Available at Stanley Gibbons
If you've been to London you've no doubt visited the Royal Albert Hall, The Albert Memorial or the Victoria and Albert Museum.
The Royal Albert Hall is one of the most beautiful buildings in London.
The Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens is 176ft high, covered in gold leaf.
Both were built in memory of Prince Albert.
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was the husband and consort of Queen Victoria.
The idea of a marriage between Albert and Victoria had been the suggestion of King Leopold I of Belgium
They were introduced in May 1836 at Kensington Palace, and married on 10 February 1840 at the Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace.
Victoria wrote to King Leopold, to say that Albert was "extremely handsome."
"He possesses every quality that could be desired to render me perfectly happy."
On 25 June 1857, Queen Victoria formally granted Albert the title Prince Consort.
The Prince Consort Essay
The Prince Consort Essay is not an official stamp.
It was created in 1850 by Henry Archer in order to win a valuable stamp printing contract from the British Government.
Prior to this the stamps used by the general public had been imperforate (without perforations)... Each Postmaster had to separate the stamps by hand with a pair of scissors in a dimly lit room.
Archer proposed the introduction of perforations to enable the Postmaster to separate the stamps more efficiently.
Archer was told not to use the image of Queen Victoria on his trial stamp. We can only assume that would have been tantamount to forgery.
So he opted for the image of her beloved husband, Albert.
This trial is the only example of a piece of British Philatelic History to include the image of the Queen's husband.
And there are only approximately 36 known examples of the perforated trial.
It was designed in 1850 to try a new printing technique but was never used as an official stamp.
Of the 36 known perforated examples there are three in red-brown; three in blue and thirty in black.
One blue copy and all of the red-brown copies are in private collections... As are the majority of the black examples.
Unsurprisingly these stamps are highly sought after by collectors.
After all it's the only British 'stamp' that Albert's image appeared on.
We have a single black perforated Prince Consort Essay available.
Click here to see the Prince Consort Essay
This is a very sought after piece of Philatelic History.
Few people will ever have the opportunity to own a perforated Prince Consort Essay.
It can be yours today.
Call me on +44 (0) 1481 708 277
or email aroose@stanleygibbons.co.uk
TOLL FREE from the USA 1 866 644 6146
Regards
Adrian Roose