Design Sketches of De La Rue for the Chinese Customs in 1877

De La Rue's June 8, 1877 long report touched on the essential elements of its printing technology. Hence, the word “confidential” was added to the top of the first page of the report. Taking into consideration the then-national conditions of China, along with the adaptabilities, as well as the pros and cons of the printing processes, the report explained exhaustively the technical details of the printing systems and also made some specific recommendations to the Chinese Customs. The original text covered a total 42 pages. To allow the policy makers, situated far away in China, to understand visually the end results of each process, De La Rue supplemented the report with 12 Appendices, from Appendix A to L, as detailed in the following table.

Unfortunately, the above original Appendices were not in-cluded in De La Rue's 1877 Archives, except for a photograph of Appendix I.

Appendix J was exhibited publicly in the 100th Anniversary of Postage Stamp Printing of De La Rue & Co. exhibition held in 1955. Two sets of transparencies, containing pictures of the exhibits, were kept by the Postal Museum and Spink of London, re-spectively. These descriptions were written at the top of the exhibit page: “In 1877 we were approached by Mr. James D. Campbell, Commissioner of Customs, China, From the London Office of the Inspectorate General of Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs, to submit a proposal for printing stamps. Appendix J was submitted on June 18, 1877.”The DE LA RUE HISTORY of BRITISH & FOREIGN POSTAGE STAMPS, 1855 to 1901, published by the Royal Philatelic Society London in 1958, recorded the stamp design sketches of Appendix J, and The De La Rue Collection, published by the Royal Philatelic Society London in 2014, also included the exhibit page containing Appendix J.

Appendix A was also exhibited, along with Appendix J, in 1955, and is likewise shown in The De La Rue Collection. However, De La Rue purposely affixed a set of the Large Dragons to the lower part of the exhibit page including Appendix A in the 1955 Exhibition. This might reflect the exploratory efforts contributed by De La Rue in 1877 to the Imperial Customs' preparation for its own stamp production.

Appendices I and J consisted of the following items:

1．specimens of the postage envelope designed,

2．two design sketches of the postage emblems, in circular and ellipsoidal forms, respectively, for the postage envelopes,

3．sketch for the watermark symbol of Yin & Yang, and

4．six stamp design sketches, three of each, in vertical and horizontal formats, respectively.

In Appendix I, written above the specimens for the postage envelope design is “Specimens of the proposed Postage Envelope for China, one showing the front, the other the back.” On top of the design sketches for the postage designs is the notation “Sketches of the proposed stamps to be embossed on the above envelopes.” In Appendix J, the description at the top of the exhibit page including the symbol of Yin & Yang is “Sketch of the watermark to be made in the paper employed for the Postage Stamps for China.” The title for the specimens of the stamp designs is “Alternative sketches of the proposed Postage Stamps for China, the duties are merely suppositions.” Two additional proofs were attached to the bottom of Appendix J and entitled “Engraver's proofs of adhesive stamps with an animal or a bird in the centre.”

Appendix I consisted of two types of sketches for the postage designs. The denomination of the circular design in red was 1 Cent, and the denomination of the ellipsoidal one in green was 2 Cents. The alternative design sketches for postage stamps were categorized in two groups which were in horizontal and vertical formats, respectively. Each group consisted of three denominations, namely 1 Cent, 2 Cents and 5 Cents. The 1 Cent, 2 Cents and 5 Cents, in each format, were printed in red, green and yellow, respectively. These colors were chosen because the five different colors and their associated representations were written in pencil on the bottom half of the first page of the De La Rue's China Achieves as follows:

Yellow Imperial colour

Red & Pink Happy

Blue Mourning

Green Happy

Brown Mourning

The colors of yellow, red and green had been selected by De La Rue for its stamp designs, with yellow, representing the imperial color, adopted for the highest denomination of 5 Cents. The same three colors were ultimately employed for producing the Large Dragons. The 1 Candarin, 3 Candarins and 5 Candarins of the Large Dragons were printed in green, red and yellow, respectively. Was this simply a coincidence or related to the suggestions of De La Rue? No conclusion has been reached to date.