Sale 1147 — The Don David Price Collection of the U.S. 1918 24c Jenny Air Post Issue
Sale Date — Tuesday, 28 February, 2017
Category — Grounded Plane Blocks
24c Carmine Rose & Blue, 1918 Air Post, Grounded Plane Variety (C3 var). Block of four with horizontal guideline between the fifth and sixth rows, vignettes shifted well into “Cents”, particularly on the bottom right stamp, lightly hinged, bright fresh colorsEXTREMELY FINE BLOCK OF FOUR OF THE RARE GROUNDED PLANE VARIETY. FEWER THAN EIGHT BLOCKS ARE RECORDED.
The true Grounded Plane stamps, in which the wheels of the plane break through the top of “Cents”, come from various portions of three different sheets. The discovery sheet was owned and broken up by John Klemann Jr. of Nassau Stamp Company. A second sheet was discovered in 1946 and sold in the Thomas A. Matthews sale (H. R. Harmer, Nov. 4, 1964), where it was purchased by Georges A. Medawar, publisher of Sanabria Airmail Catalogue. In Linn's Stamp News (April 21, 1986), Joe Kirker published his research identifying a third sheet as the source of the Grounded Plane variety.
The block offered here shows a strong downward shift and is extraordinarily fresh. The guideline indicates it comes from the fifth and sixth rows of a sheet. Comparing this block to the photograph of the Matthews-Medawar (Sanabria) sheet and the single on the Klemann cover in lot 8, which comes from the fifth row (guideline at bottom, centered to top), we can rule out those two sources. This block must come from the Third Sheet.
