Glossary of terms

Additions to our Glossary are welcome. Please e-mail them to glossary@mjpublications.com.

Letterpress, one word. Process of printing from raised type (see surface printing, typography)

offset, one word. Transfer of ink via a temporary carrier, as in offset litho printing. Often misused by philatelists for set-off (q.v.)

Perkins, Bacon & Co. The Penny Black was not printed by Perkins, Bacon. It was Perkins, Bacon & Petch from 1834 until 1852 when it became Perkins, Bacon & Co. There was no firm of Perkins, Bacon & Co. in 1840. (From 1887 P, B & Co. Ltd)

the Post Office, caps. Rowland Hill was Secretary of the Post Office

quartz lamp, use ultra-violet lamp or UV lamp. Modern ones are not necessarily made of quartz. The user is more concerned with the UV light than with the material of manufacture

set-off, hyphen. Direct transfer (usually unwanted) of ink from a printed sheet to one laid on top of it. A set-off occurs when the interleaving between two sheets of newly-printed stamps is creased over or shifted and an impression from the wet printed surface of one is imparted to the back of the other. cf. offset

silk-thread paper, hyphen. Now it is known that Dickinson used other materials (e.g. hemp and flax), not silk, it is appropriate to use ‘thread paper’

tête-bêche, (head-to-tail) ital. (ê = ASCII 136, ANSI 0234)

Typography, use letterpress. Typography is the art of printing from raised type or the design of printed matter using type; the process is letterpress. This term and surface printing were confusingly adopted by philatelists to mean letterpress printing