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Africa/All : Cape of Good Hope: Specimen reprints of 'Woodblock Triangulars' on signed AA Jurgens card.

 

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Ningpo
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09 Dec 2015
04:56:30pm
I managed to obtain the following woodblock reprint specimen when I saw it listed last week. It is one of a number produced by the South African philatelist Adrian Jurgens.I don’t know how often these come onto the market but I considered it worth bidding on.

Mr Jurgens became embroiled in allegations of forgery, after being given access to the original Cape of Good Hope 'triangular woodblocks' to produce reprints in black:



Image Not Found


Image Not Found


A close-up of the reprints. Note the deliberately defaced stereos (a white vertical line):

Image Not Found




The following is from Wikipedia; A A Jurgens


" Adrian Albert Jurgens (1886 - 11 July 1953 was a South African philatelist and signatory to the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists of Southern Africa in 1948 and the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists in Great Britain in 1952.

In the 1940s Jurgens became embroiled in allegations of forgery that greatly damaged his reputation.

Jurgens' main area of interest was the philately of Southern Africa, in particular the Bechuanalands and Cape of Good Hope. The A.A. Jurgens - Cape of Good Hope, Barbara Jurgens Memorial Collection of twenty volumes is in the Iziko Museums of Cape Town. Barbara was Adrian's daughter.

In 1944 Jurgens won the Crawford Medal from the Royal Philatelic Society London for his work The Handstruck Letter Stamps of the Cape of Good Hope from 1792 to 1853 and the Postmarks from 1853 to 1910.

Allegations of forgery
∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼

In 1941 philatelists became aware of reprints of the 1 penny and 4 penny Cape of Good Hope 'woodblock' triangular stamps in the original colours. Although the original stereos had been defaced with a vertical line, the line did not appear correctly on the reprints which were dangerously similar to the originals.

The originator of the reprints was revealed to be A.A. Jurgens who described everything he had done in an article in The South African Philatelist in May 1941. Jurgens explained that he had received permission to make reprints in black from the Director of the South African Museum in Cape Town which were to be displayed in a case with South African postal history material.
Unfortunately, Jurgens appears to have got carried away with his initial success and he also produced reprints in red and blue and on wove and laid papers. Up to 17 sheets were produced. This had all been done in November 1940 and March 1941, without the knowledge of the philatelic community. Further allegations relating to forged cancellations on Cape material and a public spat with the expert committee of the British Philatelic Association did nothing to help Jurgens' reputation.

Robson Lowe famously declined to sign the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists due to the organisers' failure to delete Jurgens' name. Lowe regarded Jurgens as a forger.

Although a Fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society London since 1938, no obituary for Jurgens appeared in The London Philatelist following his death."



If anybody has any further information, I’d like to hear.

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smauggie
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10 Dec 2015
02:01:46pm
re: Cape of Good Hope: Specimen reprints of 'Woodblock Triangulars' on signed AA Jurgens card.

Very informative! Thank you.

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canalzonepostalhistory.wordpress.com
AntoniusRa
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The truth is within and only you can reveal it

10 Dec 2015
07:40:29pm
re: Cape of Good Hope: Specimen reprints of 'Woodblock Triangulars' on signed AA Jurgens card.

While the 4p stamp would pass for an original color the 1p is not even close and should not fool anyone. The 1p should be Vermillion, Red or Carmine not Brownish Red. Makes you wonder if they are even talking about the same stamp. Still anifty item which I will be on the lookout for to add to my collection.
My genuine 1p Red shown below.
Image Not Found

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mitch.seymourfamily.com/mward/collection/mapindex.html
Ningpo
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10 Dec 2015
10:01:45pm
re: Cape of Good Hope: Specimen reprints of 'Woodblock Triangulars' on signed AA Jurgens card.

You are probably right about the 1d 'red'. I suspect though, these stereo reprint specimens were being produced when Mr Jurgens had honourable intentions and wasn't perhaps trying to achieve faithful colour reproduction.

It was his later reprints which came under close scrutiny, where allegedly the vertical line 'defacement' became 'less pronounced' and the colours (and papers) then became close to the genuine copies. In fact, the vertical line on the 1d red on my specimen card, is less pronounced than the one shown on the Wikipedia link, on my last post. This may give some indication that eliminating this line either in part or in full, would not have been hugely difficult.

The Cape triangular issues is not an area that I have any knowledge about but merely have an interest in forgery production. So any further information is welcome.

NB. I have just realised that the link I provided became truncated when formatting it. I have now corrected this.



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AntoniusRa
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The truth is within and only you can reveal it

10 Dec 2015
10:53:31pm
re: Cape of Good Hope: Specimen reprints of 'Woodblock Triangulars' on signed AA Jurgens card.

The Cape Triangles have always been one of the most popular issues for collectors. However they get expensive for examples with three large margins. I have quite a few of them in various conditions that can be seen here There have been a great many forgeries of them but they are all easy to spot if you are familiar with the originals.
I don't think forgeries is the correct term for the ones you have. I would call them unauthorized reprints, since they were made from the original plates without permission.

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Ningpo
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10 Dec 2015
11:22:43pm
re: Cape of Good Hope: Specimen reprints of 'Woodblock Triangulars' on signed AA Jurgens card.

It would seem that originally he was given permission to produce these in black (whatever happened to those?) and then got carried away with these coloured ones.

