“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 natural state with the emeralds embedded in it. A portion of the rock was selected by the artist, who was requested to place the emeralds to the centre of the ore and represent the rock itself in a low key. An interesting point was that emeralds “in the rough” are dull and have no sparkle; Victor Whiteley had to bear this in mind when preparing the artwork. Actually, the intensity and vividness of colour of the polished stones, known as the Sandawana emeralds after the valley in which they were discovered, is unequalled. The size of the stones, however, has so far been small.
Details
- Subject: Emeralds
- Designer: Victor Whitely
- Printer: Harrison & Sons Ltd, London
- Process: Photogravure
- Paper: White paper
- Watermark: None
- Perf: 13.5 x 13 (comb)
- Cylinders: 1A (Blue-green), 1A (Brown-ochre)
- Sheet: R10 x 6)
- Quantity: 3,842,000
- Reprints: 1965
Cylinder Numbers
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Maximum Cards (Unofficial)
