Front Cover v

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27 Indochina, 1942;
28 Azerbaijan, 1919;
29 St. Vincent, 1888;
30 Newfoundland, 1897;
31 Egypt, 1914;
32 Helgoland, 1876;
33 Panama, 1906;
34 Slovakia, 1944;
35 Bavaria, 1911;
36 Mexico, 1875;

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Pages 86-87 vi

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27- New South Wales, 1850; British Museum.
28- Moldavia, 1858, tete-heche pair ; estate of ex-King Carol of Rumania.
29- Natal, 1902; Champion.

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Pages 86-87 v

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24-Bavaria, 1849, tete-beche pair in block of 12; Atlanticus.
25- British Guiana, 1852, block of four; Stolow, New York.
26- Egypt, 1926, block of four from sheet of 25 (price quoted is for all 25); ex-King Farouk.

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24. Bavaria, 1849, tête-bêche pair in block of 12
Sc1 SG2
The Philatelic Foundation has published a 1991 paper on this issue which notes that there are three known t-b pairs, including two blocks of 12. They refer to these blocks as The Boker Tête-Bêche (invert in pos 1 on the fourth row) and the Ferrari-Lichtenstein Tête-Bêche (invert in pos 1 of the second row). The example in LIFE is the latter and the paper states that it was due to be sold in October 1991. (The third pair "has been in Switzerland in the collection of Johannes Elster for several decades and has not been shown publicly since the 1930's").

Scott (2007) describes the Sc1 as black and Sc1a as deep black with a t-b pair at $125,000.
Gibbons (2011) has SG1 black and Sc2 as grey-black, listing a t-b pair of Sc2 as £90,000, noting that all known examples are in larger blocks.

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25. British Guiana, 1852, block of four
Sc6 SG9
An image of this item is proving elusive, although Christies has the following, "cover 1852 (1 Jan.) 1c. black on magenta block of four tied by "DEMERARA" double-arc d.s. (dated 7 August 1855) on reverse of 1855 (6 Aug.) entire letter from Mahaica to Georgetown, the face panel shows two strikes of "B G/E 5 C" c.d.s.; the block with very light horizontal fold between. One of the major rarities of British Guiana philately. Friedl Certificate (1979)", no image. That lot (sale 5392, lot 2013) sold for $60,620.
Scott (2007) prices the individual stamps as $10k/$5k mint and used.
Gibbons (2004) at £8k/£4.

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26. Egypt, 1926, block of four from sheet of 25
Sc124 SG144
The original stamps were for the 58th birthday of King Fuad, overprinted in December 1926 for the inauguration of Port Fuad, situated opposite Port Said. Individual stamps are priced by Scott at $1400/$875.
There should be a formula for estimating the value of blocks based on the price of a single stamp, but until that is invented, the calculation is simply $1,400 * 25.

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Front Cover iv

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15 Siam, 1929;
16 Isle of Coo, 1930;
17 French Equatorial Africa, 1942;
18 Austria, 1922;
19 Spanish Morocco, 1928;
20 Spanish Guinea, 1909;
21 Horta, Azores, 1896;
22 Salvador, 1895;
23 Ethiopia, 1947;
24 Hawaii, 1894;
25 Marshall Islands, 1915;
26 Ionian Islands, 1859;

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15. Siam, 1929
Sc-C4 SG
Thailand airmail 10s black and orange. $18/$1

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16. Isle of Coo, 1930
Sc15 SG
Italian Offices Abroad, Aegean Islands, Coo (Cos, Kos) Italy Sc244 o/p.  $3/$7

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17. French Equatorial Africa, 1942
Sc-CB2 SG
air post, semi postal 1.50fr + 3.50fr green. $1

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18. Austria, 1922
Sc-B50 SG
semi postal 2½k brown, Haydn. $8/$8

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19. Spanish Morocco, 1928
Sc104 SG
50c brown-violet. $6/30c

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20. Spanish Guinea, 1909
Sc87 SG
5c deep green c/c

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21. Horta, Azores, 1896
Sc26 SG
80r violet. $1/$1

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22. Salvador, 1895
Sc SG
not found.

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23. Ethiopia, 1947
Sc280 SG
65c black, red and deep blue. $2/$2

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24. Hawaii, 1894
Sc78 SG
12c blue, S.S. Arawa. $15/$18

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25. Marshall Islands, 1915
Sc27 SG
5 marks slate and carmine. Scott notes that this stamp was never issued for postal use. $32
There is a similar 1901 stamp that was issued and catalogues at $120/$475.

