Great Britain Philatelic Society

Does Plum have a range of acceptable shades or not?

Also, I would really like to see an example of Bronze and Copper. Tim

Also, I have made myself a colour guide which shows the ideal shades and also the point that Rose Red becomes Deep Rose Red and so on and would really like to show it to experienced collectors to see if I am accurately identifying colours or not! Tim

Plum has been defined in a range of shades for
example from low toned to intense.Holland used
the term low toned a long time ago.Not everyone is in agreement about this colour ,not even specialists.Some collectors even suggest
dropping it from the listings,because it is so close to another shade.I think it should remain
because it has been recognised and collected
not to say admired by specialists.

Graham Stockdale has examples together with similar claret and other "non catalogued" shades which he was showing to me at Stampex. He has referenced his collection to imprimaturs in plum. Am sure he would be happy to discuss any queries. (I don't have any scans sorry)
Phil

I would like to see your scans of rose red to dark rose red. I have special scanner software where I can quantify the colour in a series of numbers.
Never seen bronze or copper in 50 years of collecting 1d Reds.
Regards
Peter Fowler
pfowler999@talktalk.net

If you read the colour card by Tonna, he says there are no shades of Plum, and is just one colour. I doubt this due to time and air quality over 150 years +.
Peter Fowler

Hi Orchidman,
I know one specialist who believes that there is no range of shades of Plum and that is an intense shade. Ive heard that once seen that it is unmistakeable. I have reason to believe that it is pretty scarce in its true colour and that many so called Plum stamps
are very dark red browns on blued paper. I also think that even with an accompanying
Expert Certificate there is no guarantee that it is the true Plum.
Deep Clarets could be regarded as being pretty close to Plum . I do not know who first classified these shades, or the reason why these names were chosen.There is much disparity between shades classified by even experienced dealers. I am confident that with time and more research this problem will be overcome .

Hi Orchidman, just seen a Plum stamp described as a soft Plum shade.
Recently bought a much darker Plum from a very experienced specialist dealer. It is a shade i have not seen before. It really is distinctive, having trouble with my computer,
hope to be able to send an image when its sorted if this would be of interest to you.