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From Canberra Stampshow 2012.

Have been asked to post the following:

Phoenix Auctions is very pleased to announce that they have been appointed auctioneers for the Stuart Hardy Collection. It is planned to offer the collection over four named auctions between November 2012 and Novermber 2013.

More details to follow.

David Wood.

This will indeed be one of, if not the greatest offering from a single collection of Australian Commonwealth stamps for many years and is quite a coup for Phoenix, but I feel a good choice of auction house, where the collection will be well presented and honestly dealt with.

The collection includes such gems as the only surviving imperforate 1928 Kookaburra miniature sheet in private hands, surely worth well in excess of $100,000.00, many varieties and some hundreds of £1 and £2 Kangaroo issues.

Congratulations David and the Phoenix crew.

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Stamp Auctions On-line www.philatelics.com.au

Very generous commentary Steve, and yes there will be some choice new material hitting the market.

The Imperf Kooka sheet is cat $A200,000 in the old ACSC and I suspect this one will get that kind of figure. There is somenoe in Sydney who will be hard to outbid.

Ken Baker paid £105 for it (Lot 518) .. and probably sold Stewart this example coming up for sale!

Glen

http://www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=34641

David was pretty chuffed at the Canberra Show when he let Jim and I know that he'd just been chosen to sell this great collection. I think there will be some records broken in that auction

And the first place the news broke was of course:

STAMPBOARDS

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Tony

Phoenix have kindly sent me a good scan of the sheet they are offering which is NOT the sheet Ken Baker bought above for £105.

Hardy example is sheet 5 of the sheet of 15 - i.e. the top RH corner one.

Here is where it originated.

The sheet Baker bought from the Kilfoyle Auction is shown here from the sale Catalogue - position number 15 in the original sheet of 15.

oh for the prices of the 'good old Days'

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Visit my Website - http://WWW.DJMSTAMPS.COM for Australia & World Stamps, Collections and Accessories

The ‘Stuart Hardy Commonwealth of Australia Collection’

Phoenix Auctions is very pleased to announce that we have been appointed the auctioneers for the legendary ‘Stuart Hardy Commonwealth of Australia Collection’. The collection will be offered over four special auctions commencing in late 2012.

Many iconic gems exist in this collection, most of which have not been on the market for several decades.

The exceptionally fine quality of virtually every stamp in the collection makes this of interest to the most fastidious of collectors and also has a significant WOW factor!

Stuart always felt that his collection should be offered in such a way as to ensure that even modest collectors would be able to acquire items from his collection and the lotting in our catalogues will honour this.

Over the next few months we will give Stampboards’ members an exclusive preview of interesting items from the collection, starting with two of the most talked about items.





The Imperforate Kookaburra Miniature Sheet which was originally owned by King George V and was then sold by the Ameer of Bahawalpur in 1968, when it sold for £210!

This is now catalogued at $200,000.




The most well known of the Kangaroos is, of course, a Block of 24 of the £2 Small Multi wmk Kangaroo which was originally a pane of 60 owned by T.E. Field and then bought by Ken Baker who onsold the bottom 36 to Stuart for £1,080. A block of 12 was subsequently removed leaving this unique block of 24.

For your enjoyment, more images from The ‘Stuart Hardy Commonwealth of Australia Collection’ will follow on a regular basis.

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Phoenix Auctions
http://www.PhoenixAuctions.com.au

A block of 24 is just mindblowing.

I wonder how much of the rest of the pane is still extant/traceable?

Andrew

The Roo block centering is too variable for my liking.

I'll wait for a better centred one to come along.

Yeah, agreed, and that punched hole in the selvedge...rubbish...

Added for convenience--hang it in a mobile above a baby's crib, to entice them into collecting.

Why did GeoV part with the imperf M/S? Did he decide "We don't need this, its surplus to our needs"?

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Collecting Mongolia; Thailand; Indo-China; Mourning Covers; OHMS.
My online 'store': http://stampsfromaethelwulf.blogspot.com/

The generally accepted story is that the imperforate complete sheet of miniature sheets (i.e. 15 minisheets) presented to King George V in 1928 was too large to repose in the Royal album, which was remedied by excising the right hand vertical row (i.e. 3 minisheets), which subsequently were sold off, exchanged or presented to other dignatories (e.g. the Ameer of Bahawalpur ended up owning the minisheet above).

