The first issues from Mauritius gained the right to be considered among the most sought-after and precious stamps in the world. The history of these pieces is well-known: they were issued in September 1847 as 1 penny orange and 2 pence blue stamps for the invitations to a ball organised by Lady Elizabeth Gomm, the colony Governor’s wife. These were the first stamps of the British Commonwealth to be found outside the British borders. In order to design these stamps, Lady Gomm made use of Joseph Osmond Barnard’s work: an English engraver and miniaturist who arrived in Mauritius in 1838. In his haste to finish this work and because of the limited information he was given, he added the meaningless inscription “Post Office” next to the portrait of Queen Victoria and the stamp value. After the first series of a few hundred stamps had run out, in the following year, Barnard prepared a new 2 pence issue: it was identical to the previous one, but the new “Post Paid” inscription was more precise and relevant. The 1 penny stamp was issued only in 1853. This second issue was printed up to the end of 1859. The subsequent issues are much less soughtafter and more common and were printed in London by Perkins Bacon, the same printer which had produced the first English stamps, from the “Penny black” on.

As far as Mauritius philately is concerned, important collectors are more focused on the first two issues. In particular, at present only twenty-seven stamps of the first issue are listed, fifteen 1-penny and twelve 2 pence stamps, some on covers, six new and the others used. It is particularly difficult to find these stamps as most of them are part of permanent collections in several postal museums and in the Royal Collection in London. Single stamps or stamps on covers, even when defective, are put up for auction quite rarely, thus increasing their value and including them among the philatelic top prices. The only cover franked with both stamps, called “Bordeaux” from its French destination, was sold for more than 6 million Swiss Francs during its last appearance in a public auction in 1993. The second issue (1848/59) is more accessible due to the number of stamps on the market; an excellent example is given by the two “Post Paid” items belonging to earliest impression and auctioned by Bolaffi last May 29th. However, stamps in excellent conditions are extremely rare and this is the reason for the extraordinary success of the auction in Turin. Valued at € 35,000 each, these two stamps were first auctioned individually and then included in the same lot, whose initial price was € 93,000, the sum of the single values. The final selling price was € 204,000, fees included: far above the £ 125,000 quotation given by the Stanley Gibbons reference catalogue. They were two of the best pieces for their conditions, colours and margins and both came from some of the most prestigious stamp collections of all times. The last time they were put up for auction was in 1993 in Zurich, during the auction of the Japanese tycoon Hiroyuki Kanai’s collection: the largest Mauritius philately collection ever, which included, among others, six of the twentyseven “Post Office” stamps and the above-mentioned “Bordeaux” cover.

The 1 penny orange stamp used to be part of three top-level collections, such as Philipp la Renotière von Ferrary’s (1850-1917), which is considered by many experts as the most important ever for its many rare stamps, to the point that it was seized by the French State at the end of the First World War as a reparation for war damage caused by the German Empire, regardless of the collector’s last wishes, who had decided to leave it to the Postal Museum of Berlin. The collection was sold in 14 rounds of auction between 1921 and 1926 and brought to France more than 30 million Francs, an enormous amount of money at that time. Later on, this rare stamp belonged to Arthur Hind, from the US, and to Maurice Burrus, the Alsatian owner of Boncourt tobacco factories in Switzerland. Similarly, the 2 pence blue stamp was bought by the pharmaceutical industrialist Josiah K. Lilly before becoming part of Kanai’s collection. These are just some examples of the various excellent outcomes of Great Britain and British colonial stamps during recent Bolaffi auctions and follow the two important 2 d. “Tyrian plum” pieces of Edward VII (1910) and $ 500 of George V for the Straits Settlements (1921), which were sold last December 12th for € 84,000 and € 81,000 respectively.

By Alberto Ponti