New Zealand: Chalons - 1855-1873

I was reading Bob Odenwellers book - The Postage Stamps of New Zealand: 1855 - 1873 The Chalon Heads - yesterday and a question arose around the Perkins Bacon 'London' prints.

The original supply from London was for :

1d  - 12,000
2d  - 66,000
1/- -   8,000

They were printed over a 1 week period.

Firstly on the 16 September , 1854 Perkins printed 225 sheets of the requested 275 sheets.
One week later, on the 23 September, 1854 Perkins printed the balance of the order - namely the remaining 50 sheets of the 2d as well as the 50 sheets of the 1d & 34 sheets of the 1/-.

So, the 1d and 1/- were printed in one printing. Straightforward.

But the 2d blue was printed over 2 printings, 1 week apart.

This makes me think - would there be shade differences between the two 2d blue printings? One of 225 sheets and one of 50 sheets !

I have but 4 copies of the 2d Greenish blue. 3 of them are quite similar in shade to each other - but one is slightly less greenish than the others.

Here are my 4 copies (the last one has poor margins).







And here are the different shades as I see them :




Now, my logic has it that as I have 3 similar in shade then that must be the shade of the largest printing - the 16th September, 1854 printing of 225 sheets.
And the one I only have 1 of must be from the smaller printing - the 23rd September, 1854 printing of 50 sheets

Purely based on numbers :-)


Have any of you with an interest in this have any knowledge of shade differences in the 2d blue 'London' print?
Perhaps you can show us yours .....


Dave

I only have one London print and no Richardsons on blue paper with a date stamp. The difference in color between mine and Dave's is likely due to the scanner. It would be great to have a color chart to scan next to a stamp to help with color identification.
 

I have copied your image Mark and resized it to add next to my two shades.

Your one seems to be a bit of a rougher quality print, overinked possibly. Is your gut feel that it is a 'London' print? The print quality seems more akin to a Davies to me. What does Grant think?
It does appear to be a Greenish Blue shade though! hmmm

Different scanners & monitors can make shades difficult to assess via our computers.





Dave

It is certified by Odenweller. 

Here are my 2 London 2d's scanned together:




The left hand example lacks the finer detail either through to much ink or possibly the paper being too damp. It appears a little lighter in shade but it is my belief that much of the finer nuance in shades among the chalons is just the result of storage, atmospheric conditions and cleaning over the last 160 plus years.

Beautiful as always Grant, most impressive. The papermakers watermarks are rare and to have such fine examples is impressive.

here's the only one I have on the 1d SG4, part of the KE from Sands and Kenny, not a great example but rare.


  


Philip

Nice one Philip.

This weekend I shall be re-examining my Richardsons for signs of a watermark.

I have about 4-5 SG4's and about 15 SG5's

I believe that the 1/- has never been found with a letter or script wmk!


Dave

For those that haven''t seen the full watermark, I attach my exhibition page.
Grant

So hard to say with any confidence Philip. As you say, no official way of determining fake from real as no documents released to date that tells you how to tell.
Even so called 'expert certificates' have been found to be woefully wrong!

So who to trust on these?
Odenweller - Is he still doing them?
RPSNZ
RPSL

Then who?

Your one pictured above - interesting to see a 'double roulette' version! I havent seen one before.


Dave

It certainly 'looks' ok at first glance.
It would be amazing if a person had rouletted the stamp so far inside the margins 'IF' faking it.
It would tend to make one think that this is kosher on that fact alone.

But it does 'feel' right Philip.

Let us know how it gets on with getting the cert. RPSNZ I presume?


Dave

Hi Guys
I too have no idea when it comes to roulettes.
Here are some of mine for comparison, all with verification.
What amazes me is why are such a large number of rouletted stamps have the small outwards "tuffs" of paper. Why don't we see equal number with the "recess" sections ?
SG50 Slate Blue RPS Cert


SG51 Pale Blue RPSNZ Cert ( front and back )






SG54 Brown ( actually no cert yet for this one )



SG57 Yellow Green 


SG104 Green BPA Cert ( front and back )






SG89 Deep Green RPSNZ Cert ( front and back )






Cheers Grant

The Fiscals may provide some information on the perforations. They had both 12.5 and 10 perforations and combinations of the two. Typically the combinations are 10x12.5, but I found a 12.5x10 (see the 6d). I don't know much about perforations, but if the perforating machines were used for both the log-type fiscals and the chalons etc, then the width between the perforations would have to be changeable to do the horizontal perforations on the fiscals. If both 10 and 12.5 have been used for this, then both types would have to be changeable. I don't think the comb perforations could be changeable and if the line perforators had multiple wheels, the wheels would have to be moveable. 

From Dave Elsmores website of NZ Revenues he shows :

'Y' Roulette



'H' Roulette




If they were on NZ Chalons then they would be:

Richardson Print
SG32a-SG32b if 'H' Roulette or SG32c-SG32g if 'Y' Roulette

Davies Print
SG67a-SG67c if 'H' Roulette or SG67d-SG67j if 'Y' Roulette



Dave

Lovely block Grant.

That would be 'irregular compound perf' rather than 'mixed perforations' of course. SG128a cat £700ea - against SG132a @ £225ea

Another Gem :-)



Dave