Part 17 (2/2)

One-cent, green, portraits of Champlain and Cartier.

Two-cent, red, King Edward and Queen Alexandria.

Five-cent, blue, representation of L'Habitation de Quebec.

Seven-cent, yellow, pictures of Montcalm and Wolfe.

Ten-cent, mauve, picture of Quebec in 1700.

Fifteen-cent, orange, picture of the Parliament of the West in the old regime.

Twenty-cent, green, picture of a courier du sois with Indians.

The stamps were placed on sale on July 16th and, as will be noted from our ill.u.s.trations, they are as described above except that the 15c does not have Champlain's name on it as stated in the first quotation, and that the 15c and 20c are incorrectly described in the second despatch.

The stamps are of similar shape to the special series issued in Diamond Jubilee year though they are a trifle larger--1 mm. taller and nearly 3 mm. longer. The Postmaster-General's Report for 1909 referred to this issue as follows:--

To meet what appeared to be a general wish a special series of postage stamps, which has come to be known as the Tercentenary Series, was introduced as a feature of the celebration in July, 1908, of the three hundredth anniversary of the founding of Quebec by Champlain. The first supply of these stamps was sent out to Postmasters about the middle of that month, and was on sale to the public by the time His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales, reached Quebec for the celebration. The demand for the new stamps was extraordinary, and for the better part of a month was steadily kept up. The interest taken in them was, in no small measure, due to the historic a.s.sociations with which in design they were so happily linked, the subjects depicted in the several denominations of the series being in variety and appropriateness admirably adapted to the end in view,--popular recognition of an epoch-making event.

Except as regards the Postal Union denominations of 1c, 2c and 5c the colors chosen for the stamps of this series do not correspond with those of the regular set. The stamps were produced by the line-engraved process, which has long been the standard method of production for Canada's stamps, and as usual they were issued in sheets of one hundred in ten rows of ten. It seems probable that the plates for the 2c, and possibly for the 1c also, consisted of two panes of 100 stamps each placed one above the other. This seems to be proved from the fact that, whereas on most sheets the imprint ”OTTAWA” followed by the plate number, appears in the centre of the top margin, sheets of the 2c are known with the imprint in the centre of the bottom margin, and in the case of plates 3 and 4 both imprint and number are inverted. The inversion on these particular plates was, probably, purely accidental.

But though these large plates were used the stamps were always issued in the usual sheet size of 100. The following plates are known to have been used:--

1/2c dark brown. No. 1.

1c blue-green, Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4.

2c carmine, Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4.

5c dark blue, Nos. 1, 2.

7c olive-green, No. 1.

10c dark violet, No. 1.

15c red-orange, No. 1.

20c yellow brown. No. 1.

The stamps were all printed on the usual white wove paper and were perforated 12, though specimens of the 2c are known entirely imperforate. Fairly well marked shades may be found in connection with the 1c and 2c denominations but the other values show but very slight differences.

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The royal portraits on the 1/2c and 2c values call for little comment, though it is interesting to note that the portrait of the Princess of Wales (now Queen Mary) is exactly similar to that shown on the 4c stamp of Newfoundland which was first issued in 1901. The picture of the Prince of Wales (now His Majesty King George V) was from a photograph by W. & D. Downey, of London, taken just prior to his journey to India in 1906.

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The portrait of Jacques Cartier on the 1c is precisely like that which appears on Canada's first 10d stamp. In _Gibbons' Stamp Weekly_ for January 16th, 1909, the following interesting account of Cartier's voyage appears:--

In the year 1533 Jacques Cartier was empowered by Philipp Cabot, ”the Admiral of France,” to fit out s.h.i.+ps ”to explore new territories, to gain them, by robbery or otherwise, for France, and at the same time to endeavour to find a north-west pa.s.sage to Cathay”. As long before as 1506 the Florentine explorer, Giovanni Verozzani, had seized the territories of North America lying to the north of the St. Lawrence River in the name of the King of France, but the seizure had never been enforced, and remained a seizure only in name.

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