Author: thedigitalphilatelist

A new definitive issue of postage stamps for Southern Rhodesia will be placed on sale at all post offices on Wednesday the 19th February, 1964. The issue compromises fourteen denominations with a total face value of £2.3.10½d. and is printed by photogravure process by Harrisons and Sons Ltd., London. All…

View More Southern Rhodesia Philately: 1964 Definitive Series

“Another four-colour stamp, the second in the series, and its source was an official coloured plate of the Arms. Here the small format necessitated some thickening of parts of the design and the overall outline for reproduction in stamp size. The vignette technique has enabled two of the four colours…

View More Southern Rhodesia Philately: 1964 Definitive Series – £1 Coat of Arms

Kodachrome transparencies and a coloured picture from a tourist brochure, Aloes and Cycads, provided a guide to this formalized interpretation of the extraordinary Aloe excelsa, which in some districts grows tree-like to a height of 20 feet, but usually to 10 or 12 feet. The brown-red “pinnacles”, not unlike the…

View More Southern Rhodesia Philately: 1964 Definitive Series – 1/3d Aloe

“Out of Africa, always something new” is an axiom attributed to the Romans. The discovery of emeralds by two prospectors, Contat and Oosthuizen, in the Belingwe area of Southern Rhodesia certainly attracted worldwide interest. The main source of the design was a coloured magazine picture of rock ore in its…

View More Southern Rhodesia Philately: 1964 Definitive Series – 1/- Emeralds

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