The 1882 Queen Victoria £5 Orange Stamp. Acquiring The Holy Grail. The Queen Of Stamps.

Illustration: STANLEY GIBBONS

Illustration: COLONIAL STAMP COMPANY

The following Text is from LINN’S STAMP NEWS

By David Alderfer.

The 1882 £5 Orange Queen Victoria High Value Stamp (Scott 93) is known to many collectors, who specialise in Great Britain Stamps, as The Holy Grail of British Stamps. In May 2015, I acquired an example of this sought-after Stamp.

When I began collecting Great Britain Stamps, more than thirty-five years ago, The £5 Orange Victoria was my ultimate desire. However, I believed that it was unlikely that I would ever possess one. Its cost, several thousand dollars for a used example, seemed prohibitive. A mint example was out of the question.

For more than three decades, I settled for the reproduction printed by Harrison and Sons as a souvenir of The 1982 British Philatelic Exhibition in London. The image, though taken from a genuine £5 Stamp, lettered DJ in the two lower corners, shows considerable loss of the fine detail of an original Stamp.

I am now retired. Major expenses of living, such as house, car, and retirement savings, are fulfilled. An inheritance from my father - also an avid stamp collector - finally made it financially possible for me to consider buying an example of this Stamp.

A trip to London in May 2015, to attend the Europhilex Stamp Exhibition, gave me an opportunity to shop and select from among about fifty used examples that dealers offered for sale. I found and purchased The £5 Orange Victoria, shown above, paying $2,370.

Before putting out that much money, I did research on my intended purchase. The definitive research, on The £5 Orange Victoria, is an award-winning 312-page, hardbound, colour-illustrated book, published in 2013 by Stanley Gibbons Ltd., entitled “The £5 Orange”, by John Horsey. It costs £75 (about $112).

The £5 Orange started out as a Telegraph Stamp, not a 

Postage Stamp. In the 1880s, rates for some Overseas Telegrams were very high. Telegrams to Bermuda, for example, cost £1 4 shillings 4 pence per word.

A message of just four words cost more than £5, hence the need for a £5 Telegraph Stamp to receipt payments of high charges.

On 31 October 1881, the special series of labels designated to receipt payments of Telegrams was withdrawn from use. Thereafter, Postage Stamps were used to receipt payment of Telegrams.

Because there was no £5 Postage Stamp, and because high-cost Telegrams were still being sent, the Post Office decided to print its first £5 Postage Stamp, which could also be used to receipt Telegrams.

To save the cost of making a new design and plate, the Post Office took the plate that had been used to print £5 Telegraph Stamps and modified it to print £5 Postage Stamps.

The modification was to mill out the word “Telegraphs” over the profile of The Queen and make a second plate to print the word “Postage,” flanked by key pattern ornaments, to fill the wide space left by the deletion of “Telegraphs.”

Very few of the High-Value Postage Stamps were actually used to pay Postage. Horsey identifies and illustrates only three examples for which a “beyond doubt” Postal Use can be proven.

Of the 2,712 used examples he examined, only three were likely applied to heavy, registered parcels commanding High Postage.

Most used £5 Orange Queen Victoria Postage Stamps in the hands of collectors were used to receipt Telegrams after the Telegraph version was withdrawn from use.

These often bear Boxed Cancels, in addition to Circular Date Stamps of the Sending Telegraph Offices. Many examples of the Box Cancels bear the abbreviation T.A.B., which stands for Telegraphs Accounts Branch.

A second popular use of the Postage Version was internal accounting. The Stamps were used to receipt bulk mail payments, so customers could pay total Postage Due without having to apply individual Stamps to hundreds, sometimes thousands, of the same item.

According to Horsey, the Cancellation on my Used £5 Orange Postage Stamp, shown with this Article, indicates the Stamp was likely used to receipt the payment in Belfast of Excise Tax on Whiskey or Tobacco.

