her stamp issues practically every year owing to the prevalence of forgeries making heavy inroads on the Government revenues. Yet the forgeries were of surface-printed issues, and this first Spanish issue in _taille-douce_ engraving, printed in London from the die of a London engraver, was never forged to defraud the Government, neither have the stamps been successfully imitated to deceive the collector. [Illustration: ENGRAVER'S PROOF OF THE QUEEN'S HEAD DIE FOR THE FIRST ADHESIVE POSTAGE STAMPS, WITH NOTE IN THE HANDWRITING OF EDWARD HENRY CORBOULD ATTRIBUTING THE ENGRAVING TO FREDERICK HEATH.] As an instance of how little Mr. Bourne had regarded the proofs taken of his work at various stages, a very fine proof in the set obtained by me was the Queensland head die proved upon a large sheet of thick porous paper, the whole of which proof had been used as a convenient blotting-pad! Proofs of the Mulready are not very difficult to obtain, even on India paper. There was in the Peacock papers a proof on India paper to which Rowland Hill had affixed his signature, the latter being added on a separate piece of writing-paper pasted over the India paper, which does not take writing. There must be many engravers of stamp dies who have accumulated a stock of proof specimens of their work, and these are well worth looking out for. A particularly choice item--said to be one of three copies originally taken--is the engraver's proof of the first adhesive postage, head only, without "POSTAGE," and undenominated. Mrs. Haywood, a grand-daughter of Henry Corbould and daughter of Edward Henry, and who is still further associated with the stamp as the niece of Frederick Heath, the engraver, has one of the three, which is in itself a unique item, for it bears in the handwriting of Edward Henry Corbould the note: "Engraver's Proof by Fredk. Heath after drawing by Henry Corbould, F.S.A." To this undoubtedly important piece of evidence I give special prominence, as it should establish the association of Frederick Heath, rather than his father Charles, with the engraving of this stamp. To Charles it was popularly attributed at the time of the issue of the stamp, as the father's name had been generally associated with much of the work done under his supervision, but not necessarily by his own hand, by his many pupils and assistants.[12] Mrs. Haywood tells me that there has never been any doubt among the older members of the family--the Heaths and Corboulds having intermarried--that Frederick was the engraver and not Charles, and Edward Henry Corbould was himself a collaborator with Frederick Heath on the coin-shaped Five Shillings stamp of New South Wales, of which Mrs. Haywood treasures also an engraver's proof.