Sale #43 - Asian Stamps & Postal History featuring China, Hong Kong and Treaty Ports, and other Asian Countries

Interasia’s January 11-14 auction of China, Hong Kong and Asian stamps and postal history will take place at the Excelsior Hotel in Causeway Bay in Hong Kong. The four day, 3,600 lot sale includes another outstanding offering of China and Hong Kong stamps and postal history, with important Ching Dynasty and Republic, substantial postal history and a large offering of People’s Republic and Liberated Areas with major rarities. Among the Hong Kong and Treaty Ports highlights is the earliest recorded letter from Hong Kong.

• Session 2 consists of China Ching Dynasty and Republic issues, commencing with the 1878-85 Large Dragons, and contains specialized sections for nearly every issue. Among the highlights are one of the finest known examples of the 1897 Red Revenue Small 4c. double surcharge (of which only 25 were issued), the unique set of 32 essays and die proofs of the 1898-1910 Chinese Imperial Post regular and the postage due issues from the Waterlow & Sons London printers archives, and a matchless set of imprint blocks of four of the 1914-19 Junk first Peking printing ½c. to $20 set (ex Major James Starr).
• Session 3 comprises an over 300 lot offering of Hong Kong and Treaty Ports. Besides the September 8, 1839 earliest-known letter from Hong Kong written aboard a ship in Hong Kong Harbour by a British expellee from Canton, there are good offerings of both stamps, including a specialized collection of the 1891 Jubilee, and postal history.
• Session 9 comprises further China including the back-of-the book stamps and China collections, Chinese Provinces, Manchukuo, Japanese Occupation of China, Chinese Local Posts, Taiwan, Tibet and Mongolia. Taiwan features three 1883-84 covers from Takow and an 1891 envelope from Anping from the Customs Post in Taiwan, as well as the Y.C.C. collection of the Flying Geese issues of 1950-52, with magnificent blocks of four of all the issues.
• Session 10 includes China Postal Stationery and Covers, Foreign Post Offices in China, Macau and other Asia. The last features outstanding Portuguese Asia prephilately, Philippines Revolutionary issues on cover and another interesting section of Korea, highlighted by the only recorded North Korea/South Korea combination cover.