Sale 769 — The Honolulu Advertiser Collection
Sale Date — Tuesday, 7 November, 1995
Category — Hawaiian Missionaries Off Cover
1851, 2c Blue (1). Type II, a superb appearing example with rich color and impression, large margins on all sides showing portions of framelines from adjoining stamps at left (space between two cliches) and right (gutter between impressions), cancelled by Large Grid of Squares. With respect to condition, we quote Herbert A. Bloch's description of this stamp in the 1957 Caspary sale: "A piece at top, which was torn off when the stamp was found, has been replaced in its original position without any repair in the philatelic sense of the word. Despite this fault a magnificent copy of this classic world rarity..."ONE OF THE FINEST APPEARING EXAMPLES OF THE 2-CENT MISSIONARY, OF WHICH ONLY FIFTEEN EXAMPLES ARE RECORDED AND ELEVEN ARE AVAILABLE OUTSIDE MUSEUMS
The fourteen off-cover examples of the 2c Missionary in our census (Appendix I) include four stamps held by museums and only two sound copies (both offered in the previous two lots). The stamp offered here has the widest margins of any recorded 2c Missionary and is essentially intact, without any paper restoration or painting in of the design.
This 2c Missionary was brought to Ezra Cole, circa 1935, in an old leather notebook in New York City. His account of the discovery states: "This stamp was found by a lawyer friend of my father's in Brooklyn. It was in a small old red leather notebook. There were several other inexpensive stamps with it and this 2c Missionary was actually in two pieces...I took the notebook and the stamp up to my friend, Percy Doane, in the Tribune Building and inquired as to the genuineness of the stamp for I had never seen one. He told me that it was genuine and valuable and it could be sold even in its present condition. At some time later on, I sold it to Burger Brothers for $4,500. They, in turn, sold it to A. H. Caspary. I never did learn how much Caspary paid for it." In the Caspary sale, the stamp realized $5,250. It was subsequently acquired by Alfred J. Ostheimer III, whose collection helped form the basis of the Advertiser collection.
Ex Caspary, Ostheimer III. Census No. 1-II-CAN-9. Other census references: Meyer-Harris 10, Brewster 1-II-Used-1. With 1995 P.F. certificate. Scott value for a repaired example is $175,000.00
