- Perkins Bacon
Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co was a printer of
bank notes andpostage stamp s, most notable for printing thePenny Black , the first stamps, in1840 .The firm had its origin in
1819 withJacob Perkins , who had emigrated to theUnited Kingdom fromBoston, Massachusetts with a process for replicating line engravings involving the use of soft steel that was hardened before use. He and engraversGideon Fairman andCharles Heath formed "Perkins, Fairman, and Heath", and they produced 1-pound notes for English banks.By 1822 it was known as "Perkins & Heath", then in 1829, after a complicated transaction in which Heath gave up his shares and
J. B. Bacon bought in, as "Perkins & Bacon".Henry Petch joined in 1835, and thus the firm printing the first stamps was actually known as "Perkins, Bacon & Petch". When Petch died in 1852, the firm became just "Perkins, Bacon".In
1861 they (temporarily) lost the contract to print stamps as a punishment for giving copies of new issues away to friends of the management without permission from the governments involved.They completed their printing contract for the line-engraved stamps on
31 December ,1879 , losing subsequent business to competitorDe La Rue .In addition to British stamps, Perkins, Bacon printed for a number of the colonies, including the first stamps of the
Cape of Good Hope , which were printed in1853 .External links
* [http://www.jjhc.info/perkinsbacon&co.htm James Dunbar Heath overview of the company history, written 1913]
* [http://www.psestamp.com/articles/article973.chtml "When Perkins Bacon Fell From Grace"]
* [http://www.capepostalhistory.com/ADHESIVES/Perkins%20Bacon%20Introduction.html "The Perkins Bacon Stamps of the Cape of Good Hope]
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