So far these talks have dealt almost entirely with ways and means of stamp-collecting, but now our attention must be centred on the stamps themselves. We naturally turn to the issues of Great Britain, the first specimen to be considered being the "penny black," bearing a portrait in profile of Victoria the Good. Not only was this stamp the first to be issued within our kingdom, but it was also the pioneer stamp, of the whole world. It is thus one of the most interesting labels which can figure among the treasures of any collection.
To Sir Rowland Hill, the promoter of the penny postage and other postal reforms, belongs the credit of first suggesting that the postage on a letter should be prepared by means of an adhesive label. Not only may he be called the inventor of postage stamps, but he also sketched in rough the design which was used for the first stamp. To him, also, was entrusted the work of arranging for the issue of this novel label.
On August 17, 1839, Parliament sanctioned the use of adhesive stamps, and immediately afterwards the Lords of the Treasury asked the public to suggest suitable designs. Nearly 3,000 drawings were submitted, but none were considered satisfactory. It was then that Hill made the rough sketch mentioned above.
Many were the difficulties which Hill had to overcome, but probably the most perplexing was how to get the stamps printed. We must remember that in those early days colour-printing was a slow and tedious process, and there were very few firms who could be entrusted with the work. After much consideration, Sir Rowland went to a Fleet Street house of printers named Perkins, Bacon and Co., and asked them whether they could undertake the task of producing the proposed adhesive stamps. Their reply is sufficiently interesting to be given in full.
"69, Fleet Street,
"London,
"December 3, 1839.
"Sir,
"We have given the subject you mentioned yesterday afternoon all the attention the time would allow, and beg to say as the result that we would engrave steel dies of the size you gave us, containing work of any conceivable value as to cost and quality, transfer them to any number of plates that could possibly be wanted, and print them in any numbers per day, at a charge of eightpence per thousand stamps, exclusive of paper, which, we understand, would be supplied us; and, assuming that the numbers wanted would be very large, we have only named a fair price for the printing, and have considered the plates and dies, which ought to be very costly in the first instance, as given in without charge. You are probably aware that, having prepared the original die, we could insure perfect 'facsimiles' of it for a century.
"Our charge would not exceed what we have named above, nor be less than sixpence per thousand; but what relative position it would take between these two extremes would depend upon the exact size of the stamp, and the number which the paper would allow us to put upon one plate.
"We could prepare everything so as to commence printing in a month. Our present belief is that we could print 41,600 labels per day, or double that number in a day and night, from each press employed upon the work.
"We are, sir, very respectfully,
"Your humble servants,
"Perkins, Bacon, and Petch."
The Perkins' firm was entrusted with the printing; instructions were also given them to elaborate the rough sketch made by Hill. They called upon a then noted engraver, Frederick Heath, to complete the design which has since become world-famous. He engraved the head and the lettering, but the beautiful curves forming the background of the stamp were "engine-turned" by means of a Rose engine, a contrivance consisting of a series of moving wheels which produced curved lines in geometric pattern.