Rod

At the Canberra Stamp Show a very excited David Wood came up to us at the Stampboards table and announced that Phoenix had just been selected to auction the fabulous Stuart Hardy collection.

He asked that we put it on Stampboards which we immediately did.

Certainly a coup for Phoenix and one for Stampboards as we were the first to announce it globally

For the KGV Collectors out there ....



4d Violet ‘Line Through FOUR PENCE’ (BW #111(2)h)



4d Blue Cooke Harrison Imprint Block of 4 (BW #112(2)z)



1d Engraved Imperforate Horizontally, Block of 4 with Retouches (BW #59b,n,o)

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Phoenix Auctions
http://www.PhoenixAuctions.com.au

Phoenix Auctions
Many thanks for letting us see such items.
The 4d Violet appears to be 12th Feb 1922, NSW but if anyone can pick up the town it will help the research a great deal.
The most northern cancel I have seen, I think from memory is Macksville on the mid north coast of NSW.

Search4d

search4d,

The cancel looks like it ends in "BRI' which would probably be Narrabri?


Scott

Boggabri? I think I can see a 'G'.

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mobbor

Some years ago Stuart Hardy wished to sell some of the units from the original block of 36, that were a little more off centre than the balance of the block, and asked me to remove the 12 stamps, to reduce the block to 24, something he asked me to keep confidential at the time.

I have to say separating those 12 stamps on Stuart's kitchen table was probably the thing that has made me most nervous, during my time as a dealer. But looking at the scans, it looks like I did a pretty good job in not making any short perfs.

We handled some units from the separated block of 12 and from memory Rod Perry sold a block of 4 in his auction.

Steve

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Stamp Auctions On-line www.philatelics.com.au

Thanks to Rod Perry, who delved deep into his archives, we have scans of the Robson Lowe Ltd catalogue from 1961 where the original block of 60 was purchased for £1200. (Lot 4)



A Reconstruction of infomation from the Robson Lowe Catalogue and the Prices Realised.

_________________
Phoenix Auctions
http://www.PhoenixAuctions.com.au

And speaking of Kangaroos.......

We preview these, without comment,

_________________
Phoenix Auctions
http://www.PhoenixAuctions.com.au

Ken, seeing you are having a Multi Million dollar sale, can you PLEEEEZE go spend $200 on a Canon Lide 700F .. . all the scan colours on this thread, and on the website, look like someone in Bangladesh is sub contracting to you!

Is there a firm date set for the November sale?

Hi Glen, according to their latest online catalogue the first auction will be held at the RACV Club in Melbourne on Friday 2nd November and will cover the George V heads and other commemorative issues of the King George V period.
Appropriately, the second auction will be of the Kangaroos on Friday 10th May, 2013 at Australia 2013 and held at the Exhibition Buildings, Melbourne.

I noticed that the online catalogue for the first Stuart Hardy auction has gone up on the Phoenix Auction's website today.

One word...WOW!!!

I understand the Phoenix staff flew out today to London, carrying most if not all of the collection for viewing at the big STAMPEX show there this weekend.

In case any of our British members reading this, care to drool over some of the material.

I am counting on winning Tatts between now and the sale!

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Peter
Hawthorn - AFL Premiers 1961, 1971, 1976, 1978, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 2008.

Yes, send your wishlists to Glen, he's probably the only one of us who could afford any of the collection.

D.

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Visit my Website - http://WWW.DJMSTAMPS.COM for Australia & World Stamps, Collections and Accessories

Welcome to Phoenix Auctions No.16

It gives us great pleasure to present to you, the first tranche of the impressive Stuart Hardy Commonwealth of Australia Collection.

This, the first Auction, covers the Georgian Heads and Selected KGV Commemorative Issues.

Subsequent auctions featuring the ‘Kangaroo and Map’ issues will held at Australia 2013, followed later in 2013 with KGVI and QEII period issues.

We have enlisted the help of Stuart’s Family and respected KGV specialist, Mr Michael Drury to provide a brief overview of Stuart Hardy, his life and of his passion for collecting.

