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Auction: 24023 - British East Africa - The Simon Greenwood Collection
Lot: 205

British East Africa
1896-1901 Small Queen De La Rue Definitive Issue
Essays
Essay for a small format design, in pencil on thick cartridge paper (92x102mm.), with the legend "british east africa protectorate" and "one penny", marked and dated in ink "13 July" by Mr. Walrond Clarke, a Foreign Official. The essay was clearly used by De La Rue as a model for the finished stamps: Queen Victoria is supported by a lion at either side and there are crossed spears behind her vignette. This essay is commented on in a De La Rue archive note: "On 13th July 1895 Sir Percy Anderson, Foreign Office, handed us this rough pencil sketch for a stamp for the new British Protectorate in East Africa, and asked us to prepare a design after the style of the Niger Coast stamp shown, with an estimate by the copper-plate process." The original sample Niger Coast stamp remains affixed to the piece. This essay remains one of the most important items in the entire De La Rue archives in that it was the first occasion that De La Rue has quoted for a complete series printed by the line-engraved (or copper plate) process. See The De La Rue History of British and Foreign Postage Stamps by John Easton, page 153. Photo

provenance:
De La Rue archives, July 1976
John Minns, April 2001

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Sold for
£2,500