Interestingly, I found out, that (at least for me), concave/convex uncertainty collapses for all photos, if I move sight from the bottom upwards the image, instead of natural up to down.
I bet this effect comes from the circumstance, that naturally for human perception, light falls from up (sky, ceiling lights) to bottom, so, a convex object, say, a ball, would appear bright on the top, and dark on the bottom, while a concave object, such as inner surface of hemisphere, will appear seemingly, other way around, but not quite so. The light-shadow play on such subjects would not be the same, and if you just rotate the image of a ball 180 degrees around, the brain will immediately recognize foul play, and adjust perception adequately. However, it may have trouble with more complicated shapes, may take some time for it to estimate, if the shadow distribution corresponds to the perceived shape.
Embossed escutcheons on revenue stamps from the 18th and 19th Century
Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau
Re: Embossed escutcheons on revenue stamps from the 18th and 19th Century
“Thoroughly conscious ignorance is the prelude to every real advance in science.” - JCM
Re: Embossed escutcheons on revenue stamps from the 18th and 19th Century
I bought this 1808 Canterbury prerogative court document just because it seemed the escutcheon was special, and so it turns out to be, in fact it's my best find to date.
The document is quite special too, as it has the Archbishop of Canterbury's seal on it, and also because it has the rare high values of £50 & £25 duty stamps.
£75 was a lot of money in 1808. I looked up the estimated buying power in today's money, and got 2 very different answers from 2 sites. One said it was around £3500, the other said around £6,700. Anyway, it equates, according to the first site, to 500 days' wages for a skilled tradesman at that time.
The stamps and seal are not in good condition:
But as I say, I was buying for the escutcheon, and what a beauty it is. The harp and the mermaid figurehead are perfectly centred, and the metal is clean, virtually unblemished and shiny. Luckily it's an unusually large escutcheon too, measuring 6.3mm x 7.4mm.
This is a 2 pane composite of a total of 150 focus stacked images in Zerene
The outside diameter of the bottom sound-hole on the harp is just 0.44mm, and the average diameter of the individual scales on the mermaid is just 0.15mm. I haven't searched, but I bet this is the first time that images of mermaid scales have featured on this forum
The detail at the bottom in the partial buckle on the garter is superb too.
And yes it looks good rotated too!
The document is quite special too, as it has the Archbishop of Canterbury's seal on it, and also because it has the rare high values of £50 & £25 duty stamps.
£75 was a lot of money in 1808. I looked up the estimated buying power in today's money, and got 2 very different answers from 2 sites. One said it was around £3500, the other said around £6,700. Anyway, it equates, according to the first site, to 500 days' wages for a skilled tradesman at that time.
The stamps and seal are not in good condition:
But as I say, I was buying for the escutcheon, and what a beauty it is. The harp and the mermaid figurehead are perfectly centred, and the metal is clean, virtually unblemished and shiny. Luckily it's an unusually large escutcheon too, measuring 6.3mm x 7.4mm.
This is a 2 pane composite of a total of 150 focus stacked images in Zerene
The outside diameter of the bottom sound-hole on the harp is just 0.44mm, and the average diameter of the individual scales on the mermaid is just 0.15mm. I haven't searched, but I bet this is the first time that images of mermaid scales have featured on this forum
The detail at the bottom in the partial buckle on the garter is superb too.
And yes it looks good rotated too!
Re: Embossed escutcheons on revenue stamps from the 18th and 19th Century
Today's escutcheon is really not very pretty at all, and it quite poor condition, but it's on a document dated 1727, so that's hardly surprising.
Until 1757, each time the Duty was increased, the law required that it was shown on a different embossed stamp. The three 6d stamps here, then, represent the original duty of 6d and the 2 increases up to 1727, making a duty of 18d payable in total.
The escutcheon is rubbed and tarnished, but still shows some good detail of the Tudor Rose:
Until 1757, each time the Duty was increased, the law required that it was shown on a different embossed stamp. The three 6d stamps here, then, represent the original duty of 6d and the 2 increases up to 1727, making a duty of 18d payable in total.
The escutcheon is rubbed and tarnished, but still shows some good detail of the Tudor Rose:
Re: Embossed escutcheons on revenue stamps from the 18th and 19th Century
The majority of the early embossed duty stamps are on blue paper but vermilion coloured paper was used for the stamps on court documents.
This is a Die C #1 (Barber) example. These were used on writs from 22nd July 1762 to 27th March 1789.
There are 4 values of VI pence around the edge of the stamp, making a total of 2 shillings. The cypher stamp on the back helps restrict the possible date range to the late 1760s to early / mid 1770s.
The escutcheon, measuring 4.1mm x 6.2mm, has some unusual scroll detail on it and a partial letter 'I' in the corner.
This is a Die C #1 (Barber) example. These were used on writs from 22nd July 1762 to 27th March 1789.
There are 4 values of VI pence around the edge of the stamp, making a total of 2 shillings. The cypher stamp on the back helps restrict the possible date range to the late 1760s to early / mid 1770s.
The escutcheon, measuring 4.1mm x 6.2mm, has some unusual scroll detail on it and a partial letter 'I' in the corner.
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Re: Embossed escutcheons on revenue stamps from the 18th and 19th Century
I am thoroughly enjoying all of this as a collector of old books / stuff and photography, I probably would have paid more attention in colonial history classes had the stamp act / intolerable acts been contextualized with examples of the stamps.
-- Bob
-- Bob
Re: Embossed escutcheons on revenue stamps from the 18th and 19th Century
Thanks Bob. Yes, as I was saying recently to an old classmate from 40 years ago, our teachers made History into the most boring subjects imaginable. Now, decades later, I realise it's one of the most fascinating.
Iain
Iain
Re: Embossed escutcheons on revenue stamps from the 18th and 19th Century
Here's another vermilion stamp, used on writs; this time a 5 shillings die D (Barber #9) used from 18th August 1804 and last seen in use 2nd February 1830. The King George III cypher stamp on the back is a Plate 2, 1st recut, which further narrows down the date range to 1805-1815.
At the risk of complicating things, in the lower right of the escutcheon is part of the inescutcheon, which is the term for a small shield placed within a larger one.
As with a previous stamp, there's evidence of creatures, now long gone I hope, who made their home in the slit of the stamp, and on the metal surface itself.
At the risk of complicating things, in the lower right of the escutcheon is part of the inescutcheon, which is the term for a small shield placed within a larger one.
As with a previous stamp, there's evidence of creatures, now long gone I hope, who made their home in the slit of the stamp, and on the metal surface itself.
Re: Embossed escutcheons on revenue stamps from the 18th and 19th Century
The escutcheons on the stamps from Queen Victoria's reign don't show as much fine detail as the earlier ones, but this one dated 3rd July 1862 has come out quite well.
It's a 2 shilling 6 pence, #11 (Barber) . Die L.
The rotated flower refuses, to my eye, to appear anything other than concave, despite much effort!
It's a 2 shilling 6 pence, #11 (Barber) . Die L.
The rotated flower refuses, to my eye, to appear anything other than concave, despite much effort!
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Re: Embossed escutcheons on revenue stamps from the 18th and 19th Century
Huh!
The rotated flower was stubbornly concave for me also, three days ago.
But when I come back just now, it pops right in as convex, lit from below.
I do not know what made the difference. "Power of suggestion", maybe?
--Rik
The rotated flower was stubbornly concave for me also, three days ago.
But when I come back just now, it pops right in as convex, lit from below.
I do not know what made the difference. "Power of suggestion", maybe?
--Rik