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The thread re: Do we have a sheet of Penny Blacks between us? has grown too large and has been closed. Please continue postings and discussion here.
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"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. -Edmund Burke"
Alanna, the penny black is a relatively common stamp. Its value is driven not by the number of them available, but because it is the first stamp, by the demand for it.
With that said, you can find a filler penny black for very little.
My apologizes to rvangorder and ronnya for not getting your Penny Blacks loaded on the Penny Page. I missed your postings until just recently. They are all loaded on the Penny Page now.
Wine and David,
Congratulations to you both for fine examples with 4 margins each. Wine, I have your PB posted on the Penny Page, David I'll get your PB posted in the morning.
Thank you Rod L (Newfydad) for adding your EG and PK to the Penny Page.
To all our new members, take a look at your collection and if you have any Penny Blacks, let us include them in our quest to build a complete sheet of Penny Blacks between us.
Well, I've been wanting to pick one up for a long time but I finally pulled the trigger today and bought me a Penny Black! I've been keeping my eyes open for a special one with a "certain characteristic" that I could afford and I finally found the right copy. It's EJ position, my initials! Would love to add it to the board. Its coming from the UK. I paid £133 plus £8 for international signature confirmation.
The guy is samwells-auctions on eBay and he has 100% feedback. Im fairly certain he has a retail shop in Bath (that's always a good sign). He has a website at http://www.postalhistorygb.com.
I kind of broke some of my golden rules with this one. I never purchase from eBay internationally and I usually like to have more knowledge on something before I grab it. It's not a great picture but it is described as completely sound and free of faults. Can we call this one a Fine? Three great margins all the way around and just one corner touching. At that price I know it's not a steal but how do you think I made out on this one? Even if I paid a few bucks too many I think I'm gonna love my first Penny Black that was monogrammed for me! ha ha.
Imagine acquiring a personalized stamp that was printed for just you, over 100 years before you were even born. Now that's amazing and worth whatever you paid for it. Great stamp and she will sit in your album, allowing you to admire her for a long time.
Good catch there, Ernie!
Mike
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"It's been three years now, since I joined a support group for procrastinators. We haven't met yet..."
I would certainly try and get a high res scan of the seal (or a macro photo image) and try and identify each component, as sometimes these can give clues. Certainly post it on SOR, as there are a couple of us that might be able to do a bit of digging (Sheepshanks may be able to help).
I have done a search on the addressee and have found this:
EDIT
I note that the salutation on the envelope is somewhat informal, so I would guess this is from a member of the family.
Well that's a challenge. I think the crown at the top is indicative of a Baron. The two supporters on either side appear to be Falcons/Eagles and the symbol lower left of the shield looks like a trefoil. The figures in the right hand side look like lions rampant.
The top left design is rather indistinct but to these eyes seems to be two men rowing a boat (it is not really I'm sure).
Lowesby Hall, does not seem to have any connection at that time period to Gilford/ Meades and was the family home of the the Fowkes.
However the seal is similar to that of the Clanwilliam family arms which include an Eagle, Falcon and Trefoil. The Clanwilliams did have connections to Meade.
Short of searching through a lot of photos on the net, maybe an email to Debretts or the Heraldry institute/keepers would give you a quick answer.
Possibly your reference library would have a copy of Debretts peerage and maybe it contains images of the family crests.
Can we possibly have better scan of the actual seal?
The odd thing about the seal, is that it has the same chevron and triple trefoils as in the Clanwilliam coat of arms.
Forgot to mention, while Sheepshanks is correct about Lowesby Hall, it was used as a hunting lodge. It is possible that Viscount Gilford was in temporary residence during a shoot.
I am not very "up" on Heraldry, being one of the lowly serfs but do descendants not take a basic arms and adjust them to suit their situation?
By this I mean that a child would perhaps start with the family basics and add according to his rank and services, military or otherwise. This could also reflect spouses lineage.
The grandchildren possibly adding/amending yet again.
I have looked at a number of sites but have, apart from Ningpo's Clanwilliam, not found anything similar.
Curiouser and Curiouser, intrigued now to know the answer.
I think Viscount Gilford was Richard Meade, 3rd Earl of Clanwilliam. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Meade,_3rd_Earl_of_Clanwilliam#Family (sorry can't use a link because of the comma in the URL), who was married to Lady Elizabeth Herbert, which would match with the initials on the letter, right? Lady Elizabeth would use her husbands crest, wouldn't she?
While Tim is indisposed, I'll post the images of the entire. According to the auction item description, this was posted in 1841. Although very unclear, this may be correct. Perhaps by trying to unravel the details we'll be able to confirm that date. To start; the seal and postmark:
We need someone to identify the postmark if at all possible.
Now the 'front', with page one of the letter:
Note that the writer mentions "Papa will not come back with me"
Now the back page:
My interpretation of the signature, is that it initialled 'EK'.
It transpires that Viscount Gilford married an Elizabeth Kennedy on 17th June 1867. Elizabeth was the second daughter of Sir Arthur Edward Kennedy.
So this letter, written well before she married, refers to 'Papa' (will not come back with me).
Assuming that she is referring to HER father, it's worth checking any dates available for him.
This is what is documented:
Arthur Kennedy entered the British Army, and was gazetted an Ensign in the 11th Foot on 15 August 1827. Until 1837 he served with infantry regiments on Corfu. He spent 1838–1839 and 1841–1844 in British North America. In 1841 he purchased a Captaincy in the 68th Foot.
