Sparks Auctions

With a week to go until the sale, we invite you to contact us with your questions or concerns:

• Haven't received your printed auction catalogue? Bidders are encouraged to use the online auction PDF files to read the catalogue, and to check Stamp Auction Network and our Image Gallery for additional illustrations. There is still time for us to send you a priority-shipped copy of the catalogue if you are unable to see it using the means outlined above. E-mail or call us for details.
• Looking for opening bids? Stamp Auction Network provides up-to-date openings. Advance bids have been arriving steadily and it is amazing how many have one high bid and no other bid. Remember that an opening bid will show as $2 unless there are multiple bids on the lot, in which case the amount you see represents one increment over the second highest bid (the "underbid").
• Found an error or need clarification of a description? Please let us know and we will have our lotting staff check for you and provide corrections on our Updates Page as necessary.
• Need more images? As time permits, we will send new scans of unphotographed lots, and provide them on our Updates Page as well for other interested bidders.
• Want us to approve you for on-line bidding (either Live bidding or advance bidding through Stamp Auction Network)? Go to stampauctionnetwork.com, create an account (if you are not already registered there) and choose Sparks Auctions as one of your preferred firms. If you don't receive your approval notification within one day's time, let us know by e-mail and we will look into it.  For more information on the bidder approval process, see our Bidding Information page.

The auction includes more than stamps and envelopes. One section offers more than 2000 postal hammers. They fill many cartons and are mostly separated by province with more than 750 from British Columbia alone. We always have a literature section and this auction we have some books with prints, posters, historical letters, and especially newspapers which include many historically important stories from the 1700s and 1800s. You can read original contemporary accounts of the Battle of Waterloo, the births and deaths of English monarchs etc. The offering includes a fair number of USA papers including nine issues (1794-1807) of the Columbian Centinel from Boston (lots 1179-1236).

The single lot with the greatest volume and certainly the greatest weight is one man's lifetime collection (lot 1502). The collection is housed in 52 volumes, 49 of these Scott Internationals covering the period 1840 to 2002.  These massive volumes range from about 10 to about 13 cm in thickness.  You need to be a weightlifter with large hands to pull one out from the shelf.  All this plus two cartons of duplicates and supplies is offered as one lot.

One consignment from the West offers 24 lots of one of the best collections of Admiral issue flag cancels ever formed. The individual assembling this collection understood how rare some of these cancels are, and he helped set many record realizations in obtaining his better items. Some of these previous realizations are provided with the lot listings for information purposes, but generally the more conservative values shown in the 2007 edition of the Coutts' Slogan Postmarks of Canada catalogue have been used for valuation. These lots represent a great opportunity for anyone interested in, or starting out in, the challenging field of Admiral postal history.

See lots 1006-1023, and 1072-1077 (lot 1019 shown above.)

Happy New Year and best wishes for health and prosperity in 2009 from Sparks Auctions!

The printer's production file for the 1952 Red Cross stamp will be of interest both to serious students of Canadian philately as well as topical collectors of the Red Cross. The development of the final design and the essays tell a fascinating story. This one lot could form the basis of a Gold Medal exhibit (lot 672).

While Ian was teaching a course at the 2008 American Philatelic Society Summer Seminar he was asked his advice on a one frame exhibit of the postal history of the 1942 One Dollar Destroyer (lot 1049 shown).  This had been given to the Society to help fund their activities.  The result was an interesting consignment to Sparks Auctions and we will donate our commission to the APS (lots 1042-1057).