We hope you will find this to be a very valuable insight and a fitting tribute to one of the countries finest collectors, and trust you will enjoy the journey.

This Auction will be held at the RACV Club, 501 Bourke Street Melbourne, Australia on Friday 2nd November 2012 in their 2nd Floor Function Rooms, commencing at 1:00pm.

Lots may be collected from our new offices at Level 2, 170 Queen Street at the conclusion of the auction.

Melbourne will be in the midst of it’s Spring Racing Carnival, the Melbourne Cup is on Tuesday 6th November. So, if you’re planning on making the trip, booking accommodation now would be advisable.

Viewing for this Auction.

In ADELAIDE at the SAPC Philatelic Congress 2012, 6th and 7th October.

In SYDNEY at Philas House on 15th and 16th October.

In MELBOURNE in our offices at Level 2, 170 Queen Street Melbourne.

Saturday 27th October 10am to 5pm
Sunday 28th October 10am to 5pm
Monday 29th October 10am to 5pm
Tuesday 30th October 10am to 5pm
Wednesday 31st October 10am to 5pm
Thursday 1st November 10am to 5pm
Friday 2nd November 10am to 12:30pm

Viewing outside of these times is available by appointment only.

_________________
Phoenix Auctions
http://www.PhoenixAuctions.com.au

Well re the Kooka sheet, I felt sure 300K was the minimum mark and said so in my new column!

http://www.glenstephens.com/snnovember12.html

Click the Phoenix link at base of page, to get the full Auction lot run down and prices realised.

100% clearance rate I can confirm - near unheard of.

Total invoices were $A1.17million, on pre-sale estimates of $A786,000.

The Imperforate kookaburra stamp miniature sheet was invoiced for $A326,200. A world record price for any Australasian stamp item.

I hear Juzwin was under-bidder. but have not yet found out who the buyer was ..... but I suspected all along it had to be Arthur Gray.

Arthur had no choice really but to pay whatever it took, to keep his KGV Reign collection the Number #1 globally.





“Hardy” Sale November 2

There will be some empty - or at least denuded pockets, by mid-November, as another big sale takes place here just before Spink.

Phoenix Auctions in Melbourne will offer the first section of the also multi-million dollar Stuart Hardy “Australia”, a week or so earlier - on November 2.

The Imperforate 1928 Kookaburra miniature sheet shown nearby is estimated in sale catalogue to sell for around $200,000.

At the time of writing this column, there was absentee bidding already on this Miniature Sheet.

My guess is around $A300,000 will be the likely invoice price of this sheet, very easily creating a new Australian price record for a single item.

It is the only copy known in private hands, and several collectors “must” own it in order to have the “best” KGV era collection - so sparks will probably fly.

This is the only one buyable, and has not been on the market for 44 years since Hardy purchased it in 1968, from the Ameer of Bahawalpur’s Collection in London.

Hardy paid only £210 at that SG auction. Can an accountant work out what annual % increase one gets starting with £210 ($A420) and ending up with ~$A300,000?

Who said there was “no money in stamps”?

It is widely recorded that KGV was given the imperforate sheet of 15 M/S of 4 when he opened the 1928 Exhibition - that he was Patron of.

KGV quietly sells sheets

The large sheet was too long for the King’s album page, and Sir John Wilson tore off (not cut!) the three right hand mini-sheets.

These 3 imperf M/S were quietly sold in 1953 to finance other pieces for the Royal Collection.

They were not known to exist singly, until the first one appeared in a London Auction in 1953.

My advice is these imperfs were more a proof printing, and have different paper and gum than the issued sheets.

Phoenix Directors flew the entire Hardy KGV sale to “Stampex” in London in October for viewing.

They also air-freighted cartons of the glossy sale catalogues to hand out there.

The same arrangements were made for viewing in Sydney and Adelaide in October.

Nirvana for the vendor, as the material gets very extremely wide exposure to potential buyers.

I was in attendance at the Auction, but unfortunately my bid was $279,999 below the sale price,

But some wonderful material is about to hit the market, as with the prices realised, some dealers will be wanting to recoup their outlays.

But, other material went into private collections, and may stay there for some time.

I did not recognise some of the faces in the crowd.

