Modern "stamp-like miniature sheet" of Humphreys' first Chalon engraving for Nova Scotia/New Zealand banknotes/stamps suitable as a frontispiece to a Chalon banknote/stamp collection.
The trail from Alfred Chalon's 1837 portrait of the young Queen Victoria to banknotes and thence stamps passes through Samuel Cousins' large-scale engravings then Humphreys' first, bank-note-sized engraving of Victoria. Humphreys' engraving was first used, after the addition of a "20s" value, for the Province of Nova Scotia banknote, then progressively cropped versions (via a transfer impression which was then cut away) were used for a) the Bank of British North America banknotes and specimen Bank of Victoria banknotes, and further (almost surely) for b) the Nova Scotia and New Zealand Chalon stamps. Accordingly Humphreys' banknote-sized engraving has considerable artistic and historical significance, especially to Canadian, Australian and New Zealand numismatic and philatelic collectors.
However, it seems most likely that there is a single instance of Humphreys' engraving in all the world, and this instance resides in a scrapbook in the collection of the Library Company of Philadelphia (accession number 7607.F). This instance was professionally photographed as a 11480x12612 (424MB) file, and used to create a modern, high quality (giclee) "stamp-like miniature sheet" suitable as a frontispiece for a Chalon banknote/stamp collection. A limited number of extra copies of these "stamp-like miniature sheets" are made available here assuming that they might be of interest to some other collectors.
The "stamp-like miniature sheet" features Humphreys' full engraving on the right hand side and an enlargement on the left hand side, completed with perforations and dry adhesive on the reverse. The dimensions are 160 x 216 mm.
Printing notes:
* Resolution. The highest resolution possible was critical since the original is replete with very fine detail. Line engraving was unavailable, and offset printing at 300 pixels per inch was deemed inadequate, so Epson digital printing at 720 pixels per inch was selected. In turn, achieving such high pixel density means minimizing any bleeding which mandates the selection of an ultra smooth coated paper engineered specifically for inkjet printers. As well, the design was printed oversized.
* Longevity. The longevity requirement pointed towards pigment-based inks (not dye based), archival paper and robust gum. The chosen printer was the 7-colour "Gray Lady" (Epson 2100) which creates its 720 pixels per inch by laying down different coloured dots at 1440x2880dpi. Its pigment-based ink is estimated to have a 100+ year longevity under specified conditions. The selected paper was Hahnemuhle FineArt InkJet Paper, which is certified to have 250 years of longevity. Given the archival concerns associated with Gum Arabic, the adhesive was chosen to be clear polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as used on modern British stamps. The adhesive was applied via a gluing machine for consistent results.
* Perforations. Typical of ultra-premium inkjet papers, the Hahnemuhle paper is nearly four times denser than copy paper, at 305 grams per square meter. This makes it hard to perforate and the end result is closer to cardstock than the svelte paper used in genuine stamps. Worse, a design goal was complete control over perforation locations to produce blind perforations (rather than edge-to-edge perforations such as made by a line or rotary machine). Accordingly, a custom perforation machine was designed and built. It comprises custom software to define the perforation locations, a PC running Universal Gcode Sender, an Arduino controller running GRBL, two motorized linear rails (each with a stepper motor driver) in an XY configuration that controllably move an upper and lower jaw that clamp the printed and glued paper, and a custom hole puncher with a Japanese die. The die diameter is 1mm diameter (akin to the New Zealand 1936 ANZAC stamps, yet certainly larger than a typical perforation hole size such as 0.7mm; still, 1mm is not out of place given the oversized design).
* Image processing. Using custom software, the image was rectified, the colours of the black-on-yellowing-paper were mapped to a gray scale, the result was resampled to 720dpi, and a caption was added. The goal of image processing was to reproduce, as faithfully as possible, the original submission rather than "cleaning up" the light grays and potentially squelching any of the faint details.
Cautions
* This is an artisanal product and some imperfections should be expected
* The image processing did not attempt to "clean up" the originals at all.
* The thick paper is manually cut to size with a razor blade
* Perforation accuracy is VF or better, with better registration for the first 7 items sold
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