1855-63 1p rose, with oval Perkins, Bacon "Cancelled" handstamp, unused without gum, margins all around, v.f. example of this scarce stamp, with 2020 Royal certificate. According to Stanley Gibbons, this handstamp was applied on six examples of issues available in 1861 which were then given to members of Sir Rowland Hill's family. Only a handful of these scarce items are known to be in private hands and the catalog value reflects their scarcity. (The "CANCELED" handstamps were applied to just 450 of Perkins Bacon's classic stamps, making these elusive issues favorites among advanced collectors of British Commonwealth. As printers of the world's first stamps, Perkins Bacon produced the iconic 1d Black in 1840, as well the Cape of Good Hope triangles; the Chalon Heads for Bahamas, Grenada, Natal, New Zealand & Queensland; the Britannia stamps of Barbados, Mauritius & Trinidad among many others. However the very production of these "souvenirs" was to lose Perkins Bacon their government contract to produce Postage Stamps and their demise was in large part due to these few "Canceled" stamps. On 18 April 1861, Ormond Hill, nephew of the great Roland Hill, wrote to the head of Perkins Bacon and Co. requesting a few stamps for his friends, appropriately cancelled to render them worthless for postage. Within a few days, displaying a lack of good judgement, Joshua Bacon agreed to supply six examples of every stamp they had in stock and blocks of six were prepared and handstamped "CANCELLED" within an oval of bars, twice. The stamps, with or without the "cancelled" obliteration, were not Perkins Bacon's property to give (no matter how well connected the recipient) and once out in the public domain the resulting political storm eventually ended the existence of a great printing company. The story is beautifully told in Peter Jaffe's book "Cancelled By Perkins Bacon", published by Spink & Son Ltd) SG (Cat No. 3var) (Image)

Est.US$12,500