£11,000 STAMP DEAL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22403, 27 April 1936, Page 10

£II,OOO STAMP DEAL

RARE COLLECTION SOLI) THAMES RESIDENT'S HOBBY PURCHASE BY A COMPANY SPECIMENS FROM MANY LANDS [FROM OUR OWN CORRFSrONDBNT] THAMES, Sunday What is said to be the largest philatelic deal in New Zealand history has been completed by the sale of the stamp collection of Mr. F. H. Claxton, of Parawai, Thames, to the Auckland Stamp Company, Limited. The purchase price is well over £II,OOO. Mr. Claxton has been an ardent stamp collector all his life, and has acquired many rare stamps from all parts of the world. It is impossible to state the number of stamps in the collection, which is contained in 150 volumes, averaging 40 pages each. Tho collection has been housed in a specially constructed strongroom, lined with steel shelving. In addition to the postage stamps there are 25 cabinets of post cards and postal stationery of all stamp issuing countries. Mr. Claxton has specialised in his hobby, therefore there are many specimens of watermarks, perforations and qualities of paper. He has a great number of re-entries and many countries are represented in the original proofs of new issues, neatly annotated and making a most interesting history. The Stanley Giljjpons catalogue value of the collection is between £40,000 and £50,000.

Specimens From Tonga Great care has been exercised in mounting and indexing, so that any country can be referred to in a simple manner. Included among these philatelic treasures is a large box containing hundreds of complete sheets of stamps as issued by post offices, the face value alone of which must be many hundreds of pounds. These contain many rareties, some of which are now out of print. The collection includes; a volume of Tongan stamps, which belonged to Mrs. J. Kenderdine, and is stated to be the most complete in the world of that country. In it is a pair of 7}d stamps with the centre printed inverted. They are worth £SO each, as only 30 are known to exist. The " G.R.1." overprint on German Samoa is catalogued at £2OOO, and there are also individual stamps listed at £3OO, £250 and £l2O each. Some have not appeared in any trade catalogue, and consequently cannot be priced. Stamps Worth £SOO Each The New Zealand collection contains 4000 " full faces," including a pair of No. 7 Id dull orange, catalogued at £SOO each, and a block of 24 mint 2d vermilion, some retouched, valued at £250. There is also a strip of 14 mint 4d orange-yellow with the watermark " T. H. Saunders," which is unpriceable, as a similar portion to this sheet of stamps is not known to exist. The .collection of British Solomon Islands carries heavy values. Portion of the Bosnia-Herzegovina collection includes several items from the albums of the ex-Kaiser Wilhelm. A picturesque exhibit among these is a large envelope covered with a full set of Austrian stamps, overprinted " Serbien " and representing the Austrian occupation of Serbia during the war. It had been posted from the war zone to a lady in Berlin. The Spanish section is stated to be unique in New Zealand, and is contained in five volumes. There are also two separate collections of New Zealand stamps ivhich obtained silver medals at the Vienna exhibition.

Mr. Claxton's reason for disposing of this result of a lifetime's collecting is that none of his family takes any interest in the hobby. It's disposal will bring on the market items which have been coveted by serious collectors the world over. It is understood the purchasers intend to send many of the rarer items to England, to be auctioned in the open market.