Charles Whiting Beaufort House Advert Sheet?

I've had this piece in my collection as a curiosity for probably 30 years and thought I'd throw it out to the forum to see if anyone has any information about it. It appears to be a advertising sheet for a printing house (Beaufort House) and a printer, Charles Whiting, in London. I'm guessing this is from the 1840s. The sheet is 11.5 x 9 inches. It has several stamp-like designs on the front, along with the most elaborate embossing I have ever seen. The back has more information about the printer and a fairly impressive bi-color design.

Any background on this printer would be of help. Did he print postage stamps or perhaps revenues? I should note that this sheet is *not* engraved, but the surface printing is remarkably tightly registered.

This resource may be helpful (pages 256-269):

https://books.google.com/books?id=H...ress&f=false

Very Good! This item is described precisely on page 268 of the book: "An article by Robert Hunt, on Compound Plate Printing, was published in the Art Journal in 1848 ... To illustrate these processes, Mr. Whiting printed some of his most remarkable designs on a sheet of cardboard inserted in the above named periodical." This included the Victoria head and the the essay for an adhesive label, printed in two different formats. Both are described in great detail earlier in the book. It was interesting to note that according to the author this specimen sheet had become rare, even in 1881 when the book was published. Well done and many thanks, wt1!

If anyone is interested, the HathiTrust Digital Library has digitized the contents of the Art Journal. The article on compound printing can be viewed here: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt...015009040968 view=1up seq=266 on page 194. Unfortunately, it does not have a scan of the specimen sheet.

I wonder if any forum member has a copy of the International Engraver's Line by Gene Hessler. Although Charles Whiting doesn't appear to be an engraver, he may still be listed. It would be interesting to see what biographical information is covered.

I have written the following about Whiting. It will be included in a forthcoming work on printers that I am (eventually!) intending to produce. I hope that it is of interest....

Charles Whiting and the
Beaufort House Press

Founded
By 1801. Wound-up in 1892.

Referred to as
Charles Whiting; Beaufort House Press.

Locations
London.

Techniques
Famous for use of the Congreve anti-forgery method of production (Whiting controlled the Patents); Compound plate printing; Embossing.

First stamps
1861 for Prince Edward Island.

Origins
The company was founded by Charles' father James around 1800.

Treasury Competition
Whiting entered the arena of postal reform some time prior to March, 1830, but we have no definite knowledge of his proposals previous to that date. In that year Mr. Whiting suggested the use of stamped bands for the prepayment of postage on printed matter.

Whiting was the printer of material for the Mercantile Committee, and also produced a number of designs printed by the Congreve bi-colour method.

Further Reading
Here is not the place to produce a truly detailed account of the printing operations undertaken by Whiting, as this has been done by Malcolm Salmon in his excellent publication The Life and Work of Charles Whiting and the Beaufort House Press: A Treasury Competition Winner. This was published in 2007 as a supplement to London Philatelist, the journal of The Royal Philatelic Society London. Readers interested in pursuing this subject in depth are invited to consult that work.

GLENN
www.stampprinters.info

A belated thank you, Glenn. I missed your post up until today.

Great Post,
beautiful scans.
Thank you.

I recognised the AC3W image from years ago, I believe it is in one of my Philatelic Library books.

I trundled through my database, but only could come up with these at the moment.