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Ningpo

09 Dec 2015
04:56:30pm

I managed to obtain the following woodblock reprint specimen when I saw it listed last week. It is one of a number produced by the South African philatelist Adrian Jurgens.I don’t know how often these come onto the market but I considered it worth bidding on.

Mr Jurgens became embroiled in allegations of forgery, after being given access to the original Cape of Good Hope 'triangular woodblocks' to produce reprints in black:



Image Not Found


Image Not Found


A close-up of the reprints. Note the deliberately defaced stereos (a white vertical line):

Image Not Found




The following is from Wikipedia; A A Jurgens


" Adrian Albert Jurgens (1886 - 11 July 1953 was a South African philatelist and signatory to the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists of Southern Africa in 1948 and the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists in Great Britain in 1952.

In the 1940s Jurgens became embroiled in allegations of forgery that greatly damaged his reputation.

Jurgens' main area of interest was the philately of Southern Africa, in particular the Bechuanalands and Cape of Good Hope. The A.A. Jurgens - Cape of Good Hope, Barbara Jurgens Memorial Collection of twenty volumes is in the Iziko Museums of Cape Town. Barbara was Adrian's daughter.

In 1944 Jurgens won the Crawford Medal from the Royal Philatelic Society London for his work The Handstruck Letter Stamps of the Cape of Good Hope from 1792 to 1853 and the Postmarks from 1853 to 1910.

Allegations of forgery
∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼

In 1941 philatelists became aware of reprints of the 1 penny and 4 penny Cape of Good Hope 'woodblock' triangular stamps in the original colours. Although the original stereos had been defaced with a vertical line, the line did not appear correctly on the reprints which were dangerously similar to the originals.

The originator of the reprints was revealed to be A.A. Jurgens who described everything he had done in an article in The South African Philatelist in May 1941. Jurgens explained that he had received permission to make reprints in black from the Director of the South African Museum in Cape Town which were to be displayed in a case with South African postal history material.
Unfortunately, Jurgens appears to have got carried away with his initial success and he also produced reprints in red and blue and on wove and laid papers. Up to 17 sheets were produced. This had all been done in November 1940 and March 1941, without the knowledge of the philatelic community. Further allegations relating to forged cancellations on Cape material and a public spat with the expert committee of the British Philatelic Association did nothing to help Jurgens' reputation.

Robson Lowe famously declined to sign the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists due to the organisers' failure to delete Jurgens' name. Lowe regarded Jurgens as a forger.

Although a Fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society London since 1938, no obituary for Jurgens appeared in The London Philatelist following his death."



If anybody has any further information, I’d like to hear.

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smauggie

10 Dec 2015
02:01:46pm

re: Cape of Good Hope: Specimen reprints of 'Woodblock Triangulars' on signed AA Jurgens card.

Very informative! Thank you.

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canalzonepostalhisto ...
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AntoniusRa

The truth is within and only you can reveal it
10 Dec 2015
07:40:29pm

re: Cape of Good Hope: Specimen reprints of 'Woodblock Triangulars' on signed AA Jurgens card.

While the 4p stamp would pass for an original color the 1p is not even close and should not fool anyone. The 1p should be Vermillion, Red or Carmine not Brownish Red. Makes you wonder if they are even talking about the same stamp. Still anifty item which I will be on the lookout for to add to my collection.
My genuine 1p Red shown below.
Image Not Found

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mitch.seymourfamily. ...
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Ningpo

10 Dec 2015
10:01:45pm

re: Cape of Good Hope: Specimen reprints of 'Woodblock Triangulars' on signed AA Jurgens card.

You are probably right about the 1d 'red'. I suspect though, these stereo reprint specimens were being produced when Mr Jurgens had honourable intentions and wasn't perhaps trying to achieve faithful colour reproduction.

It was his later reprints which came under close scrutiny, where allegedly the vertical line 'defacement' became 'less pronounced' and the colours (and papers) then became close to the genuine copies. In fact, the vertical line on the 1d red on my specimen card, is less pronounced than the one shown on the Wikipedia link, on my last post. This may give some indication that eliminating this line either in part or in full, would not have been hugely difficult.

The Cape triangular issues is not an area that I have any knowledge about but merely have an interest in forgery production. So any further information is welcome.

NB. I have just realised that the link I provided became truncated when formatting it. I have now corrected this.



Like
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this post
Members Picture
AntoniusRa

The truth is within and only you can reveal it
10 Dec 2015
10:53:31pm

re: Cape of Good Hope: Specimen reprints of 'Woodblock Triangulars' on signed AA Jurgens card.

The Cape Triangles have always been one of the most popular issues for collectors. However they get expensive for examples with three large margins. I have quite a few of them in various conditions that can be seen here There have been a great many forgeries of them but they are all easy to spot if you are familiar with the originals.
I don't think forgeries is the correct term for the ones you have. I would call them unauthorized reprints, since they were made from the original plates without permission.

Like
Login to Like
this post

mitch.seymourfamily. ...
Members Picture
Ningpo

10 Dec 2015
11:22:43pm

re: Cape of Good Hope: Specimen reprints of 'Woodblock Triangulars' on signed AA Jurgens card.

It would seem that originally he was given permission to produce these in black (whatever happened to those?) and then got carried away with these coloured ones.

Like
Login to Like
this post
        

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