The lifetime collection of 'a journalist and presumed diplomat'

The consignor is John Newall who gained access to some of the world’s most secretive countries during the Cold War.

From the 1950s to the 70s Newall travelled for his work to places such as North Korea, China, Tibet, Russia, Manchuria, Zanzibar, and Panama at a time when they were largely ‘off-limits’ to westerners.

He was particularly interested in postal history and this, only the first tranche of the collection, features a large number of stamps and items of postal history relating to both pre- and post-war communist countries. Director Matthew Caddick says “The remarkable stamp collection boasts some extremely rare lots. In relation to the Korean stamps in particular, the collection represents both a quantity and quality that’s seldom seen on offer all in one place.” The stamp element of the sale has been catalogued with specialist sale-partner Argyll Etkin of Wardour Street, London.

The remainder of the collection comprises propaganda material, ethnographic art and other trinkets that stem from a life of travelling, working and collecting. As all the 427 lots are offered without reserve and without estimates so an opening bid of £10 might sometimes be enough to make a purchase.

Pictured here is a small selection of the items on offer. 

This 67cm carved wood figural group titled 'Soldat, Arbeiter, Bauerin' (Soldier, Worker, Farmer), depicts a mother and father sending their son off to the front. It was originally a gift from the USSR to Wilhelm Pieck, president of the GDR from 1949-60.

An Alaskan Inuit spirit mask carved from fossilised whalebone acquired in the 1960s from Inuit artists near the Bering Sea.

This much travelled postcard depicting the French port of Boulogne went on a  two-and-a-half month journey across the Far East in 1912. First addressed with a 10 centimes stamp to the Cruiser Dupleix of the Far East Fleet, Yokohama, it is then readdressed on several occasions to Shinwantao (China), Vladivostok (Russia) Kobe and Hakodate (Japan), Swatow Tientsin and Moukden (China),

Mid-20th century.Soviet banner 'Proletarians of all Countries Unite' with portraits of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin 

Russian lacquered box c.1972 decorated with a depiction of the ship Nahezhda Krupskaya