Back to table of contents for Sale 901
Commentary by Scott R. Trepel
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| This example of the Inverted "Jenny" was sold by the Siegel firm on June 3, 2005 for the world-record price of $577,500. |
The rampant use and mis-use of the adjective unique in all forms of writing (and especially in advertising) has very nearly discredited the word. Derived from the Latin unicus, it means one of a kind or without equal or equivalent.
Grammarians’ objections notwithstanding, the object presented in this sale catalogue is, for all practical purposes, unique. While it is true that more were made, the official record shows that all other sheets of the 24¢ Inverted “Jenny” were destroyed (eight, to be exact). From the day Robey’s discovery was reported until the last sheet of 24¢ “Jenny” stamps was sold at the post office, everyone was on the lookout for more of the “Upside-Down Airplane” stamp, yet no others were found.
Therefore, 87 years since the 24¢ “Jenny” made its first appearance, it is a sure bet that no other inverts have been secreted away or passed unnoticed. Furthermore, the sole surviving sheet contained just one plate block. It is unique.
Now, something can be unique, but that does not necessarily make it special or important or valuable. Why is the plate number block of the Inverted “Jenny” so special, so important and, in pure monetary terms, so extraordinarily valuable relative to other stamps? The purpose of this commentary is to answer these questions.
The starting point in explaining the special nature of the Inverted “Jenny” plate block is the 24¢ stamp itself, which is the first United States airmail issue. Although the Scott Catalogue lists all three 1918 Air Post issues under one heading, arranged by denomination, chronologically the 24¢ Scott C3 is the true Number One. The 6¢ and 16¢ denominations (Scott C1 and C2) were issued later when the airmail rate was reduced.
During the First World War, the use of airplanes for battle and reconnaissance established aviation as a critical element of national defense. At the same time, a group formed to promote the idea of creating a U.S. government airmail service. In 1918 they succeeded in obtaining an appropriation of $100,000 for the establishment of an experimental airmail route. Soon after the Army agreed to provide planes and pilots for the Post Office Department’s new airmail service.
As the May 15, 1918, inaugural flight date approached, there was a panicked effort to meet the deadline. Postmaster General Albert S. Burleson was determined to get the planes off the ground on schedule, but the planes only arrived from the Curtiss plant, unassembled, on May 13. Six bi-planes were ordered by the Post Office Department, each a Curtiss JN4-H “Jenny” with the area for mail storage replacing one of the two passenger seats. Only two of the planes were in working order after assembly, so a third “Jenny” was borrowed for the first scheduled airmail trip.
While the organizers prepared for the flight, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing was hurriedly producing the new 24¢ stamp. The designer was Clair Aubrey Huston, who was responsible for designing most U.S. stamps since 1903. Although the 24¢ did not carry the label “airmail”, the central vignette of a Curtiss “Jenny” bi-plane distinguished it from all other issues and readily identified its purpose. Coincidentally, Huston had previously designed the 20c Parcel Post stamp, the first government-issued stamp to depict an airplane. Also by coincidence, the serial number on the stamp vignette was the same number on the first “Jenny” to take off from Washington D.C. for the inaugural May 15 flight. Undoubtedly the engravers had been furnished with numbers from the planes to be used for airmail service, but no one could have known that 38262 would be the first plane to depart.
On May 4, in anticipation of formal approval to produce the new airmail stamp designed by Huston, Edward M. Weeks began engraving the die for the frame. On May 8, Marcus W. Baldwin began engraving the vignette. Baldwin was one of the Bureau’s most qualified engravers, whose credits include the 1898 $1.00 “Western Cattle in Storm” Trans-Mississippi issue, considered by many to be the most beautiful commemorative stamp ever issued by the United States.
Returning to the question of why the 24¢ Inverted “Jenny” is so special, the issue itself was a pioneering effort to create a stamp for an entirely new, experimental government airmail service. It was designed with an image that few people had ever seen in real life. The design and engraving were executed by master craftsmen of their time. The stamp itself, printed in two colors to create a red, white and blue image, was a patriotic tribute when the world was at war.
Moving on to answer the question of why the Inverted “Jenny” plate block is so important, the meaning of the word important must be defined as a stamp-collecting term. The description of items or collecting subjects as important implies that other items or subjects are unimportant, which smacks of subjectivity and bias. The word conjurs up an image of snooty 19th century art critics describing Impressionism as “unimportant.” This commentator will do his best to avoid looking similarly asinine by defining importance as an attribute that is not measured on an absolute scale, but rather as a function of perspective. Just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so too is the importance of philatelic artifacts.
