THE TRANSVAAL - A CHALLENGE

Alan R. Drysdall

There was a time in the not-too-distant past when my response to the inevitable question from a fellow collector, "And what do you collect" was, "Most of central and southern Africa". Admission of such a wide-ranging interest may have raised an eyebrow or two, but the conversation usually proceeded easily enough to a particular topic. Nowadays when I say, "Transvaal" one can see the glazed look come into eyes of the enquirer before I have even uttered the second syllable. Which demonstrates very effectively the extent to which even philately is at the mercy of 'fashion'.

It is not that today's collectors have forgotten, the majority are completely unaware that 100 years ago at the turn of the century, Transvaal was high on the list of countries popular with collectors. For example the Tapling Collection, which was presented to the British Museum, now the British Library, when he died in 1891 includes an extensive Transvaal section. Renowned philatelists such as Nankival, Pearce and Yardley were fascinated by the issues of the First Republic in particular, and it was Yardley who summarised the results of their researches, and in particular his own work on the stamps of the First Republic and First British Occupation, in the extensive section he contributed to the third volume on the stamps and postal stationery of Britain's African colonies and protectorates published by Stanley Gibbons on behalf of what was then the Philatelic Society, now the Royal Philatelic Society, London, in 1906. The philatelists of 100 years ago were a generation devoted to stamps and plating studies in particular, but collectors of Transvaal are unusually fortunate in that their numbers included a philatelist with wider interests, namely Emil Tamsen. In 1880 at the age of only 18 he emigrated to South Africa and became a personal friend of both the Postmaster-General who introduced adhesive stamps into the Transvaal, Friederich Jeppe, and the Postmaster-General who was in office for most of the existence of the Second Republic, Isaac van Alphen. He summarised what he had learnt of the postal history in an extensive article serialised in Stanley Gibbons Stamp Monthly in 1893-94. Tamsen, however, wrote about postal history as background information to the stamp issues. His expertise as far as the latter are concerned is exemplified by his pioneer study of the Pietersburg issue, printed by the Boers when their beloved Republic was in the final stages of occupation by the British for the second time.

Yardley's successors included the great American philatelist, John Luff, who in a monograph published in 1913 unravelled the complexities of Adolph Otto's genuine and forged printings, and Curle and Basden, who wrote the book published in 1940 by the Royal Philatelic Society, London, with which collectors of Transvaal are perhaps most familiar. There was, however, one other figure who was to play an important role. Among those captivated by the complexity of the stamp issues was the young prince who was to come to the throne in 1910 as King George V. It was he who introduced the fashion of collecting mint blocks of four, and it is not therefore surprising that his collection of Transvaal not only includes many multiples but also some of the great rarities such as the tete-beche varieties in this form. The King, however, was nut llie only buyer in the market, and had to compete with his contemporary, the South African mining engineer, John Curie. Robson Lowe tells the delightful story of how the King and Curie invited each other to tea to show their recent acquisitions with the hope no doubt of inciting, in the politest possible way of course, the envy of the other party.

This intense interest in the Transvaal did, however, have a long-term consequence that eventually contributed to the unpopularity of the country. As already noted, Tapling gave his collection to the nation. King George V's collection survives intact as the Red Collection in the Stamp Room at Buckingham Palace, and the Curie Collection is lodged with the Museum Africa - formerly the Africana Museum - in Johannesburg. As a result many of the surviving key pieces, including no less than 43 of the 59 known tete-beche varieties will never again appear on the market. This situation is further compounded by the practice among collectors of earlier years, and this applies to all of those mentioned from Tapling to Curie, of collecting as many copies as possible of the rarer stamps in particular, in some cases regardless of condition. The outcome is that today's collector is faced with the problem that there are no copies in the public domain of some of the major varieties and very few, often only one, of others. Moreover undamaged and attractive copies, particularly unused examples, of the majority of the earlier issues, many of which are printed on poor quality paper, are hard to find.

There is, however, some consolation In that it is possible, admittedly only on rare occasions, to buy a rare or even a unique Transvaal item, that is a majority variety of which there is only a single copy in the public domain, for a fraction of what one would pay for, say, a 'post office' Mauritius - of which there are no less than 15 copies of the 1d and 12 copies of the 2d - for the simple reason that Transvaal is a far less popular country with today's collectors.

