Archer's Prince Consort Essay

Archer proposed to the British Government that he could manufacture  perforated surface printed stamps at a lower price than Perkins Bacon & Co.  The below  are  examples of the Prince Consort Essay  created  for  the  proposal.   According  to the Report from the Select Committee on Postage Stamps (1852)  the Prince Consort  Essays were apparently ordered by an engraver in Archer’s employment ,  Robert Edward Branston, and executed by Samuel William Reynolds.  

The  first  essay design depicted Queen Victoria.  Edwin Hill cautioned Reynolds not to  make any  essays with the Queen’s portrait.  Therefore Prince Albert’s portrait was used  instead.   It is noted that the essays have the check letters “J” and “B” and it  is  believed  by  some scholars that Ferdinand Joubert,  who  pioneered  the use  of surface printing  and  designed Great Britain’s first surface printed  stamp,    the 1855  Four  Pence printed by De La  Rue,   may have played a role in the creation of the Prince Consort Essay.

Red Brown	Black Perf.. 16
Plate Position “H.”   Matched Pair.   One printed in black and perforated 16 and other in red-brown imperforate.   See figures 1-2

Crack on bottom "O" of ONE and "P" of  PENNY (Fig 1)	Gash at top of "G" of POSTAGE (Fig 2)

The Prince Consort Essay was printed from electros taken from one master plate of twelve.  The twelve positions all have unique features and are identified as positions “A” through  “L.”  Position “H” has the above shown characteristics (fig. 1-2).  The essays  were  printed  finished  in   brown,   red-brown,   black, blue  and  unfinished in blue,  are known  imperforate,  rouletted and perforated 16.  The essays were surface  printed in sheets of 36  (3 horizontal rows of 12), in sheets of 240  and  in sheets  of 252 (21 panes of 12) . There are 38 examples recorded perforated examples known including four in red-brown; three in blue and the balance in black. Two of the three blue copies are included in the Royal and Phillips Collections.   The other blue copy and all of the red-brown copies are in private hands. The only known rouletted example is in the Royal Collection

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