The Black Swan is the first

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the f ...

issued by the British colony of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

in 1854. It illustrates a black swan, a typical Australian animal at the time and was the only image used on Western Australian stamps until 1902.

Description

In 1854, the one penny denominated stamp was issued

imperforate For postage stamps, separation is the means by which individual stamps are made easily detachable from each other. Methods of separation include: # perforation: cutting rows and columns of small holes # rouletting: small horizontal and vert ...

. It was engraved by

William Humphrys William Humphrys (1794 – 21 January 1865) was an engraver of pictures, book illustrations and postage stamps. Humphrys was born in Dublin. At an early age he moved to the United States where he studied engraving techniques under George Murray ...

and printed in London in 1854 by

Perkins Bacon Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co was a printer of books, bank notes and postage stamps, most notable for printing the Penny Black, the world's first adhesive postage stamps, in 1840. {{Infobox , above = Details on the mode of preventing the forgery o ...

Later issues

The later values in the series were produced in

lithography Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

by Horace Samson in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

. Western Australia only issued swan stamps until the creation of the

Commonwealth of Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

in 1912, except for a few stamps of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...

issued in 1902. The reprints were also lithographed in the colony. In 1912, the main value of the series was

overprinted An overprint is an additional layer of text or graphics added to the face of a postage or revenue stamp, postal stationery, banknote or ticket after it has been printed. Post offices most often use overprints for internal administrative purpos ...

''One Penny'' to be valid for use throughout Australia. The watermark on all the colony's stamps featured the silhouette of the swan until 1862. In thematic philately, the Black Swan is the first stamp of the bird topic.

Varieties of the series

The 1855 4 pence blue (4d), of the Western Australia's swan series of stamps, this was the first

invert error In philately, an invert error occurs when part of a stamp is printed upside-down. Inverts are perhaps the most spectacular of postage stamp errors, not only because of their striking visual appearance, but because some are quite rare, and highly ...

, where the frame and center are inverted in relation to one another. In January 1855, a year after the first series was issued, Alfred Hillman took the printing plates from the archives to make new 4 pence stamps. Two of the plates were damaged and were replaced, but when they were reassembled one of the cliches was placed inverted on the plate. Before the error was noticed 97 sheets of 60 inverted stamps were produced before Hillmann corrected the error. Fourteen of fifteen copies of this error are recorded, all of which are cancelled. One is the

Royal Philatelic Collection The Royal Philatelic Collection is the postage stamp collection of the British royal family. It is the most comprehensive collection of items related to the philately of the United Kingdom and the British Commonwealth, with many unique pieces. ...

. A stamp on a stamp was issued by Australia Post, that featured the Black Swan stamp. Firstly in 1929 for the centenary of the colony of Western Australia and again in 1954 for the centenary of the first Western Australian stamp. :

References

{{reflist * ''Philatelic Gems 1'', éd. Amos Press, 1989 (en anglais), sur les têtes-bêche du 4 pence. 1854 Birds on stamps History of Western Australia Postal history of Australia