Lot no. 341 •

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1d. red-brown, plate 90,  handstamped ‚SPECIMEN‘, corner sheet marginal block of 18, AA / BI, showing marginal inscription and plate number ‚90‘, the block showing the characteristic re-cut frame lines on this plate and the blind ‚A’s in the first vertical coloumn, excellent vibrant colour, two vertcial creases as can be expected  and a few minor thins not affecting the dramatic appearance! Fresh and fine with large part or unmounted original gum. Illustrated (as a block AA / CI) in „Specimen Stamps & Postal Stationery of Great Britain“ by Marcus Samuel and Alan Huggins on page 17. A spectacular and wonderful multiple (S.G. Cat.  GBP 36.000)

Note: The existance of the 1841, 1d. red-brown and 2d. blue handstamped SPECIMEN was first reported in THE BRITISH PHILATELIST in March 1934 when „…..quite recently a block of thirty-one of the One Penny and a block of thirty of the Two Pence, plate 3, turned up (…..) which have not hitherto been known overprinted specimen“. 
‚Specimen‘ overprinted sheets of the 1d. and 2d. have been sent on request of the Prussian, Austrian and Neapolitan Post Offices in 1849 as samples, when these countries were planing to issue first adhesive postage stamps similar as the British Post Office. Entire sheets of the 1d. red-brown, plate 88, and 2d. blue, plate 3, overprinted SPECIMEN sent to Prussia are still in the National Heritage Stamp Collection of the National Postal Museum in Berlin 

Provenance: Spink, 3 June 1999, lot 1370 (as a block of 27)
'BESANCON‘ Collection, Corinphila, 7 September 2020, lot 3025 (as a block of 27)