World’s first postage stamp heading to auction

LONDON — The world’s first postage stamp is heading to the auction block.

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The Penny Black, dating from 1840, will be part of Sotheby’s “Treasures” sale on Dec. 7, the auction house announced Tuesday.

This Penny Black was from the first sheet printed, the Australian Broadcasting Company reported.

Sotheby’s estimates that the piece of philatelic history will have a final gavel price between $5.9 million and $8.2 million.

“This is the first-ever stamp, the precursor to all stamps, and unequivocally the most important piece of philatelic history to exist,” Henry House, head of Sotheby’s Treasures Sale, said in a statement. “Though there are many hugely important stamps in collections both public and private around the world, this is the stamp that started the postage system as we know it.”

The adhesive stamp that features a profile of Queen Victoria is attached to a document dated April 10, 1840, from the archive of British postal service reformer Robert Wallace, a Scottish politician according to Sotheby’s.

The stamp introduced a flat rate; before that, the recipient paid the cost of postage, The Canberra Times reported.

The “Wallace Document” came from a scrapbook put together by Wallace and has his handwritten notation, according to Sotheby’s: “1st Proof of Penny Postage Stamp Cover, presented to Mr. Wallace by Mr. The Right Honble The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Francis Thornhill Baring -- April 10th, 1840.”

According to Sotheby’s, the Wallace correspondence was passed to the Caldwell family in Scotland in 1855. In 1991 it was consigned to Cavendish Philatelic Auctions, which sold it to an overseas buyer in its entirety. It was then broken up and the three major pieces, including the Wallace Document, were separated.

The stamp and the Wallace Document are currently owned by philatelist and businessman Alan Holyoake, according to ABC.

“It is a world icon. It’s a world icon because it actually is the very first stamp,” Holyoake told the network. “So, it’s a stamp that came from the very first sheet of stamps that were printed.”

Holyoake bought the Wallace Document 10 years ago, according to ABC. He spent three years researching to determine its authenticity, and the stamp has certificates from The Royal Philatelic Society and The British Philatelic Association, Sotheby’s said.

The stamp and document have been part of an exhibition at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum in Washington, according to the auction house.

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