Commentary

	Canadian Stamp Auctions
Stamp Market Commentary

Commentary No. 133 – July 17, 2010

Charles Firby announces a major change

Charles Firrby

Charles Firby, the owner of Firby Auctions in Waterford, Michigan, has announced that after his May 26th sale, he would no longer be sending out general worldwide auction catalogues and holding regular sales.

But he is also making it clear he is not completely retiring. In fact, there are some significant parts of his business he plans to continue. These include:

· Holding special auctions of one owner specialty collections.

· Providing advice to collectors on where and how to offer their collections for sale.

· Providing expertising services for BNA material.

· Helping clients build their world class collections.

· Acting as agent for clients in worldwide auctions.

We wish Charles well in his new approach to doing business on a reduced scale. The Firby firm has gained an excellent reputation over the past 25 years for its auctions of British North American material. It has probably offered more outstanding one owner collections than any other firm.

Charles is an acknowledged expert on Canadian postal history and co-authored “The Canadian Posted Letter Guide” with Victor Willson as well as “The Pence Covers of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick 1851-1860” with George Arfken and “Canada’s Pence Era: The Pence Stamps and the Canadian Mail 1851-1859” with Arfken, Leggett and Steinhart. He also authored “The Gems of Canadian Philately” and “The Postal Rates of Canada: 1851-1868 The Provincial Period – A Recording”.

In addition to his 25 years of well researched auction catalogues as well as two of the above mentioned titles, he also found time to publish three other handbooks on British North America Philately including “Canadian Military Postal Markings” by William Bailey and Ritch Toop and “Airmails of Canada 1925-1939” by George Arfken and Walter Plomish as well as David F. Session’s “Philatelic Fantasies of British North America 1860-1910”.

He also had more than 500 articles published in various journals such as Mekeel’s Stamp Weekly, Maple Leaves, BNA Topics, The Canadian Philatelist, Postal History Journal, Postal History Society of Canada Journal, etc..

We will miss his regular auctions. The auction scene has lost a major player. In this Commentary, we feature some of the wonderful stamps and collections that have passed through Charles’ hands over the years. Putting together such a retrospective has been a great pleasure for us.

Thomas R. Burpee
Canadian Stamp Auctions

Montreal, QC

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A FEW GEMS FROM CHARLES FIRBY’S PAST AUCTIONS

Oct. 29, 2005

Loch Collection

Apr. 28,1999