Embedded Files
Initially, it was my intension to do a summary for each and every plate, but on reflection there is a large element of reinventing the wheel with such an exercise. Ken Statham has already completed a full run through of all penny red plates. The new Mulready website has also breathed new life into Allan Oliver’s excellent plate life document, led by Allan himself. I am more than happy to let him continue with that worthwhile job.
I have introduced below a numbers printed area where I can record what I think the printed totals are for each plate. Much of this information is taken directly from the Perkins Bacon archive and other official records such as IR79/79. Ken Statham started to work through this information and his work is held by Mike Williams and is used by him to help come to conclusions re printed numbers etc. Alan Druce has also made a concerted attack in this area, working through the 1840 – 1846 period in detail. The Archive is an area which has not been fully researched to any great extent, and Alan’s example of taking a holistic approach of taking all the information held in the archive and making one large picture is the way forward. If you are reading this and are looking for something worthwhile to do, you could do a lot worse than spend some time looking through the archives held at the Royal. There are treasures there waiting to be discovered.
The plate breakdown that follows mostly contains details of later states of impressions. There appears to be a lack of images of stamps in their various states, and this area is an attempt to start to change that. You will find some examples in Ian Wright’s missing imprimatur and penny black sites, but far from all. These sites are not really designed to collect state information in any case. Update 4/2023. I am pleased to say that Kevin Maunder and Tony Wells have bitten the bullet here and have started to list repairs along with good quality images. The results reside at https://www.gbps.org.uk/tools/repairs/ and you will need to be a member of the GBPS to view. Given the fact that you are interested enough to get this far combined with the low subscription for membership, there is absolutly no reason not to join! At present only the earlier plates are represented, but already there are noises being made about 155, 176 etc. A massive task.
AP
March 2021 - 2023
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