The Wallace Document. The World’s First Postage Stamp: The Earliest Known Example of the 1840 Penny Black

The Wallace Document. The World’s First Postage Stamp: The Earliest Known Example of the 1840 Penny Black

1840 One Penny Black, from plate 1a, lettered A-I, unused

pristine impression in deep intense black, mounted on thin cream scrap-album card, with pencil manuscript below in the hand of Robert Wallace, M.P.:

“Universal Penny Postage Fly, or Loose Stamp, presented to me Mr Wallace as above.”

“These come (came) into public use on the 6^th of May 1840.” together with the 1840 Mulready, progressive proof without value from the original brass plate in black on India paper. Dimensions 15.5cm high by 20.1cm wide. Mounted on thin cream scrap-album card, with pencil manuscript above in the hand of Robert Wallace, M.P.:

“1^st Proof of Penny Postage Stamp Cover, presented to Mr Wallace by Mr The Right Honble The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Francis Thornhill Baring – April 10^th 1840”,

mounted together by Robert Wallace on thin cream scrap-album card stock, (dimensions 23.5cm high by 28cm wide with at top right an additional “ear” 1.9cm high by 5.5cm wide) with pencil annotations as above