Welcome to my latest catalogue for Sale 285 and many thanks to all who bid in Sale 284. Sales were again good and I trust all successful bidders were pleased with their acquisitions.

Our holiday around Indo-China was a great success with some memorable sights and glorious weather. It was quite a shock to come home having left Singapore with a temperature of 34C and then arriving at Heathrow at 34F!

As presaged in Sale 284 due to my current shortage of new stock this current sale is a slightly reduced offering of 400 lots instead of the usual 500. However there is still plenty of good material with a good proportion of newly offered George VI, mainly but not wholly fine used. Included within this is an extensive spread of Indian States, mainly Feudatory but some Convention. These stamps are missing from most G VI collections I see at auctions as they are relatively elusive. In my opinion they are generally under valued  by SG and you should be able to fill many spaces in your collections at relatively modest cost. Beyond these there are some useful Oz roos LMM and also the BCOF set FU. BWI and Burma have strong showings as do overprints on GB. There is a good spread of NZ Postal Fiscals as individual lots – again an area often missing from G VI collections. South and South West Africa are also well represented. All in all I hope plenty to attract everyone.

Despite the reduced number of lots, total pre sale estimates still exceed £12,000 with 40% by value illustrated.

London 2010 International Stamp Exhibition is on for a week at the Business Design Centre, Islington starting on the closing date of this sale. I do not have a stand there but will attend as a visitor for one of the days. If anyone is attending and wishes to meet up please let me know.

Auction prices  and demand remains strong with good material hard to come by.

I close as usual by wishing you all good hunting through the catalogue and the best of luck with your bids.

Regards,

Brian Shaw