The Geo V fanatics had their hands up in the air, as they may not get another opportunity to purchase such items.

Just cut the illustration from the catalogue and paste that in your album, its the poor man's version.

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Collecting Mongolia; Thailand; Indo-China; Mourning Covers; OHMS.
My online 'store': http://stampsfromaethelwulf.blogspot.com/

NO, I will just wait for the next one to come along
But most items were sold to room bidders, and should remain in the country

Great results for Phoenix, a smart move indeed to take them to London and Sydney for viewing

100% clearance rate is the result of those efforts and of course the fact that it was a great collection of material in the first place.

Spoke to the Phoenix Directors a couple of times today, and they are delighted with the remarkable 100% clearance rate, and the high prices.

I suggested they do a thick postcard size classy souvenir to add to all mailed copies of next 'Stamp News', and keep a 1000 or so on hand to hand out at shows etc.

The Kooka sheet on one side, full size in colour, which collectors will keep for sure.

I also spoke to Kevin Morgan and it seems 99% certain it will be on the front cover on the magazine next published. A milestone Auction sale for sure.

GREAT for stamps.

$22,135 for this 5d shade is quite astounding.





PHOENIX AUCTIONS – PRESS RELEASE

World Record price achieved in Melbourne stamp Auction.

Phoenix Auctions in Melbourne is very pleased to announce the first Stuart Hardy auction grossed over $1,170,000 on pre-auction estimates of $786,000. This featured the KGV portion of Stuart Hardy’s iconic collection of Australian Commonwealth stamps.

The balance of this collection will be offered over two auctions in 2013. While this was a specialised sale it still attracted over 130 bidders, 40 of whom actually attended the auction. Ten of the room bidders were from interstate and flew in just to attend this auction.

The signature item in this auction was the 1928 imperforate Kookaburra miniature sheet. This had originally been bought by Stuart from Stanley Gibbons in London when they offered it out of the Ameer of Bahawalpur collection in 1968. Stuart paid £210!

This is the only example in private hands. The lot opened into the room at $210,000 with 7 bidders on the books.

An Australian phone bidder ended up paying $326,200 for it. This result was met by a well-deserved round of applause from the auction room floor. This is a World Record Price for any single Australian item.

The room was packed for the entire 6 hours of the auction and there was frenzied bidding on most lots, with several prominent dealers commenting on how difficult it was to buy anything.

By the end of the auction only 19 lots remained unsold and, with the family’s enthusiastic blessing, these were offered back into the room at a reduced reserve. This resulted in a very rare 100% clearance of all 572 lots.

All sections of the auction were strongly contested with the balance of collection lots being extremely sought after, most achieving over double estimate. Lot 223 realised $12,232 against an estimate of $400!!

Other highlights were:

Lot 54 - 1d red shades collection was the most popular lot. It was estimated at $2,000 and realised $11,067.
Lot 281 – 4d violet with Line through FOUR PENCE was estimated at $5,000 and realised $11,067.
Lot 307 – 4d blue imprint block of 4 was estimated at $5,000 and realised $15,727.
Lot 324 – 5d brown printed on gum block of 4 with inverted watermark. Estimated at $10,000 and realised $25,630.
Lot 332 – 5d deep dark brown was estimated at $5,000 and realised $22,135
Lot 516 - ½d orange pair overprinted OS with inverted overprint on one unit. Estimated at $10,000 and realised $27,960
Lot 550 – 1½d Canberra horizontal pair imperforate between. Estimate $8,000 realised $17,475.

As an additional gesture of thanks Phoenix provided the room bidders with a hard-cover copy of the catalogue as a memento of the auction.

David Wood, a director of Phoenix, commented after the sale “It was an amazing auction. The enthusiasm of the collectors was quite extraordinary and this illustrates, once again that, with the right material and presentation, great results can be achieved in what has been at times a subdued market.”

Ken Pearson, the other principal director of Phoenix said “Now everyone is even more excited about the second Stuart Hardy auction which features his Kangaroo and Map stamps. This is being held on 10th May 2013, during the 2013 world stamp exhibition in Melbourne’s World Heritage Exhibition Buildings.

This highly anticipated auction has estimates totalling over $1.25 million. The theme of the exhibition is the centenary of Australia’s famous Kangaroo and Map stamps and this is the perfect place and time to offer the many rarities in Stuart’s Roo collection”.