The Inverted “Jenny” plate block is important (that is, significant) for at least five basic reasons.
First, the Inverted “Jenny” plate block is, of course, an error, and it is the most highly-prized of errors, an invert. The eleven legitimate U.S. postage inverts are (in order of issue): 1869 Pictorial (3), 1901 Pan-American (3), 1918 Inverted “Jenny”, 1962 Dag Hammarskjold (reprinted), 1976 Washington Crossing the Delaware souvenir sheet, 1979 Candleholder and 1992 New York Stock Exchange. Philatelists generally agree that the image of an airplane flying upside down is the most striking of all invert errors, its impact surpassing that of the minutely-engraved 1869 Pictorial vignettes, the train, ship and motorcar vignettes of the Pan-American inverts, and the subtle inverted portions of the other issues’ designs. The Inverted “Jenny” is an icon of stamp collecting, recognized by collectors and non-collectors around the world.
Second, the Inverted “Jenny” plate block is one of five intact blocks from the error sheet. The left arrow block was divided into pairs, the bottom arrow block was split into singles, and the stolen McCoy block was split into singles. As such, it appeals to collectors who desire blocks.
Third, it is the only Inverted “Jenny” with the plate number attached. As explained in the Introduction by Joe Kirker, the First Printing sheets were trimmed at the top, which removed the sheet margin containing the blue and red plate numbers. Only by virtue of the invert error was the blue plate number 8493 preserved in the intact bottom margin of Robey’s sheet. As such, the Inverted “Jenny” plate number block appeals to collectors who desire blocks with the plate numbers present.
Fourth, the condition of the Inverted “Jenny” plate block is far superior to the condition of most other stamps from the error sheet. As the reconstruction on page 20 shows, there are very few well-centered stamps (and several of those now have gum problems or faults). The plate number block comprises Positions 87-88/97-98, which would qualify as Extremely Fine (left vertical pair) or Very-Fine-Extremely Fine (right vertical pair) by today’s grading standards. The gum is well-preserved and lightly hinged. As expected, there are the light diagonal bends or creases that are characteristic of flat-plate sheets of the period, and there is a tiny paper inclusion in the upper right stamp. For collectors who desire stamps in the finest condition, the Inverted “Jenny” plate number block represents the best of Robey’s sheet.
The fifth and final reason that so much importance is attached to the Inverted “Jenny” plate number block is its ownership history, which is impeccably documented.
After Robey discovered the sheet and sold it to Eugene Klein, the bottom plate number and arrow block of eight was separated from the other stamps and retained by Colonel Edward H. R. Green. This block remained with Colonel Green until his death in June 1936. Six years later the first of 28 Green sales was held. The plate block of eight was offered in Sale XVII held by Harmer, Rooke &Co. on November 13-18, 1944. At that time it was revealed that the upper left stamp (Position 85) had become separated from the block, and “two left stamps” were described with thins. Despite the glut of Green material that entered the market during wartime conditions, the block sold for $27,000 to Y. Souren, a New York City dealer who was representing Amos Eno, a collector who rose to prominence during the second half of the 20th century.
After
the 1944 auction, Eno removed (or had Souren remove) the stamps at left, leaving
the plate block of four intact. When Eno’s collection of U.S. blocks was sold
by Harmer, Rooke &Co. on May 18, 1954, the plate block was bought for
$18,250 by Raymond and Roger Weill on behalf of a client whose identity was a
closely-guarded Weill secret for decades. The client was B. D. Phillips.
Benjamin Dwight Phillips (1885-1968) was the scion of the T. W. Phillips family, owners of a large natural gas and oil company in Butler, Pennsylvania. Phillips started his stamp collection in earnest in 1946, initially with purchases from Warren H. Colson. Within a few years the Weills had gained Phillips as a client and began representing him in auctions. According to the three-volume inventory of the Phillips collection, many of the Weills’ major purchases in auctions during the 1950’s and 60’s, including the Caspary sales, were made directly on behalf of B. D. Phillips.
In 1968 the Weills purchased the entire Phillips collection for $4.07 million, evidently a record for any collection sold up to that time. B. D. Phillips died in 1968, and the Weills advertised the purchase as having been made from the estate of an anonymous collector. However, in a later personal recollection of the acquisition, Raymond Weill told this commentator that he and Roger spent several days at the home of B. D. Phillips, valuing the stamps at his request, in order to make a cash offer. When the Weills presented their $4.07 million offer, Phillips was attired in a hunting jacket and cap with a Purdey shotgun slung over his shoulder. Upon hearing the offer, Phillips responded “Sounds good, boys” and walked out of the room. If this account is accurate, the Weills acquired one of the greatest, if not the greatest, U.S. collections of all time, and the owner went off to shoot ducks.
