A COLLECTION of British Common wealth stamps, covering the period 1840-1936, sold for £3,500 at last Saturday's auction of stamps and postal memorabilia conducted by Whyte's in the company's Dublin premises on Marlborough Street. A total of 270 letters with Irish postal marks from the first half of the last century went well over their £400 estimate to make £1,000, the same price as that realised by a Fenian essay for un issued 24 cents stamps (estimate £900).

A 1907 Sinn Fein block of eight labels sold for £1,600; six hand painted essays for Irish definitive stamps by Edmund Dolan (rejected by the Post Office at the time) fetched £1,000; a pair of mint condition 1934 two penny stamps from a vending machine made £500; and a 1937 St Patrick first day cover with three stamps realised £1,500.