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A few weeks ago we had our winter local stamp society's meeting which, due to the possibility of bad weather, is traditionally 'Members' Displays'. As we had been working on our Peru Revenues so that they could be entered into the BRN02000 International Exhibition in Czech Republic, we thought we would take along and show the 1872 issues that were printed by Charles Skipper & East, London. 14 members attended the evening and one of them stated that he remembered destroying the printing plates for this issue of stamps! The chance of finding the person who destroyed plates produced a century ago must be nearly zero! However, to reduce the odds, Basingstoke, and hence McCorquodale (as well as De La Rue Co), are not far from where we live, and at some stage McCorquodale purchased Charles Skipper & East, along with some other security cheque printers.
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CSEL surface-
printed essay of
dummy stamp
showing a female
head allegedly
that of a Goddess
Plenty |
We thought what a good idea to write about Charles Skipper & East, London (CSEL) for this column. Easy, get the handbooks out. We remembered that CSEL submitted essays to the Post Office for the 1879 Tender for the One Penny postage stamp, but more about this later, and we knew about Peru revenues, even though these were the only South American revenue stamps printed by CSEL. A look through our handbooks and journals - London Philatelist, Stamp Lover, British Philatelist, Philatelic Journal of Great Britain, The Philatelist, GB Journal - nothing! LN and M Williams Fundamentals of Philately - nothing! The De La Rue History of British and Foreign Postage Stamps'by John Eaton (1958) and The British Postage Stamp by Robson Lowe (2nd edition 1979) has got some reference to CSEL, but not much. |
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| One Penny Quotes |
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| Referring to the 1879 tender, Easton states that the Inland Revenue Board wrote to six printers (De La Rue, Perkins Bacon, McCorquodale, James Truscott, Waterlow and Bradbury Wilkinson) on April 3, 1879 requesting the printers to quote for the supply of One Penny postage stamps as the contract with Perkins Bacon was about to terminate. A memorandum issued April 29 by the Board included the name of Charles Skipper & East, London as the seventh printer to quote for the new contract. In The British Postage Stamp Chapter IX, details are given of the essays submitted by each printer that are in Reginald Phillips' collection that was presented to the National Postal Museum. CSEL submitted two essays. These were identical in design to that struck on medals for the Maori Wars and the Abyssinia Expedition of 1868-69 (Stanley Gibbons' Great Britain Volume 1, Queen Victoria 1992 10th edition) and were considered not suitable. They also submitted a dummy stamp showing a female head, facing left, and allegedly that of a Goddess Plenty (wheat can be seen in her hair) or Ceres. From this design a surface-printed essay was made - see illustration in blue on thin card; these dummy stamps are not that uncommon. Another essay attributed by Phillips to CSEL was, in fact, submitted by De La Rue and actually was an adaptation of the 1868 Postal Fiscal (compare Robson Lowe page 218 with SG GB Queen Victoria Specialised). |
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| Peru Revenues |
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| Sol value Peru Revenue |
Turning to our Peru Revenues, a lot of information can be found in The Revenue Stamps of Peru, Volume 1, by Herbert Moll (1991). Revenue stamps were first issued in Peru on 1st August 1866 and were printed by the American Bank Note Company, New York (ABNC). A number of designs were used in quite strong colours and we illustrate the 25 Sol value.
The third type, issued on January 1, 1870, was overprinted with one of 18 provinces or departments and the year dates 1870/1871. Peru, along with most South American countries, dated their revenue stamps to indicate the period when they were valid. This was done as an anti-fraud measure. Illustrated is a Plate Proof of the 20 Sol value in blue green.
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Plate Proof of the 20
Sol value in blue green. |
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Die Proof on the 20 Sol
value in the unissued
maroon |
For some reason the ABNC lost the contract for printing the revenue stamps and Charles Skipper & East, London was given the new contract. They held the contract until 1888, when it in turn went to a local printer. However, CSEL only ever gained the one stamp production contract in South America.
What is surprising is that CSEL re-engraved the dies for each value, but primarily maintaining the same design as ABNC. This must have been at the request of Peru since any printer of reputation would want to demonstrate its own design capability. There are a number of differences in designs, but not startling ones. The most prominent differences in all values, irrespective of design, is in the shading around the 'tree' in the top right portion of the Peru Coat of Arms. In the CSEL engraving there is very clear white space around the tree, and no horizontal shading to the left of the tree. For the ABNC, the engraving lines touch the tree at all points, shading lines being cross hatched to right, and horizontal to left, of the tree. We illustrate a die proof of the 20 Sol value in the unissued maroon colour; the die proofs are sometimes wrongly attributed to ABNC. |
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