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Sale 261
The Lafayette Collection
of U.S. 1869 Issues Stamps and Postal History
| The Unique 24¢ Inverted Center Block of Four |
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Description |
Lot 1341 |
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24¢ Green & violet, center inverted (120b), unique block of 4. Quite fresh with rich deep colors, neat segmented cork cancels, nicely centered, upper left stamp with small thin in grill and unnoticeable scrape in margin. Overall Very Fine.
Estimate 500,000 - 750,000
THE ONLY USED BLOCK OF ANY OF THE 1869 INVERTS AND CONSIDERED BY MANY TO BE THE MOST IMPORTANT ITEM IN ALL OF UNITED STATES PHILATELY. THIS BLOCK WOULD SERVE AS THE CORNERSTONE OF A MAJOR INVERTED CENTER COLLECTION, A COLLECTION OF CLASSIC U.S. OR A COLLECTION OF WORLD CLASS RARITIES.
As with other renowned philatelic classics, the story of how the block was discovered and the collections in which it has resided has been oft repeated. An abridged version should therefore suffice.
The block of the #120b was first detected, as a block of six, in the 1880s in England. It soon found its way into the collection of William Thorne. As a collector of blocks of four, he removed and then sold a pair, keeping intact this block of four. The next owner was the famous collector, William H. Crocker, whose holding was later sold at auction. A New York dealer, Y. Souren, purchased the block as an "attention getter", but eventually sold it to L. White who then sold his entire collection to Roger and Raymond Weill. The Weill brothers then sold and re-purchased the block twice. Their final transaction with this famous block was to place it in the collection of Ryohei Ishikawa, who chose to feature it as the cover photograph of his most impressive auction catalogue in 1993. The auction house of Robert A. Siegel was the purchaser at the Ishikawa auction and sold the block privately to the current owner.
To determine the placement of this inverted block in the roster of important philatelic pieces, we spoke to Raymond Weill. As one of today's foremost philatelists, a gentleman who has handled many of the world's greatest rarities and, of course, the dealer who has had a personal relationship with this invert, we felt Mr. Weill could speak with authority on this important rarity. "How important do you believe this block to be?" was the question placed before him. Without a moment's hesitation, Mr. Weill responded that this is the most important piece of U.S. philately, none excepted. His reasoning is as follows: the 24¢ invert is a rare stamp in its own right; a used block of four of such a rare invert is incredible (especially when one considers there are only five used blocks of the regular 24¢ 1869 issue); then, that this block not only exists, but is nicely centered (when centering is such a problem for all of the 1869 inverts) and had not been mauled by the mailing process, overseas no less, is nothing short of a miracle.
At the close of our conversation, Raymond Weill added one final thought. He and his brother had been reluctant to part with this block. They never advertised the piece for sale; they rarely told anyone it was theirs. The two brothers were happy just to know it was in their possession. Having this used invert block in our offices, for even a short stay, I understand how they felt.
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