Zurich: Philately’s most precocious stamps affixed on an envelope Sent from Mauritius to. Bordeaux in 1847 were sold on Nov.3 for $3.3 million, a record for one postal item.
The envelope, known as the “Bordeaux cover,” and found by a French schoolboy in dusty archives in 1902, was bought at a Zurich public auction by a middle-aged woman who declined to say who she was.
Experts said the previous record for a cover was $2.5 million, paid at a Lugano auction in 1991 for an envelope bearing a mid19th century British “2nd of May” Penny Black.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 12, 1993
