Romania's Lithographed Issues: 1866 - 1872

Paul Hirsch

24 April 2008

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,

These two displays have been designated as this year's Sir Daniel Cooper lecture and therefore I would like to remind members of this eminent philatelist who unfortunately did not collect early Romania (right). He was a founder member and the first president of the Philatelic Society of London, a post he held from 1869 - 1872. Though born in Lancashire he lived an important part of his life in Australia where he not only made his fortune but also achieved high government positions. His collection of Australian stamps was sold in 1878 to another famous collector, Judge Frederick A. Philbrick for £3,000. It was the first time that a philatelic transaction reached a four-figure sum. I do not have much time and therefore I give only these few facts so that you may recall this important Victorian member of the Society.

Romania's lithographed issues all bearing the effigy of Prince Carol, later, beyond the years of this display, to become King Carol I are a well-defined area of philately which can well stand on its own. The earlier issues of the United Principalities were demonetized before the Carol issues came into use in 1866 and in their turn the stamps we are now considering are not found in mixed franking with the later typographed issues. Recommendations to philatelists include the interesting printing by lithography, the attractive colours where the vegetable dies used have rarely faded, the ability to reconstruct intermediate stones used in printing the whole sheet and, not least,the postal history of the period. I hope that by going into some details concerning these matters I can share my enthusiasm.

First a little history: Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, a relatively minor Prussian aristocrat was chosen by the Great Powers to become the Ruler of Romania. In the absence of a suitable indigenous successor to the deposed Prince Cuza, the country itself had considered the Belgian Phillip of Brabant for the post but when he refused requested the Great Powers to find someone qualified to fill the position. In the event not only did Karl change his name to Carol and learn Romanian but also he ruled successfully for 47 years until his death in 1914. He took his role so seriously that his wife complained that he went to bed wearing his crown. He was elevated from Prince to to become His Royal Highness only when Romania was recognised as a Kingdom in 1882 beyond the scope of this display.

(Slides 3 & 4) The effigies used for the various lithographed issues show Prince Carol changing from a young man with sideboards to an older face, one carrying a full beard illustrated here in a formal portrait. All issues were designed in Bucharest by Sanders and printed there by Sanders and Co. or Sosecu and Sanders and Co. The first such issue, the one known as "Carol cu favoriti" was in use from 1866 - 67. When I first started to collect these stamps I ignored the word "cu" and perhaps, without too much thought, translated "favoriti" as "Favourite". In fact the phrase means "with sideboards". "Favoriti" is after all not so distant from our Edwardian "favours" another word for this style. This first issue is one particularly suitable by reason of the material available to illustrate the method of preparing a full sheet, a method used also for the later issues. The original design was engraved on a stone but this was not then repeated two hundred times to complete a whole sheet. Instead an intermediate stone was prepared and in this first issue it consisted of six clichés arranged in two horizontal rows of three. In transferring the single image to the intermediate stone some minor flaws occurred and it is the presence of all or some of these, which allows the reconstruction of the intermediate stone. I have used the word cliché but to be pedantic I must emphasise that though this implies the use of metal as does plating all these issues were printed from stones.

(Slide 5) Already in 1933 H.Birnbach the director of a German Bank in Bucharest, and a keen philatelist, published a book describing the intermediate stones and illustrating the flaws allowing identification of clichés. Only in a few instances, not the one shown here, has this work needed correction in that (say) cliche1, 2,3,4 has with more recent knowledge had to be transposed and is now known to be 2,3,4,1. I am showing one page from this book. Its very simplified format has made me use these illustrations in my display. The detailed work of Kiriak Dragomir is a superb reference book but its detailed illustrations are not suitable to be used in an exhibition. Nevertheless I would show this illustration of Dragomir's work detailing flaws in the intermediate plate of this same stamp. (Slide 6). Our eminent Sir John Wilson also extensively published work on the plating and particularly on the retouches of these issues.

This first of the issues consisted of three values, a 2 parale, a 5p. & a 20 p. value. This last stamp is exceptional in that there were two original clichés and the intermediate plate was prepared using both. (Slide 7) They are easily recognised by the way the top end of the right Greek border, the meander ends on the left or right, below the "0" or the 2 of "20". Shown in this display are blocks of these stamps and the regular recurrence of the six stamps making up the great part of the sheet. However, to complicate the matter the sheet was printed in ten rows of seventeen and two rows row of fifteen. With the best will in the world words alone make the explanation difficult but the diagrams illustrating these facts will clarify the point. (Slide 8) A row of 17 means that at one end, two odd clichés had to be used and the two rows of fifteen explain the use of four blank spaces. Presumably the apparent lack of foresight in not preparing an intermediate stone, which was an exact fraction of 200, was caused by the size and format of paper available to create the sheet. The illustrated example is the only arrangement known for this particular issue.

