Lot 30517 – 1855, Second London printing, 5c red-brown on blued paper with Ormond Hill CANCELLED handstamp

CANCELLED STAMPS FOR ROWLAND HILL’S NEPHEW ORMOND HILL

1855, Second London printing, 5c red-brown on blued paper, position 2, an excellent example displaying large margins and with watermarked lines at left, bright colour, neatly struck with « CANCELLED » obliterator and preserving its original gum. Illustrated in the Peter Jaffe handbook on page 37. One of just three examples recorded out of the six that can exist. Cert. BPA (1995).

Note (as quoted by Peter Jaffe in « Cancelled by Perkins Bacon“, published for Spink & Son Ltd by James Bendon Ltd (1998): In April 1861 Ormond Hill, the nephew of Rowland Hill, asked to Joshua Butters Bacon, the head of Perkins Bacon & Co., to procure him six specimens of new or uncommon stamps for him or his friends. In August, the Perkins Bacon & Co. sent obliterated examples of each of the stamps named in a list by Ormond Hill. It turned out that the supply of the Crown Agents‘ property was given without authority and Ormond Hill was not asked to return the « specimens ». As a consequence, the case damaged Perkins Bacon reputation and its task as printers for the Crown Agents. The Stanley Gibbons catalogue prices such Ormond Hill, Perkins Bacon « CANCELLED » stamps of the British colonies at £9000 to £32000, only six examples of each stamp can exist at most.

Provenance: Dr. Conrad Latto and Joseph Hackmey.