Frederick Heath & Australian State Of Victoria

Frederick Heath is known for engraving this one,

which he followed up with this one.

For New South Wales he engraved this one

and this one.


But this is where it gets interesting: there is one source which states that Heath has PROBABLY engraved the 1856 Victoria 'Queen on Throne' stamps, the Perkins Bacon version.


Now I have only recently read this and had never heard of it before so I'd love to know more. I understand that Geoff Kellow's book The Stamps of Victoria' is the book on the subject.

It is rather pricey though and as I only need to find out about Heath I don't really want to fork out such an amount.

So: does anybody here have this book? And if so, would you please look for me under the 1856 Queen on Throne issue and see if it says anything about the engraver?

It becomes even more complicated because apparently Perkins Bacon also made proofs of the same design for New South Wales. Question is then of course whether this was the identical engraving or whether a completely new one was produced. The only obvious difference seemed to be the space for the country name at the top, which was larger (though usually blank) on the NSW essays. But I have as yet no clue where to research that one. So let's stick to Kellow first and see what comes up!

Hi, I have a copy of Kellow's Book. There is no direct reference to the engraver (Heath) of the stamps in question. However, there is some useful information about how the stamps were produced and their probable links to the stamps that you mention. There is also a reference list that may provide useful information. I'm happy to scan the pages and send them to you.
Cheers, Stephen

Hi Stephen
Oh yes please, that would be wonderful. I believe you can email me directly via the icons on top of the posts?
Adrian

Would you kindly advise, if any news surfaces, please?
Apparently only 1 of 3 stamps, not produced wholly within Victoria.

I actually only know of two stamps: the 1d yellow-green issued in 1856 and the 6d bright blue issued in 1858. Which would be the third one? As far as I know, both were printed in London, with the 1d issued as it came, i.e. imperf, and the 6d issued rouletted, with the rouletting having been done in Victoria, by a certain Robinson.

Information from a very clunky old "Seven Seas" production, I'll see if I can dig it out, perhaps my memory chip has failed.

I have part of a study on the 2d Ham, engravings, I was hoping that may shed some light, but dashed if I can find the monograph / magazine.

Update: Memory chip, intact. "Agent Ransack" found the image in a trice.

As an aside, I have collected Australia over 10 years, the earlies were beyond my wallet, hence I have not spent a great deal of time studying those issues.
Can you possibly explain this Hesshaimer item please

PS: "Queen on Throne" should be "Queen on Coronation Chair"



The old "Seven Seas" commentary.........

Adrian - the third stamp not wholly produced in Victoria was the 2d lilac from 1870.
Dies were engraved by Joubert and the plates prepared by De La Rue. The printing was carried out in Melbourne. (ASC)

http://stampsofvictoria.com/70-84issues.php
scroll down to Two Pence

Interesting piece on the perforation "repair strip" in the above link,
Not heard of that prior.

Thanks 22crows for clearing that up.

As for Hesshaimer: he was apparently a designer of real stamps but he also just designed for the heck of it, so this may just be a fanciful bit of work he did. See here: http://www.malariastamps.com/exhibi...wig08-08.pdf br /

I have found a scan of one of those NSW essays:

Comparing it to the Victoria stamp it does look quite identical and seeing that they are both Perkins Bacon items produced roughly at the same time, it may well be an identical engraving, which could link this one to Frederick Heath too.

So a following question is: are there any definitive books on NSW stamps?

In the meantime I'll try and get some information from the auction house selling this item.

PS: about these Ham issues: when Ham is mentioned, I presume we're talking about the printing firm here? Or did Mr Thomas Ham himself actually engrave the die for these Ham issues? If not, do we know who did?

From the Australian Dictionary of Biography - Thomas Ham
'Thomas had trained as an engraver and in 1843 was commissioned to engrave the corporation seal for the Town of Melbourne. With his business in Collins Street, East Melbourne, he was sole contractor for engravings and lithography for the government and designed and engraved currency notes for various banks... Ham lithographed the first Victorian stamps issued in January 1850: 1,800,000 'Half-length' stamps for 1d., 2d. and 3d. values, and also lithographed fifty brass cancelling-seals. In 1852 he engraved the plate for the 2d. 'Queen-on-Throne' stamps and printed 500,000 direct from the plate.'

Also note
http://stampsofvictoria.com/queen.php

Unfortunately, I cannot offer my source of the following images,
It is definitely one of the prestige small format club productions.
Dashed if I can find the issue right now.

I'll post due acknowledgement when I find it.


Got it! The Australian Philatelist, March 1988 (Author : Mr Geoff Kellow)

The engraver of the 2d Queen on Coronation chair.
(Engraver of the 6d, still unknown)



The Plate

I've posted this before, but I really do like Mr. Heath's treatment of the Selvedge in the NSW. Just a lovely touch.
This never caught on in Australia.
Canada has some lovely rose engined selvedge.

Right, so now having received (thanks again StevieG) and read the Kellow pages on this issue, we can conclude the following:

There is no new evidence linking Frederick Heath to this issue.

Kellow does, however, link the NSW proof to the Victoria issue. It is thought that the NSW 2p stamp essay was a mistake. NSW never ordered such a stamp. The stamp should have been a Victoria 1p stamp, and this mistake explains why the delivery of the ordered Victoria stamps took so much longer than anticipated. From the NSW die, the country name and value had to be removed, and Victoria and one pence added instead, which is what was done, thereby proving that the engraving of the picture was the same one. So IF Heath engraved the Victoria stamp, we can also attribute the NSW essay to him.

Apparently (and here comes another request), Kellow wrote more elaborately about this NSW vs V stamp in 'Philately from Australia', the June 1986 issue (pp40-41). So yep, you guessed it: if anyone has a copy of that magazine lying around.....
:-)

Also: thanks for the Ham info. One more engraver to add to the database!

Also 2: I'm not sure whether Heath would have done the sheet border pattern. I know the Canadian ones, and they look very much like engine-turning. These roses don't but I somehow presume this would have been more of an in-house job rather than a consignment for a picture engraver.

Right, that makes sense, I hadn't considered that.

A line perhaps you may also follow, regarding the 6d Blue, is maybe Campbell and Fergusson ?
Mr. Kellow writes, Ham's 500,000 2d Queen on throne, lasted 1 year, but then the contract was passed to Campbell and Fergusson, (J.S.Campbell and Co) whom I know nothing about.

Most back issues of "Philately from Australia" are available for $5 from the Royal Philatelic Society of Victoria. If no-one has a personal copy, I'll order one and pass on the information.