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26. Ionian Islands, 1859
Sc2 SG
1p blue. $27/$210

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Pages 86-87 iv

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19- Hawaii, 1851, unused, Missionary (so called because it was commonly used by missionaries); Burrus.
20- Uruguay, 1858, tete-beche pair; Atlanticus.
21 - Zurich, 1843; Leeman.
22- Geneva, 1843, strip of three doublestamps; Leeman.
23- Uruguay, 1858, tete-beche pair; Atlanticus.

19. Hawaii, 1851, 2c Missionary

Priced in Scott (2007) as $660,000/$250,000 mint and used.
Narrative and image  from Twinings, "The first Hawaiian stamps are called “Missionaries” because most of them were found on letters from missionaries at Honolulu to relatives and friends in the U.S.A. There are 3 values in the set: rarest is the 2 cents (about 15 known). Because the paper is brittle nearly all the “Missionaries” are damaged".

20. Uruguay, 1858, 180c green tête-bêche pair

23. Uruguay, 1858 120c blue  tête-bêche pair
These issues are discussed in detail in the Williams Encyclopedia, published in print and online by Feldman.

There are  three known t-b pairs of the 120 centavos: one in the Tapling collection at the British library; one in the  Lichtenstein  collection auctioned in  May 1970 by Harmer for $9,000 (£3,750); and one in the Lathrop Pack collection auctioned in 1945.
For the 180c, two t-b pairs are known, again one is in the Tapling collection and one previously owned by Lichtenstein and sold in the Harmer auction for $11,000 (£4,583).

Images: 180c from Williams Rare Stamps, 120c from Feldman.

There are two conclusions from this:
1. LIFE's Atlanticus was Lichtenstein;
2. The pairs would sell for significantly more nearly 50 years on.

21. Zurich, 1843, 4r pair

The catalogue price is $20,000 for a single stamp. None of the catalogues to hand give a price for a pair. Filat AG at the time of writing are offering an example for CHF255,000 which equates to $251,640 and is one of the largest increases noted to date and should, perhaps, be treated with caution.
The piece is described as, "CANTON ZURICH 1846 4rp black, horizontal background. THE MAGNIFICENT MINT PAIR in a wonderful horizontal format with full margins all around and complete original gum. Of the five existing pairs one is in the Postal Museum and this is the finest of the remaining four pairs in private hands. An exhibition showpiece with a celebrated provenance in the greatest of collections: Ex Mirabaud, Ferrari & Burrus".
Image from Filat.

22. Geneva, 1843, 10c strip of three double-stamps

 There are two publications online dealing with this piece, The Postal Gazette and StampNewsOnline. The former notes, "Ex collection Bally, it was sold in Zürich by David Feldman on November 29, 1991 for SF 552.000. ($ 394,290)". The image is from the latter.

The Gazette translates the inscription at the top of the stamp as, “Stamps for franking of letters less than 1 ounce; in the interior of the Canton of Geneva. The tags should be cut and stuck on the address of letters which are to be franked. Two joined tags are necessary to frank one letter from one commune to another commune of the Canton. One single tag franks for the interior of the same commune. Lith. Schmid”.

Pages 86-87 iii

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11 Canada, 1868, on laid paper (on wove paper same stamp worth only $2) ; K. Bileski, Winnipeg, Canada.
12 New Zealand, 1855; Maurice Burrus, Strasbourg, France.
13 Newfoundland, 1919; Arcticus.
14 Mauritius, 1848, with "pence" misspelled "penoe," earliest impression; Burrus.
15 Baden, 1851, color error, should be rose instead of blue-green; Champion.
16 Transvaal, 1869, dark-green tete-beche pair; British Museum.
17 Great Britain, 1902; Robert J. Gill, Baltimore.
18 France, 1849, vermilion block, with tete-beche pair; Champion.