Serendipitously, I met Horsey in front of his five-frame £5 Orange Queen Victoria exhibit at Europhilex in London in May 2015. We introduced ourselves, and then he commented on noteworthy features of his exhibit.

Our exchange was most cordial, as often are conversations between fellow Stamp Collectors about their passions.

Horsey’s well-researched and illustrated book gives many interesting facts about this classic British Stamp. For example, only 246,759 Stamps were issued to Post Offices for use over its life of twenty-one years.

He estimates that around 8,000 are still in existence today. This is a relatively small number of surviving examples, which is one reason the Stamp commands high prices.

Most of these survivors were illicitly liberated from security waste paper scrap intended for destruction by pulping.

Acquiring The Holy Grail is a milestone. Acquisition brings with it a great deal of satisfaction and pride of place. But I also feel a dream, a lifelong challenge, has ended. 

What now ?

John Atkinson Grimshaw (1836-1893). Victorian Artist.

"November".

Artist: John Atkinson Grimshaw (1836–1893).

Date: 1879.

This File: 19 September 2013.

User: Austriacus

(Wikimedia Commons)

Hereford Cathedral (Cathedral Of Saint Mary The Virgin And Saint Ethelbert The King). (Part Two).

The Choir, Hereford Cathedral.

Photo: 9 July 2014.

Source: Own work.

Attribution: Photo by DAVID ILIFF.

Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.

Author: Diliff

(Wikimedia Commons)

Text from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia,

unless otherwise stated.

Hereford Cathedral remained in a state of ruin until Robert of Lorraine was Consecrated as the Diocese’s Bishop in 1079 and undertook its reconstruction. His work was carried on, or, more probably, re-done by Reynelm , who was the next but one Bishop and who re-organised the College of Secular Canons attached to the Cathedral.

Reynelm died in 1115 and it was only under his third successor, Robert de Betun , who was Bishop from 1131 to 1148, that the Church was brought to completion.

Of this Norman Church, the surviving parts are the Nave Arcade, the Choir, up to the Spring of the Clerestory , the Choir Aisle, the South Transept and the Crossing Arches.

Hereford Cathedral.

Available on YouTube

HERE

Scarcely fifty years after its completion, William de Vere , who occupied the See from 1186 to 1199, altered the East End by constructing a Retro-Choir , or Processional Path, and a Lady Chapel .

[Editor: In Church Architecture , a Retro-Quire (also spelled Retro-Choir), or Back-Choir, [1] is the space behind The High Altar in a Church or Cathedral, which sometimes separates it from the end Chapel . It may contain seats for the Church Choir . [2] ]

The Lady Chapel, Hereford Cathedral.

Photo: 9 July 2014.

Source: Own work.

Attribution: Photo by DAVID ILIFF.

License: CC BY-SA 3.0.

Author:  Diliff

(Wikimedia Commons)

Between the years 1226 and 1246, The Lady Chapel was rebuilt in the Early English Style—with a Crypt beneath. Around the middle of the 13th-Century, the Clerestory, and probably the Vaulting of the Choir, were rebuilt, having been damaged by the settling of the Central Tower.

Under Peter of Aigueblanche (Bishop 1240–1268), one of King Henry III 's foreign favourites, the rebuilding of the North Transept was begun, being completed later in the same Century by Swinfield, who also built the Aisles of the Nave and the East Transept.

PART THREE FOLLOWS.

Lincoln Cathedral. An Occasional Update On England’s Magnificent Cathedrals.

Lincoln Cathedral.

Photo: 16 March 2013.

Source: Own work.

Author: DrMoschi

(Wikimedia Commons)

Text from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia,

unless stated otherwise.

Lincoln Cathedral, Lincoln Minster, or the Cathedral Church of The Blessed Virgin Mary of Lincoln and, sometimes, Saint Mary’s Cathedral, in Lincoln, England, is a Grade I-Listed Cathedral and is the Seat of the Anglican Bishop of Lincoln.

