I don’t think I’d be mistaken to say that many, if not most of the award winning exhibits at stamp shows are those where the collector embarked on territory that he or she determined on his or her own, as opposed to some sort of established norms. I may well be wrong, but for me, I’d rather go for what I find appealing, and hopefully (for my wife and kid’s sake) somewhere down the road, someone else agrees with my specific tastes.
I’ve always been drawn to multiples…the more the better…more flash, more drama? Whatever, but I do like multiples.
I also like “show and tell” which was by far my favorite segment of elementary schooling!
So, here are some latest acquisitions to my modest, but growing collection:
-Upper left corner blocks of Haiti 1960 UN. I have to admit, being an ex “big apple boy” the thought of the UN building being upside down has crossed my mind as a “good thing” (apologies to Martha Stewart)…still in jail is she?
-Liberia 1909 President Bentley. A nice block of four from the bottom margin, OG and with bottom two stamps NH. The better than average centering caught my eye.
-Liberia 1952 Jehudi Ashmun. Full on gluttony here my friends as these are all full panes of 20 stamps of all the issues, 3c-10c with inverted centers…in almost unheard of complete set of panes, BUT, just my luck…no 2 cent! All OGNH as to be expected and good centering for most.
A very good lesson with these…the beauty of “bottom feeding.” I leaned that term “bottom feeding” from an old antiques dealer who had a reputation of seeking out dealers at antiques shows who didn’t have a good show. He’d wait until the final closing hours and then do his serious shopping. In the case of these, which were recently offered in a Christoph Gartner sale, I held my breath hoping they would be “bought in”, and they were, and then I “went fishing.” I was lucky, snagging all 6 sheets for the asking price of most single sheets of 20 on eBay. Now of course I must absolutely find a full pane of 20 of the 2c…and I guess that’s when kharma will kick in! With my luck, I’ll have to pay as much for that one sheet of the 2c as I did for all 6 of these sheets!
In reality, these aren’t dramatic center inverts…which I love the most. One actually has to look carefully to even notice that indeed, the centers are inverted…but, what the heck, I surely know I’ll never own large multiples of the Jenny!
Cheers all, and thanks for looking!
