Perkins Bacon Printers: History & Use of Blued Paper
Dec 8, 2022 17:40:25 GMT
renden, kasvik, and 4 more like this
Post by Beryllium Guy on Dec 8, 2022 17:40:25 GMT
Moderator Note: This thread on bluing was created as an outgrowth from an earlier thread titled How to identify imperforate Penny Red plate numbers? in which some information about the history of Perkins Bacon's use of blued paper was presented. As the direction of this line of inquiry was about the blued paper and not specifically about the Penny Reds, it was decided to relocate these latest posts into a thread of their own.
One thing that makes this difficult to do, according to Gibbons, is that the later mineral-based inks fade with exposure to sunlight.
At this point some explanation of the change from blue paper to white, and the change in inks as well as the Fleet St fire in March 1857 is in order here.
So, twice since they were awarded the printing contract, Perkins Bacon had faced pressure to lower the contract price: first in 1851, when Henry Archer tried to win the perforating contract, and then again in 1856 when De La Rue submitted a very competitive tender.
Prussiate of Potash, which was added to the ink, and is what was responsible for the bluing in the paper, was the most expensive ingredient in the then vegetable-based ink. Eliminating this was the key to maintaining profit on the contract. So, in 1856 experiments began to first reduce the amount of Prussiate of potash, and then eliminate it entirely. The partially blued stamps are listed in Gibbons as the regular blued paper. Gibbons then lists printings on cream tinted or white paper in both red brown and various red and orange red shades. The cream colour on some comes from reactions in the pigment of the inks. But the paper itself never changed - just its perceived colour.
As the bluing was eliminated, further experiments were done to thin the ink with oil, which took the colour from red to rose.Many thanks for your interesting recent posts, Chris. I am a collector of early GB, although I have not devoted much time to it up to now. Over the past couple of years, I have become much more involved with the line-engraved Cape Triangles, which were initially also printed by Perkins Bacon using the same process as for the Penny Reds, according to what I have read, mainly from: Stevenson, D. Alan. The Triangular Stamps of Cape of Good Hope. H.R. Harmer Ltd., London, 1950.
Stevenson also writes about the bluing of the paper, stating that it was an unintentional consequence of using the prussiate of potash in the ink, the purpose of which was to prevent fraudulent removal of cancellations by chemical means. He wrote that the blue color resulted from a chemical reaction between the ink and the paper, and he mentions the "sizing" or weak glue that was used to hold the paper together as a possible cause of that reaction.
He also wrote that the intensity of the bluing was a result of how wet the paper was at the time of printing. This latter statement in particular would seem to be at odds with what you have written about the amount of prussiate of potash being reduced intentionally over time to eliminate its use due to its high cost.
Are you able to elaborate further about your source of information about the bluing and comment on Stevenson's remarks?
Also, we have a member here on TSF, michael , who is a specialist in Perkins Bacon stamps and printing processes. So, I am tagging him in this post to see if he may add some comments to this discussion. If we end up going down a rabbit hole about the bluing of paper in these issues, I will move any posts on that subject to a new thread on that specific subject instead of derailing this thread about Penny Reds.
Thanks again for your informative post and looking forward to your further comments.
At this point some explanation of the change from blue paper to white, and the change in inks as well as the Fleet St fire in March 1857 is in order here.
So, twice since they were awarded the printing contract, Perkins Bacon had faced pressure to lower the contract price: first in 1851, when Henry Archer tried to win the perforating contract, and then again in 1856 when De La Rue submitted a very competitive tender.
Prussiate of Potash, which was added to the ink, and is what was responsible for the bluing in the paper, was the most expensive ingredient in the then vegetable-based ink. Eliminating this was the key to maintaining profit on the contract. So, in 1856 experiments began to first reduce the amount of Prussiate of potash, and then eliminate it entirely. The partially blued stamps are listed in Gibbons as the regular blued paper. Gibbons then lists printings on cream tinted or white paper in both red brown and various red and orange red shades. The cream colour on some comes from reactions in the pigment of the inks. But the paper itself never changed - just its perceived colour.
As the bluing was eliminated, further experiments were done to thin the ink with oil, which took the colour from red to rose.
Stevenson also writes about the bluing of the paper, stating that it was an unintentional consequence of using the prussiate of potash in the ink, the purpose of which was to prevent fraudulent removal of cancellations by chemical means. He wrote that the blue color resulted from a chemical reaction between the ink and the paper, and he mentions the "sizing" or weak glue that was used to hold the paper together as a possible cause of that reaction.
He also wrote that the intensity of the bluing was a result of how wet the paper was at the time of printing. This latter statement in particular would seem to be at odds with what you have written about the amount of prussiate of potash being reduced intentionally over time to eliminate its use due to its high cost.
Are you able to elaborate further about your source of information about the bluing and comment on Stevenson's remarks?
Also, we have a member here on TSF, michael , who is a specialist in Perkins Bacon stamps and printing processes. So, I am tagging him in this post to see if he may add some comments to this discussion. If we end up going down a rabbit hole about the bluing of paper in these issues, I will move any posts on that subject to a new thread on that specific subject instead of derailing this thread about Penny Reds.
Thanks again for your informative post and looking forward to your further comments.
