Provenance:
ex Ferrary
(sale #11, lot 22:) and Loeuillet
References:
Ceres #T8b, Yvert #8e
illustrated
in 2000 Yvert & Tellier Specialisé
catalog
Census
of unused in blue on bluish shade:
this is one of two pairs, other is without gum
Production
information:
The twenty centimes blue was to have replaced
the twenty centimes black but was not issued. A total of 23.3 million were
printed from five plates, including the first plate used for the black stamps,
which contained tęte-bęche clichés at positions 92, 110 and 148. Although
about 100 thousand of the error pairs were printed, virtually all were destroyed
by the Post Office in July, 1851. Examples survive in all three of the major
shades (blue on yellowish, blue on bluish and dark blue).
