B.C. stamps should fetch $1 million US

COLLECTIBLES--Collection of pre-Confederation stamps set to be auctioned in New York

BY JOHN MACKIE

VANCOUVER SUN

            THE PROVINCE--A legendary collection of pre-Confederation stamps from British Columbia and Vancouver Island is going to be auctioned off Tuesday in New York, and sales are expected to top $1 million US.

  The 370 lots include exceptionally rare stamps, proofs and "covers" (envelopes) bearing both stamps and express company marks, which are collectible in their own right.

  The sale offers a fascinating glimpse into a little-known era between the Fraser and Cariboo gold rush and Confederation.

  Eighteen separate stamps were issued between 1860 and 1871, when B.C. joined Canada. The earliest stamps bear the legend "British Columbia and Vancouver's Island," because they were separate colonies until 1866. The early stamps also bear a profile of a relatively youthful Queen Victoria, who was 41 in 1860.

  The cover letters have all sorts of historical quirks. Lot no. 273, for example, bears stamps and addresses on both sides of the cover — one for getting out of Canada, one for getting to its destination in the U.S.

Shown above is Lot 1 of 370 lots
that are to be auctioned off in New
York. These 'five-cent rose' stamps
were issue by B.C. and
Vancouver Island.

Collection assembled by two legends in the field

  This is because in the 1860s, there was no cross-Canada mail service — because there was no postal delivery through the mountains. Most mail was taken by express companies from the gold fields to New Westminster or Victoria, then by ship to San Francisco.

  The cover was sent by someone who couldn't spell (it's addressed to "Pioner City, Idiho Teritory") from Richfield, B.C., a gold-mining town near Barkerville that no longer exists.

  It features a pair of British Columbia stamps and a pair of American stamps, and bears the marks of three express companies, two Canadian (Barnard's Cariboo Express, and Dietz & Nelson's B.C. and V. Express) and one American (Wells Fargo and Co.).

  "The Cariboo Express [and Dietz] got it out of inland, the British Columbia stamps got it out of the country, then it got to the United States," explains Keith Harmer of H.R. Harmer Philatelic Auctioneers, which is conducting the sale.

  "Because it had to get to Idaho territory, which wasn't even a state at that time, now it had to go by Wells Fargo. So you have three express companies and two different countries involved.

  "You know something? That could bring $45,000 [US, about $60,000 Cdn], that cover."

  Another interesting cover is Lot 199, which has 10 blue Vancouver Island stamps and is addressed to The Bank of

Lot 1 includes an 1860 die proof of a
stamp from B.C. and Vancouver Island. 

British Columbia, 5 East India Avenue, Leadenhall Street, London (estimated value, $2,700 to $4,100). Lot 181 is addressed to Aylmer, Canada West — pre-Confederation Ontario (estimate $2,000 to $2,700).

  Lot 24 is a pair of rose-coloured five-cent British Columbia and Vancouver's Island stamps, arranged vertically. The catalogue states that it is the only known unused multiple of "this most famous of British North America rarities," and notes it is listed in stamp catalogues at $60,000, although it will probably go higher. Lot 51 is an uncut sheet of 24 blue 10 cent Vancouver Island stamps, which has a catalogue value of about $47,000.

  The collection was assembled by two of the most legendary names in American stamp collecting, the father/daughter team of Alfred F. Lichtenstein and Louise Boyd Dale.

  Lichtenstein was the founder of the Philatelic Foundation in the U.S., and is the namesake of the Alfred F. Lichtenstein Award, which Harmers calls "the most prestigious award in philately." His daughter carried on his collection after he died in 1947.

  After Dale died in 1967, their British North America stamp collection (featuring rare Canadian and colonial stamps) brought $3 million U.S. at a Harmers auction.

Lot 273 features a Barnard's Cariboo
Express stamp from British Columbia
and Vancouver Island.

  Harmer said the 1969 auction was so big — there were 5,000 lots — that at first, most collectors didn't realize there was. no B.C. material. Later on, the missing B.C. collection became the stuff of legend, a near-mythic collection that many thought had been donated to an institution and would never hit the market.

  It turns out Louise Boyd Dale had given the collection to her son John, who has now decided to auction it off. There has only been one collection to come on the market to rival it — the 373-lot Gerald E. Wellburn collection, which was auctioned for $800,000 Cdn in 1988.

  The Wellburn Collection was so famous, the auctioneer, Eaton & Sons, issued a limited edition coffee table book featuring it. Brian Grant Duff has it for sale for $150 at the Bay Coins and Stamps in the Hudson's Bay store in downtown Vancouver.

  Grant Duff said the Dale/Lichtenstein collection is just as famous, and will

attract the elite of the stamp world.       

  "It's one of the great events of a lifetime for many collectors," he said.

  "Much of this material is held privately or in institutional collections, and trades hands once a generation, if that."           

  Catalogues for the auction are $15 US, and can be obtained by e-mailing the auctioneers at hrharmer@hrharmer.com. If you want to bid, call Harmers at 212-532-3700.