Astonishing Prices almost 60 years to the day  after the 1st auction held by Cavendish Auctions on 23rd January 1952.

Our vendors were astounded and our buyers very happy after our auction last week.

The Frank & Peter Thompson auction of 25th January 2012 took place at the Cavendish Auction rooms in Derby almost 60 years to the day after the 1st auction held by Cavendish Auctions on 23rd January 1953.

This outstanding sale was attended by a large number of bidders filling the auction room to capacity, plus the maximum number of telephone bidders ensured an outstanding success. The result was a sale with 95% of the lots selling for well above the pre-sale estimates.

A few selected results of note include:
Lot 3 The unique pair of James Chalmers 2d on red essays. £20,468 (Est £10,000)
Lot 9 The William Oldham Circular 1839 essay illustrated on the catalogue front cover £16,856 (Est £10,000)
Lot 10 The J.F. Towers 1839 essay £18,060 (Est £10,000).
Lot 12 The “Mr James” 2d & 4d Treasury Essays £12,040 (Est £7,500)

Lot 47 Rainbow Trial sheet with “712” cancellation £45,752 (Est £20,000)

THE RAINBOW TRIALS, 1840-71
RAINBOW TRIAL SHEET (STATE 3; WITH INK "9" ON "PLAIN PAPER") RATED "A1" BY PERKINS BACON, WITH "No712" CANCELLATION EXPERIMENTS, ETC.; Superb and spectacular 3 Sept. 1840 ungummed sheet from State 3 in Red-Brown showing (as usual) two of the 12 stamps removed; endorsed "A1" at top left being Perkins Bacon & Co.'s opinion of the colour which was No."9", printed on "Plain Paper". Six of the 10 stamps have been experimented upon by Perkins Bacon themselves, having the rare "No712" Experimental cancellations partly removed by "Tartaric Acid", "Potash", "Prussia Acid", "Turps" or "Creosote". The stamps have resisted the attempts to remove their cancellations pretty well. It is interesting that Perkins Bacon thought this colour the best of the 20 that they tested. Rowse only records four other sheets similar to this example in private hands (plus two in the Royal Collection and two in the Postal Museum).(SG Spec. DP20F; cat. £90,000.) Highly Important Exhibition item illustrating the change from 1d Black to 1d Red inks and the worries about the possible fraudulent reuse of cleaned stamps.

Lot 48 Rainbow Trial 1d State 3 sheet of twelve £28,896 (Est £15,000)
Lot 49 Rowland Hill hand written report on obliterations £38,537 (Est £5,00
Lot 50 Rowland Hill hand written 2nd report on obliterations £14,448 (Est £5,000)
Lot 183 1841 2d blue TH imprimatur £7,224 (Est £2,400)

The remainder of the auction realised well above the estimates indicating that the GB market remains strong for quality items.
The overall result was well above expectations and we look forward to our next sales on 7th/8th March 2012.

All prices include buyer's premium.
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