Pages 86-87 ii

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1 - Mauritius (British island east of Madagascar), 1848, earliest impression; Pacificus.
2 - Sweden, 1855, rarest stamp of Europe, error, should be bluegreen instead of yellow; Dr. Hans Lundberg, Toronto, Canada.
3 - Honduras, 1925, world's rarest airmail; Oscar Lichtenstein, Rumson, N.J.
4 - Great Britain, 1864, plate 77; British Museum.
5 - Mauritius, 1847; Queen Elizabeth.
6 - St. Louis, Mo., 1845, greenish paper, Postmaster Provisional (a stamp issued by a local U.S. postmaster before government -issued stamps); Raymond H. Weill Co., New Orleans.
7 - Switzerland, 1850, with complete frame around central cross not on later printings; Dr . Hans Leeman, Geneva.
8 - Moldavia, 1858; Philip Ward Jr., Philadelphia.
9 - Western Australia, 1854, Inverted Swan; Ward.
10 - Naples, 1860; Theodore Champion, Paris.

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Mauritius block of four

Scott values single examples of the 1848 1 penny orange, earliest impression, as $42,500 / $15,750 for mint / used. This block of four was sold by Siegel Auction Galleries in 1996 for $250,000. The online catalogue description is as follows,

MAURITIUS, 1848, 1p Orange Vermilion on Yellowish Paper, Earliest Impression (3; SG 3). Positions 7-8/10-11, unused block of four from lower left corner of the sheet, beautiful prooflike impression from the earliest state of the plate, richly inked and vivid fresh color, large to huge margins including part of sheet margins at left and bottom, horizontal crease between the stamps and vertical crease thru two righthand stamps, not affecting appearance, few faint toned spots on back
THE FAMOUS AND UNIQUE UNUSED BLOCK OF THE ONE-PENNY "POST PAID" EARLIEST IMPRESSION. THE MOST IMPORTANT UNUSED MULTIPLE OF MAURITIUS AND ONE OF THE OUTSTANDING IMPERFORATE BLOCKS OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE.

This remarkable survivor from the early period of the Mauritius post office can be traced as far back as Henry J. Duveen's ownership. It is not known from whom Duveen acquired the block, although he did purchase a significant portion of Sir William B. Avery's Mauritius collection. When the Duveen collection was dispersed through private sales by Charles J. Phillips in 1922-1926, the block figured prominently among the items purchased by Arthur Hind. After Hind's death, his Mauritius was offered as the fourth part of the British Empire series conducted by H. R. Harmer of London (June 12, 1934), and the "Post Paid" block sold for the U.S. dollar equivalent of $23,688, a staggering price that eclipsed the combined figure paid for the 1p and 2p "Post Office" stamps and came close to matching the amount realized by the 1p and 2p "Post Office" combination cover. The buyer was Alfred H. Caspary, presumably in competition with Maurice Burrus and Alfred F. Lichtenstein. Although Caspary's Mauritius collection paled in comparison to the holdings of his contemporaries, Burrus and Lichtenstein - he lacked even a single example of the "Post Office" stamps - the two titans of British Empire philately must have coveted their friend's "Post Paid" block. In 1958, after Caspary's death, his Mauritius was sold by H. R. Harmer, and the "Post Paid" block was featured in color in the sale catalogue, the only item in all of the Caspary sales to receive such chromatic distinction. It realized $18,500 and soon became part of the Josiah K. Lilly collection. When our firm sold the Lilly collection after his death, the "Post Paid" block realized $64,000 (March 16, 1967).

Thanks to Siegel Auction Galleries for the image and quote.
[accessed 19th October 2016]

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Sweden 1885 colour error

This stamp, valued by LIFE at $40,000 in 1954, sold for $2,300,000 in 2010 and changed hands again in 2013 for an undisclosed amount. Scott [2007] sets the value at $3M.The story is told by Wikipedia,

