General Auction including Antiques & Collectables, Gold & Silver.
A collection of British First Day Covers housed in five dedicated albums, primarily dating from the late 1970s to the late 1980s. The assortment includes commemorative and definitive stamp issues from the Royal Mail. One binder is bound in brown textured material with gold lettering on the spine and front cover reading Post Office First Day Covers. A second binder in blue features gold lettering reading Royal Engineers Covers with a small crest at the base. A third black binder is titled THAMES COVER ALBUM on the spine and bears a yellow printed logo of the letters SG inside a stamp-edged box. A fourth maroon binder is titled Malvern Cover Album with the name Stanley Gibbons printed in gold at the base of the spine. The fifth binder is a plain black album titled Cover Album in white lettering.
The contents feature a wide range of thematic issues including British Birds, Railway History (marking the Liverpool & Manchester Railway), Christmas 1986, and British Composers such as Handel, Holst, Delius, and Elgar. Notable specialized covers include the National Army Museum series featuring Oliver Cromwell, John Churchill 1st Duke of Marlborough, and historical uniforms including the Early Gurkha Uniform and Cameron Highlanders 1857. Philatelic elements include standard perforated issues with various cancellations, most notably circular date stamps from the Philatelic Bureau in Edinburgh and commemorative cachets for the British Forces Postal Service, including BFPS 1208 and BFPS 1212. The collection also contains the London 1980 International Stamp Exhibition issues and the 1980 new definitive values. The majority of the covers are typed-addressed to Mr A C Evans at addresses in Northampton, specifically 100 Birchfield Road and 54 The Crescent.
Condition report:
The five albums exhibit light external shelf wear and surface dust to the spines and covers (photos 5, 6, and 7). The internal plastic leaves are generally intact and clear, with some instances of minor creasing and handling marks visible (photos 1 and 2). The First Day Covers are predominantly typed-addressed, a standard feature for this period of collection (photos 1, 3, and 4). Stamp cancellations are generally crisp, well-struck, and do not overly obscure the primary designs. The stamps themselves appear to be in good condition with intact perforations and centering consistent with standard production of the era (photo 3).
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