Commercial Overprint Society of Great Britain
Vol. 3 No. 8; February 1, 2006
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Printing Errors |
by Michael Behm |
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Some stamp collectors are infatuated by printing errors—perhaps because of the prices realized for some of the high-profile errors such as the inverted Jenny and the inverted Seaway. Printing errors exist on commercial overprints as well. The most common errors are doubled impressions, such as on the top stamp at the left, and misalignments, which are provocatively spaced the way you might expect if selvage were left on a sheet of stamps before printing when the practice was to remove the selvage—or the reverse. (To judge from my collection, very few commercial overprints have selvage. I have a total of three, and in all cases the selvage is at the top of the stamp.) There are also minor printing errors such as the final character in a name not appearing, possibly because of wear or poor inking. But there is a real error to watch for too: check your duplicates for an overprint that reads:
SOUTHPORT
CORPORATON (note the missing "I" in "CORPORATON"). This typo appears on SG 613a. If you know of other errors on commercial overprints, contact me at mjbehm@kw.igs.net. |
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N.E.R.
by Michael Behm
Last month we looked at G.W.R. overprints that included a date, and speculated that these were actually handstamps.
This month's overprint is another intriguing piece: it has a date and this example looks like an overprint rather than being a handstamp. Terry Woods believes that this is an overprint, and not a handstamp like the G.W.R. example. The N. E. R. probably stands for North Eastern Railway. In those days railway companies, councils, etc. rented land for use as allotments (small gardens where people could grow vegetables and fruit for their own consumption) as many people in cities lived in flats or tenements where they had no garden.
According to Calendar for year 1876 (United Kingdom), 29 May 1876 was the last Monday of that month. Is this significant?
Heelas
by Michael Behm
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John Heelas started his small drapery shop at 33 Minster Street
in Reading in 1854 with his sons, John and Daniel.
They acquired adjacent properties over the years and by 1877 had become a
department store.
In 1890 the House of Heelas was appointed Linen Drapers and House Furnishers to the then Prince of Wales (an honour that continued when he came to the throne as King Edward VII). In 1897 the family firm became a public company, Heelas Sons and Co. Ltd. |
The store was rebuilt in 1907, and when John and Daniel Heelas died in 1910, their successors, John Heelas Junior and Edward Heelas, inherited a thriving business. Heelas had become a major entity in Reading.
In 1937, the John Lewis Partnership unsuccessfully unsuccessfully attempted to purchase Heelas. Instead, in 1947 Heelas was sold to Charles Clore, who resold it in 1950 to United Drapery Stores, who then sold it to the John Lewis Partnership in 1953.
Throughout those changes, the store continued to trade as Heelas. However, in 2001 the store took the name "John Lewis", in common with most of the other stores in that chain.
Although Heelas has a significant business and had a long history, I am aware of only one Heelas overprint, which is pictured here.
Send comments or questions to mjbehm@kw.igs.net