Census of 1c Blue, Type I (Scott 5)

Notes:

Bottom: Cut In But Identifiable (in at left, touched at right)
Top: Clear
Left: Cut In (most deeply along bottom left plume)
Right: Clear (barely clear at upper ornaments due to careless separation)
Unused (no gum). This single 7R1E was originally the left stamp of a strip of three, Positions 7-8-9R1E, with a larger top margin (see Ashbrook Special Service, p. 377). In an outrageous act of philatelic desecration, Sir Nicholas Waterhouse, an English accountant who obviously had a robot-like interest in numbers and lacked any normal human feeling either for his responsibility as a philatelist or for the preservation of important United States ephemera, cut apart the single from the adjoining pair, thus ensuring that his name would forever be inscribed in the annals of philatelic infamy. In an attempt to ameliorate the Waterhouse outrage, the severed pair has been kept with the single since 1955.

Provenance:

4/5/1922, Ferrary Collection, Gilbert, in Paris, as a strip of three, realized $278, purchased by Arthur Hind, the millionaire New York plush manufacturer, who also purchased the unique British Guiana One-Cent Magenta in the same sale. For a chatty firsthand account of Hind’s acquisition and Waterhouse’s subsequent desecration, see Ashbrook Special Service, p. 377.
11/20/1933, Hind Collection, Charles J. Phillips, still as a strip of three, realized $2,500 vs. $5,000 stated Scott value, selling to “Burris”(Maurice Burrus) according to SBA notation. Ultimately purchased by the desecrater Waterhouse. The single was donated by Waterhouse to the Red Cross in World War II and sold in 1943, purchased by Spencer Anderson, a dealer. Anderson sold it through the Baltimore dealer Perry Fuller to Ms. Metta Heathcoate.
Heathcoate Collection, whose collection was purchased by the Weills of New Orleans in a private treaty transaction around 1955 (some also offered in a Bruce G. Daniels sale).
6/14/1976, Rudolf Wunderlich, 500 Scott value Collection, purchased by Weill. Reported in Linn’s, Lot 146
5/19/1994, “Concord” Collection, Siegel Auction Galleries, 1994 Rarities - The Concord Collection, Sale 759, Lot 28
6/14/2024, William H. Gross Collection, Siegel Auction Galleries, United States Stamps Complete The William H. Gross Collection, Sale 1323, Lot 13, Realized $401,200

Certificates: