01 September 2014
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1880 Watermark Spray 2 shillings brown sheet
In 2004 a 2 shillings brown stamps, achieved one of the highest prices ever achieved for any British stamp, selling for £241,500, as our latest guide to rare GB stamps reveals… ...
The high profile Sotheby’s sales of Sir Gawaine Baillie’s huge stamp collection fetched millions in 2004 and left collectors of GB material green with envy.
The aristocratic racing driver, who passed away the year before his collection was sold, had collected stamps since he was a boy living at Leeds Castle in Kent; the chance to own some of the rarities wasn’t missed and over ten sales a host of GB rarities went under the hammer.
Perhaps the highlight of the many sales was this sheet of 2 shillings brown stamps, which achieved one of the highest prices ever achieved for any British stamp, selling for £241,500.
The 2s stamp was changed to a brown shade in 1880 but was only in use for a few months, making a single example of the stamp fairly unusual and multiples very rare.
In the same three-day sale back in 2004, a block of four 2d blue stamps from Plate 1 also went under the hammer for an eye-watering realisation.
‘It was like walking into Aladdin’s cave’ Sotheby’s Richard Ashton said about his first viewing of the amazing collection.