Construction commenced in 1072 and continued in several phases throughout the High Middle Ages. Like many of the Mediæval Cathedrals of England, it was built in the Early-Gothic Style.

Although considered doubtful by some, many historians claim it became the tallest building in the World upon the completion of its 160 metres (520 ft) high Central Spire in 1311; if so, it was the first building to hold that title after the Great Pyramid of Giza, and held it for 238 years until the Spire collapsed in 1548,[2][3][4] and was not rebuilt.

Lincoln Cathedral.

Available on You Tube

HERE

The Angel Choir,

Lincoln Cathedral.

Photo: 15 September 2018.

Source: Own work.

Author: Cc364

(Wikimedia Commons)

Had the Central Spire remained intact, Lincoln Cathedral would have remained the World’s tallest structure until the completion of the Eiffel Tower in 1889. For hundreds of years, the Cathedral held one of the four remaining copies of the original Magna Carta, now securely displayed in Lincoln Castle.

The Cathedral is the fourth largest in the U.K. (in floor area) at around 5,000 square metres (54,000 sq ft), after Liverpool, Saint Paul's, and York Minster.[5] 

It is highly regarded by architectural scholars; the Victorian writer, John Ruskin, declared: “I have always held . . . that the Cathedral of Lincoln is, out and out, the most precious piece of architecture in the British Isles and, roughly speaking, worth any two other Cathedrals we have.”

The Nave,

Lincoln Cathedral.

Photo: 30 July 2014.

Source: Own work.

Attribution: "Photo by DAVID ILIFF.

License: CC BY-SA 3.0"

(Wikimedia Commons)

Remigius de Fécamp, the first Bishop of Lincoln, moved the Episcopal Seat (“Cathedra”) there “some time between 1072 and 1092”.[6] About this, James Essex writes that “Remigius . . . laid the Foundations of his Cathedral in 1072” and “it is probable that he, being a Norman, employed Norman Masons to superintend the building . . . though he could not complete the whole before his death.”[7] Before that, writes B. Winkles: “It is well known that Remigius appropriated the Parish Church of Saint Mary Magdalene in Lincoln, although it is not known what use he made of it.”[8]

Up until then, Saint Mary's Church, in Stow, was considered to be the “Mother Church”[9] of Lincolnshire[10] (although it was not a Cathedral, because the Seat of the Diocese was at Dorchester Abbey, in Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxfordshire). However, Lincoln was more central to a Diocese that stretched from The River Thames to The River Humber.

Remigius built the first Lincoln Cathedral on the present site, finishing it in 1092 and then dying on 7 May of that year,[12] two days before it was Consecrated. In 1124, the timber roofing was destroyed in a fire. Alexander (Bishop, 1123 – 1148) rebuilt and expanded the Cathedral, but it was mostly destroyed by an earthquake about forty years later, in 1185 (dated by the British Geological Survey as occurring 15 April 1185).[8][13]

Vaulted Ceiling of The Angel Choir,

Lincoln Cathedral.

Photo: 15 September 2018.

Source: Own work.

Author: Cc364

(Wikimedia Commons)

The earthquake was one of the largest felt in the U.K: it had an estimated magnitude of over 5. The damage to the Cathedral is thought to have been very extensive; the Cathedral is described as having “split from top to bottom”; in the current building, only the lower part of the West End and its two attached Towers remain of the pre-earthquake Cathedral.[13]

Some (Kidson, 1986; Woo, 1991) have suggested that the damage to Lincoln Cathedral was probably exacerbated by poor construction or design, with the actual collapse most probably caused by a Vault failure.[13]

After the earthquake, a new Bishop was appointed. He was Hugh de Burgundy of Avalon, France, who became known as Saint Hugh of Lincoln. He began a massive rebuilding and expansion programme. With his appointment of William de Montibus as Master of the Cathedral School and Chancellor, Lincoln briefly became one of the leading educational centres in England, producing writers such as Samuel Presbiter and Richard of Wetheringsett, though it declined in importance after William’s death in 1213.[14]

Rebuilding began with the Choir (Saint Hugh’s Choir) and the Eastern Transepts between 1192 and 1210.[15] The Central Nave was then built in the Early-English Gothic Architectural Style. Lincoln Cathedral soon followed other architectural advances of the time – Pointed Arches, Flying Buttresses, and Ribbed Vaulting, were added to the Cathedral.

