Welcome Letter
ACE STAMP AUCTIONS SALE No. 25
1.00pm Sunday 14th October 2018
Royal Aero Club of WA, 41 Eagle Drive, Jandakot, Perth
Viewing: All lots can be viewed on Sunday 14th October from 9.00am to 1.00pm prior to the auction. In addition, the majority of lots will be available for viewing at the Adelaide Philatelic Congress & the Australian Air mail Society's 50th Anniversary celebrations at the Drill Hall, Torrens Parade Ground, King William Road, Adelaide on 6th & 7th October from 10.00am to 4.00pm.
Auctioneers: Sam Mannino
Dear Collector
Welcome to our third dedicated Airmail auction. We are proud to bring together the material from three established and well known airmail collectors for this extraordinary sale plus another two exhibitors and 17 other vendors including some covers from abroad that have not been offered in Australia before.
They include the final lots from the Vince Brown collection, material that had sat untouched for over 40 years until offered in our airmail sales 18 and 22 and now this one. Also a range of unusual and rarely offered flight covers from Rod Perry featuring a variety of incident-related items, formerly in the "Airborne Commercial Mail To Australasia" collection. Much of this material is rarely seen in the standard and formalised airmail exhibits frequently seen. Finally, an individual that all airmail collectors are aware of, the publisher of books and numerous articles and international exhibitor, Tom Frommer. We have built this catalogue around his wonderful array of flight covers, some of which number as few as only two carried. There is the opportunity to add to your own collection, material that has proudly sat in one of his gold medal winning collections and even some that are illustrated in the Australian Air Mail Catalogue that he jointly edits.
In addition there is a strong section of Zeppelins including the "Hindenburg" giving us a wonderful spread of flights and destinations. These come from two dedicated Zeppelin collectors plus highlights again from Rod Perry in the form of the only known covers addressed to Australia and even a piece of the Zeppelin R100 from Tom Frommers collection.
Flying Boats was an area that well know West Australian exhibitor Hubert Du Guesclin focused on and now grace the pages of this catalogue. We have endeavoured to leave some of the collection together, beautifully written up on the original pages, whilst also lotting the highlights individually allowing collectors to either add to his work or fill gaps in the flight timeline of this important chapter.
Finally, an area that remains popular, Crash Mail. These covers are scattered throughout the catalogue but are easily identifiable by using the key and lettering system shown on the next page. This system can also be used for Rocket Mail, Balloon flights & Concorde carried mail.
We have listed the Australian covers by date order as in the Australian Air Mail Catalogue (AAMC) but then coded them for those arriving flights into Australia and those departing plus internal flights within Australia and those sectors or intermediate flights outside of Australia but still listed in the AAMC. We have even identified those internal West Australian flights to keep the locals happy!!
I have not spent this page listing numerous highlights as this would be pointless with so many to choose from in such a wide ranging auction. Those of you who are truly passionate, will read this like a book of historical chapters in the evolution of world and Australian airmails, in fact aviation history. From an 1870 Balloon cover to the latest flights of Concorde, there is something for every aerophilatelist and every budget from $20 to $10,000!
In keeping with the theme of the auction, we are delighted to be having the sale at the headquarters of the Royal Aero Club of Western Australia in Jandakot. The auction room looks directly over the airstrip and for those attending in person, there will be the opportunity to go up in a Tiger Moth across the city if you wish to relive the early days of flight!
In closing, please don't forget to visit www.acestampauctions.com to see every lot illustrated in detail, remembering that these covers display the characteristics of wear and tear from their adventures, not all of which can be mentioned, so please do view them online if not attending the viewing days.
Without the vendors and the dedicated efforts of collectors like Tom Frommer, who not only writes books and conducts detailed research but is free and generous with his time, there would not be auctions like this one, so my sincere thanks. Also to my wonderful wife Christine, who has shared this 60,000+ word journey but maybe not with the same passion, my heartfelt thanks.
Ian Boulton