Auction 321 - 332 Australian States & Commonwealth of Australia, St. Helena, Basutoland, Bechuanaland, Swaziland, Brazil 1843 –1870 - Day 1

1932 (Dec 12): Pictorial ½ d. green, wmk. Multiple Script CA, perf. 12½, the famous unused block of four, variety "Imperforate between Vertically", wonderfully fresh and fine but for slightest blunting of perfs at right mentioned for full accuracy, full anmounted og. This is the multiple held by the original finder of the error in the 1930's which was retained by his wife until circa 1982. No example, as far as this describer is aware, in the collection of His Majesty King Charles III. Unique as multiple - just ten pairs can exist, and, as can be seen below, the only other unused pair is damaged, whilst a used pair is also catalogued by Stanley Gibbons. Cert. BPA (1987) Gi = £ 76'000+.rnNote: Richard Ashtons's original description read: "horizontal pair and block of four comprising three pairs of this previously unrecorded variety, the pair is defective at the lower left and has a small separation tear between at the top whilst the block is very fine apart from a few short perfs., unused unmounted o.g.; from a sheet format of 60 - ten horizontal rows of six, it is quite likely that only ten pairs of this variety ever exited. We understand that it will be listed in a future edition of Stanley Gibbons Part I catalogue as S.G.99a.rnProvenance: Sotheby's, London, 12-13 Nov 1987, lot 394.