The City Of Preston Philatelic Society

Courtesy of Geoffrey Dyer, Member of the Preston Philatelic Society

On 6^th April 1652, Jan Anthony Van Riebeeck, “founding father of South Africa”, under contract to the Dutch East India Company (VOC) landed at what would become Cape Town to establish a supply station for Company vessels sailing between the Netherlands and Batavia (now Jakarta). Sailing on the Dromedaris with 2 other ships, he was accompanied by 82 men and 8 women. (Dromedary camel, long known as “Ship of the Desert”!)

In 1923 Harrison & Sons first provided a proof of a 1d stamp design featuring Dromedaris. However the first contract for “London pictorials” definitive stamps went to Waterlow & Sons for typographed ½d, 1d and 6d stamps, issued in 1926. The designs lasted until 1954, with many design and printing alterations over the years.

Eight versions of the printed stamp design can be distinguished (excluding inverted watermark, perforation etc.):
The Union Handbook (UHB) catalogue lists 4 Typographed (1 London, 3 Pretoria) and 27 Rotogravure “Issues” (i.e. new plates or cylinders).

“SUIDAFRIKA” one word:

SG 31: Typographed issue: 1926 Waterlow, 1927 Govt. Printers, Pretoria.*
SG 43,43e: Rotogravure, Govt.Printers, Pretoria:1930 Type I,1932 Type II.

“SUID-AFRIKA” hyphenated:

SG 56, 56i: 1934, 1940 (reduced size). Unscreened Rotogravure.

SG 106: 1943 Monochrome (red) coil stamps.
SG 115, 135: 1950, 1951 (redrawn, reduced size). Screened Rotogravure.

*In January 1927 Waterlow’s typography plates (½d, 1d, 6d) were transferred from London to Pretoria. London and Pretoria printings are hard to distinguish unless a side margin is present (see later). Colours of the latter tend to be duller, with poorer quality printing.

All were printed in sheets of 240 (20 rows of 12) with watermark Multiple Springbok Head (except coil stamps and 1948 Issue 20).

“SUIDAFRIKA” AS ONE WORD - NO HYPHEN

①: Typographed, SG 31: 1/1/1926 - Waterlow & Sons, Jan 1927 Govt. Printers, Pretoria. Distinguished from the later rotogravure printings by the long curl, rounded underneath, on the leg of “R”:

SG31, vertical-comb perforation 14.7x14

1^st Jan 1926, Waterlow, London Jan 1927, Pretoria printing.

SG31dw, perf 14.7x14 Pretoria printing. From sheet, not booklet because Pretoria booklet stamps were always perforated 13½ x 14 (see later).

These “London Pictorial” stamps were overprinted for use in South West Africa; examples below.

1926 Afrikaans overprint on Afrikaans-inscribed stamp (and English on English).

1927 English overprint on Afrikaans-inscribed stamp (and Afrikaans on English).

“S.W.A.” overprint.

August 1927: On value tablet. April 1930: At top of stamp.

Souvenirs from the exhibit of the South African Collectors’ Society of Great Britain at the 19^th Annual Westpex Philatelic Exhibition, San Francisco, April 1978.

Coil stamps (guillotined sides): Rolls of 500 or 1200 made from sheets, joins at every 20^th stamp.

Better printing, greater lustre of colours and thicker paper generally typify the London-printed stamps.

Definite identification is possible if a side margin is present: Waterlow always used “left feed” of sheets into the vertical-comb perforator, so the right margin was perforated through. “Right feed” was used in Pretoria hence the right margin was imperforate.

Waterlow, London Govt. Printer, Pretoria

Two further sets of 1d plates were sent to Pretoria. These examples are from the original plates “1, 1x” as there are no cuts in the black Jubilee line below the corner stamp. N.B. Black “(“ intrusion mark near bottom of perforation gutter.

Perforation 13½ x 14 (from Pretoria-printed booklets, 1927), watermark upright and inverted (SG31e, 31ew).

Stamps for booklets were printed from a special pair of plates - interior and exterior – with a vertical 10mm-wide gutter between columns 6 and 7, thus creating 2 panes of 6 x 20 images. Images in columns 4,5,6 and 10,11,12 were inverted. Printed sheets were then cut to produce booklet pages with 2 rows of 3 stamps and a 5-mm margin for stitching always at the left side. Half of these booklet pages inevitably had the watermark inverted. A horizontal-comb perforating machine was required to accommodate the vertical gutter, only 10mm wide. The booklet stamps produced by Waterlow had the same perforation 14.7 x 14 as the normal sheet stamps. The pair of

booklet plates was also sent to Pretoria in January 1927 and similar 2/6d booklets were produced containing 24 x 1d and 12 x ½d stamps. However a different horizontal-comb perforator was used in Pretoria and the perforation of booklet stamps was 13½ x 14 (one fewer perforation hole along top and bottom of each stamp).

