The 1855 4d carmine
Apart from the embossed stamps, all of the adhesive postage stamps used in Britain during the first 15 years of their existence (1840-55) were manufactured by Perkins Bacon using the intaglio method. Dissatisfaction with these stamps over their poor adhesive quality was eventually overcome, but a more serious objection was the problem in perforating them due to uneven shrinkage of the paper after printing.
A solution to this was put forward by Thomas De La Rue, a Guernseyman who graduated from making straw hats to playing cards. His innovative genius would lead to the first commercial envelopes and the first British stamps printed by the letterpress process. As this was a dry process, there was no shrinkage in the paper and therefore each sheet could be perfectly perforated. If Perkins Bacon argued that its intricate engraving was proof against forgery, De La Rue could claim that his doubly fugitive inks effectively prevented people removing the cancellation in order to re-use stamps.
It was this quality that initially commended him to the Board of Inland Revenue which awarded him a contract in 1853 to print the Draft and Receipt stamps. The success of this venture induced the Board to commission De La Rue to produce postage stamps as well. The first of these was a 4d denomination, released at the end of July 1855.
Reduced rate
The need for a 4d value arose when the postage on letters to France was reduced from 10d (for which the embossed ten penny had been produced) to 4d. The Treasury didn’t think it advisable to entrust the printing of this stamp to Perkins Bacon and – as embossing was now virtually discredited as a method of printing high-value stamps – some viable alternative was required. Besides, Thomas’s son, Warren De La Rue, was a very close friend of Rowland Hill who had recently taken over as Secretary of the Post Office.
The delicate task of engraving the profile of Queen Victoria, adhering strictly to the model created by William Wyon 15 years earlier, went to French émigré Jean Ferdinand Joubert de la Ferté (whose grandson, Sir Philip Joubert, was a Marshal of the RAF in World War II).
The initial consignment of the stamps with Small Garter watermark was printed on thick, highly-glazed and deeply blued paper which set off the deep carmine colour admirably. Later printings were on Medium Garter paper, also thick, highly-glazed and more or less deeply blued with a ferro-prussiate compound which, with the fugitive ink, was intended as a security feature. Fear of re-use receded by September 1856 when much cheaper, thin, ordinary white paper was substituted, although two months later specially prepared ink re-assured the authorities that the cancellation couldn’t be washed off.
The last of the carmine 4ds appeared in January 1857 on ordinary white paper with a Large Garter watermark. Officially the colour was described simply as red, but in fact it ranged from the rich deep carmines of the early printings to the rose of November 1856 and carmine-rose of the last printing.
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