Original drawings are in nearly every case unique in themselves.
Curiously enough, Mulready is supposed to have made two, possibly
three, original sketches for his envelope, though even here each must
be regarded as dissimilar from the others. One is a pencil design in
outline, and is in the possession of His Majesty the King; the sketch
was sold with other drawings and sketches by Christie, Manson & Woods
on April 28, 1864, when it was stated by the auctioneer that this was
the only sketch of the design made by the artist. It is practically
the whole of the design as printed, and shares the peculiarity of the
issued envelopes and covers that one of the flying angels is drawn
without a second leg. Another sketch, according to Sir Henry Cole,[9]
had this omission corrected before it was presented to Mr. Thomas
Baring, M.P. If Sir Henry Cole were not mistaken, I must consider the
sketch in the possession of Miss Jaffray to be yet a third "original,"
as it is lacking the winged four figures entirely.
Another pair of sketches of unequalled importance is in the possession
of His Majesty. These are the two rough sketches in water-colours
of the designs of the first (1840) One Penny and Two Pence stamps,
submitted by Mr. Rowland Hill for approval of the Chancellor of the
Exchequer: across the head of the one in black Rowland Hill has written
"1d." in pencil, and similarly "2d." across the one in blue.
Original drawings of issued stamps very rarely leave the Government
or printer's establishments, but in a few cases they have come on the
market. A few years ago, in a large collection of colour-proofs of
stamps printed by De La Rue, I saw the original drawing for the 1881
stamps of Cyprus, a unique item which went to embellish the specialised
collection of the stamps of that colony formed by Mr. J. C. North, of
Huddersfield. Shortly afterwards I myself secured two original colour
drawings for the 1897 issue of British Central Africa.[10] I found them
in the Strand, where, strange to say, many of these out-of-the-way
items are often moderately priced, quite out of proportion to their
interest and relative scarcity, for it is only in comparatively recent
times that specialism has admitted these historic side-issues into the
stamp album. Mr. Charles J. Phillips, one of those rare combinations of
student and dealer, has permitted me to reproduce an original sketch
of the canoe type of Fiji, from the fine collection of this colony
formed by him.[11] The drawing was by Mr. Leslie J. Walker, Postmaster
of Suva, and represents "a young colony (the canoe forging ahead
towards the rising sun shows the progress of the colony); the crown is
retained, indicating that it is a colony of England."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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