The block of 4 stamps at right with inverted watermark has clearly come from an uncut sheet of booklet stamps (note wide margin). Such sheets were not on sale to the general public! SG lists a tête-beche pair, SG31ea, which must also come from an uncut sheet!

TYPOGRAPHED BOOKLET STAMPS

LONDON PRINTINGS (1926 - Perforation 14½ x 14)

Waterlow & Sons produced special plates for printing ½d and 1d stamps for booklets. These had a central 10mm-wide vertical gutter and the images in columns 4, 5, 6 and 10, 11, 12 were inverted. Booklet panes of 2 rows x 3 thus all had selvedge at the left side for stitching, and half of the panes had inverted watermark. Booklets contained two panes of ½d and four of 1d and were priced 2/6d. The vertical-comb perforator used for normal sheets of stamps (gauge 14½ x 14) could not be used because of the central narrow gutter and a single-row horizontal-comb machine incorporating this central gutter and with the same perforation gauge 14½ x 14 was used. Booklet stamps cannot therefore be distinguished from normal sheet stamps (unless inverted watermark or guillotined perforations).

Inverted watermark Guillotined perforations

SG 30cw SG 31dw

PRETORIA PRINTINGS (1927 - Perforation 13½ x 14)

The Waterlow plates, including those for printing ½d and 1d booklet stamps, were transferred to Pretoria in March 1927 and 2/6d booklets continued to be issued. Again a horizontal-comb perforator incorporating a central narrow gutter was required, and in order to distinguish Pretoria production from the previous London-printed booklet stamps, a machine with perforation gauge 13½ x 14 was used. Stamps perforated by this Grover machine had 13 holes instead of 14 between corners along the top and bottom edges. Obviously half of these stamps had the watermark inverted.

Stanley Gibbons, in the “Stamp Booklets” section for South Africa, lists the London and Pretoria booklets: “SB5” with SG30, 31 stamps and “SB6” with SG30e, 31e stamps (£4000 and £8500 respectively in 2025).

Inverted watermark

SG 30ew SG 31ew

②: Rotogravure printing, Government Printer, Pretoria: 1930 Type I (SG43), 1932 Type II (SG43e).

All of the “London pictorial” designs were reproduced with very minor alterations for production by rotogravure at Pretoria, starting with the 1d red and black Dromedaris, issued April 1930.

“SUIDAFRIKA” remained one word (no hyphen). Leg of “R” was shorter with flat end at foot:

Horizontal comb perforation 14.85 x 14 using an 11-row comb on the rotogravure machine:

This slightly closer horizontal perforation setting, compared to that used for the typographed stamps, along with the same whole number of 15 perforations across the top, resulted in the perforated stamp width now being reduced by 0.2mm. The modified design had a slightly narrower frame width of 18½mm, with the height remaining at 22½mm. The 18½ x 22½mm format remained in use until 1940.

Six pairs of “Type I” cylinders were made, labelled “(1) & (1x)” to “(6) & (6x)” in the Union Handbook (UHB). The brackets indicate that the actual cylinder numbers are unknown and the “
x” refers to the exterior or frame cylinder. Cylinder pairs were used together except that “Issue 3” employed cylinders (1) & (2x) and hence UHB lists 7 “Issues”.

Type II: The frame design was modified in 1932 and two new pairs of cylinders “(7) & (7x)” and “(8) & (8x)” were made.

TYPE I, SG 43 (April 1930):

Six pairs of Type I cylinders were made and there were 7 Issues (see above). Issues 1 to 6 in jet-black and carmine had upright watermark. Issue 7 in June 1931, in grey-black and carmine, only issued with inverted wmk.

◄White lines at top edges close together.

…EEL-INK…spaced close together.

Issue 1, cylinders (1) & (1x): Variety V16 (UHB p.51). Row 17/6 (English stamp): “Prominent red dash at top of sunrays”

Doctor blade vertical hairline through “RI” of “AFRIKA”

Watermark Inverted (SG43cw) Issue 7 from cylinders (6) & (6x) The vignette was printed in a lighter shade and the watermark was always inverted.