Nagl Auktion 13th April 2002
reviewed by M.A.Sherwood-Jenkins
Another very good sale put together by Nagl of Bamburg. As usual the catalogue is profusely illustrated and commences with a very strong postal history section arranged in chronological order. Amongst the gems here was a lovely example of the oval SPB cancellation with a modest estimate of around the £25 mark.Lots 154 and 163 also caught the eye, these being money letters complete with receipts and enclosure documents. The first of these came in around ?50 and the second had an estimate of £75 due to the impressive set of complete wax seals on the reverse. Overall the lots are reasonably estimated with prices for postal history starting at about £15 which puts items within the reach of most collectors. For those interested in Russia used abroad there were a couple of Peshwar-Bukhara items which would make for good display and write up, carrying as they did a clear range of transit stamps. One of these also had Odessa "disinfected" markings which of course pushed up the ante considerably. The rest of the Imperial period was well represented as was the breadth of this period - everything from colourful postcards with railway markings through a range of spravkas to a couple of the red triangle redirection markers. For those with a bent towards postal stationery lots 312-316 were a veritable sight for sore eyes, comprising sets of Romanov postal stationery in what appeared to be very good condition. Dumb cancels and censor markings from the Great War ended the Imperial section and the catalogue then moved into a range of RSFSR inflation covers which included one or two of the more elusive stamps and useages.
The pattern of interest continued into the 1930's with postcards promoting Russian philately, a whole range of postal markings and possibly most interesting of all lot 485. This was a 1935 Soviet Postal stationery card, uprated and bearing a red triangle redirection marker as used in Tsarist times. Certainly this is the latest use I have seen of the red triangles (no doubt I will now be flooded by other examples)
The stamp section of the catalogue proved to be equally rich in good quality material, starting with a range of number ones and progressing on to quarter sheets of the SPB town post (est. £250), high value corner blocks, errors, marginals showing fiscal watermarks, an uncut double sheet of the 1917 1 Rouble and so forth. The RSFSR selection was equally good, strips of the early issues illustrating different layouts, varieties of colour and overprint all can be found here. Later period Soviet collectors were not neglected either with some very reasonably estimated perforation errors and colour shifts to be had. A 1929 10 K with a huge perf shift bisecting the stamp in a block of four with a Mikulski certificate was on offer with a start price of £20. A 1946 25 years of Soviet stamps with a marked shift to the centre started at around £16. All in all an excellent catalogue and sale, if you do not already get this one it is worth dropping them a line and asking to see the next catalogue, the address is here on our site. All we would ask is that you mention us when writing.
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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© 2002 the BSRP