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| Postage Stamp Pageant |
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| The other day Francis attended a meeting at the Royal Philatelic Society and had some spare time available to spend a little while looking at new features in their splendid library. One new item is the compilation by John Ray of all the exhibition catalogues held within the library dating from the first stamp exhibition held in Vienna in 1882. Scanning through this important new compilation of data, Francis happened to spot one entry - 1932 UK London Pageant of Postage Stamps, 6th to 23rd January. The material held included a catalogue, a set of seven postcards, and an entrance ticket. This struck a chord, and a request to see the file provided more interesting information. |
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| Schoolboys' Exhibition |
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The exhibition was actually entitled 'Models Exhibition and Pageant of Postage Stamps, Dorland Hall, 18/20 Regent Street, London SW1'. It was organised by London (West End) Exhibitions Co. in conjunction with 'Stamp Collecting'.
Predominantly a models exhibition, on the second floor of Dorland Hall there was held a 'Pageant of Postage Stamps
Incorporating The Schoolboys' Stamp Exhibition and Stamp Fair (Organised by 'Stamp Collecting' in conjunction with the Junior Philatelic Society)'. The Honorary President was Fred J Melville (President of the JPS - now the National Philatelic Society), the Chairman F Hugh Vallencey (President of London Stamp Club), and Organising Secretary Douglas B Armstrong of 'Stamp Collecting'. This was news to us. However, 'The Pageant of Postage
Stamps' did mean something, and so back home to our collections for more information. |
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| Dummy Stamps |
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Above: Die proofs produced by
Waterlow & Sons, showing the
statue of Queen Boadicea near
Westminister Bridge |
Waterlow & Sons Ltd had a stand in the Annexe to the Exhibition, at which they exhibited 'dies, plates and other material used in the printing of postage stamps, together with specimens of finished and partly finished stamps'. Like most stamp printers, they had produced stamps simply to use as examples of their printing skills - so called 'dummy stamps'. Around that time, Waterlow had produced two designs for this purpose, one of the Tower Bridge and the River Thames, and the other of Queen Boadicea on her chariot with the Houses of Parliament in the background.
Incidentally, Queen Boadicea was the British Queen who in 62AD led a great revolt of the Iceni Tribe against the Romans. When defeated, she poisoned herself. Her statue, standing in a chariot drawn by one horse, is on the bank of the River Thames at Westminster Bridge.
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Above: Gummed imperf die proofs
from Waterlow & Sons, showing
Tower Bridge, here in black and blue. |
We illustrate die proofs of these stamps (ex Waterlow Archive), the Boadicea stamp being represented by an orange pull from the complete die, and two later dies of the stamp design being divided into two parts - Boadicea and the Houses of Parliament. There are reasons why there are single and double die proofs, and we will discuss these in a later article. We also have plate proofs of these designs, Boadicea in an imperf, gummed block of six, and Tower Bridge in vertical imperf pairs on gummed paper in red (illustrated), in black and in blue.
For the 1932 exhibition, Waterlow used these stamps with the words 'Souvenir of the Pageant of Postage Stamps' included within the designs, in red on the Boadicea stamp, and in black on the three colours of the Tower Bridge stamps. The actual printings of these stamps in sheet form are of interest. The Boadicea stamp comes in a sheet of five horizontally, and ten vertically (making 50 stamps per sheet), with very large margins at the top and bottom of the sheet; we have only seen the one sheet.
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