Auction 321 - 332 Europe & Overseas Great Britain & British Commonwealth - Day 3

1878/79: Plate Proofs for Fugitive Ink Trials conducted on the 1858/79 1 d. red, pl. 191, lettered RA-RB, an unused imperforate horizontal pair printed in rose-red, sheet marginal at left, large margins all round, superb impressions of rich colour, unused without gum. An exceptional pair of these Trials, this pair adjoining the extraordinary block of four RC-RD / SC-SD, which 'Besançon' re-united after more than a century. A spectacular pair of great rarity. Cert. BPA (1996) Gi DP39 = £ 34'000.rnProvenance: RL, London, 1 June 1949, lot 310; RL, London, 4 Oct 1950, lot 605; RL, London, 23 Jan 1952, lot 347; Collection Ernest Dale, SG, London, 10-11 June 1969, lot 170; Collection Harold Fisher, Phillips, London, 22-23 Sept 1983, lot 520.