Vaulted Ceiling of The Secondary Transept,

Lincoln Cathedral.

Photo: 15 September 2018.

Source: Own work.

Author: Cc364

(Wikimedia Commons)

This allowed support for incorporating larger Windows. There are thirteen Bells in the South-West Tower, two Bells in the North-West Tower, and five Bells in the Central Tower (including Great Tom). Accompanying the Cathedral’s large Bell “Great Tom of Lincoln”, is a quarter-hour Striking Clock.

The Clock was installed in the Early-19th-Century.[16] The two large Stained-Glass Rose Windows, the matching Dean’s Eye Window and the Bishop’s Eye Window, were added to the Cathedral during the Late-Middle Ages. The former, the Dean’s Eye Window, in the North Transept, dates from the 1192 rebuild begun by Saint Hugh, finally being completed in 1235.

The latter, the Bishop’s Eye Window, in the South Transept, was reconstructed a hundred years later in 1330.[17] A contemporary record: “The Metrical Life of Saint Hugh”, refers to the meaning of these two Windows (one on the “dark” North Side and the other on the “light” South Side of the building). “For North, represents the devil, and South, The Holy Spirit, and it is in these directions that the two eyes look. The Bishop faces the South in order to invite in, and the Dean, the North, in order to shun; the one takes care to be saved, the other takes care not to perish. With these Eyes, the Cathedral’s face is on watch for the Candelabra of Heaven and the darkness of Lethe (oblivion).”

The Choir,

Lincoln Cathedral.

Photo: 30 July 2014.

Source: Own work.

Attribution: "Photo by DAVID ILIFF.

License: CC BY-SA 3.0"

Author: Diliff

(Wikimedia Commons)

In 1290, Eleanor of Castile died and King Edward I of England decided to honour her, his Queen Consort, with an elegant Funeral Procession. After her body had been embalmed, which in the 13th-Century involved evisceration, Eleanor’s viscera were buried in Lincoln Cathedral and Edward placed a duplicate of the Westminster Abbey tomb there.

The Lincoln tomb’s original Stone Chest survives; its effigy was destroyed in the 17th-Century and replaced with a 19th-Century copy. After the additions of the Dean’s Eye and other major Gothic additions, it is believed some mistakes in the support of the Tower occurred, for, in 1237, the main Tower collapsed.

Lincoln Cathedral.

Photo: 7 November 2014.

Source: Lincoln cathedral

Author: Gary Ullah

(Wikimedia Commons)

A new Tower was soon started and in 1255 the Cathedral petitioned King Henry III to allow them to take down part of the Town Wall to enlarge and expand the Cathedral, including the rebuilding of the Central Tower and Spire. They replaced the small rounded Chapels (built at the time of Saint Hugh) with a larger East End to the Cathedral. This was to handle the increasing number of pilgrims to the Cathedral, who came to Worship at the Shrine of Saint Hugh of Lincoln.

Between 1307 and 1311, the Central Tower was raised to its present height of 271 feet (83 m). The Western Towers and the front of the Cathedral were also improved and heightened. At this time, a tall Lead-encased Wooden Spire topped the Central Tower, but was blown down in a storm in 1548.

Interior of Clerestory.

Presbytery of Lincoln Cathedral.

“Development and Character of Gothic Architecture”.

By: Charles Herbert Moore.

Date: 1890.

