Hong Kong Queen Victoria - "Droz"

I have been asked to explain my avatar:


Pierre Jaquet-Droz (1721–1790) was a watchmaker of the late eighteenth century. He lived in Paris, London, and Geneva, where he designed and built animated dolls, or automata, to help his firm sell watches and mechanical birds.

Constructed between 1768 and 1774 by Pierre Jaquet-Droz, his son Henri-Louis (1752-1791), and Jean-Frédéric Leschot (1746-1824), the automata include The Writer (made of 6000 pieces), The Musician (2500 pieces), and The Draughtsman (2000 pieces).
His astonishing mechanisms fascinated the kings and emperors of Europe, China, India, and Japan.
Some consider these devices to be the oldest examples of the computer. The Writer, a mechanical boy who writes with a quill pen upon paper with real ink, has an input device to set tabs, defining individual letters written by the boy, that form a programmable memory. It has 40 cams that represent the read-only program. The work of Pierre Jaquet-Droz predates that of Charles Babbage by decades.
The automata of Jaquet-Droz are considered to be some of the finest examples of human mechanical problem solving. Three particularly complex and still functional dolls, now known as the Jaquet-Droz automata, are housed at the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire (art and history museum) in Neuchâtel, Switzerland.

The letters DROZ on my Hong Kong two-cent Queen Victoria form a security marking for the Jaquet-Droz Company, a Swiss maker of watches and mechanical dolls and birds. They had offices and were represented by sales agents in Canton, China as far back as the late 1700s. Companies were allowed to mark their postage stamps with their name in Hong Kong to prevent pilferage and theft. The Jaquet-Droz name is still in use today on fine watches in Hong Kong. Their watches are some of the most beautiful I have ever seen. Just Google: Jaquet-Droz.

I am retired now, but I was a field engineer fixing large mainframe computers and their peripherals for 41 and a half years. I did plenty of "human mechanical problem solving," but now I am just a farmer in rural Iowa, USA. This is the only stamp in my collection that has a name. I call him "Doctor Oz," and I will never sell him.

Regards,
Linus



Source: Wikipedia

Thanks Linus.

The only Overprint I found in my records, is MB.
Which could be an acronym for "Boite Mobile"
Not my stamp.

Linus, thanks for the explanation. I'd done as much research as time and Wikipedia allowed, but as for the connection... It's rather neat. No ruby slippers?

Linus: You should send your 'DROZ" too this group as a new addition in their listings.

http://rodsell.com/hksmsic/hksmsic.html

What a fascinating story!

One thing though, there's no such thing as just a farmer

Yes. That terminoligy "just a farmer" is an understatement and the fact you are a farmer is important in my books. Without them the people of this world would starve to death. Just don't like the genetically modified part much.

And the story behind the avitar. Excellent. Keep the green thumb.

I appreciate the kind words, everyone.

Rod222 - Just to set the record straight, that Hong Kong stamp you show in your reply above is overprinted with a security marking of CMB, not MB. Look closer at your scan, there is a faint C. This is a known marking from Chartered Mercantile Bank of India who had offices in Hong Kong.

Best regards,
Linus

Image from ebay listing:

Image from Rod Sell homepage:

Thanks for that clarification on the Commercial Overprint Linus.
Updated my info.