The West African stamp auction by Spink, based on the John Sacher collection has now concluded, with the lots that we focussed on mostly selling on target.

The most prized of the three 4d imperforate Gambian brown covers (with four 1/2d Gambian orange stamps, three in a row) we looked at sold exactly as expected at £9,000; as did the The Oil Rivers Protectorate cover with perfect Benin river cancellation.

Oil Rivers Protectorate cover with Benin River cancellations

The Gold Coast cover addressed (very unusually) to Belize with a bisected 1876-84 2d green sold at the high end of its valued range (£10,000-15,000) at £14,000.

Other covers did better still. A surprise performer was another cover with bisected Gold Coast stamps: both an 1876-84 2d green and a 6d orange, intended to cover a 4d total charge, with clear Winnebah cancellations. This cover is addressed simply to London, but it still doubled an estimate of £4,000 to sell for £8,000.

The big successes in the sale however were Portuguese Guinea overprints. The cover with the rare Moçambique inscribed 40 rei blue and other stamps with 1881 overprints which we focussed on doubled its £8,000-10,000 estimate to sell at £17,000.

Portugese Guinea overprints (note Moçambique inscription)

Likewise, an opened-out envelope displaying 1881 overprints of a 200 reis saturated orange, 300 reis chocolate brown and a strip of four grey 100 reis Cabo Verde stamps, with two Guinea Bissau stamps and a Lisbon arrival stamp doubled its top estimate of £8000 to sell for £16,000.

A very solid performance for high end stamps, and a unique opportunity for philatelists specialising in West African stamps, following hot on the heels from Spink's Great British stamp auction.