Colours on the LC5 'Lake Series' cards

[Postagedues]

I was fortunate enough today to add two more cards to my collection (totalling 12 now!)

From this series I now have 'A Peep at Barn Bluff' in black and 'Mount Ida and Lake St Clair' in red.

What I would like to do is create a census of the colours known as Shatten in his excellent Courier article 'did not attempt to catalogue the different colours'.

Please copy and paste the information below, completing the colours by emboldening and underlining the colours you have recorded as existing


LC 5.1 Mount Ida and Lake St Clair black brown red blue green
LC 5.2 Lake Agnew and Cradle Mountain black brown red blue green
LC 5.3 Mount Gould - Lake Marion black brown red blue green
LC 5.4 Lake George - Mount King William black brown red blue green
LC 5.5 Mount Olympus from Lake St Clair black brown red blue green
LC 5.6 A Peep at Barn Bluff black brown red blue green

[RogerKinns]

As requested, I have pasted your list below and adjusted it to include examples in my own collection.

LC 5.1 Mount Ida and Lake St Clair black black-brown brown red blue green
LC 5.2 Lake Agnew and Cradle Mountain black brown red-brown red blue blue-green green
LC 5.3 Mount Gould - Lake Marion black brown red blue green
LC 5.4 Lake George - Mount King William black brown red blue green
LC 5.5 Mount Olympus from Lake St Clair black brown red blue blue-green green
LC 5.6 A Peep at Barn Bluff black purple-black brown red blue green

The colour range seems to extend beyond the basic colours, so I have added blue-green, red-brown, black-brown and purple-black from my own collection. The last two are rather subjective, but they clearly differ from the standard black. Malcolm Groom had an extraordinary collection, which was offered by Charles Leski Auctions on 26 October 2005 (Lots 527 to 567). Some of my specimens came from that collection via later re-offers. I couldn't locate the Leski catalogue on the web, so I have worked from a printed copy I made some years ago. I have simply worked through it, using Allen Shatten's numbering system (The Courier, Number 57, June 2014) and the colours stated in the Leski catalogue.

The Leski catalogue noted the following colours: black (LC 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6); purple-black (LC 5.3); violet (LC 5.6); brown (LC 5.1, 5.2, 5.6); red-brown (LC 5.2); red (LC 5.1, 5.3, 5.5); blue (LC 5.1); blue-green (LC 5.6); green (LC 5.1, 5.2, 5.5). The sale also included a substantial number of specimens with 'ONE PENNY' surcharges which adds more colours: brown-black; black-brown; purple; purplish-blue; reddish-brown. The specimens surcharged at 20 degrees had the scenes in a wide range of colours; brown-black (LC 6.1.4); brown (LC 6.1.1, 6.1.2, 6.1.4, 6.1.5); reddish-brown (LC 6.1.3); purple (LC 6.1.1); red (LC 6.1.4); purplish-blue (LC 6.1.1, 6.1.6); green (LC 6.1.2, 6.1.5). All the specimens surcharged at 40 degrees had the scenes in red-brown (LC 6.2.1 to 6.2.6), apart from one with a scene in black-brown (LC 6.2.6).I think that's captured them all.

It looks as though almost all cards with the scenes in red-brown were withdrawn and surcharged, so specimens are hard to find in the unsurcharged state. I'm not sure whether reddish-brown and red-brown are distinct colours, but they clearly differ from the standard brown.

[RogerKinns]

This has inspired me to work though Tasmanian Stamp Auction catalogues from November 2004, to see what colours have been offered in the recent past. I found a few surprises! I have listed the items that were offered for sale below, using Allen Shatten's numbering system (modified so that the 20 degree surcharge corresponds to LC 6.1.1 to 6.1.6 and the 40 degree surcharge corresponds to LC 6.2.1 to 6.2.6 - I'm sure this is what Allen intended). I have not listed items from the early Lake Series printings in black, usually described as grey-black in TSA catalogues. I have quoted the colours indicated in the TSA catalogues.
6 October, 2007
LC 5.2, brown
LC 5.3, red
LC 5.6, brown-purple
LC 6.2.2, red-brown
7 June 2008
LC 6.2.2, (probably red-brown, red likely to refer to surcharge)
14 November 2009
LC 6.2.3, maroon
19 June 2010
LC 6.2.3, maroon, not the example sold in the previous auction
LC 6.2.4, black
20 November 2010
LC 5.5, deep violet

Ross Ewington may be able to add to this list. The surprises are the examples of LC 6.2.3 in maroon and LC 6.2.4 in black, when previously known specimens with the 40 degree surcharge were almost all in red-brown. Deep violet and violet may not be distinct colours. Maroon appears to be yet another colour.

[Postagedues]

LC 5.1 Mount Ida and Lake St Clair black black-brown brown red blue green
LC 5.2 Lake Agnew and Cradle Mountain black brown red-brown red blue blue-green green
LC 5.3 Mount Gould - Lake Marion black brown red blue green
LC 5.4 Lake George - Mount King William black brown red blue green
LC 5.5 Mount Olympus from Lake St Clair black brown red blue blue-green green deep violet
LC 5.6 A Peep at Barn Bluff black purple-black[/u][/b] brown-purple brown red blue green

LC 6.2.1 red-brown
LC 6.2.2 red-brown
LC 6.2.3 red-brown maroon
LC 6.2.4 red-brown black
LC 6.2.5 red-brown
LC 6.2.6 red-brown

[Malcolm Groom]

