Recent & Forthcoming auctions with Russia content:
Nagl Auktion Bamberg
A specialised auction of Russian material, the catalogue for which is profusely dotted with good quality illustrations. Text is in German, which is not very helpful for the large number of non-German collectors and at odds with the majority of Russian material auctions which have English text. However a glossary is provided of philatelic terms and the level of illustration is some consolation and makes things easier than at first they seem.
The whole range of Russian philately is here including a few charities and Cinderellas at the end. Material is of a high quality and some nice pieces with exhibition potential are shown.
The catalogue opens with a number of pre-stamp items starting from 1821 and
continues through a range of imperial stationery envelopes and cards into the
stamp era. Stationery and postmark collectors should find something of
interest here and there is probably something for the rate specialist as well.
Dotted amongst these items are a couple of early lithographed postcards of St.
Petersburg which are very attractive additions to a collection and a couple of
red cross cards neatly used.
A number of items have interesting seals and there is a small selection of the 1905 orphans set on cover. Lot 171 is a magnificent postcard bearing the arms of Russian towns but is equally magnificently estimated at 320 DM (over ?100!!) which seems rather high, as do a number of other estimates on Postcards. Perhaps this is a reflection of a buoyant German market but it came as a bit of a shock to me, (thankfully I already have the St Petersburg cards and a few others illustrated.) Continuing on the postcards for a while lot 198 is a nice piece illustrating both a stamp and postman on the front of a viewcard, although shown in black and white I can say that the colours are attractive as this type I have seen before. Another reasonably scarce card is lot 234 which shows Nicholas I with the dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna in full costume.
The later imperial period takes us through a good range of postal markings and a number of Kerenskys into the early Soviet period which commences with some advertising collars and cards, then running through a delightful selection of 1930's and 40's advertising envelopes.
The stamps section starts with all the usual imperials but then takes in a good selection of sheets, part sheets and errors right into the early soviet period. These are followed by a continuing run of soviet stamps up until the 1980's interspersed with a healthy sprinkling of errors and varieties.
The next section is a small range of fiscals and charity stamps and if the estimates are based on market prices I would advise to snap up all you can when you see them as the prices are it seems hardening, especially for the charities. After this comes a range of Denikin part sheets, civil war material and the post offices abroad. A literature section completes the catalogue.
All in all a very well produced catalogue with something for everyone in the Russia field, as usual with material from Germany the prices are sometimes a shock but do signal a strong and buoyant market which is good news.
Nagl Auktion Bamberg
Postfach 2104
D-96012 Bamberg
Germany
E-mail: info@nagl-auktion.com
Web site http://www.nagl-auktion.com/
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