PostBeeld’s Dutch and Belgian stamp blog has some great contributors. Generally they go into far more detail with their articles than the English language blog, with its shorter stories. One of our Dutch authors is Cees Janssen whose superb articles have graced the pages of the Dutch website for many years. This is Part Two of a typically lengthy and informative article written by Cees in 2022. It features the history of the printing company De la Rue and its founder Thomas de la Rue (1793 – 1866).
De La Rue printed the first banknote in 1860. These were Mauritian banknotes in denominations of 10 shillings, £1, and £5. The stamp shows a fragment of the first Mauritian banknote of one Pound or five Mauritian Dollars.
The only postage stamp printed for the United States by order of the Confederate States was a 5-cent stamp in blue. The blue on the original stamp was much lighter than that on the reproduced stamp above.
This stamp was issued on April 16, 1862, and featured a portrait of President Jefferson Finis Davis. During the American Civil War, Davis served as the first and only president of the Confederate States of America, serving from 1861 to 1865. Thomas de la Rue used a portrait taken by photographer Mathew Benjamin Brady. A second stamp, denominated in dark orange and depicting politician John Caldwell Calhoun, was printed but not issued.
For European countries, Thomas de la Rue printed stamps like the example above, an Italian stamp issued on December 1, 1863, depicting King Victor Emmanuel II. The printer also printed a security feature on the obverse of the Italian stamp for the first time.
The first practical fountain pen was developed by De La Rue in 1881. This led to the luxury Onoto pen, launched in 1905. One of the most famous users of the Onoto pen was Winston Churchill. Production of these pens ceased in 1958. In 2005, a new manufacturer, the Onoto Pen Company Ltd., in Colney Hall, Norwich, resumed production of this brand.
The production of stamps for Great Britain boomed. Now highly sought-after stamps with high denominations came from the De La Rue printing presses in the printing works built in 1874 on Bunhill Row, a street in London’s Islington district, now the B144. The £1 stamp pictured above was issued on July 16, 1902, bearing a portrait of King Edward VII.
Another beautiful example of De La Rue’s printing art is a stamp from a set of four issued in 1913. The intaglio stamp of a half crown pictured above was issued in December 1915. In 1921, the De La Rue family left the company, which then became state-owned. On September 11, 1940, the factory and printing works at 110 Bunhill Row were destroyed by German bombers during the Blitz. The production of stamps, securities, and other products was moved to a factory outside London.
De La Rue became one of the most important banknote producers. Governments from around the world ordered huge quantities of this type of security. A test banknote, also used for presentation purposes, is depicted with a portrait of Thomas de la Rue. In the background is the facade of the printing works on Bunhill Row.
But his portrait as a young man also appeared on a genuine banknote issued in 2013 by Guernsey in the £1 denomination. The first money counting machine was developed by De La Rue and launched in 1957. Competitor Waterlow & Sons, a banknote and security printing company, was acquired by De La Rue in 1961.
The background of the banknote depicts Old Fountain Street in St. Peter Port as it appeared in a 1799 watercolour. Every detail in the painting has been meticulously reproduced on the banknote. At the end of the street is the Town Church. The church, built between 1466 and 1473, still stands, but the street from that time is completely unrecognizable and has been called Fountain Street since 1820. Since 1820, all the houses and shops have been demolished, the street has been re-laid, and new construction has been carried out. The watercolor was first reproduced in the 1842 Elizabeth College Magazine, published by George Métivier. The watercolor, pictured above, is also held in the collection of the Priaulx Library on Candie Road as a copy taken from the cover of a collection of poems in patois, the vernacular, published in 1883 by John Linwood Pitts.
The watercolour’s creator was wine merchant and lieutenant colonel in the artillery regiment Peter Le Lièvre, also known as Le Lievre, who lived from 1812 to February 17, 1878. He was born in a house just off Old Fountain Street, at 17 Hauteville in St. Peter Port, where he lived his entire life. A blue plaque, installed on his house in June 2010, commemorates this artist, who only became known after his death. The first exhibition of his work took place in 1904, 26 years after his death. The house where Victor Hugo lived during his exile, now a museum, is also located on this street.
The first self-adhesive stamps, the so-called “peel-off” system, for British stamps were developed by De La Rue. Pictured above is a test label with the silhouette of Thomas de la Rue.
This silhouette can still often be found on the sheet edges of stamps printed by De La Rue, such as the £2 stamp with a security feature against counterfeiting, issued on February 17, 2009. Thomas de la Rue, the versatile businessman and inventor, died at the age of 73 on June 7, 1866, in Kensington, London. He is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London.
