Australia
Lot 2284 Australia
Description
1919 England-Australia Ross & Keith Smith Flight cover with a superb & exceptionally centred example of the 'FIRST/AERIAL POST/ENGLAND-/AUSTRALIA' flight vignette (slightly overhanging the edge of the cover but not creased) remarkably in combination with KGV 1½d red-brown tied by two of three very fine strikes of the large double-oval 'FIRST AERIAL MAIL/RECEIVED/26FEB1920/GREAT BRITAIN TO AUSTRALIA' datestamp, locally addressed at Melbourne, minor aging and a few small blemishes, AAMC #27a, Cat $5250+ (2008) but no price given for a cover with additional stamp(s). This was the first completed flight from England to Australia, winning the £10,000 prize offered by the Australian Government for the first aviator(s) to achieve this epic feat, that today we take for granted. Tom Frommer (2011) identified 364 covers from the flight, of which this is #289. This is the first time this cover has been offered at auction, which explains Frommer's lack of detail and an illustration. At page 14, he lists the 13 covers (this is the 14th) with an Australian KGV 1d (4) or 1½d (9) affixed, and states "These are among the scarcest & most valuable of the flown covers". Because the 1½d stamp is in the normal position at upper-right, we expect that it was affixed by the sender, probably but not necessarily in England, with the label being added, as always, on arrival at Melbourne. In 2019, another Melbourne auction sold a cover with stamps of Iraq & a KGV 1d red for $10,930. Another damaged cover with stamps of the Dutch Indies sold for $9715
Bid on this lot
Lot 2284 Australia
Description
1919 England-Australia Ross & Keith Smith Flight cover with a superb & exceptionally centred example of the 'FIRST/AERIAL POST/ENGLAND-/AUSTRALIA' flight vignette (slightly overhanging the edge of the cover but not creased) remarkably in combination with KGV 1½d red-brown tied by two of three very fine strikes of the large double-oval 'FIRST AERIAL MAIL/RECEIVED/26FEB1920/GREAT BRITAIN TO AUSTRALIA' datestamp, locally addressed at Melbourne, minor aging and a few small blemishes, AAMC #27a, Cat $5250+ (2008) but no price given for a cover with additional stamp(s). This was the first completed flight from England to Australia, winning the £10,000 prize offered by the Australian Government for the first aviator(s) to achieve this epic feat, that today we take for granted. Tom Frommer (2011) identified 364 covers from the flight, of which this is #289. This is the first time this cover has been offered at auction, which explains Frommer's lack of detail and an illustration. At page 14, he lists the 13 covers (this is the 14th) with an Australian KGV 1d (4) or 1½d (9) affixed, and states "These are among the scarcest & most valuable of the flown covers". Because the 1½d stamp is in the normal position at upper-right, we expect that it was affixed by the sender, probably but not necessarily in England, with the label being added, as always, on arrival at Melbourne. In 2019, another Melbourne auction sold a cover with stamps of Iraq & a KGV 1d red for $10,930. Another damaged cover with stamps of the Dutch Indies sold for $9715
