Typical meeting

SATURDAY 27 MAY AT SS2000 — BITS AND PIECES BY JOHN PHILLIPS

The President, Michael Sefi, welcomed 42 members and guests including Michael Dixon and Ann Triggle from the US, the latter being a guest from the Great Britain Collectors' Club, Theo Brauers, the President of Forschungsgemeinschaft Grossbritannien in Germany, and our members, Burkhart Beer and Karl Louis who brought his father, Albert.

This display covered the period from 1840 to 1887 and John chose his very understated title merely because he likes to collect examples of great interest, often of great rarity. When describing his surface printed collection, he described it as 'abnormal' as he has so many of these types and this would be an apt description for the whole display.

John started the Line-Engraved with Chalmers reprints, a Charles Whiting Treasury essay and the rejected First Die, in a range of colours including brown and the reprints, progressing to a die proof of the 1d black and examples of the Rainbow and cancellation trials, many in corner blocks. As regards the stamp, he showed the five repaired states of Plate 1, three each of Plates 5 and 9 and Plate 11 examples. This was followed by the trials on Dickinson silk thread paper from March to May 1841. Turning to the 2d blue, we saw the Postmasters' Circular, the set of London numbers in Maltese Cross cancellations and various repairs to the bottom sheet row. Also a 1d black Plate 7 on an 1843 cover (illustrated) cancelled by the No. 12 in Cross addressed to one John Phillips!

This lead on to a sample of 1d red plates and their repairs, for instance Plate 47 in a made up block of 35 and a copy of the B-/BA from Plate 77. John is much interested in the change from imperforate to perforated so there were examples of the Archer roulette, the Government trial perforations 16 and 14, query the purpose of the latter, and the Prince Consort essays including the blue colour used for experiments. These and the issued C1 stamps from Plates 155 to 176 showed matching imperforate and perforated examples. We cantered through a range of unusual 1d red material including corner plate number blocks, reserve plate usages, the Scudamore Inspector handstamp, Neale steam press experiments, Spoon postmarks, large crown watermark errors, colour trials for fugitive inks on the 1d plate numbers and, as a coup de grâce in this section, the four corner letter Plate 77 certified in 1914 by E. D. Bacon (illustrated).

The Line-Engraved finished with the imperforate 2d Plate 9 Paris Exhibition proofs, the 1½d value was represented by colour trials of both Plates 1 and 3 and the OP/PC error, there was a De La Rue die proof and the Ormond Hill Die Proofs of the ½d value. The embossed issue was covered by, for instance, the 1s value with double impression.

Following this John turned to the Surface Printed progressing through the values for which he has a substantial range of 'standard' material. This report picks the unusual. The 2½d showed numerous handpainted essays and imprimaturs. The 3d started the abnormals and a range of colour trials which do not have any apparent purpose. The 4d (and 9d) provided a January 1862 Postmasters' notice with these stamps attached cancelled SPECIMEN as is normal for this use. These notices are another special interest of John evidenced by the display. Later 4d values through to the colour changes showed double printing, imperforates, imprimaturs, Plate 16 abnormals with upright and inverted watermarks and another Postmasters' notice. To catch the eye, John had the 1867 Paris Exhibition proof sheets of 20 stamps on a number of values including here the 1865 4d Plate 8 and, later, the 6d and 9d Plate 4.

The 6d (and 1s) commenced with the 1856 Postmasters' notice and attached specimens. It progressed from the lilac through the buff to the grey. The lilac was shown on extremely blue paper, there were plate proofs in green and blue and the watermark errors of missing bit and wrong replacement bit. The buff was there in imprimaturs and the chestnut and pale buff abnormals from Plates 12 and 13 respectively. The grey showed watermark varieties and Plates 17 and18 colour trials. The 8d value was represented by the unissued purple brown and a Plate 1 imprimatur. The 9d, as mentioned above, included the Plate 3 (with hairlines) abnormal and Plate 5 cut from the imprimatur sheet. This was not issued but was perforated for use in the De La Rue 1890 presentation packs.

The 10d value saw more abnormals and specimens together with another lovely Postmasters' notice for June 1867 attaching the 10d, 2s and 5s values. The 1s was well represented with many colour trials, the Stock Exchange forgeries on Plates 5 and 6 and the green Plate 14 abnormal. At this stage, John mentioned that he and Karl Louis hoped to pool their 'resources' to create a definitive list and the story of the various abnormals. It was obvious from the display that the Journal editor is waiting in impatient expectation! Finishing with 1867, we saw the 2s imperforate Plate 1 and the high value 5s, 10s and £1 colour trials overprinted specimen.

Then, we turned to the 1879 tender with sheets of essays from Perkins, Bacon and examples from McCorquodale engraved by W. H. Hooper and from Charles Skipper and East all for the Consolidated Contract, which was awarded to De La Rue. Also, there were examples of the essays prepared by De La Rue based on different shapes for each value suggested by T. Jeffrey, controller of the London Postal Service, to help sorting in bad light.

Penny Lilacs were shown in profusion with varieties, including imperforate, colour trials, imprimaturs and advertisements on the back. Additionally, there was a variety of the 1882 essays in strips of three overprinted in different colours and denominations as trials to assist sorting in gas light (illustrated).

To draw the display to a close, we came to the lilac and green issue with the Postmasters' notice of 1 April 1884, 56 colour trials of the 2d lilac (illustrated) and an example of the first die of the 5d with the line under d.

Chris Harman thanked John for a fantastic display of the erudite and unusual, much understated in the presentation. This report can give only a flavour of the depth of coverage of these 'bits and pieces'.

IAN HARVEY