Mark Knothe, Phoenix’s auctioneer said “This was the most ferocious bidding I have seen in over 40 years of attending and calling auctions.”

Richard Juzwin, prominent Australian dealer and under-bidder for the imperf Kooka minisheet was the second largest buyer in the auction. After the auction he said “It was a very solid sale with competition on every lot.

One of the most vibrant rooms I have attended in many years. Specialised auctions like this demonstrate the depth strength of the Australian philatelic market.”

Stuart’s family said “We enjoyed watching the auction over the internet and were thrilled with the result. We are delighted with the service provided by Phoenix Auctions. This auction shows there is great interest in philately and the Hardy family look forward to Phoenix’s further offerings from our father’s collection”.

The market for quality Australian material would appear to be alive and well. Good for those of us that collect it.

For what we already have, anyway.

It will make getting better items even harder!

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Peter
Hawthorn - AFL Premiers 1961, 1971, 1976, 1978, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 2008.

Just watch the Roo's start jumping when Stuart Hardy's Roo collection goes to auction at the Melbourne 2013 FIP Stamp Show

The market will be red hot for them after that and it begs the question of the ACSC Kangaroo's and the Early Federal Period being updated with current pricing.................please Paul

Is there a reason you can't download the catalogues anymore on the Phoenix website?

I need to sign up for them as well.

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Greg - Looking for Goulburn Australia Cancels and Grangemouth Scotland Cancels and Covers
Member of the S.T.A.M.P Club for Slightly Twisted And Mad Philatelists - Motto: "Bring back the lick!"

Greg, clicking the link at base of page does not take you to Phoenix sale cats?

Worked for me 2 mins ago!

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.
Click HERE to see superb, RARE and unusual stamps, at FIXED low nett prices, high rez photos, and NO buyer fees etc!

It takes me to the website but when you click on to download the catalogues as a PDF you get the url error screen.

The online cat seems to work. But I would like to download the whole thing.

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Greg - Looking for Goulburn Australia Cancels and Grangemouth Scotland Cancels and Covers
Member of the S.T.A.M.P Club for Slightly Twisted And Mad Philatelists - Motto: "Bring back the lick!"

OK got it .. never tried doing that.

The on-line one works for me.

Thanks Stampboarders for your continued support and for the many phone calls and emails we have received since Friday.

In March, when we finalised discussions with the Hardy family to auction Stuart's collection, we all knew it was something special. Friday showed just how special it was!

Last night we had dinner with one of Stuart’s daughters and family who came over for the auction. They spent a lot of time in the auction room and were amazed at the enthusiastic and frenzied activity on many of the lots and the excitement it generated. She was also very pleased to hear many personal anecdotes about her father from those in attendance.

The whole family are planning to be in Melbourne at Australia 2013 for the Hardy Kangaroo Auction on May 10th 2013.

Now it’s back down to Earth and having a day off, in the garden, enjoying Melbourne’s beautiful sunshine.

However, before I do there are a couple of queries...


We have our online catalogue hosted at http://www.issuu.com and link to that from our website. Issuu have changed the way to download since we last checked. While we sort this out, you can download the catalogue at Issuu by pressing the ‘print’ icon and then downloading from there. You must sign-up to Issuu to use these functions.


We must have missed that bid, however we didn't miss how he enjoyed the cookies!

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Phoenix Auctions
http://www.PhoenixAuctions.com.au

I thought that Mark blinked at that moment.

It was a wise move to have an experienced food taster present

However, there were also times when elbows were required to get near the table.

After all, you do not attend...just to be present at a piece of history in the making, to observe the dealer tactics, squabbling, congratulating each other on their purchases ( reminding me of Boxers touching glove at the start of a bout ) and to savour the moment.

Terrific to read the family are actively involved in the sale process. Stuart would have been proud!

I hope you wiped the table FIRST!

Glen

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.
Click HERE to see superb, RARE and unusual stamps, at FIXED low nett prices, high rez photos, and NO buyer fees etc!

Phoenix kindly sent me new scans that are the same colour as the stamp! (They are unconvinced the colour in their scan above was off base!)