Kennedy returned to Ireland in 1846, and the following year sold his captaincy and took up an appointment with the Poor Law Commission.
Therefore it is feasible, in view of the early date of this letter (Jan 12) that Sir Arthur Kennedy was in England at this time, until he purchased his Captaincy and returned to British North America in this same year. Added to that, the notation 'Tuesday', on the second page corresponds with a date of January 12 1841; the date the letter was posted.
So by my reckoning, the letter was written by Viscount Gilford's future wife; Elizabeth in 1841.
What is still unclear to me is the family crest. How could Elizabeth use one that is, in part, identical to the Viscount's (the Clanwilliam coat of arms shown in a previous post). I could understand it if they were married at that time.
So this needs clarification and perhaps a better understanding of how coats of arms develop in heraldry.
Now Tim that complicates things more as I can now see that my men in boat are actually two more trefoils. The supporting birds are definitely Eagles/Falcons (probably one of each).
The complicating bit is that I can now see a cross at the top of the crown which I was thinking originally was a viscounts coronet, now I'm not so sure.
Will keep trying to interpret the various emblems.
Sorry Tim, I was composing my post as you posted yours.
I have noticed an indentation at the top of the letter, which may be an embossed seal. Are you able to see anything of significance within it?
And further to my comment about Lowesby Hall; I checked the shooting season dates. Assuming these have not changed since 1841, the 'open season' is from 1st October to 31st January for most game birds. So, this perhaps reinforces the possibility that Viscount Gilford was pumping lead at the hunting lodge.
Ningpo, had not appreciated that we had the writing as well. The Kennedy coat of arms looks like this.
This broadly looks to be the left hand side of the shield. I feel that you are on the right lines with your research.
January 12 1841 was a Tuesday, the date the letter was written. Could the "W" postmark be Westminster?
Ningpo, I meant the bit upper left side looked like 2 men in a boat and I now see are the trefoils . I could make out the lions!
Maybe the young lady used her fathers/mothers writing set including the wax seal?
Bit like an Agatha Christie novel this one.
OOOdunnit.
Now I AM confused. The two are basically the same element. Could there be a more distant family connection, that would cause the two families to have have the same crest (or part thereof)?
Or, is that design a generic one which a number of families use?
As for the postmark 'W'; I have zero knowledge of British ones. However, I think that in view of the single character used, Westminster is a darned good supposition.
Anyone have access to a copy of this book, might throw some light on the matter.
"The Postal Cancellations of
London 1840-1890 by HC Westley"
ps what are you doing still up at 3am?
Ningpo,
The embossed seal at the top of the page has three names within an oval: John Day, MK Lion, Mowman (or perhaps Mowmany). That means nothing to me.
The coronet appears to be that of the Earl of Pembroke who was Richards father, their arms also include the three lions. The Gil(L)fords were an Irish family very much connected to the Clanwilliam's, so it seems that the seal draws upon a number of items from various families of nobility.
Have just seen Tims last post and will see where that leads.
Well at last I have bought my very first Penny Black; lettered F G. The fact that it has the smallest of bottom margins, persuaded me that it was a respectable copy for the price.
From what I can see, letters 'F G' has not been recorded so far on the Penny Black sheet page.
There is an error in the descriptive text at the top of the "Stamporama Penny Page".
The 2nd sentence in the first paragraph reads:
"Each stamp was uniquely labelled with it's position on the sheet by placing the column (A to L) and the row (A to T) in the left and Right bottom corners respectively."
The corner check letter labels are actually row at left bottom and column at right bottom. There is also a minor typo with the word "its". So the sentence should read (corrections are underlined):
Each stamp was uniquely labelled with its position on the sheet by placing the row (A to T) and the column (A to L) in the left and right bottom corners respectively.
Sorry to put this here, but I had used the "Contact Webmaster" option a while back -- perhaps the message got lost somewhere.
Thanks Ningpo for bringing this topic back to life.
I was intrigued just now by the discussion on Tim's nice cover to Viscount Gilford which I missed when it was posted in October.
I read this as a letter to Richard from his mother, Elizabeth.
After all he was only born in 1832 so being addressed as "Dear Gilly" makes sense as a pet name and it fits with the references to "Papa".
The arms in the seal are appropriate for her as a married woman with her husband's arms (i.e. Earl of Clanwilliam) impaled with her father's arms (i.e. Earl of Pembroke).
I can't contribute a stamp to the sheet but I do enjoy seeing other members' penny blacks.
Well, at least I got to have a haircut in the Penny Lane barber shop. 06 Feb 2018 03:21:21pm
re: J-K for the Grid
My "R-I" is up there somewhere.
Since then, I've been to the London's wonderful Postal Museum, where there is on display this uncut full sheet of Penny Blacks. As you can see in the closer shot, it came off the press without the position lettering.
Well, at least I got to have a haircut in the Penny Lane barber shop. 10 Feb 2018 02:08:02pm
re: J-K for the Grid
Below is a Penny Black crossword puzzle I made.
To make a hard copy, right-click the picture and select Open Image in New Tab or Save Image As or Copy Image to a word processor, then Print. Go to my web site's Also page if you get stuck on an answer.
Well, at least I got to have a haircut in the Penny Lane barber shop. 15 Feb 2018 05:35:52pm
re: J-K for the Grid
This dog is accurately described by the APS StampStore seller as a "seriously flawed filler."
Even though it was apparently cut out with a pirate's knife (and maybe his teeth) and seems to have been canceled in mud, it does have my initials. So, of course, I had to have it. Good thing the price was irresistible.