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URUGUAY, 1858, 240c Brown Red, Se-Tenant with Blank Space (6b variety). Transfer Types 21-22-[23]-24, horizontal strip of four with blank space 6 from the lower right section of the sheet, Positions 165-166-[167]-168, original gum, h.r., large margins, intense shade and sharp impression, very fresh, vertical and diagonal creases in blank space (one reinforced with hinge)EXTREMELY FINE APPEARANCE. THIS IS THE ONLY RECORDED EXAMPLE OF A BLANK SPACE IN A MULTIPLE OF THE 1858 240-CENTISIMOS IN THE RARE AND DISTINCTIVE BROWN RED COLOR. ONE OF THE GREAT RARITIES OF CLASSIC URUGUAY.
The 240c printing stone of 204 subjects, arranged in seventeen rows of twelve, was created by making six separate transfers from the intermediate transfer block of thirty for the first fifteen rows (180 subjects). To make the two bottom rows (24 subjects), the printer divided the transfer block into two blocks of twelve. The transfer block of thirty included one 180c design in error, which was transferred to seven positions on the printing stone. After a short print run, the printer erased the 180c transfers and left seven blank spaces, rather than entering the correct 240c transfers. The strip offered here comes from the lower right section of the sheet (Positions 165-166-[167]-168), containing blank space 6, which can be identified by the tiny dot outside the top left corner of the stamp at right (lightly circled in pencil on this strip).
The normal color of the 240c is Vermilion (in dull, bright or deep shades), but the stamps were also printed in a distinctive Brown Red (listed in Scott as Brick Red), which is an entirely different ink mixture. It is reported that one multiple of the Brown Red was divided and sold by Jean-Baptiste Moens, a 19th century Belgian stamp dealer, but the existence of duplicate positions (this strip and lot 2884) prove that at least two different multiples reached collectors. Single examples of the Brown Red are very scarce and desirable, and only two multiples have been recorded, both of which are in the Gordon N. John collection -- the only known block offered in lot 2882 and the strip of four with blank space offered here.
This strip was owned by Alfred F. Lichtenstein, who included it in his exhibit of Uruguay at the International Philatelic Exhibition held in Montevideo in April 1931 (reported by E. J. Lee in The Postage Stamps of Uruguay, page xii). After Lichtenstein's death in 1947, his daughter, Louise Boyd Dale, sold the strip and other Uruguay rarities to Robert Hoffmann, who featured it in his Uruguay exhibit, which captured the Grand Award at the 1956 FIPEX exhibition in New York City. In the inventory accompanying the exhibit Hoffmann described it as "unique." It was sold in the 1982 Corinphila sale of the Hoffmann collection to Enrique M. de Bustamante and was part of his wife's Grand Prix International exhibit. The current owner acquired it in the 1993 Feldman sale of the de Bustamante collection.
Illustrated under "Gems" in Marcos Sivera Antunez El Correo en el Uruguay. Ex Lichtenstein, Dale, Hoffmann and de Bustamante. Signed Diaz and Holcombe. Unlisted in Scott.
