Friday, April 20, 2012

Contemporary account of the Queensland 1st Sideface issue


The British journal, the Philatelic Record in1879 on p. 51 described the Queensland first sideface issue as follows:

“At last we are in possession of one of the long-heralded new stamps for this colony. And yet we are not happy! Alas! what a falling off is here! The old Queensland stamps are, in our- opinion, amongst the most beautiful in our collection, whilst the stamp before us is certainly one of the ugliest. The head of Her Majesty, on a lined background, is enclosed in an oval of solid colour, upon which are the words, in curves, “QUEENSLAND" above and "Two PENCE " beneath, in white block letters. A mean, corkscrewy ornament on each side of the oval fills up the interstices between the lettering. The spandrels are formed of close net-work, and two fine outer lines, the inner one white and the outer one blue, form a frame to the whole.”

Later the journal received the receipt of the 1d without comment, and then, when they got a copy of the 4d., this observation: “The 4d. value of the new type is now in circulation. This stamp looks, if possible, even worse than the two already chronicled, perhaps on account of its colour."

What do you think? 

No comments:

Post a Comment