Despite this situation the challenge represented by the early issues of the Republic continues to attract those who have an interest in what can be described as traditional philately. The articles published in The Transvaal Philatelist over the last 30 years, and various other publications that have been sponsored by the Transvaal Study Circle, prove not only that this interest still exists, but also that surprising and important discoveries concerning She stamps of the First Republic and First British Occupation are still being made. Although much more is now known about the early postal history than was the case 100 years ago, it is even more obvious than in the case of the stamps that there is still a great deal to be learnt.

The footnote referred to throughout Gibbons' listing of the issues of the Second Republic warning collectors to beware of reprints has undoubtedly contributed to the present unpopularity of the Transvaal. Enschede for many years consistently and repeatedly denied that they reprinted the stamps of the Second Republic, and maintained that the original plates had been destroyed. However, plating studies have demonstrated beyond any doubt that the reprints sold worid-wide at wholesale prices by the Paris-based dealer Mirza Hadi were printed from the original plates, and it is now suspected that the various provisionals, including the surcharged stamps of the Second Republic and the stamps overprinted 'V. R. I.' and 'E. R. I.' during the Second British Occupation as well as stamps of the definitive series cancelled with strikes of various datestamps in intense biack may have all come from the same source.

The reprints were produced using inks and paper that closely resemble those used for the original stamps, and moreover, like the majority of those stamps, they are comb-perforated 12½ (There are a few recognisable differences of shade, but this applies to no more than three or four of the many stamps concerned.) However, the perforators in use when the stamps were reprinted, that is mainly in the 1920s and 5930s. were not those used by Enschede between 1884 and 1899. Perforating combs though they may be of the same gauge leave a 'footprint' with some holes slightly larger or smaller than others and some misaligned holes that is unique to that comb. A photograph or photocopy of a complete horizontal row of stamps against a black background provides a complete strike of the comb, which is as valuable for identification purposes, particularly when enlarged, as any Scotland Yard fingerprint record. For example it is known from Enschede's records and panes lodged with the Post Office Museum in South Africa that all the £5 stamps printed by Enschede - and of course all those subsequently overprinted 'V. R. I.' - were not only produced as panes of 60 from a single plate but also that they were all perforated with the comb that for identification and descriptive purposes is designated 'I'. Thus if the perforation characteristics of an individual £5 stamp, assuming that it has not already been identified as a forgery rather than a reprint, do not match the characteristics of one of the 10 positions along comb I. it must be a reprint, if they do match, then the stamp is not only genuine but the vertical column in the pane from which it originated can be identified. (The characteristic features of each position along a strike of the comb occur on each stamp in a vertical column of a pane.) This test would seem to be infallible, and in a few instances can be substantiated by demonstrating that the stamp or multiple shows plating characteristics that prove that it was printed from a plate that was not used for the original issue. (Such evidence as there is would suggest that Enschede made four plates for each of the duties in a series of stamps, but probably printed from no more than three at any one time and in the case of a low print order - such as the one order for £5 stamps - used only a single plate.)

This line of research, which was pioneered by Major Harold Criddle and which has been pursued by John Kaupe in particular, has removed at least some of the uncertainties from the issues of the Second Republic. However, there is certainly plenty of scope for further work by anyone interested in a profusion of provisional issues characterised by innumerable overprint varieties, few of which are highly catalogued despite the fact that some are undoubtedly rare. There is also of course a great deal of further work to he done So advance the plating studies of the basic stamps. But perhaps the most fascinating field for today's collectors is the postal history. The numerous provisionais reflect many changes in internal, interterritorial and overseas postage rates as the southern African colonies and republics progressed painfully towards unified postage rates. Covers demonstrating these rates are in many cases frustratingly difficult to find. Even harder to find are covers proving which of the numeral-coded target-type and triangular cancellers were allocated to the smaller rural offices.

Those who have been bitten by the 'Transvaal bug' find it difficult to understand the indifference of those who have not been infected. The 'primitives' of the First Republic may not be your cup of tea, and you may be unstirred by the equally primitive type-set overprints of the First British Occupation and the Second Republic, but that still leaves the Edwardian issues and a wealth of postal history ranging from the runners and mails carts of the 1860s through to the TPOs of the first decade of this century. There is a further possibility. Collecting classic postage stamps is undoubtedly an expensive pastime, but bear in mind that there is often a parallel series of revenue stamps - with documents rather than covers to illustrate usage - that are equally fascinating and may be just as hard to find, but
which will cost substantially less.

There are many challenges rather than a single challenge to be met, and the Transvaal Study Circle would be happy to assist you to pick up whichever gauntlet you think might fit.

