Introduction

There is a persistent myth around the origins of the New Zealand Chalons, and I write this piece in an attempt to dispel it.

That vastly respected and invaluable 1938 handbook of New Zealand philately, [TPSoNZ38v1, p32], comments “… it was from this [i.e. Chalon’s] painting that the New Zealand design was adapted. At the request of Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co., Edward Henry Corbould, R.I., made a water-colour sketch of the head and bust for the guidance of the engraver … who was entrusted with the cutting of the portrait”

The rest, as they say, is history, since any New Zealand philatelist seeking authoritative knowledge on the origins of the Chalon heads would naturally refer to a volume of The Postage Stamps of New Zealand, and would naturally consult with the first volume for information about New Zealand’s first stamp issue. Any revision to the consensus history in later volumes or other literature would inevitably receive less attention.

But the connection in this passage between Corbould’s water-colour and the New Zealand Chalons is almost surely not the case and, if the Corbould water-colour had any influence, then it was the most minor in nature and really does not justify mention. Indeed, the Corbould statement in [TPSoNZ38v1, p32] has been known to be wrong since before 1953. Yet, 60 odd years later, in 2018, all of my favorite philatelic sites replay the notion that the Corbould water-colour was the artistic reference for the engraving of the New Zealand Chalons.

Thus, although our overarching goal is to clear up this one myth, it seems worthwhile to summarise the modern knowledge of the Chalon history in one place, and also tackle a few more myths and mysteries …

Four thoughts at the end of writing this piece … 1.       This is not an easy piece to write in the sense that it spends inadequate time celebrating the earnest and outstanding scholarship of the great philatelists of the past and on whose shoulders this work is based. Instead this piece critiques a minor fraction of their output: their few statements that are incongruent with our modern understanding of the creation of the New Zealand Chalons. But, given the tenaciousness of some long-overturned myths and the lack of use (or web-searchability) of some references, it seems that a public piece such as this is a necessary evil. 2.       One must be a little schizophrenic in this endeavour. This piece attempts to identify and critique the errant details in the literature pertaining to the artistic origins of New Zealand Chalons. And if there is something astray in a reference, surely one must apply a higher level of scrutiny to every other claim in the same reference? Yet, few of us have access to the primary records (which are limited to the Chalon sketch, the Chalon portraits, the Corbould miniature, the stamp proofs, a letter authored by Will Humphys, a scrapbook of Humphrys' collected engravings and - most of all - the Perkins, Beacon & Co records, although [PBR53] is a fine substitute for the philatelic records if not the numismatic ones). Thus, we have little choice but to depend on any and all claims in all the references, as long as the claims have not yet been challenged. 3.       I would appreciate hearing from anyone about errors and omissions in this piece, additional references and so forth. This story is mostly set in London, I have access to many books and publications via the invaluable Western Philatelic Library in California, and RPSL makes the London Philatelist relatively accessible on the web, so in that sense we start with a tolerable foundation. Yet there are troves of literature, most especially in the New Zealand publications, that I do not have searchable access to. If this piece is redundant or could be improved by others’ prior work, that would be good to know. 4.       In the same way that I critique others’ work, I must lay myself open to the same level of criticism too. Accordingly I fully expect this piece to change as I hear critiques, discover new references and/or license new images for this blog.

Up ^^        Next >>