Source: https://archive.org/details/

developmentchara00mooruoft

Author: Charles Herbert Moore.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Hugh of Wells, Bishop of Lincoln, was one of the signatories to Magna Carta, and for hundreds of years the Cathedral held one of the four remaining copies of the original, now securely displayed in Lincoln Castle.[21]

The Lincoln Magna Carta was on display at the British Pavilion during the 1939 New York World's Fair.[22] In March 1941, the Foreign Office proposed that the Lincoln Magna Carta be gifted to the United States, citing the “many thousands of Americans who waited in long queues to view it” and the U.S. passage of the Lend-Lease Act, among other reasons.[22] In 2009, the Lincoln Magna Carta was lent to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.[21]

There are three other surviving copies: Two at the British Library and one at Salisbury Cathedral.[23]

Maintaining the Cathedral costs £1.6 million a year.[35] A major renovation of the West Front was done in 2000. It was discovered that the Flying Buttresses on the East End were no longer connected to the adjoining stonework, and repairs were made to prevent collapse.

The Great West Door

and West Façade of Lincoln Cathedral.

Date: 1890.

Source: https://archive.org/details/

developmentchara00mooruoft

Author: Charles Herbert Moore.

(Wikimedia Commons)

It was next discovered that the stonework of the Dean’s Eye Window, in the Transept, was crumbling, meaning that a complete reconstruction of the Window has had to be carried out according to the conservation criteria set out by the International Council on Monuments and Sites.

There was a period of great anxiety when it emerged that the stonework needed to shift only 5 mm (0.20 in) for the entire Window to collapse. Specialist engineers removed the Window’s Tracery before installing a strengthened, more stable replacement. In addition to this, the original Stained-Glass was cleaned and set behind a new clear isothermal glass, which offers better protection from the elements. By April 2006, the project was completed at a cost of £2 million.

Lincoln Cathedral is one of the few English Cathedrals built from the rock it is standing on.[47] The Cathedral has owned the existing quarry, on Riseholme Road, Lincoln, since 1876.[48] This quarry is expected to run out of stone in 2021.[49] The Cathedral’s Stone-Masons use more than 100 tonnes of stone per year for maintenance and repairs.[49]

A History Of Allhallowtide.

Triumph of The Church,

The Church Militant, 

and The Church Triumphant

Alternative title:

Allegory of The Active Church

and The Triumphant Church

and The Dominican Order.

Artist: Andrea di Bonaiuto (14th-Century).

Description: The Way of Salvation fresco is in the Spanish Chapel (Cappella Spagnuolo, or Guidalotti Chapel, after the Patron). The Black-Cloaked figures are Dominican Priests (The Black Friars, The Order of Preachers, O.P.), and the Black-and-White Dogs are their symbol. (Founded by Saint Dominic to Preach against heresies, they were referred to as "Domini Canes", The Hounds of God.)

Date: 1365-1367.

Collection: Basilica of Santa Maria Novella.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Allhallowtide.

Available on YouTube

HERE

This Article is taken from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia,
unless stated otherwise.

Allhallowtide, Hallowtide, All-Saintstide, or, The Hallowmas Season, is the Triduum [Editor: Three Days] encompassing the Western Christian observances of All Saints’ Eve (Halloween), All Saints' Day (All Hallows’) and All Souls' Day, which last from 31 October to 2 November, annually.

Allhallowtide is a “time to remember The Dead, including Martyrs, Saints, and all Faithful Departed Christians.” 

The present date of Hallowmas (All Saints’ Day) and thus also of its Vigil (Hallowe’en) was established for Rome perhaps by Pope Gregory III (731 A.D. – 741 A.D.) and was made “Of Obligation” throughout the Frankish Empire by Louis the Pious in 835 A.D.

Elsewhere, other dates were observed even later, with the date in Ireland being 20 April. In the Early-11th-Century, the modern date of All Souls’ Day was popularised, after Abbot Odilo established it as a day for the Monks of Cluny and associated Monasteries to Pray for The Dead.

