Newfoundland Air Mail 1919-39
January 25, 2023
Newfoundland has played an important role in the development of long-distance air travel. As the easternmost place in North America, it became a popular runway for many aviation pioneers attempting to cross the Atlantic by air in 1919. It also served as a refueling point for round-the-world attempts in the 1920s. Amelia Earhart made two record-setting flights from Newfoundland, in 1928 and 1932. The advent of passenger flights in the 1930s brought the pioneer period to a close, but established Newfoundland as a major stopover between Europe and North America. This June will mark 104th Anniversary of the Alcock & Brown flight (On 15 June 1919 came the telegram with the news that the Vicker's Vimy landed in Ireland, having completed the 1,860 mile flight in 16 hours. The news was received with great enthusiasm. "Well, it must be something for a man in Ireland today to be able to say Yesterday, when I was in America", quoted the pilots). The rest is history.
We are pleased to present the award-winning collection assembled by Jean-Claude Vasseur, author of "Newfoundland Air Mails 1919/1939" published in 2015. The collection tells the story of the Great Transatlantic Air Race and the struggles of early aviation. Many rarities and unique items are included.
The auction will take place on Wednesday, January 25, 2023 at 1:00 PM at Cherrystone Auction Galleries and on CherrystoneLive.
| Images | Description | Current Bid |
 | Lot #2 The Great Transatlantic Race The "Atlantic" - Henry Hawker and Mackenzie Grieve 1919 3c red brown, variety showing "blob" below "T" (one of only five known, probably from a single vertical column), l.h., well centered, initialed "JAR", fresh and v.f. example of the legendary Newfoundland Hawker stamp, with 2004 Royal certificate (The flight of Hawker's "Atlantic" ended with a controlled crash landing in the ocean after about 13 hours of flying) (Unitrade CAN $40,000 200 examples of the current 3c brown Caribou stamp were overprinted "First Trans Atalntic Air Post April 1919" in five lines. 18 of these were defective and destroyed; 95 were used on mail and 11 were presented to various officials. Raynham and Morgan also manuscript overprinted the stamp. The remaining 76 were purchased by the postmaster general, who then sold them for $25 each to raise money for the Newfoundland Marine Disasters Fund, which supported sailors' widows and orphans, * Catalog #C1 Catalog Value $ 25,000 | Price Realized $13,000.00 |
