Legendary Australian winemaker auctions his stamp collection

No stranger to public life, now 87, James Halliday is undoubtedly better known as a wine writer and judge and successful vigneron than a stamp collector.

A one-time big city lawyer and merchant banker, like his passion for wine and winemaking, James love of stamp collecting runs deep and has done for many decades.

Declining health in recent times has meant the venerable wine industry icon has had to sell his country home and move to Sydney to share a house with daughter Caroline.

At the same time, the last of his stamp collections – South Australian Departmentals – will be auctioned from 10am Tuesday December 2 as part of Melbourne-based Abacus Auctions four-day sale (until Friday December 5) of Stamps, Postal History, Militaria, Coins and Banknotes and Sporting Memorabilia at 29 Hardner Road, Mount Waverley.

Departmental stamps – where the initials of each government department are overprinted in black or red on official issues – were introduced in 1868 by the South Australian Postmaster-General to alleviate concerns about the Post Office’s lack of revenue or accountability from stamps sent to other government entities.

This followed concerns that stamps, particularly those with a high face value, were not being used for their intended purpose – instead being hijacked for private use or redeemed for cash.

James Halliday, who has already several other collections through Abacus Auctions, has 770 stamp lots in this forthcoming offering.

The most valuable is one four-penny stamp overprinted by the Vaccination Board with the initials VN (lot 766) dated 1873.

With a catalogue estimate of $25,000, this is the Holy Grail for collectors of South Australian Departmentals, with only four examples ever recorded – two of which are in private hands.  

South Australia introduced its Compulsory Vaccination Act in 1853, with the Board chairman being the Colonial-Surgeon of the day and then disbanded the organisation 20 years later.

Stamps overprinted with the black letter P were introduced in 1868 to replace CP for the Commissioner of Police George Hamilton.

Lot 543 with double overprints (four Ps on two two-penny stamps) is the only recorded item with this configuration and carries a catalogue estimate of $5000.

The Convict Department had its own initials CD in red and black overprints. Something of a misnomer and run by the Comptroller of Convicts William Howell, succeeded in April 1869 by William Booth, it was responsible for local felons and their accommodation with jails at Dry Creek (now Yatala Labour Prison) and Redruth, both north of the South Australian capital Adelaide.

The red overprint one shilling stamp (lot 118) is extremely rare because the CD letters have been misplaced to the left.

Another interesting department was the Adelaide Lunatic Asylum, run during the Departmental stamps period by its director Alexander Paterson.

Red overprint LA letters appeared on all their stamps including the one shilling example (lot 403).

SPORTING MEMORABILIA

The sporting memorabilia section of the auction will be held on Friday December 5 featuring original paintings of all Melbourne Cup winners from the inaugural Archer in 1861 to Green Moon in 2012 (lot 3854).

In 1981, artist Janet Thomas was commissioned by local businessman Peter Karol to paint every cup winner since its inception for a series of Melbourne Cup calendars – as well as a special 1988 bicentennial exhibition at Caulfield’s Racing Museum. For the next 30 years Janet continued to paint the annual winner.

Another strong attraction are the very collectable early team photographs of the Australian cricket team including the 1926 side (lot 3580).

Other collectables from that period include the 1905 and 1909 team letterhead and signatures (lots 3576 and 3577).

Test cricket and Australian Rules Football cards are other auction treasures such as the 1995 Futera Shane Warne Hat Trick Signature Card (lot 3690), the 1996 Futera Decider Series (lot 3694), 1997 Select Signature Series (lot 3695) – featuring Steve Waugh, Jason Gillespie, Ian Chappell. Mark Taylor, Neil Harvey and Norm O’Neill – and 1998 Select Sir Donald Bradman Signature Card (lot 3698).

Football cards feature the 1996 Hall of Fame album containing Team of the Century, Hall of Fame legends and triple Brownlow medallists Dick Reynolds, Ian Stewart and Bobby Skilton (lot 3803).

Other football highlights include Geelong and Richmond club legends Polly Farmer and Jack Dyer (lots 3808 and 3807) signed 1996 Select Hall of Fame cards.