4d Courier pair with Coard imprint

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Ross Ewington
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4d Courier pair with Coard imprint

#1 Post by Ross Ewington » Thu Aug 19, 2010 12:39 pm

Status International (Sydney)* offered this rather fine used pair of 4d Couriers
with the engraver's imprint in their August 26th, 2010 auction (Lot 1939)

[attachment=0]4d courier with imprint.jpg[/attachment]

* I haven't included a link to the catalog listing as I don't think SI provides
an online archive of past auctions.
Attachments
4d courier with imprint.jpg
4d courier with imprint.jpg (83.49 KiB) Viewed 4163 times

bill
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Re: 4d Courier pair with Coard imprint

#2 Post by bill » Sun Jul 29, 2012 2:28 pm

Folks

Is there any good information about C.W. Coard, the engraver of
the earliest postage stamps of Tasmania? I have just checked in
"The Dictionary of Australian Artists" edited by Joan Kerr. This
tome covers Painters, Sketchers, Photographers and Engravers
to 1870. This book is relevant to Tasmanian philately (and also
to the mainland Colonies) because several well known engravers
got into this book, including Thomas Ham, of Half-Lengths fame
and H.C. Jervis in connection with the Sydney Views. However,
Coard is not in the book.

More relevant to this BB are the entries on Alfred Bock (1835-1920),
who engraved the plates for the St George and Dragon series, and
Louisa Meredith, in connection with the Platypus series. Bock got
the contract for engraving the George and Dragon plates through
Louisa Meredith.

It would be nice to locate some information on the man who engraved
the very first Tasmanian stamps. Can anyone out there help?

Thanks
Bill
Last edited by bill on Mon Jul 30, 2012 1:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Ross Ewington
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Re: 4d Courier pair with Coard imprint

#3 Post by Ross Ewington » Sun Jul 29, 2012 5:04 pm

Thanks Bill ...good question, the answer to which is definitely worth pursuing.

A quick Google search finds the name "C.W. Coard" associated the the engraving of some maps of India
...I would assume this is the very same person but more research is required to confirm this of course.

"C.W. Coard" also gets a lot 'responses' searching Trove ..... definitely worth an extended look there in my opinion
as it is not a particularly common surname in these parts.

I assume that the "Sc" after his name is an abbreviation of the Latin "Sculpsit" which loosely means "who carved it".
Is this a reasonable assumption?

bill
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Re: 4d Courier pair with Coard imprint

#4 Post by bill » Mon Jul 30, 2012 1:52 pm

Ross

Is there any information in Hobart on C.W. Coard? Perhaps there is something
in the Archives Office or the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery on this topic?
The Trove looks like a nightmare to search through with most entries probably
being of no real help.

Bill

admin
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Re: 4d Courier pair with Coard imprint

#5 Post by admin » Thu Aug 02, 2012 11:58 pm

Bill,
I could go to the archives and check their index. How soon do you need to know ?
By the way, Bock also engraved the first 2 Tas CDS in 1861, then the next set of 10 in 1865 - see the latest Courier ( #53) p 5.

Pete

bill
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Re: 4d Courier pair with Coard imprint

#6 Post by bill » Fri Aug 03, 2012 9:54 am

Pete

It is not an urgent matter. However, any information that you can gather from
the Archives would be most welcome. I would be adding it to the notes to the
updated Basset Hull with acknowledgements to yourself and anyone else who
chips in. In any case, you should also feel free to publish the results in The
Courier or elsewhere.

I need to see the latest Courier re Bock before long.

Bill

Malcolm Groom
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Re: 4d Courier pair with Coard imprint

#7 Post by Malcolm Groom » Tue Aug 07, 2012 11:19 am

Bill,

I struck gold at my first search for something about CW Coard in the Hobart Courier of 14 October 1853. Have not been able to find anything else other than a Google search producing a CW Coard as an engraver of some note providing an Exhibition of his work in India in the 1870's.
The extract is attached.
CW Coard & The Couriers The Courier 14 October 1853.jpg
CW Coard & The Couriers The Courier 14 October 1853.jpg (134.93 KiB) Viewed 3911 times

bill
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Re: 4d Courier pair with Coard imprint

#8 Post by bill » Wed Oct 31, 2012 2:53 pm

Information on the background to the Courier stamps of 1853 continues to trickle in.

Charles Walton Coard (the engraver of these plates) was born 3 October 1830 in the
St George in the East/Tower Hamlets/London and died 16 June 1892, Middlesex, UK.
He did not stay long in the Colony as he married in August 1854 in London. It is no
wonder that few Tasmanian records appear to exist concerning C W Coard.

It is also worth seeking information about H & C Best, the printers of these stamps.
Very little seems to be known about these men.

Bill

Ross Ewington
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Re: 4d Courier pair with Coard imprint

#9 Post by Ross Ewington » Tue May 28, 2013 12:07 pm

Here's an article from the Melbourne Age (March 5th, 1960) re Coard, the Couriers and lots recently found by
Malcolm Groom 'resting' in the front of his copy of 'Basset Hull'.
age article re coard et al.jpg
age article re coard et al.jpg (1.13 MiB) Viewed 3465 times
Would the owner of the small book with the Courier proofs, etc, please make himself known!!

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