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 #1 The Great Transatlantic Race The "Atlantic" - Henry Hawker and Mackenzie Grieve 1919 3c red brown, bottom left corner margin single, traces of original gum, unsigned, with undefinable diagonal traces of ink (which partially show through the perforations at upper right margin), fine and extremely rare positional piece, with 2002 BPA certificate (SG 142). While only 76 unused examples are believed to still exist, the copy offered here is the only sheet corner margin single and according to Mr. Vasseur, it is now recognized as an "Intermediate Essay", showing the overprint with the correct size, but placed too low and covering the "3 Cents" at bottom. As such, this is the only known essay of the Hawker ("It is the only corner stamp known and it has a “3” pencil written in the margin. This stamp is an essay. It has the overprint with the correct dimension (19 1/4mm, but still positioned too low, overlapping the value. It is obviously an intermediate stage between the "large" 22 1/4mm overprint and the issued stamps" (Revisiting the C1 "Hawker", by Jean-Claude Vasseur, The Newfie newsletter of the Newfoundland Study group of BNASP, Number 138 January/March 2010) * Catalog #C1 Catalog Value $ 25,000 | Unsold |
