JORDAN
The Joe Patient DFC Unissued Set of King Talal
1951 King Talal Coronation Issue complete unused set of five value including:
1f fil green & grey, 2 fils orange & grey, 3 fils red & grey, 20 fils purple & grey, 100 fils dark blue & grey.
Public Auction
Minimum bid: 15000.00 EUR
This extremely rare set was originally prepared for issue during King Talal’s very short reign from July 1951 to August 1952 when he abdicated, hence, the entire printing was destroyed by fire except for a handful of examples of each, the 100 fils being the rarest with apparently only a pair surviving the fire & which were poorly separated, hence, the small portion of the adjoining stamp, still attached the 100 fils in this set.
Note: An article was published in the October 2000 issue of the London Philatelist describing in detail the event surrounding the sets discovery, rarity and important to the world of philately. The text from the article is included online and with the lot.
Undoubtedly one of the rarest sets of Middle Eastern philately and of course missing from the Royal collection, truly a great rarity with a wonderful provenance and story behind it.
Joe Patient was born in London in 1917. After a variety of jobs he worked as a fitter at De Havillands on the experimental Mosquito fighter-bomber. In 1941 he volunteered and trained in Canada, and was commissioned into the Mosquito Pathfinder Squadron. Awarded a DFC for his fifth operation, he flew 59 in total. He became test pilot, instructor and Commanding Officer of “M” Squadron Glider Pilot Regiment. Operations in Palestine were followed by becoming CHief Test Pilot MEDME. After demob in 1948 he became and advisor to the Royal Egyptian Air Force, followed by GM Arab Airways in Jordan. Following other executive posts he finally completed a flying career of 32 years, piloting over 80 marks of aircraft.
He was first introduced to stamp collecting by R. T. Ledger MBE, author of the “Philatelic History of Jordan -1922-1953” and even assisted in its compilation. When King Abdulla of Jordan was assassinated in Jerusalem in 1951, his son Amir Talal succeeded, and special stamps were prepared to commemorate his accession. His was, however, to be a short and sorry reign. Blighted by continual health problems, he abdicated less than a year later. The stamps were sent to be incinerated but one way or another, both partly burnt and undamaged stamps were salvaged, many of which came into Joe Patients’s possession, before selling them to the Mosden Stamp Company in the Strand in 1956. However it was through his contact with a Minister present at the burning that he was bale to purchase an example of the 100f stamp, of which only 2 were saved from the fire.
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