Author: thedigitalphilatelist

Again, the original artwork was executed in two colours, with a third colour added by request as for the 6d. As it transpired the extra expense was fully justified for the third colour—the green “leaf motif” background—improved the design enormously. The source was a Kodachrome transparency depicting the plant without…

View More Southern Rhodesia Philately: 1964 Definitive Series – 9d Ansellia Orchid

“These are found in the wild only in Africa south of the Sahara and in Madagascar. The bird depicted is a Helmeted (or Crowned) Guineafowl, Numida meleagris, common in savannah and woodland throughout Southern Rhodesia. It is not a multicoloured bird, but nevertheless its red patch behind the eye, microscopic…

View More Southern Rhodesia Philately: 1964 Definitive Series – 10s Guineafowl

“This, eventually, became a three-colour subject. The initial drawing, in black and green, was based on transparencies of a large Hereford and a group of cattle. The golden-dun Tuli cattle on the stamp represent the second attempt to portray the Rhodesian beef industry which is expanding rapidly to meet growing…

View More Southern Rhodesia Philately: 1964 Definitive Series – 5s Cattle

“Hold that tiger” becomes less of a catch-phrase and more of a necessity to the anglers of the Zambezi and Lake Kariba, where Hydrocyon vittatiis or “Lively water dog” has its haunts. The stamp picture, satisfactorily confined to two colours when it was thought three or more would be necessary,…

View More Southern Rhodesia Philately: 1964 Definitive Series – 2/6d Tiger Fish

“Another magazine picture, with emphasis on the lake waters and the undeveloped (foreground) verge requested of the artist, was the basic source. The latter made a suitable background for Whiteley’s cased letters, showing the advantage of this “see-through” technique. The stamp shows an amazing variety of tones derived from the…

View More Southern Rhodesia Philately: 1964 Definitive Series – 2s Lake Kyle

Another transparency was the source of this picture of Rhodesia’s unofficial floral emblem, the flame lily, also known as the Turk’s Cap or gloriosa lily. Originally rendered in two colours, a third colour, yellow, was found necessary and a background similar to that of the Fiji 8d. “Hibiscus” stamp (now…

View More Southern Rhodesia Philately: 1964 Definitive Series – 6d Flame Lily