Page images
PDF
EPUB

the inventor of the adhesive postage stamp, the credit of giving a practical form to crude ideas rests with Joshua Bacon, the bank-note engraver and printer of Fleet Street, whose firm worked the process of its original founder, Jacob Perkins, a native of Boston, U.S.A. This process was based upon his discovery of a method of softening steel, which enabled him to engrave upon it with the greatest facility, and then of hardening it again, and a method by which engraving might be transferred from steel to steel, thus multiplying the plates to be printed from, so that in fact the number of perfect impressions which could be obtained was practically without limit. His designs for the postage stamp were ultimately accepted by the Treasury. A drawing by Henry Corbould of the obverse of Wyon's medal struck in commemoration of the Queen's visit to the Guildhall on November 9, 1837, was taken as a model for the portrait. The engraving was entrusted to Charles Heath; but it is said that, as he feared his eyesight was not good enough for such fine work, he handed it over to his son Frederick. On May 1. 1840, the penny stamp, printed in black, was issued to the public (it came into actual use on May 6), and was soon followed by a similar stamp of 2d. in blue.

While so much trouble was spent over the adhesive stamps, Sir Rowland Hill and the authorities in general seem to have been under the impression that their use would be more or less limited in comparison with that of the 'covers and envelopes'; and to the design and production of these they devoted their first and more particular attention. The President of the Royal Academy and several of his colleagues were consulted as to the choice of a design; but the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Francis Baring, took the matter into his own hands by sending to William Mulready, who in a day or two produced what Sir Henry Cole calls the highly poetic design which was afterwards adopted.' It was engraved on brass by John Thompson, whose most difficult and laborious work'-still preserved at South Kensingtontook him several months. Mulready's design was a complicated and ingenious one, by no means devoid of artistic merit; but, though the artist himself drew up an explanatory memorandum to be submitted by Sir Francis Baring to the Queen, the public was left to make its own

6

[graphic][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

interpretation of his work. We may however, in default of this unpublished memorandum, describe the design as consisting of a figure of Britannia seated on a rock, with a lion at her feet. She is shown despatching winged messengers to the four quarters of the globe, while the figures on each side of her are emblematic of commerce and communication with all parts of the world. To the right are American Indians negotiating with missionaries, and a planter superintending negroes who are packing casks of sugar; to the left is a group of Chinese, Arabs with laden camels, East Indians on elephants, directing the embarkation of merchandise, and an Oriental merchant dictating a letter to his cross-legged clerk. In the background are sailing-vessels and a Laplander in a sleigh drawn by a reindeer. On one side in the foreground is a youth reading a letter to his mother; on the other side is a group eagerly pressing to see the welcome letter.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

The Times' and its correspondents denounced the design as 'ludicrous' and the envelope itself as 'a complete piece of Whig jobbery'; while the Morning Chronicle' and the Globe,' on the part of the Government, very naturally found it a beautiful piece of art' which could not fail to have an effect on the national taste,' and considered that the excellent and eminent artists employed' had found room for very expressive and graceful groups within extremely small compass.' The public, however, soon made up its mind against the Mulready envelopes and covers; not only were these more expensive-costing a farthing over the face-value, while the adhesive stamps were sold at the price inscribed on them-but the very look of the first postage stamps carried conviction to the mind of the public that their use was convenient and safe, and they rose in public estimation as rapidly as the Mulready covers declined.'

"Those odd-looking envelope things,

Where Britannia (who seems to be crucified) flings
To her right and her left funny people with wings
Amongst Elephants, Quakers, and Catabaw Kings,'

as the writer of the 'Ingoldsby Legends' called them, raised the ridicule of the non-ministerial press and brought forth a flood of pictorial caricatures, including some from the pencils of 'Phiz,' John Doyle and John

Leech. We learn from Leech's biographer that the feat which brought him into general notice was a successful caricature of what is known as the Mulready envelope; and it may be added that an unpublished caricature by Thackeray has also been preserved. In less than a week after the stamps came into use, Rowland Hill writes in his diary,

'I fear we shall be obliged to substitute some other stamp for that designed by Mulready, which is abused and ridiculed on all sides. . . . The conduct of the public, however, shows that, although our attempt to diffuse a taste for fine art may have been imprudent, such diffusion is very much wanted.'

His fellow-labourer, Sir Henry Cole, on the other hand, wrote, after forty years' additional experience, that he agreed in the soundness of the public opinion expressed: 'The postage cover was for a dry commercial use, in which sentiment has no part. The merchant who wishes to prepay his letter rejects anything that disturbs his attention. I now think that anything, even a mere meaningless ornamental design, would have been out of place. The baldest simplicity only was necessary. Had an allegorical fresco for any public building been required to symbolise the introduction of the universal penny postage, nothing would have been better than Mulready's design, and I still hope to see it perpetuated in some fine work of art where it would not be impertinent.'

When it became evident that the Mulready envelope had failed to secure the approval of the public, Sir Francis Baring and Sir Rowland Hill occupied themselves in devising some other kind of envelope to take its place; and in January 1841 plain envelopes were issued, impressed with an embossed stamp bearing a profile of the Queen, engraved by William Wyon, and adapted, like the profile on the adhesive stamps, from his City medal of 1837. This design remained in use throughout the Queen's reign. With this issue the 'Mulready' envelopes fell entirely into disuse, and were withheld from circulation. Nearly all the vast stock of these was subsequently destroyed; and we are told in the Life of Sir Rowland Hill' that a machine had to be constructed for the purpose, the attempt to do the work by fire in close stoves (fear of robbery forbade the use of open ones) having absolutely failed.

[ocr errors]
« PreviousContinue »