I have also been inspired to dig out my old files on the letter cards and found the census conducted by Gene Tinsley in 1990 and published in P from A in March 1991. I have included a copy of the article and will post further comments later once I have condensed my notes into something sensible.
The cards recorded by Tinsley are going to re-occur in later counts as I was fortunate to acquire the Tinsley collection some years ago and have since sold it through Leski Auctions. So the extract by Roger Kinns from the Leski catalogue is effectively an accumulation of those I managed to acquire in my own right, The Tinsley collection also included those collected by Ingles. The other source which might add further the census would be those from the Viney collection although I suspect Tinsley acquired many of those. The cards appearing in recent TSA catalogues probably came from another collection not in the Tinsley census of 1990. I had some theories about the colours on the 40 degree overprint cards but that has been weakened by the finding of other colours other than reddish brown. I think we also need to be careful about creating separate numbers for variations on the 'basic' colours as ink selection in those days was varied as long as the basic colour was similar. For example, maybe we call it Blue (with variations) rather than try and describe all the variations from purplish blue, bluish green to blue.

for what it is worth I attach the Tinsley census of 1990.

P from A March 1991.pdf

(2 MiB) Downloaded 589 times

Malcolm

[Postagedues]

Thanks Malcom, that census is great.

[RogerKinns]

Thanks to Malcolm from me too. That's very helpful.

[Postagedues]

I'm working my way through the Prestige catalogues;

LC 5.1 Mount Ida and Lake St Clair black black-brown brown red blue green
LC 5.2 Lake Agnew and Cradle Mountain black brown red-brown red blue blue-green green
LC 5.3 Mount Gould - Lake Marion black brown red blue green
LC 5.4 Lake George - Mount King William black brown red blue green
LC 5.5 Mount Olympus from Lake St Clair black brown red blue blue-green green deep violet
LC 5.6 A Peep at Barn Bluff black purple-black[/u][/b] brown-purple brown red blue green

LC 6.2.1 red-brown
LC 6.2.2 red-brown
LC 6.2.3 red-brown maroon
LC 6.2.4 red-brown black
LC 6.2.5 red-brown
LC 6.2.6 red-brown

One penny overprint at 20 degrees - Lake George in both blue and black.

[RogerKinns]

It is difficult to identify how many unused cards exist in different colours, because of repeat sales of the same item, but much easier for used cards when the dates of postmarks can be identified. I'm presently preparing a list of known used cards, as a working document. Almost all known used cards from the first printing in black (often described as grey-black) have dates in 1908. The only card I have from that printing with a later date is "A Peep at Barn Bluff from Lake Windermere", which was posted at Glenorchy on 7 April 1909. I am not aware of any others. The later printings in a variety of colours usually have dates in 1910 or early 1911, followed by the surcharged cards in 1911 and 1912. I have just bought a commercially used copy of "Mount Olympus, from North End of Lake St. Clair", with the scene in blue-green, posted at Launceston on 21 September 1909. That's the first card with a coloured scene known to me with a 1909 date. Both cards were offered by vendors in the USA and may not have appeared in the March 1991 census by Tinsley.

It looks as though the first printing was almost used up by the end of 1908, but it was some time before the later printings in different colours became available. Are any other letter cards known with 1909 dates? It would be nice to close the gap! Are any cards from the first printing known with 1907 dates?

[64idgaf]

Mt Ida and Lake St Clair in red - Hobart 24 DE 1910
Mt Olympus in blue - 10 October 1910
A Peep at Barn Bluff in black - Hobart AP 8 1908

[RogerKinns]

I have had a first shot at assembling a list of known used lettercards with Lake views, using Allen Shatten's article in the June 2014 issue of the Courier as my principal reference. I have also used his numbering system for the unsurcharged cards. Apparently, there were three printings: 10,568 of each card on 7 September 1907; 837 of each card on 26 February 1908; 11,520 of each card on 19 June 1909. The distribution between colours is not stated in available records. All known cards in black (often described as grey-black) have postmark dates in 1908 and 1909.

My overall list has been separated into "grey-black" which must have come from the first and second printings, and other colours which are likely to have come from the third printing. Thanks to 64idgaf for adding to it from his own collection.

So far, I have identified 13 used cards in grey-black, 4 more than the number appearing in "Tasmania: a Census of the Last Lettercard Issue" by W E Tinsley, Philately from Australia, March 1991. A used card showing Mount Ida (LC5.1) is now known, but no example of Mount Olympus (LC5.5) has been noted so far. The ERD is stated (originally by Kellow) to be 8 February 1908, but this does not appear in my list. The ERD from recent auction listings is 8 April 1908.

I have identified 12 used cards with coloured scenes, compared with 10 in Tinsley's list, but there must be at least 15 known cards to match both lists. For example, I have not seen any auction record of Lake Agnew (LC5.2) in red, but this is included in Tinsley's list. On the other hand, I have noted a copy of Mount Olympus (LC5.5) in blue, which is absent from Tinsley's list. Most lists uses "simplified" colours only, whereas variations such as blue-green and purple-brown are found in auction listings. I have therefore shown an assumed simplified colour as well as the more complex colour in my list. All known cards with coloured scenes have dates in 1910 and 1911, apart from one with a date of 21 September 1909. This is illustrated below.

Lake series, blue-green, ERD.jpg (1.01 MiB) Viewed 10936 times

Auction descriptions vary in completeness, sometimes indicating only the month or year of use, rather than a postmark date. Also, the town name and destination are not always stated. Can anyone help with missing data in the list below?

Lake series, dates of use.jpg (522.61 KiB) Viewed 10936 times