A test sheet for the first stamp, in 1840

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

The first adhesive stamp designed to pay for the delivery of mail has been issued in 1840, in England, with the effigy of Queen Victoria. With a face value of 1 penny, this black stamp was used for a year before other colors come brighten the life of the post office clerks of that time.

You know even better this stamp that I just chose as the logo for this group.

There are two specimens in the sale of Spink in London on June 12. Not very rare, it is not excessively expensive : Lot 10, which has all its margins, is estimated 5 K£, and lot 9 cropped in the upper left is necessarily cheaper: 3 K£.

Lot 7 is much more important. This is a sheet of 21x26 cm dated August 1840, where are glued 20 copies of the same print as used for the 1p. Each one is a different colour as a result of ink compositions, with or without oil. Each sample is individually annotated by the author of the trials, a man named JB Bacon.

Spink knows a total of five copies of these test sheets. That offered for sale is estimated 300 K£.

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

This witness of early experiments of stamp manufacturing has not been sold. It is a surprise, and, on the cultural point of view, a disappointment: are philatelists more interested in stamps than in stamp history?

The two copies of 1 penny black have been sold: the better at 8.5 K£ before fees, the other at 3 K£.