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Annotated Rainbow Trials sheet achieves $101,000 in Chartwell sale
A sheet of Perkins Bacon annotated stamps from the 1840 Rainbow Trials sold today (July 5)
Paul Fraser Collectibles, Thursday 5 July 2012
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An exceptionally rare annotated sheet from the historic Rainbow Trials has been sold as part of the Chartwell Collection sale in London today (July 5).
The third part of the ground-breaking series of auctions featured line engraved essays, proofs, stamps and covers from early British philately, with examples from the 1840 Rainbow Trials leading bids. Paul Fraser Collectibles is pleased to offer our customers the chance to own a magnificent sheet of six stamps from the fugitive ink trials, also featuring the handwritten notes of Perkins Bacon.
A spectacular fugitive ink sheet featuring annotations by Perkins Bacon
Following the proposal of Sir Rowland Hill to create an adhesive stamp to indicate pre-payment of postage in 1837, the Rainbow Trials were initiated as a series of experiments to test colour, ink and paper types before the final design was issued.
The top lot of today's auction demonstrated the "fugitive ink" stage of the trials, which was named due to the temporary ink used to prevent stamps from being removed from envelopes by soaking. Featuring 20 stamps, the sheet is one of only seven known, with one example currently housed in the Royal Philatelic Collection.
The value of the superb sheet was further enhanced by annotations in the hand of Perkins Bacon, who created and printed the resulting Penny Black. It sold for £65,000 ($101,159).
Highlighting the anticipated Penny Black section of the sale was a spectacular block of six in an intense shade, featuring a brilliant margin inscription. Taken from Plate V of the issue, the important positional block sold for £55,000.
We are also currently offering our own single penny black, which is a fine mint example featuring all four margins. See our full collection of British rarities here.
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