The Stamp Department's auction held on the 8th of February 2022 is one of the great events of the new year,
thanks to its reputation among collectors from all over the world, confirmed by last year's remarkable turnover of over €1.4 million. The presence of a new nucleus of Antichi Stati italiani shows how the research and selection work of the department is always meticulous, in particular in this nucleus stands out a sought-after piece from Sicily coming from the Rothschild Collection (lot 61, estimate € 2,000 - 3,000); it is a fragment of a letter with tricolour franking made up of a 50gr. brown lacquer, a 20gr. slate grey and 3 examples of the 2gr. light blue.
Lot 61_SICILIA 1859
Fragment of letter with tricolour franking made up of 50gr. brown lacquer;
2 specimens of 20gr. slate grey and 3 specimens of 2gr. light blue, II plate, Naples paper.
Provenance: Alphonse Rothschild Collection.
Estimate € 2.000 - 3.000
A first session that is full of curiosities, there is a 1gr. specimen. (lot 28, estimate € 800 - 1.200) issued in the Kingdom of Sicily in 1859, better known among the collectors as the "monkey head" because of the numerous retouching. This piece, in particular, is undoubtedly a unique version of it. Equally interesting is the complete collection of 21 advertising stamps (lot 131, € 3,500 - 4,000) issued in the Kingdom of Italy between 1924 and 1925, as it is also the letter (lot 2, estimated value € 1,500 - 2,000) addressed to the famous Milanese painter Mauro Conconi, containing proof of decoration by his colleague Fugazza.
Lot 28_SICILIA 1859
1gr. greyish olive green, 1st plate, 2nd condition.
This is the most evident and rare retouching of all the stamps of Sicily
Estimate € 800 - 1.200
Lot 131_REGNO D'ITALIA 1924/1925
Advertising. Complete collection of 21 values.
Estimate € 3.500 - 4.000
The afternoon session is animated by a new collection of significant testimonies from the space where the protagonists are the United States of America and the former Soviet Union. A section that is full of interesting pieces like the stamped envelope franked with 6c. "Apollo 8" with the rare stamp "Moon Landing - the 20th of July 1969" (lot 225, estimate € 1,500 - 2,000), and again from the USA one of the 100 Apollo 15 "Sieger'' cosmograms (lot 228, estimate € 5,000 - 7,000). In the Russian core, the cosmogram "MIR'' (lot 212, estimate € 250 - 350) that was sent from Baykonur on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of "Sputnik" and the two cosmograms "Progress 41-Mir-Soyuz TM-7" (lot 213, estimate € 500 - 700).
Lot 228_STATI UNITI 1971 (26 lug.)
Apollo 15 "Sieger". One of the 100 cosmograms prepared by the well-known German
dealer and transported into space for 12 days and on the surface during the first automobile trip to the moon by the 'Falcon' car.
Estimate € 5.000 - 7.000
Lot 213_RUSSIA 1989
MIR Orbital Station. The two round-trip Progress 41-Mir-Soyuz TM-7 cosmograms, No. 186 of 528,
franked with a 1-ruble stamp with red "Space Mail" overprint, and various stamps both on the ground and on board the orbiting station.
On the reverse of the return cosmogram there are the autograph signatures of the crew aboard Mir: Krikalev, Volkov, Polyakov.
Estimate € 500 - 700