In 1855, Sweden issued its first postage stamps, in a set of five values depicting the Swedish coat of arms, with denominations ranging from three to 24 Swedish skillings. The three-skilling stamp was normally printed in a blue-green color, with the eight-skilling stamp being printed in yellowish orange. It is not known exactly what went wrong, but the most likely explanation is that a stereotype of the eight-skilling printing plate (which consisted of 100 stereotypes assembled into a 10 × 10 array) was damaged or broken, and it was mistakenly replaced with a three-skilling. The number of stamps printed in the wrong color is unknown, but so far only one example has been found.
Somehow, this error went entirely unnoticed at the time, and by 1873 the Swedish currency was changed. The skilling stamps were replaced by new stamps denominated in "öre". In 1886, a young collector named Georg Wilhelm Backman was going through covers in his grandmother's attic at the farm Väster Munga Gård north of Västerås, and came across one with a three-skilling stamp, for which the Stockholm stamp dealer Heinrich Lichtenstein was offering seven kronor apiece. After it had changed hands several times, Sigmund Friedl sold it to Philipp von Ferrary in 1894, who had at that time the largest known stamp collection in the world, and paid the breathtaking sum of 4,000 Austro-Hungarian gulden. As time passed, and no other "yellows" surfaced despite vigorous searching, it became clear that the stamp was not only rare, but quite possibly the only surviving example.
When Ferrary's collection was auctioned in the 1920s, Swedish Baron Eric Leijonhufvud bought the yellow stamp, and then Claes A. Tamm bought it in 1926 for £1,500 (pound sterling) in order to complete his collection of Swedish stamps. In 1928, the stamp was sold to the lawyer Johan Ramberg for £2,000, and he kept it for nine years. In 1937, King Carol II of Romania purchased it from London auction house H. R. Harmer for £5,000, and in 1950 it went to Rene Berlingen for an unknown amount of money. In the 1970s, the Swedish Postal Museum caused controversy by declaring the stamp to be a forgery, but after examinations by two different commissions, it was agreed that this was a genuine stamp.
In 1984, the yellow stamp made headlines when it was sold by David Feldman for 977,500 Swiss francs. It was resold in 1990 for over $1,000,000. Then, in 1996 it sold again for 2,880,000 Swiss francs. Each successive sale was a world record price for a postage stamp.
On 22 May 2010, the yellow stamp was auctioned once again by David Feldman in Geneva, Switzerland. It sold "for at least the $2.3 million price [that] it set a record for in 1996". The buyer reportedly was an "international consortium" and the seller was a financial firm auctioning the stamp to pay the former owner's debt. The exact price and the identity of the buyer were not disclosed, however, and all bidders reportedly were sworn to secrecy. The buyer has subsequently been identified as Armand Rousso, "a colorful philatelic player ... known ... for a number of high-profile activities."
In May 2013 the stamp was acquired in a private sale by Count Gustaf Douglas, a Swedish nobleman and politician.

[accessed 19th October 2016]

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Compared to the first two, unique items, the remainder of the stamps in this section are (relatively)  merely rare and expensive.

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3. Honduras 1925 25c on 10c dark blue airmail
Sc-C12 SG236c See Linns for this stamp's hisory.

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4. GB 1d red 1864
Sc33 SG43 Penny Red Plate 77, Scott [2007] $150,000 / $130,000. Story here.

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5. Mauritius 1847
Sc2 SG2 the 2d Post Office, see Page 85.

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6. St. Louis Provisional 1845
Sc11X3 SG77 The 20c stamp is valued at $85,000, the 5c and 10c at $6,500. Scott [2007].

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7. Switzerland 1850
Sc6 SG9 The expensive versions of this stamp have a "full black frame around the cross".

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8. Moldovia 1858
Sc4 SG3

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9. Western Australia 1854 invert
Sc3 SG3h Inverted swan

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10. Naples 1860
Sc8 SG8 The expensive stamp is deep blue, the plate altered from Sc1 to change the denomination from ½ G(rana) to ½ T(ornesi). A later plate change was made to replace the coat of arms with the cross of Savoy.

Pages 86-87 i

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PICK OF THE GREATEST COLLECTIONS 

Here, in one spectacular display, are 53 of the rarest gems picked from the world's great stamp collections. LIFE's estimate of values is given, but because stamp economics is highly volatile the actual selling price might be higher or lower. Below, with the identification, are the names of owners or custodians (three owners who prefer anonymity are listed as " Atlanticus," "Pacificus" and " Arcticus"):

