David Feldman The Joseph Chalhoub Collection of Egypt II. Commemoratives Monday, December 9, 2019

Commemoratives, the Monarchy Period (1895-1952) The first commemorative stamps of Egypt were proposed for 1895 but were never issued, it took almost 30 years to see the first commemorative stamps being issued. Egypt became a monarchy in 1922, this collection presents the unissued 1895 commemoratives and the monarchy commemoratives period 1925 to 1952. The commemoratives of the monarchy are quite rich in material for the collectors: essays, proofs, colour trials, imperforate and varieties. Essays There are essays for many of the commemorative stamps during the monarchy period. All the stamps of this period, other than the 1926 King Fouad 58 th Birthday, were printed by the Survey Department, Cairo. A. J. Hewitt was the main artist with the Survey Department, so many of the essays were produced by Hewitt. Essays include pencil or ink sketches and drawings on tracing paper or card, hand- painted essays on card, photographic essays and finished stamp designs. Essays for unissued stamps also exist. Proofs on card Royal Imperforate Proofs were printed on card stock ranging in thickness from .004 to .007 inches. They are also known as “cancelled-on-reverse” stamps. They are unwatermarked and ungummed. They were first introduced in 1926 and continued until the abdication of King Farouk. “Cancelled” was printed in English (and later in Arabic, as “ ملغى ”) obliquely and in series across the back of each sheet, printed in black ink by stone lithography, prior to the application of the stamp image. Arabic was first used for the 9 March 1947 issue – 25 th International Exhibition of Fine Arts. In general, one “Cancelled” on reverse proof pane was produced. The commemorative proofs were printed 25, 50 or 100 stamps to a pane. The Miniature Sheet proofs were printed 1, 2, 6 or 8 to a press sheet. The pane of the 5m of the 1926 12 th Agricultural and Industrial Exposition set was printed with its stamp image on both sides (the image on one side being printed atop the word “Cancelled”). Proofs with oblique perforation The Royal Oblique Perforated stamps were prepared on regular watermarked and gummed paper. They were first introduced in 1926 and continued until the abdication of King Farouk. Two obliquely perforated panes were printed from each plate put to press. The 1926 12th Agricultural and Industrial Exposition set had the 5m, 10m, 100m and 200m sheets perforated twice, once obliquely and once normally, while the 15m and the 50m panes were only obliquely perforated; only one pane of 50 was prepared for this issue. Colour Trials Colour trials were produced for several commemorative stamps starting with the 1895 Foundation of Winter Festivals unissued set and throughout the monarchy issues. These trials consist of single colour trials or bi-colour trials.