The last issue of North Borneo pictorial stamps in 1961

This was the last issue of pictorial stamps by North Borneo as well as the last printing of stamps by Waterlow & Sons for this part of the world. However, the last stamp issued by North Borneo was actually the Freedom From Hunger stamp in 1963 which was part of a commonwealth omnibus arrangement. It was obviously not a local design.

This was a two colour design recess printed in two steps with different printing plates for the border and the vignette. They were based on designs drawn by Chong Yun Fatt who was working at the agricultural department at Jesselton. They were in sheets of 100 watermark Block CA with a setting of 10x10. They were said to be perforated 13 but the long sides of the stamps were perforated nearer to 13.25 

Die Proofs

No die proofs were recorded in the company archives but in 2020, some came onto the market. The 4c, 5c, 12c, $2 and $5 separate border and vignette die proofs were listed. It is unclear as to whether these are the only surviving items or whether there are others squirreled away long term in vaults of certain dealers or collectors.

There were two vignette die proofs for the 4c in the different colours of cobalt blue and bronze green. The duller bronze green was chosen for the final stamp. The possible different and more exciting version has been shown in the above reconstruction.

In 1961, Waterlow was taken over by Purnell & Sons who very soon disposed of a large part of the printing division to another printer, Thomas De La Rue. There was only one printing of these stamps by Waterlow. The numbers are shown in the table above. The original printing plates were passed onto the new owners. 

Further printing of most of the values were carried out by DLR as shown in the above tables to satisfy demand. They were also in sheets of 100 with the same watermark. There were no DLR printings of the 4c, 20c, 35c, 50c, 75c, $5 and $10 without the Sabah overprint. The more frequent issuances of the 1c was due to philatelic demand for sheets and multiples rather than postal use. More 6c was needed as this was the local second class unsealed letter and printed paper rate. The 12c (2x6c) was the local rate as well as the surface rate to Sarawak, Malaya, Singapore and the Imperial rate. There was an ample amount of the 12c from initial Waterlow stock still available. 20c was the airmail rate to Malaya and Singapore from August 1959. More than 4 million 20c stamps were initially printed by Waterlow but more 10c were still printed. The North Borneo stamps of the 1961 set without overprint were withdrawn for sale at the post offices on 30 June 1964 but were still valid until 1 April 1970.

On 16 September 1963, North Borneo gained independence and officially changed its name to Sabah to become a state in the new nation of Malaysia. But it was not until 1 July 1964 that the name Sabah appeared in her stamps and postmarks. Prior to that, the remaining inventory of both the Waterlow and DLR printings were repatriated from North Borneo to Britain and overprinted "SABAH" and further stock were also printed.

There were a lot more of the Sabah overprints than what is in the above because many sheets of stamps were repatriated from the post offices in North Borneo to be overprinted. There are many interesting aspects to these two issues of stamps as well as differences between the Waterlow and De La Rue printings which will be discussed later.

References

Stanway, L C (2023) Malaysia and the Federation of Malaya - Their Stamps & Postal History. Chapter 13 pp 13.1 - 13.7

Stanley Gibbons Ltd (1970) Elizabethan Catalogue of Modern Commonwealth Stamps pp 472, 524

 

Waterlow & Sons and the 1894 set of North Borneo stamps

 

The early stamps of North Borneo between 1883 and 1892 were designed by Thomas Macdonald and printed by Blades, East and Blades in London. These were attractive and iconic but mono colour designs which were not shown at their best by the printing process of lithography.

In 1893, the British North Borneo Company who was perpetually short of money agreed with Waterlow's proposal of designing and printing a set of stamp pictorials for 1894. Selling the territory's stamps to collectors, especially at face value, was a significant part of their income. The earliest stamp pictorials were the Sidney Views from New South Wales, Australia in 1850. Their popularity with collectors really took off with the USA 1869 set of pictorials.  

They initially approach De La Rue for a quotation for a set based on the Company's Arms. They then decided to go to Waterlow & Sons who subsequently secured the contract. The designs were said to be inspired by the Waterlow printed Liberia 1892 set which has some values in a very attractive 2 colour scheme. The North Borneo 1894 set can be regarded as the first full set of pictorials with the border and vignette recess printed separately in two different colours.

The printing company of Waterlow & Sons has a very interesting history and story. In 1810, James Waterlow set up shop in the City of London reproducing legal documents by lithography. He flourished and by 1852 he had diversified into printing stamps, his first issue was the 1852 set British Guiana. As the business, James Waterlow's four sons joined the business and branches opened at Westminster and London Wall. In 1876 James died and a year later the business was split into two. The third son, Sir Sidney founded Waterlow & Sons based at the London Wall. This was the firm that printed this issue. However by 1920, this company and the other company founded by the elder two sons, Waterlow Brothers and Layton were reunited under the name of Waterlow & Sons Limited.  

The 1894 set

This was the first set of North Borneo stamps printed by Waterlow & Sons Ltd while the high values were still printed by Blades. The previous stamps though iconic were largely utilitarian. This 1894 Waterlow series is widely considered as a forerunner of modern pictorial stamps. Moreover, Waterlow used a dual recess printing process which produced stamps in two colours at a high level of detail and crispness that lithography can not match.

The use of exotic subject matter was unprecedented where most issues of British colonial stamps only featured the reigning monarch's head usually in one colour only. This issue featured indigenous wildlife and culture with the Dyak Chief (1c), Sambar Stag (2c), Sago Palm (3c), Great Argus Pheasant (5c), Estuarine Crocodile (12c) and Mount Kinabalu (18c) besides the Coat of Arms in 6c and 24c stamps. The subject material in the vignettes were printed separately from the surrounding borders. In a bold and modern move for the Victorian era, the designers allowed parts of the image to break through the surrounding frame or border. In the 5c stamp, the tail feathers of the Great Argus Pheasant stretched into the frame above while the tail of the Estuarine Crocodile lashed out into the border on the left side.  

5c with part Gayah cancellation and 12c double postage due

These are the details of the engravers and the die proof numbers and colours which are in the records of Waterlow & Sons. This among many other records were discovered in 1981. The total number of stamps printed for each value were:

1c five printings 600,000

2c four printings 440,000

3c three printings 360,000

5c two printings 285,000

6c two printings 280,000

8c two printings 260,000

12c one printing 200,000

18c one printing 200,000

24c one printing 200,000 

These beautiful Waterlow designs were very popular globally with collectors and large amounts of these stamps were cancelled to order (CTO) with the 14 bar bar cancellation to be sold at low prices. I think the figures given above are not a true reflection of the actual amount of stamps printed as there are vast amounts of these CTO stamps in existence.

The following 1897 set of pictorials were also designed and printed by Waterlow & Sons. The designs and themes are similar to the 1894 set with additional values and corrections made to include native script and Chinese characters in the added side tablets. This is a more beautiful set especially with the additional values of 10c with the sun bear and the really pretty 16c with a train running by a river in the countryside.  

Waterlow & Sons continued to design and print stamps for North Borneo until they were sold and the postal part of the business taken over by De La Rue in 1961. One of the significant highlights was the 50th Anniversary of the granting of the Royal Charter issue in 1931. This set of 8 stamps are among the most beautiful stamps of the colonial period.