Corinphila auction Thursday 6th June 2002 

Reviewed by M.A.Sherwood-Jenkins

A very reasonable showing of Russia in this auction with 217 lots on offer and most of the area covered somewhere. This auction seems to be very strong in postmark collections a number of which appear throughout the Russia section. There is just about everything you could think of in the way of postmarks to be found here - manuscript, truncated triangles, rectangular numerals, frontier posts, numerals, city post, mutes, TPO's railways, ship and river cancellations. Start prices for the various items range from around 500CHF for smaller collections (43 stamps and 16 covers 2 line dated cancellations) to 10,000 CHf for a collection of 709 railway covers/cards and hundreds of stamps.

There are some 15 Zemstvo lots, mostly ex-faberge and also a quite extensive Civil War collection which contains hundreds of stamps, covers and a lot more besides. This last estimated at CHF 1,000

There is a good run through of back of the book material from most areas although without huge depth in any. As usual with Corinphila auctions however quality is generally very good. There were two items in the Ukrainian section that caught the eye, lot 965 a collection of 75 written up exhibition sheets of the Podolia tridents (over 1,000 stamps) with an estimate of 25,000 CHF and a little further on lot967 a collection of Ukraine, Carpatho-Ukraine and local surcharges with a 2,500 CHF estimate.

The estimates at Corinphila are quite reasonable or in some cases may be seen as low but as a result most of the material sells above estimate. If you can visit the auction do, it is very friendly with excellent facilities and a view over the lake with an excellently professional service, if not take a good look at the catalogue send in a bid and hope.

© 2002 the BSRP