Surf's up! Extremely rare Hawaiian stamp blocks could ride to $50,000

The stamps of Hawaii have always been a subject of fascination for philatelists.  A substantial amount of rare and covetable material is available such that several great philatelists have focussed their lifelong attention on the island, and indeed some of the earliest great collections had Hawaiian stamps in a prized position.

Now, Siegel is to offer one of the great collections of the 20^th century: that of David Golden who was able to fill an incredible sixty Godden-manufactured albums with Hawaiian stamps and covers.

Just one of the highlights is the largest recorded multiple of the 13-cent Kamehameha III issue which is one of just three or four blocks extant.

This and the block of eight were cut from the same pane and were seen together in the Ferrars H. Tows collection sold by Carl E. Pelander in October 1948.

Kamehameha Hawaiian stamp block

After the Tows auction, the pieces were sold to Alfred H. Caspary (block of eight) and Admiral Frederic R. Harris (block of twelve). When the Harris and Caspary collections were sold in 1954 and 1957, respectively, no one seized the opportunity to reunite the two.

The larger block from the Harris sale went to Harold Leavitt, a California collector, and the small block from Caspary went to Josiah K. Lilly. After the Lilly collection was sold by our firm in 1967, the two blocks were finally reunited and acquired by Alfred J Ostheimer III.

Seen together again for the first time since the 1948 Tows sale, it was observed that someone, presumably Caspary, trimmed off a small part of the sheet margin of the smaller block.

The larger block is expected to sell for $20,000-30,000 whilst the smaller is listed at $15,000-20,000 in the Siegel auction which takes place on May 24-26.