Another pair of sketches of unequalled importance is in the possession of His Majesty. These are the two rough sketches in water-colours of the designs of the first (1840) One Penny and Two Pence stamps, submitted by Mr. Rowland Hill for approval of the Chancellor of the Exchequer: across the head of the one in black Rowland Hill has written "1d." in pencil, and similarly "2d." across the one in blue.
Original drawings of issued stamps very rarely leave the Government or printer's establishments, but in a few cases they have come on the market. A few years ago, in a large collection of colour-proofs of stamps printed by De La Rue, I saw the original drawing for the 1881 stamps of Cyprus, a unique item which went to embellish the specialised collection of the stamps of that colony formed by Mr. J. C. North, of Huddersfield. Shortly afterwards I myself secured two original colour drawings for the 1897 issue of British Central Africa.[10] I found them in the Strand, where, strange to say, many of these out-of-the-way items are often moderately priced, quite out of proportion to their interest and relative scarcity, for it is only in comparatively recent times that specialism has admitted these historic side-issues into the stamp album. Mr. Charles J. Phillips, one of those rare combinations of student and dealer, has permitted me to reproduce an original sketch of the canoe type of Fiji, from the fine collection of this colony formed by him.[11] The drawing was by Mr. Leslie J. Walker, Postmaster of Suva, and represents "a young colony (the canoe forging ahead towards the rising sun shows the progress of the colony); the crown is retained, indicating that it is a colony of England."
Other sources of stamp-engravings are of interest, and some are not difficult of access. A familiar one is the source of the picture on the "Omaha" $1 stamp which the United States Post Office literally "cribbed" from the etching published by Dunthorne, of Vigo Street, of the late Mr. MacWhirter's painting "The Vanguard." The American Post Office altered the title to "Western Cattle in Storm," but the picture is unmistakably the same. My statement of MacWhirter's authorship of the picture having been challenged by an artist, who was probably misled by the Scottish painter's devotion to landscape, led me to submit the stamp to Mr. MacWhirter, whose reply admits of no doubt.