The word Allhallowtide was first used in 1471, and is derived from two words: The Old English word “Halig”, meaning Holy, and the word “Tide”, meaning “Time”, or, “Season” (cf. Christmastide, Eastertide). 

The latter part of the word Hallowmas is derived from the word “Mass”. 

The words Hallow and Saint are Synonyms.

The Christian attitude towards the death of Martyrs is first exemplified in the New Testament, which records that, after the beheading of Saint John the Baptist, his disciples respectfully buried him. Saint Stephen was, likewise, “given a Christian burial by his fellow-Christians after he had been stoned to death by a mob.”

Two of the post-Nicene Fathers, Ephrem the Syrian, as well as John Chrysostom, both wrote about the importance of honouring the dead; the Theologian Herman Heuser, writes that, in the Early Church, the Feast Days of the Martyrs were “Local Observances”, with Churches being built on those sites where their blood was shed. 

Frances Stewart Mossier explains that this changed during the Persecution of Christians in The Roman Empire, saying that: This arrangement worked very well at first, but, soon, there were more Martyrs than there were days in the year, and so one day was set apart in honour of them all, and it was called All Saints’ Day. This took place about 610 A.D.

The Christians of those times were in the habit of spending the night before All Saints’ Day in thinking over the good and helpful lives of those in whose honour the day was kept and in Praying that they might be like them. 

Services were held in the Churches, and Candles and Incense burned before the pictures and statues of the Saints. It was to them (Editor: The people] one of the Holiest and most significant days of all the year.

Following the establishment of All Hallows’ Day, and its Vigil, All Hallows’ Eve, in the 8th-Century A.D., Abbot Odilo of Cluny popularised the day to Pray for All Souls, forming the third day of the Triduum of Allhallowtide.

The Octave of Allhallowtide, lasting “eight days”, was established by Pope Sixtus IV, in 1430, for the whole Western Church. The Octave, however, was eliminated in the 1955 Reforms of the Catholic Church, although it continues to be observed by many Anglicans.

The Faithful may still obtain a Plenary Indulgence by visiting a Cemetery and Praying for The Dead during the Octave of All Hallows.

In the United Kingdom, the Church of England, Mother Church of the Anglican Communion, extended All Saints-Tide to include Remembrance Sunday in the 20th-Century.

The Vigil Of Saint Simon And Saint Jude. Apostles. Whose Vigil Is, Today, 27 October. Violet Vestments.

Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
unless otherwise stated.

The Vigil of Saint Simon and Saint Jude.
   Apostles.
   27 October.

Violet Vestments.

Saint Simon and Saint Jude.

Apostles.

By Father Francis Xavier Weninger, 1876.

Illustration: CATHOLIC HARBOR OF FAITH AND MORALS

Simon, whom Saint Peter calls “the Cananean” to distinguish him from Saint Peter, who bore the same name [Editor: “Simon”], was born at Cana, in Galilee. 

Saint Luke calls him “Zelotes”, because he had probably belonged to the Jewish Party, thus called for its zeal in defending The Faith.

Jude, surnamed “Thaddeus” or “Lebbe” (The Courageous), was, by Cleophas, his father, and Mary, his mother, a nephew to Saint Joseph and The Blessed Virgin Mary and cousin to Jesus. Saint James the Less, first Bishop of Jerusalem and the first Apostle Martyred, and Simeon, who succeeded him in this See, were his brothers.

These Apostles of Christ heard from the lips of The Master, at The Last Supper, the words of the Gospel: “I am the vine, you are the branches. Every branch which bears fruit, My Father shall prune in order that it should bear more.”

After having preached the Gospel, at the price of great sufferings, the first in Egypt, the second in Mesopotamia, they were both Martyred in Persia (Introit, Gradual, Communion).

Wherefore, their Feasts are Celebrated on the same day, in the same Office, and their names are mentioned jointly in The Canon of The Mass.

Mass: Intret in conspéctu.
The Gloria is not said.

THE SAINT ANDREW DAILY MISSAL

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