Star items recently sold by Martello Auctions (and their stories!)

14 hours ago
3 min read

Andrew Curd, of Gold PTS Member, Martello Philatelic Auctions

Here are some of the star items that Martello Auctions has sold for PRIVATE vendors over the past years.

You can meet online Andrew at Virtual Stampex 2026 on the 6th March. RSVP here: Why not collect other things as well as stamps?!

Lot 171 from October 2025

1841 Two Penny Mulready, superb used envelope appears to be Boston to London 7th April 41, there is a hand written "Tonbridge Apr 7 1841 "" on reverse. NO filing folds or other faults, you will struggle to find a cleaner example!

This item attracted very keen bidding on the book and online with a mixture of dealers and collectors battling it out. The lot was guided at £800-£1,000 and the bidding soon started to rise, and finally ended at £2,400 plus buyer’s premium.

Lot 364 in October 2024

1857 entire with imperf pair of 4a Blue and Red India to London 4th April 1857 via Bombay 13th April, the cover is actually addressed to an ancestor of the vendor so it is fresh to the market and appears to be genuine, various paid and transit markings. scarce the stamp spacing is 2mm suggesting SG 22-24. Totally genuine item with clean BPA Cert. Realised £3,200 plus buyer’s premium.

The story of this cover is amazing really.... We did a probate valuation for a family. There were lots of standard albums of mixed stamps, first day covers etc. as is usual with most valuations. Just when I was going to tell them that the collection was only worth a couple of hundred pounds or so I flicked through a small postal history album containing penny reds, a few airmails etc. and then WOW! I spotted the India cover. Looking more carefully it turned out that envelope had never been out of the family as the 1857 cover was addressed to a family member! Even though we were 95% sure this item was totally right we submitted the cover to BPA for a certificate which fully expectedly came back perfectly clean.

After lots of interest in the cover it eventually sold to a valued private collector and now sits in one of his medal winning collections.

Lot 618 in February 2025

An example of why selling online is so important!

Royal Mint display box with set three silver coins plus two white metal coins, appear to be of middle east or far east origin? Dragons on the reverse? Guide price £40-£60

The above lot was consigned by a vendor along with a number of other coin lots and general collectables. Neither them or us could really find any firm information about this proof set of coins, hence the low estimate.

Before the auction day there was not a great deal of interest, there were a couple of online bids taking it to about £120.

Then once we were live on auction day and the lot was opened the bidding shot up to an amazing £2,100 plus buyer’s premium.

Talking to the buyer in the days after the sale it turns out it was a scarce proof set from Burma region, which obviously at least two people on-line had spotted!

These are just a few of the fantastic items we have been lucky enough to auction over the past couple of years. We are always looking for great items to put in front of our ever- growing database of buyers.

Our 7^th March auction of Coins, Jewellery and collectables is no exception. Lot 63 of this sale is a truly marvellous 18ct Gold ladies watch. Guide price £7000-£8000.