The plate block was one of five Inverted “Jenny” multiples (and four singles) listed in the Phillips inventory: the plate block (87-88/97-98); centerline block (45-46/55-56); bottom left corner block with siderographer’s initials (81-82/91-92), which was only recently acquired in the February 1968 Lilly sale; a block (47-48/57-58) that was subsequently divided into singles, one of which, Position 58, realized a record $577,500 in the Siegel 2005 Rarities sale); and the rejoined left arrow block (41-42/51-52).
While the Weills controlled the Inverted “Jenny” plate block, it never appeared at auction, but they did arrange for two appearances in “Aristocrats of Philately” displays at Anphilex 1971 and Interphil 1976. They reported selling it in 1971 to an East Coast collector who specialized in errors, but the identity of this collector has never been revealed. They bought back the plate block as part of the collection and held it until 1989 when their entire inventory was sold to Hambros Bank, who consigned the Weill Brothers’ Stock to auctions through Christie’s.
In
the October 1989 opening sale of the Weill Brothers’ Stock, held by
Christie’s in New York, this commentator was the auctioneer. The plate block
realized $1 million hammer ($1.1
million with buyer’s premium), driven to that record-breaking level by bidders
present in the saleroom and others bidding by telephone.
The anonymous winning phone bidder, who is the consignor to this auction, was described to the press simply as a “Southern broadcasting executive,” which led to speculation that Ted Turner had made a foray into philately (the rumor is false). The real buyer’s desire to own the unique plate block was not rooted in stamp collecting (although he owned a small collection), but in his passion for unique and important collectibles.
Therefore, the fifth and most elaborately-detailed reason to describe the Inverted “Jenny” plate block as important is its ownership history. From Robey’s discovery, through Colonel Green’s storied collecting career and the post-war custodianship of the Weills and their secret clients, right up to 1989 when the plate block’s first auction appearance in 35 years resulted in a record $1.1 million price, the unique Inverted “Jenny” plate block has captured the passion of collectors, perhaps more than any other item in American philately.
With all of that said, this commentator will attempt to answer the final question of why the Inverted “Jenny” plate block is so valuable. While scholarship discourages any discussion of monetary value, the fact is people are fascinated with price tags. Stamp collectors, in particular, love to talk about two kinds of prices: bargains and records. Clever buyers often combine the two (“I paid a record price, but I think I got a bargain”).
The
current sale estimate is $2.5 to $3.5 million. By comparison, the 1¢ ZGrill
realized $418,000 in 1986, three years prior to the last sale of the Inverted
“Jenny”plate block at $1.1 million. In the 1998 Zoellner sale held by the
Siegel firm, the 1¢ ZGrill realized $935,000, more than double its 1986
realization. If the values of major U.S. philatelic rarities generally rise at
the same rate, then the Inverted “Jenny” plate block would have been valued
at approximately $2.46 million in 1998 at the time of the last 1¢ ZGrill sale.
Another comparison may be made with the Hawaiian 2¢ Missionary cover sold by the Siegel firm in the 1995 sale of The Honolulu Advertiser collection. In that auction the cover realized $2.09 million. In the 1957 Caspary sale the Missionary cover realized $25,000, selling to the Weills on behalf of B. D. Phillips. In 1969 the Weills sold the cover to Alfred Ostheimer III for a reported $90,000. The prices for the Missionary cover are comparable to realizations for the Inverted “Jenny” plate block.
A final comparison may be made with the recent sale of a single Inverted “Jenny” for $577,500. The same stamp realized $192,500 in the 1998 Zoellner sale. The 2005 sale price is exactly three times the 1998 realization.
Having attempted to answer the questions posed at the beginning of this commentary, it is time to make a concluding remark. Many stamp collectors start as kids and return to the hobby later in life. From a child’s perspective, the story of Robey’s great discovery at the post office and the allure of the “Upside-Down Airplane” error are a big part of the fascination with stamps. Many collectors continue to dream of making a major discovery or reaching a position where acquiring one of Robey’s Inverted “Jenny” errors is a possibility.
When the Inverted “Jenny” plate number block is called up for sale on the evening of October 19th, the tension in the air will be palpable. Every potential buyer and every spectator should remember that they are players in a long and fascinating story. When the hammer is brought down and the highest bidder is victorious, that person will occupy a well-earned place in the pantheon of the Inverted “Jenny.” Some would call that thrill unique.