Here is their description of the block, and estimate $100,000.

Phoenix advises they will have the entire Hardy "Kangaroo" sale on view at Stampex London next month, and many of our members attend that so do pop in and see these kind of pieces in the flesh!

558 ** £2 Grey & Rose-Crimson, the fabulous bottom left corner block of 24 varieties Broken value circle at right and White flaw on kangaroo’s leg, ACSC #57A(D)h, (V)h. Incredibly fresh MUH. Cat as normal MUH stamps $180,000. Ex C.F Bulley who sold his pane of 60 in 1961 through Robson Lowe where it was purchased by the legendary Ken Baker.

Ken’s intentions were to sell five block of twelve. Stuart however persuaded Ken to sell him a block of 36 intact. Subsequently over the years Stuart sold three blocks of 4, allowing collectors the opportunity to own a rare multiple of the £2. The remaining two blocks of 12 were sold to Abramovich and to an unknown English collector. It is believed that these have since been broken up. $100,000

17 days, 12 hours, 05 minutes until the auction. (9:00 AM on 09/05/13)

Link to the auction: http://www.phoenixauctions.com.au/cgi-b ... auction=20

I have had a look at the catalogue and I suspect that many items will exceed the estimate. Anyone bidding at around the estimate will come away empty handedon most lots IMHO.

I am interested in three stamps and I suspect I will have to reduce that to two due to budget.

The estimate on this used £2 Small Multi Kangaroo is $300. I suspect most people would buy them all day long at that price (plus add ons).

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We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.

It gives us great pleasure to present to you the second tranche of the impressive Stuart Hardy Commonwealth of Australia Collection.

This Auction covers the Kangaroo and Map Issues and is anticipated to be the largest sale of Australian stamps held in Australia.

Stuart was very fond of large blocks and these are a prominent feature of his collection, most well known is of course a Block of 24 of the Small Mult wmk £2 Kangaroo, this was originally a pane of 60 bought by Ken Baker who onsold the bottom 36 to Stuart for £1,080.

Along with his large blocks are many monogram and imprint blocks with such gems as the unique 1d Roo wmk sideways No Monogram block of 6, the exceptionally rare Small Mult wmk £2 Imprint block of 4 (only 2 are known to be in private hands), and what is believed to be the only 1st wmk 2/- ‘JBC’ strip of 3. Used monograms and imprints are generally very rare and many feature in this collection with the used 3rd wmk 2/- perf ‘OS’ ‘JBC’ monogram block of 12 being a stand-out item.

Stuart considered his unique mint 3rd wmk £1 chestnut & blue perf ‘OS’ sideways wmk to be the best item in his collection. There is also a rather nice 3rd wmk £1 chestnut & blue inverted wmk block of 4 and a couple of proofs in his collection however the £2 plate proof in purple (2 exist in private hands) has pride of place in his Roos collection. There are many ‘Specimens’ throughout and the 10/-, £1 & £2 ‘JBC’ monogram singles with ‘Specimen’ handstamps are quite special.

Kangaroos were his major love and Stuart did a massive amount of work in plating the bi-colour Roos, as consequence there are large numbers of these in his collection.

This Auction will be held at the RACV Club, 501 Bourke Street Melbourne, Australia on Thursday 9th May in their 2nd Floor Function Rooms, commencing at 9:00am. Lots may be collected from the Phoenix Auctions offices at Level 2, 170 Queen Street at the conclusion of the auction.

Thursday 9th May is the day before the World Philatelic Exhibition opens at the Exhibition Buildings. We hope that all those attending the auction will be able to visit this magnificent Exhibition.

Catalogues for Auction No.20 have been mailed out, if you haven't previously received one, a request can be made via our website.

Once again we have put 'eCats' on our website to make viewing the online catalogue much easier for you. From the eCats you can print individual pages and also perform word searches. ( Please note you cannot place bids via the eCats, they are for viewing purposes only! )

Bidding has commenced, and with live online bidding, placing your bids online is the best way to go! If you happen to experience any difficulties don't hesitate to contact us and we'll help you sort it out.

We're sure you'll enjoy the material contained in this auction and look forward to your active participation.

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Phoenix Auctions
http://www.PhoenixAuctions.com.au