Corinphila auction house has recently conducted a great auction offering worldwide material including many special offers of Australian States, South Australia 'Departmentals', the Rhodesias, 'BESANCON' collection, Austria, specialized collection of French Post Offices in the Levant, etc. The sale took place on September 7-12 and brought great results.
One of the most spectacular items introduced at this auction was Croce di S. Andrea 1852 (Apr. 17): Carta a mano 5 c. yellow ochre type I in a horizontal strip of three with complete St. Andrew's Cross. Only four combinations of 5 c. definitive stamps with complete St. Andrew's Crosses had been known in the past.
The auction house commented: “…complete St. Andrew's Cross at right of the stamp with fresh colour and large margins all round, cancelled by two strikes of two line "PADOVA / 17 APRe" datestamp on small entire letter to Venice, reverse with Venezia (18 APR.) arrival datestamp. The two left stamps show a thin on reverse just mentioned for accuracy, without any importance for this item presenting the only 5 c. with St. Andrew's Crosses on cover.”
This unique and extremely desirable cover for a connoisseur's collection of Lombardo-Veneto or the Old Italian States was sold for CHF150,000 (or roughly $165,117).