1 - Mauritius (British island east of Madagascar), 1848, earliest impression; Pacificus.
2 - Sweden, 1855, rarest stamp of Europe, error, should be bluegreen instead of yellow; Dr. Hans Lundberg, Toronto, Canada.
3 - Honduras, 1925, world's rarest airmail; Oscar Lichtenstein, Rumson, N.J.
4 - Great Britain, 1864, plate 77; British Museum.
5 - Mauritius, 1847; Queen Elizabeth.
6 - St. Louis, Mo., 1845, greenish paper, Postmaster Provisional (a stamp issued by a local U.S. postmaster before government -issued stamps); Raymond H. Weill Co., New Orleans.
7 - Switzerland, 1850, with complete frame around central cross not on later printings; Dr . Hans Leeman, Geneva.
8 - Moldavia, 1858; Philip Ward Jr., Philadelphia.
9 - Western Australia, 1854, Inverted Swan; Ward.
10 - Naples, 1860; Theodore Champion, Paris.
11 - Canada, 1868, on laid paper (on wove paper same stamp worth only $2) ; K. Bileski, Winnipeg, Canada.
12 - New Zealand, 1855; Maurice Burrus, Strasbourg, France.
13 - Newfoundland, 1919; Arcticus.
14 - Mauritius, 1848, with "pence" misspelled "penoe," earliest impression; Burrus.
15- Baden, 1851, color error, should be rose instead of blue-green; Champion.
16- Transvaal, 1869, dark-green tete-heche pair; Br itish Museum.
17- Great Britain, 1902; Robert J. Gill, Baltimore.
18- France, 1849, vermilion block, with tete-heche pair; Champion.
19- Hawaii, 1851, unused, Missionary (so called because it was commonly used by missionaries); Burrus.
20- Uruguay, 1858, tete-heche pair; Atlanticus.
21 - Zurich, 1843; Leeman.
22- Geneva, 1843, strip of three doublestamps; Leeman.
23- Uruguay, 1858, tete-heche pair; Atlanticus.
24-Bavaria, 1849, tete-heche pair in block of 12; Atlanticus.
25- British Guiana, 1852, block of four; Stolow, New York.
26- Egypt, 1926, block of four from sheet of 25 (price quotEll: l is for all 25); ex-King Farouk.
27- New South Wales, 1850; British Museum.
28- Moldavia, 1858, tete-heche pair ; estate of ex-King Carol of Rumania.
29- Natal, 1902; Champion.
30-Uniontown, Ala., 1861, two cents, Confederate Postmaster Provisional ; H.R. Harmer Inc., New York.
31 - Austria, 1856, 6-kreuzer, newspaper stamp; Champion.
32- Cape of Good Hope, 1861, four-pence blue, with one-penny error; Atlanticus.
33-Reunion, 1852; Champion.
34-Portuguese Guinea, 1881, overprinted Cape Verde stamps with one, through Portuguese post-office error, printed "Mozambique"; Champion.
35- Moldavia, 1858, unused; Champion.
36- Honduras, 1925, red air-mail overprint; Lichtenstein.
37- Basel, 1845, first stamp printed in multicolor; Leeman.
38- France, 1869, five francs, value omitted by error; Champion.
39-British Columbia, 1865; Atlanticus.
40- Saxony, 1851, error, should be gray instead of blue; Champion.
41 - Canada, 1851; Atlanticus.
42- British Guiana, 1856, printed on sugar wrapping paper; J. & H. Stolow.
43- Brazil, 1843, 30 reis pair together with 60 reis; estate of Y. Souren, New York.
44-Newfoundland, 1927, De Pinedo ; Mrs. Caroline Cromwell, New York.
45-:-Mauritius, 1847, unused; Champion.
46- Gold Coast, 1883, one penny on four pence; British Museum.
47-Spain, 1851, error, should be red instead of blue; British Museum.
48- Millbury, Mass., 1846, Postmaster Provisional; Weill Co.
49-Tuscany, 1860; Champion. 50-France,
1850, tete-heche pair; Champion.
51-Newfoundland, 1860, orange-vermilion; British Museum.
52-British Guiana, 1856, four cents, magenta, unused; Stolow.
53-Ceylon, 1859; British Museum.

Front cover iii

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8. Victoria, Australia, 1901;
9. South Australia, 1883;
10. Norway, 1925;
11. Liechtenstein, 1927;
12. Belgium, 1941;
13. Queensland, Australia, 1903;
14. Libia, 1930;

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8. Victoria, Australia, 1901
Sc203 SG392 6d emerald $18 / $2

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9. South Australia, 1883
Sc76a SG 1889 red-brown in Scott $1 / $2

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10. Norway, 1925
Sc106 SG $8 / $16

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11. Liechtenstein, 1927
Sc-B3 SG $6 / $5

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12. Belgium, 1941
Sc-B291 SG 40c / 40c

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13. Queensland, Australia, 1903
Sc125a SG There are two versions, the difference being the size of the "Queensland" inscription, either 18mm or 17½mm. Both are priced at $30 / $7.

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14. Libia, 1930
Sc-B25 SG78 $2 / $11