Cape of Good Hope 'Woodblock' Error of Color

The world's first triangles, and a shortage

The Cape of Good Hope issued its first stamps on September 1, 1853, and they were the first triangular postage stamps in the world. The shape set them apart from the rectangular British issues circulating through the empire and made them easy to recognize at a glance, even for people who could not read. They showed Hope, the colony's allegorical figure, seated with an anchor, in two values: a 1d in brick red and a 4d in blue, printed in London by Perkins, Bacon & Co.

By early 1861 the colony's stock of 1d and 4d stamps was running very low, and the printing plates were in London. One auction description adds that a new supply had been ordered and had arrived, but its shipping documents had been lost, so the stamps were held and not released. To keep the mail moving, the colonial government commissioned a local printer, Saul Solomon & Co. of Cape Town, to produce a temporary supply.

When the provisionals appeared is disputed. Official records quoted in 1911 said the stamps were urgently requested on April 5 and 8, 1861, and printed on April 10 and 12. But copies were already known with postmarks from the middle of March, so the writer suggested "April" was a slip for "March." A later account says they were issued in February 1861.

How the wrong stamp got on the block

New dies were engraved on steel for each value. From each die, 64 separate casts, called stereos, were made and fixed to a wooden base to form the printing plate. That wooden base, not the engraving, gave the issue its name: the "Woodblocks." A card displayed with the original blocks in the South African Museum explained what went wrong: "In cementing the Stereos one of the 4d value was by mistake placed on the block containing the 1d Stereos, and one of the 1d among the 4d. In consequence of this, each sheet printed contained an error, 4d red and 1d blue."

The stamps were printed on laid paper, the 1d in vermilion, carmine and brick red, the 4d in pale blue, grayish blue, blue and deep blue. The mistakes, along with a damaged 4d cast, were probably corrected just before the final printing, since neither error is known in the last shade of the other value.

How many errors exist was never recorded. The museum card worked out 201 blue 1d and 346 red 4d from round-number totals; a 1911 calculation from the official figures came to 177 and 303. That writer, A. B. Creeke Jr., also noted that another student believed the official totals were too low, given how long the provisionals were in use.

Creeke used a block of four, three 1d and one 4d, then described as unique and illustrated in The London Philatelist, to work out where the error sat. Comparing the block's broken corner with reprints from the original plate, he concluded the 4d error had been the thirteenth stamp in the second row of the 1d sheet.

The block of four

The example featured here is a used block of four: the 4d error in vermilion, printed se-tenant (joined) with three 1d vermilion stamps in a bright shade with a hint of carmine. It has clear margins on three sides and part of the fourth, and each pair shares a single light strike of the triangular cancel. It has small stains, a crease and a tear, and carries a Royal Philatelic Society London certificate dated 1925.

Its recorded owners begin with Philipp von Ferrary; the block was in the second sale of his collection, in October 1921. It then passed through the collections of R. F. A. Riesco, Alan Stevenson (sold November 1950), W. D'Arcy Hall (November 1962), "Maria de la Queillerie" (May 1970), Sir Maxwell Joseph (October 1982), "Maximus" (September 1989), "Bonaventure" (September 1993) and Ad Indhusophon (May 1999).

In 2004 it was offered at auction in the sale of Dr. James Foght's Cape triangular collection, estimated at US$100,000 to US$120,000, and sold for £78,000. The sale description noted that only three Woodblock errors are recorded in multiples larger than a pair: this block, a block of three on cover from the Maxwell Joseph sale, and a block of four from the Dale-Lichtenstein sale. Whether this is the same block Creeke studied in 1911 cannot be confirmed from the sources, though the makeup matches.

Telling a real error from a reprint

In March 1883 the government reprinted the Woodblocks on wove paper, the 1d in deep red and the 4d in indigo, 195 sheets of each, for distribution to postal administrations around the world rather than for sale. The reprints were made after the plates had been corrected, so they contain no errors and no damaged 4d. Genuine stamps are on laid paper.

Creeke identified a tell for the misplaced 4d cast: a small dot just above the line over "Cape of Good Hope," a slight blur after "Hope," and an over-inked line along one damaged edge, visible on the red 4d error. After the mistake was corrected, he argued, the cast was moved to the tenth position in the first row of the 4d sheet.