The further Carol issues, expressing values in Bani following decimalisation, about which I will talk were printed in sheets of one or two hundred. The intermediate stones used consisted of two rows of three, two rows of four, single horizontal rows of four,etc. etc. using various arrangements of the blank spaces and odd cliches. This address would be interminably long were I to detail all the possibilities. Suffice it to say that the position and character of the odd ectopic clichés and the position of the blank spaces allow the number of printing runs of any particular stamp to be assessed. Almost certainly not all of these have yet been recorded adding an extra frisson to collecting these issues. There is not a single example of the lithographed stamps where the whole sheet was produced in such a way as to use an exact multiple of the intermediate stone.

For anyone who cares to study this subject in greater detail I have included the necessary illustrations in the booklet supplied. Lithographic stones are subject to wear and retouches are commonly found. A very interesting example occurs on the 2-parale value of the 1866/67 issue (Slide 9), which was initially printed on thick and then on thin paper. It is a retouch particularly easy to see without magnification. Shortly after the change to thin paper a line along the base of the neck reinforced the base of the effigy on cliché 6. This is never found on the earlier thick paper (Slide 3) but is almost always present on the thin paper print. It was performed with a sharp instrument, a stylus. At this time the standard postage between different localities within Romania was 20 parale and fairly standard postmarks and cancellations had come into use. These were the double circle bearing a town name balanced by a fairly complicated scroll, another where the scroll is replaced by one or other full or abbreviated legend for morning or afternoon and on the later issues thimble postmarks. Until we come to these thimble marks Romania's date stamps rarely gave a year date: only day and month. However it is not at all uncommon to find these issues cancelled and covers to bear much earlier Romanian strikes such as the grille or even Moldavian or Wallachian marks of a type you can see in Fritz Heimbüclers display. Sometimes these are found even on later issues to the turn of the century, well beyond the scope of this display,

The registered postage was double the standard fee and the second stamp was usually applied to the back of a cover. I find it amusing to be able to show a pair of twenty parale on an opened outer letter sheet which would bear the derogatory description that it has a crease between stamps. On this occasion someone saved time by folding the pair bracketing the lower margin of the cover. Postage increased by steps of weight but no longer was distance within the country a factor. As with earlier issues the stamps were used on postal documents; a "Retour Recepisa", a receipt to be returned to the sender of a registered letter is one such. It must be emphasised that this and the next issue was unable to prepay postage abroad. This was only possible at the time of the third, the 1869, issue.

I will not go into details about the second issue well represented in the display.

The third issue, that of 1869, the so-called International Issue was named thus, as already mentioned, by reason of being the first allowing postage abroad to be pre-paid. The head of Carol still with sideboards is within an oval medallion. The two top values are bicoloured and here different stones must have been used for the frame and head. Plating of the intermediate stone by recognition of flaws in the frame design is again possible but how many different clichés were used for the head remains undiscovered. Sir John Wilson is said to have made an attempt at elucidating this problem using the shape of the ear but he did not complete or publish his findings; so far I have not been able to complete this work except in-so-far as being able to associate different settings of a sheet with different shades of the medallion.

(Slides 10 & 11) Mention has already been made of retouches by a stylus. A striking example of this occurs on the 25 bani stamp of this issue. I would, however, add that un-retouched stamps are often more difficult to find than those where the image has been repaired by the engraver. Another type of retouch which occurs on all these issues but is particularly easy to recognise on the bi-coloured stamps is the so called "retouche au pinceau" where the background to the head, the medallion, was reinforced by painting in an area around the head; the medallion is no longer perfectly oval and often does not follow the out line of the effigy or of the frame; this may be so marked as to produce a so- called ghost image.

Because these stamps could be used for pre-paying postage for destinations outside the Country I show several pages illustrating postal rates, which were by no means uniform. Postage varied with various destinations within Europe. It was at this time that Romania's railway system and the rural post was developed and I would draw attention to the early Railway Station and rural postmarks. Also of note is the Galatz/Recommandee mark unique to that town.

Bisected stamps even after their use was forbidden appear occasionally to have been tolerated by the postal authorities.

I shall not go into any great detail about the January, 1871 issue of Carol showing him as a hirsute man. This was during its later years issued in a perforated form. The vermillion shade of the 5 bani perforated stamp is unusual and as all known copies are similarly poorly centred, was probably issued, by mistake and only in a single sheet.

The last issue of lithographed stamps is one of my favourites. It was in use only from July to August 1872 and is known as the defective issue. Typographed stamps had been ordered in Paris from Hulot and Barré but their arrival, to replace the worn lithographed stamps was delayed by reason of the Siege of Paris. Hastily new stones were prepared and show not only some small differences in design but also a poor, diffuse, quality of print. An intermediate stone was, of course again used consisting of a single horizontal row of seven clichés. Only 10 and 50 bani values were prepared. The thimble postmark giving the date in full is commonly found. Because they were in use for only two months it is difficult to find covers. I can now no longer resist the temptation to use the word rare but only about eight covers of the 50 bani exist all except one used in the capital Bucharest; this one exception, a cover used in Vaslui, ends my display.