The letters sent in this cover were written by Frank Oates betweers the 1st October and the 3rd November, 1874, before he left Tati to make his last attempt to reach the Victoria Falls. (He succeeded, but died from maliaria on the 5th February, 1875, during the return trip.) The letter was probably carried to Shoshong by a privately-owned ox-wagon, and by runners organised by the missionaries from there via Molepolole, Kanye and Linokana to Zeerust (DE 4 /' 74'). Klerksdorp {'DE 8 / 74') and Kimberley ('DE 10 / 1874') datestamps struck on the reverse record the route south to Cape Town ('DE 17 / 74'). The letter was then put aboard the Walmer Castle which sailed on the 10th January, 1875; it was delivered In Leeds 26 days later.

The cover is endorsed 'Per Private Steamer" at top-right, and postage should have been prepaid at 6d (the ZAR Interstate rate) plus 4d (Cape transit rate) plus 4d ('private steamer' rate) per half ounce. The two ZAR stamps, from the single delivery by Davis, are evidence that the letter weighed between a half and one ounce, and it should therefore have been franked at the double rate. The '2' at top-left records this, and the manuscript '1/-' in black, written at Cape Town, the amount or the deficient postage. The manuscript figure at right, written in the UK, is an instruction. that the addressee was to be charged 2s. The '4' in red crayon is an accountancy mark - the amount due to the British GPO (2d per half ounce). (The triangle to the left is probably an Incomplete '4'. abandoned when the writer's pencil broke.)

Selected Bibliography

General

• Board, C., 1992, The Transvaal in 1906: a map of post offices, postal agencies and postal routes with a description and gazetteer. Memoir 1, the Transvaal Study Circle
• Curie, J.H., and Basden, A.E., 1940, Transvaal Postage Stamps. The Royal Philatelic Society of London
• Mathews, Maj. I.B., 1986, Transvaal Philately. Reijger Publishers, Cape Town
• Tamsen, E, 1893-94, The stamps of the Transvaal: Stanley Gibbons Monthly Journal, v. 4, 31st August, 1893, p.49-55 to v. 5, 30th November. 1894, p.74-5
• Yardley, R.B., 1906, The Transvaal in The postage stamps, envelopes, wrappers, post cards, and telegraph stamps of the British Colonies, Possessions and Protectorates in Africa, Part 3: Stanley Gibbons for the Philatelic Society, London, p370-537 and 551-610

First Republic

• Drysdall, A.R., 1996, A listing of the stamps of the First South African Republic and a guide to their identification: Memoir 2, Transvaal Study Circle
• Drysdall, A.R., and Criddle, H.M., 1993, The tete-beche varieties of Transvaal: BPA Expertising, Leatherhead
• Luff, J.N., 1913, Otto's printings of the Transvaal stamps: The Philatelic Record, London

Second Republic

• Van den Hurk, G., 1992, The Netherlands South Africa Railway Company and the postal service of the South African Republic: Supplement to The South African Philatelist, v: 68. no. 5

First British Occupation

• Drysdall, A.R., 1994, Transvaal: the provisional issues of the First British Occupation, James Bendon in association with the Transvaal Study Circle, Limassol
• Lowe, Robson, 1973, Transvaal 1878-1880: Robson Lowe Ltd, London

Boer War Issues

• Rich, S.G., 1943, Philately of the Anglo-Boer War: Chambers Publishing Co., Kalamazoo, Michigan
• Tamsen, E., 1902, The war stamps of the Transvaal: Stanley Gibbons Monthly Journal, March, p. 183-89
• Tamsen, E., 1906, The last stamps of the South African Republic, the Pietersburg issue of 1901 in The postage stamps, envelopes, wrappers, post cards, and telegraph stamps of the British Colonies, Possessions and Protectorates in Africa, Part 3: Stanley Gibbons for the Philatelic Society, London, p. 537-550

The New Republic and Swaziland

• Jonkers, G.H., 1989. De Nieuwe Republiek 1884-1888: Nederlandse Vereniging van Poststukken en Poststempelverzamelaars, Assen
• Pirie, J.H. Harvey, 1956?, Stamps and postal history of Swaziland and the New Republic: Philatelic Federation of Southern Africa, Johannesburg
• There are in addition innumerable articles on individual topics in The Transvaal Philatelist, the journal of the Transvaal Study Circle published quarterly since January 1966.

Revenue and telegraph stamps

• Drysdall, A.R., 1995. Transvaal: revenue and telegraph stamps: James Bendon in association with the Transvaal Study Circle, Limassol