies, therefore, had the honour,, but later what was described a k the rarest Continental stamp, bearing the ox-head of Moldavia, blue on blue paper, rose to 30,000 francs. It was not quite a perfect specimen, having a trace of a fold. All these prices were from 30 to 40 per cent, above the French catalogue. It is anticipated that flic whole sale, the second part’ of which will take place In October, will reach a total of more than £400,000. This collection has had a romantic history. It was composed by years of work and a mint of money by Iho adopted son of an Austrian nobleman. It is the best in Europe—perhaps in the world. Before the war, Ferrari gave it to tho German Embassy in Paris, where he was staying, for the nucleus of a museum at Berlin. The war broke out. and the French Government seized the labels, and the proceeds of the sale are to go to paying off part of the damage done by the Germans in the war.