An 1878-1883 large dragon essay was the lead lot of Spink's record breaking sale of the Meiso Mizuhara stamp collection.
The lot made $512,429 in the January 17 auction in Hong Kong - the highest grossing stamp sale ever held in Asia.
 The 1878-1883 large dragon essay displays two designs for the issue |
It displays a pair of se-tenant designs for China's first official stamp: the dragon with night-shining pearl and a six-storied pagoda.
For a long time it was thought the stamps were designed by an American artist. This is in part due to the fact that pagodas have an odd number of storeys - indicating a lack of knowledge of Chinese culture.
It has since been determined the artist was Chinese and the missing storey was likely a mistake.
To the left are six sets of characters for the various values of the issue.
Another essay for the issue, displaying an elephant, sold for $384,322.
Like the pagoda, the design was revised and tested but later abandoned in favour of the dragon.
Spink comments: "The results of this auction add further dignity to an already great philatelic collector and stand as a firm testament of success for a lifetime dedicated to Chinese philately.
"Despite the challenging environment in Chinese financial markets, the auction broke many world records in a one single vendor auction."
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