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”.