Hrh Prince Albert 10 Cent Shade Varieties Unitrade 17

Hi

This stamp perfs 11 3/4 x 12. Looking at it I see what I believe to be a shade of brown. I haven't seen any other of this issue so have nothing to compare it to. Catalog indicates normal color is lilac and shades of brown are one of the varieties. Any opinions on the color would be appreciated.

Hard to say if what I'm seeing in the photo is accurate, but I would describe what I see here as brown violet.
Has more red hue than blue.

gettinold

I have used a colour program (and remember all monitors are NOT equal), so I ran it and came up with...

RED- 41.59%
GREEN - 28.57%
BLUE -29.85%





ClassicPhilatelist...You are correct..It leans towards BROWN-VIOLET in my opinion.

Robert

Gentlemen

Thank you. After viewing the image as posted I couldn't believe I was looking at the same stamp. In front of me there doesn't appear to be any shade of red. I have to believe the posted image is more representative of the actual stamp under different (and better) light conditions. The light from the scanner bought out what I couldn't see with the naked eye.

This is what Unitrade calls the red lilac shade. It can be found brighter, but this is more toward the red-lilac end of the spectrum than the violet or brown end.

The perf can help with identification. The red-lilac shade comes from the last group of printings made between 1864 and 1867. Most are perf. 12, as this was the last of the three perfs used, and was introduced in 1865.

The first printings were in the black brown and chocolate brown shades, perf 11.75 and these are the rare #16's. The second printings, which are also very scarce are the deep reddish violet, and also perf. 11.75.

Then the colours split into the browns and the violets & purples. Both seem to be concurrant, as they are all printed between about 1861 to 1864 and are generally always perf. 11.75 x 12, or 12 x 11.75. There are a lot of shades, with collectors identifying well in excess of 30 different shades.

gettinold...There are many colour variations of this stamp...Two things affects colour quality.

1 - Changeling, atmospheric conditions to chemical and sun light.
2 - Printer attention to colour quality.

In high School I was trained a graphic artist/printer..Now these stamp were printed long before I was born and even in my time, colour quality was done by ink combination with a putty knife..What I mean is I would (GUESS) take an amount of one, two or three colour and mix them together and hope to mimic the colour originally done say the day before.

I would bet if we could get access to Canada Archives (stamp/post office literature and specimens)...We would more than likely see many difference shades.

Robert

I never would have guessed there could be so many color variations for this stamp. If the printers had to mix their own inks to create the color it makes sense that variations would exist. Doesn't take much to alter a shade. Thank you all for your help once again.

I also hadn't guessed there was so much colour variation with this stamp. I would call mine perhaps a violet brown?...