Selvedge Developement

Selvedge Art Development

Early Canadian stamps had only limited information printed in the selvedge. Stamps were printed by metal plates with engraved designs, and were usually restricted to printing in one colour. Plate Blocks contained information on the printer and plate numbers, and warnings about authorized use of panes of pre-cancelled stamps.

Lathework on Early 20th Century Stamps in Canada

The Canadian Bank Note Company began engraving designs called lathework (also called engine turned-design) in the lower margin in 1916, sometimes along with the plate block information; they used at least four different designs, as above, putting them along the bottom edge of sheets of stamps. It was possibly done as a quick check on the quality of the sheet as a whole.

Here is a copy of #113 with lathework, and an actual stamp for colour. The practice ceased in 1924; it seems that only the ‘Admiral’ definitives (most from #104 to #140, but not all), 3 War Tax stamps and 2 Postage Due stamps had the lathework.

Inscription Blocks
As line engraving gave way to lithography & photogravure for multi-coloured stamps, plate block numbers were not needed any more, and Canada Post tried to eliminate them in the late 1950’s. After an outcry from collectors, they relented and put inscriptions back in the corners of sheets sold through the Philatelic Centre only, but not on “field stock” sent to post offices. They were renamed Inscription Blocks.

#289 - George VI in the 1950 issue 1¢, with plate Number 2 and the printer’s name. The other number, 1298, is a private mark made by the printers for their own use.

The first block above is #329 - Queen Elizabeth II in the 1953 issue 5¢ Karsh, with plate No. 2 and printer’s name. As on #289 King George VI, the other number, 1304, is a mark used by the printer.

The second block is #341 - Queen Elizabeth II in the 1958 issue 5¢ Wilding, with plate #3 and name of the printer.

After 1958, inscription blocks carried information on the printer & designer, and paper manufacturer.

This 1956 issue “Prevent Fires”, #364, has no inscription at all (small border means this was field stock, not for philatelic uses)

Art on Selvedge
Most of the souvenir sheets will be shown smaller than actual in proportion to individual stamps, so they load easily for viewing.

Canada’s first souvenir sheet was issued June 10, 1978, during CAPEX ’78, to celebrate Canada’s admission to the UPU. It contains the first art on selvedge used by Canada.

This souvenir sheet contains three stamp-on-stamp style issues, which were also printed in sheets of 50. Logos for Capex ’78 and the Universal Postal Union are seen.

#754 – 14¢ reproduces Jacques Cartier 10 pence, #7
#755 – 30¢ reproduces Queen Victoria half penny, #11
#756 – $1.25 value reproduces Prince Albert 6 pence, #5

Another stamp in the set, #753 - 12¢ reproducing Queen Victoria 12 pence #3, was omitted from the souvenir sheet.

It was only a small step to artistic use of a tab, as was printed on 1982 International Philatelic Youth Exhibition souvenir sheet.

The 5 stamps on the souvenir sheet are stamps on stamps again

#909 - 30¢ shows #1, the Beaver 3 pence
#910 - 30¢ shows #102, the Tercentenary of Quebec 15¢
#911 - 35¢ shows #223, the RCMP 10¢
#912 - 35¢ shows #155, Mount Hurd 10¢
#913 - 60¢ shows #158, the Bluenose, 50¢

Other stamps issued about the Bluenose were # 158, 1228 & 1738

The use of Line drawings relating to the stamp topic was the next step. This is the souvenir sheet of locomotives from 1984. It contains 4 stamps; the following descriptions have numbers meaning the number of wheels at the front, then the driving wheels and then the trailing wheels under the cab.

#1036 – 32¢ Scotia 0-6-0 type
#1037 – 32¢ Countess of Dufferin 4-4-0 type
#1038 – 37¢ GT class E-3 2-6-0 type
#1039 – 64¢ CP Class D10a 4-6-0 type

The background colour of the souvenir sheet stamps is blue-grey, but the background of the same stamps issued in sheets is grey-green.

Full colour art appeared shortly after, in the selvedge on two mini sheets for Capex ’87, celebrating 100 years of organized philately in Canada.

The first one is Exploration of Canada from 1986, #1107b, but titled Capex ‘87 on the sheet. Note that the stamps are outlined in white. The selvedge art is not part of the stamp design, but resembles the kinds of drawings found on maps of early explorers.

The second one has 4 stamps on the sheet showing Post Offices with their Postal Codes, and 2 extra drawings of buildings. But these are not stamps, nor even labels. Apart from the Capex ‘87 title, there are also philatelic items shown on the selvedge: engraving tools, a magnifying loop and an engraved plate of one of the buildings, and a magnifying glass, tongs and a perf gauge. The stamps are #1122-1125, 2 of them being 36¢, and one each of 42¢ and 72¢.

Corporate Sponsorships were approved in 1990. Following are 2 examples.

This corner block of Majestic Forests in 1990, #1283-86, has one each of Acadian, Great Lakes – St. Lawrence, Coast and Boreal Forests. The leaf in the selvedge repeats a design on the Acadian Forest stamps. As well, there are normal round traffic lights. This was from a sheet of 20 stamps.

The set was sponsored by PetroCan, and each stamp was available in a mini-sheet of 4, sold in envelopes at their gas stations at less than face. Those mini sheets had only tiny selvedge; it was a promotion of reforestation, where the company donated 5¢ to Scouts Canada for each envelope sold.

McDonald’s logo is found on the margin of the Canadian Folklore set of 4 stamps of 39¢ value, #1289-1292, with the mention “October is Stamp Month – Official Sponsor”. This is an upper left corner of a sheet, and contains the Sasquatch, Kraken, Werewolf and Ogopogo.

The souvenir sheet for World Youth Philatelic Exposition in 1992 celebrated Montreal, and contains #1404-07. All the stamps also came in sheets of 25, with the 2 of 42¢ value being se-tenant in one sheet. The art in the selvedge repeats part of the first stamp design of the set.

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