CORFU 1859 - RARE USE OF THE ½d ORANGE + 1d BLUE ON 1½d-RATE...

Hammer

£600

CORFU 1859 - RARE USE OF THE ½d ORANGE + 1d BLUE ON 1½d-RATE (BY AUSTRIAN STEAMER) COVER TO CEPHALONIA - 30 Aug. 1859 E (reinforced inside around stamps, and other faults incl. some stains and most of the small lower flap removed) to "Cefalonia" with 1859 1d Blue + rare 1859 ½d Orange (both near 4 margins) tied to each other by a single mainly fine grey-black Corfu oval-framed "FRANCA" with mainly v. fine blue 2-ring "CORFU" cds alongside, along with a faint blue fancy oval Cephalonia arrival ds. The ½d stamp has clearly been torn from the cover many years ago and then been carefully put back in the correct place; both stamps clearly belong to this cover. The 1½d rate represented 1d Ionian Is. postage + an extra ½d for carriage by the Austrian Lloyd steamer. A rare example of this rare rate (of which only 15 are recorded) and franking. Rare cover with two values of this short-lived and most attractive Perkins Bacon issue; these stamps were in use for less than 5 years, as the islands were finally ceded to Greece on 30 May 1864. Simmermacher Cert. (1998). [Ex Corinphila auction, Dec. 2007, lot 4170; realised CHF5950=c£2500] Cross Reference: AUSTRIA