The world’s most famous stamp, the elusive “Post Office Mauritius”, was sold yesterday for a record breaking £1,053,090 ($1,600,000) at Spink in London.

This is a record price for a stamp sold in the United Kingdom! Nearly half a dozen bidders in the room participated as the price of the lot shot skyward.

The stamp was one of the highlights of the Chartwell collection formed by businessman and philanthropist Sir Cyril Humphrey Cripps.

Over the next 18 months, Spink will sell The Chartwell Collection, which is the most valuable collection of stamps to come up for auction in modern times.

The collection consists of some of the finest material for Great Britain and the British Empire ever seen before and it is all material that is fresh to the marketplace.

Currently held in just over 80 stamp albums, The Chartwell Collection is estimated to fetch well in excess of £20,000,000 before the last lot is sold in December 2012.

Olivier Stocker, Chairman and CEO of Spink, comments: “The Chartwell Collection is, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the biggest “wow” moments we have ever experienced here at Southampton Row.

When the collection arrived in London it was amazing to watch as our specialists turned the pages of what may be one of the finest philatelic collections of our time.

Over eighty albums were opened, examined and taken in and it was wonderful to see the faces of the Spink team as treasure after treasure was revealed.

The story behind this collection is absolutely amazing and so unusual in so many ways. It is a great pleasure to be a part of these momentous sales!”