In 1901 the original blocks were defaced with a light cut across each metal plate and placed in the South African Museum in Cape Town, making further reprints impossible. The display card notes that the impressions shown there were reprints from the original dies.

The end of the triangles

The Woodblock emergency led the Crown Agents to move the Cape contract from Perkins, Bacon & Co. to De La Rue & Co., which printed a last series of triangles in 1863 and 1864. By 1864 the Cape had switched to rectangular, perforated stamps.

Writing in 1911, Creeke recalled that twenty-five years earlier normal Woodblocks were "anything but scarce" and the errors "only a little more than uncommon," but that single errors were then approaching £100 each. He reported a used block of four in red including the 4d error selling for £350 about eight years earlier, and an unused 4d red error realizing £500.

Single errors still change hands. A faulty 4d carmine error, cut down on all sides and repaired, sold at auction in May 2015 for US$3,500. A 1d pale milky blue error se-tenant with a normal 4d, in the 2004 Foght sale, had been included in the display of the Royal Philatelic Collection at The Stamp Show 2000 and is illustrated in Sir John Wilson's book on that collection.

The numbers

Issue date

1861; official records say April, but postmarks from mid-March are known, and one account says February

Quantity printed

24,000 1d and 12,840 4d (official figures; one record gives 13,000 4d)

Errors estimated

177 blue 1d and 303 red 4d (1911 calculation), or 201 and 346 (museum card)

Plate

64 cast stereos per value, fixed to a wooden base; 1d base 268 by 147 mm, 4d base 270 by 150 mm

Paper

Laid paper (the 1883 reprints are on wove paper)

Known multiples

Only three errors recorded in multiples larger than a pair

Timeline

1. Sep 1, 1853

   The Cape of Good Hope issues the world's first triangular stamps, printed in London.

2. Mar 1861

   Earliest postmarks on the locally printed Woodblock provisionals, according to a 1911 study (official records say April; another account says February).

3. Apr 1861

   Official dates for the urgent requests and printings: 1d on April 10, 4d on April 12.

4. 1861

   The transposed casts are found and corrected before the last printing.

5. 1863

   De La Rue & Co. begins the last series of Cape triangles.

6. 1864

   The Cape adopts rectangular, perforated stamps.

7. Mar 1883

   The Woodblocks are reprinted on wove paper, without the errors, for distribution to postal administrations.

8. 1901

   The original blocks are defaced and placed in the South African Museum, Cape Town.

9. Jul 1911

   A. B. Creeke Jr. publishes his study placing the 4d error at the thirteenth position, second row, of the 1d sheet.

10. Oct 1921

    The block of four is sold in the second auction of the Ferrary collection.

11. 1925

    The Royal Philatelic Society London certifies the block.

12. Nov 1950

    The block is sold from the Alan Stevenson collection.

13. Oct 1982

    The block is sold from the Sir Maxwell Joseph collection.

14. May 1999

    The block is sold from the Ad Indhusophon collection.

15. 2004

    The block sells at auction for £78,000 in the Dr. James Foght sale.

16. May 2015

    A faulty single 4d carmine error sells at auction for US$3,500.

The world in 1861

• Feb 13, 1861

  The Siege of Gaeta ends; Francis II of the Two Sicilies goes into exile.

• Mar 3, 1861

  Alexander II abolishes serfdom in the Russian Empire.

• Mar 4, 1861

  Abraham Lincoln is sworn in as the 16th president of the United States.

• Mar 17, 1861

  The Kingdom of Italy is proclaimed, with Victor Emmanuel II as king.

• Apr 12, 1861

  The American Civil War begins with the bombardment of Fort Sumter.

• Oct 26, 1861

  The Pony Express announces its closure.

• Dec 14, 1861

  Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, dies.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Cape of Good Hope 'Woodblock' Error of Color is number 40 of 100 in the stamps entries of the FLOAT 100. 82 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (18 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The "Woodblocks" were not printed from wood: the dies were engraved on steel, and metal casts were fixed to a wooden base.
• Every sheet of both values carried one error until the mistake was fixed.
• The original printing blocks have been in the South African Museum in Cape Town since 1901, defaced so no more reprints can be made.
• The Cape's triangle shape was meant to make its stamps recognizable even to people who could not read.
• In 1911, a block of four with the 4d error was said to have sold about eight years earlier for £350.