More of Delia's Recipes

It is commonly believed that auction describers are the tarts of the business, passing quickly from one good-looking collection to another. 

Well, it is true, for our responsibility is to keep moving on, breaking down each consignment into saleable lots, placing reasonable estimates of value and providing descriptions that, whilst remaining accurate and impartial, project favourably the merits and importance of each one.

Sometimes the quest for impartiality can lead to a tendency to merely see and state the obvious without further consideration. I am reminded of an old joke ...

Two auction describers are walking along the street. One of them notices a small piece from a broken mirror, stoops down and picks it up. Examining it carefully he says "Hey, I know that bloke !"
The second one grabs the mirror from him and says  "Of course you do, you idiot - it's me !"

(The names and auction house normally featured in the above joke have been omitted for safety reasons.)

Sometimes, however, in our field one should step back and take time to contemplate the importance of what lies on the table in front of one.

This particularly came to mind this week when lotting a number of the proofs and essays contained in Michael Oliver's excellent study of De La Rue's Colonial Key Plates which includes, among other items emanating from the printers' archive, two delightful handpainted 1887 essays for the "POSTAGE/POSTAGE" and "POSTAGE & REVENUE" designs for a Universal key plate.

Another treasure is a part Appendix sheet bearing three essay proofs for high face value stamps that were needed for use in the Gold Coast in 1889.  The "POSTAGE & REVENUE" design was duly chosen and this became the first issue of the Universal Key Plate.

The first order in September 1889 was limited to just 1,020 stamps, including a mere single sheet of the 20s. In fact, the number of “SPECIMEN” stamps provided to the U.P.U. exceeded the number of those that were dispatched to the colony.

However, in the following years De La Rue continued to consolidate its position as the Godfather of Stamps and achieved something approaching a monopoly on printing for the colonies. Although constituting only a small proportion of the company's overall output, the Key plate issues became recognised throughout the world as a symbol of imperial efficiency and control.  As the years passed they continued to proliferate until the growing fondness for pictorial issues began to win the day in the 1930s. The Key plates, nevertheless, continued right into the reign of our present Queen.

These essays and proofs are truly important items, worthy of a measured consideration of their historic importance.

Although we describers have little time to enjoy the collections as they pass through our hands, they are often a great privilege to handle and rarely boring.

............................

One person who is having a boring time at present, though, is our director, Nick Mansell, who is on extended bed rest after an operation on his leg. We are happy to report that Nick's operation went well but he is suffering from the frustration of immobility.

To help him out, we compiled a list of the '10 Best Things You Can Do Lying Down' and sent it to him. Unfortunately he was only up to number 3 when his wife confiscated the list.  Which is a shame, because number 4 was 'Scratch Your Name on All Your Tweezers'.

It seems that Nick's tweezers will continue to be fair game around the office when he returns!

JG