LONDON.- Spink have been working with a great many fantastic collections, and this December will see one of the finest to be auctioned off. The Graham Cooper Collection of King George VI Stamps will take place on the 14-15th December 2016. The vast collection is the product of many decades of avid acquisition and careful curation. Philately was a long-standing interest of Graham’s from a young age, joining Leicester Philatelic Society in 1947, aged 15. He was its longest-standing member and until recently, its only Honorary Member. He joined the King George VI Collectors’ Society in 1969 and the Royal Philatelic Society in 1976. He became a Fellow in 1984, as well as serving as its Special Representative for the West Indies from 1990-1997.

Graham collected King George VI from all areas of the Empire and applied a philatelic knowledge acquired over many years to hone his acquisitions into an exceptional collection widely known and much appreciated worldwide. He spent many hours working on his collection at home and his hallmark black Indian ink writing is evident across many pages of the collection. Graham wrote a number of articles and pieces for GEOSIX, the King George VI Society’s Journal, between 1970 and 1991, on various King George VI subjects including albino printings and overprints, Colonial die proofs, double prints, errors, hand-painting, and oddments.

He had a major display of a tenth of his collection at the Royal Philatelic Society on 17 October 1991, with an exhibit entitled King George VI - Modem Classics or Wallpaper?, attended by 71 Fellows and Members. The display filled all 52 frames and was remarkable for the “very great number of proofs which were shown together with errors”. One unusual frame was noted which contained the Roberts proofs for the Falkland Islands with Foreign and other colonial stamps included to suggest the colour of the new stamps.

He worked very hard, not only to further his own collection, but to further the philatelic passion in others; so much so that he offered to donate a trophy for George VI entries to the British Philatelic Exhibition or Stampex (the UK’s major National Exhibitions). He did this “to encourage members to exhibit to attract attention to the King George VI period and to show exhibit authorities that there is sufficient interest to justify a special award”.

By the end of his collecting life, he was well known for possessing “an example of virtually every George VI rarity with the exception of the Indian States and Japanese Occupation issues”, being particularly proud of (lot 482) his Hong Kong 8c imperforate pair, as well as (lot 1001) his mint St Vincent 10s. inverted watermark, “still one of only two mint examples known”. Lot 482, estimated: £12,000-15,000 / Lot 1001, estimated: £4,000 – 5,000

It is also worth noting that within this sale are some truly exciting items that are sure to set the Spink auction room furiously bidding. Lot 1088 is certainly amongst these stand-alone lots, a Southern Rhodesia 2d. block of twenty, being the complete lower two rows of a pane with imprint, variety double print, one albino with most showing traces of inking of the double impression, fine unmounted mint. Lot 1088, estimated: £20,000-25,000

Lot 877 also deserves a mention as a spectacular pair of 1943 New Zealand Health, Princesses Issues. Specifically they are a 1d.+1⁄2d. and 2d.+1d. corner blocks of eight containing an imperforate between pair of multiples. S.G. 636/a, 637/a, £32,000+. Lot 877, estimated: £15,000-20,000