Large Stamp Album with 53 Vintage 1980s Plate Control Blocks: SWA; Bop, Ciskei, Venda, Transkei (585 Stamps)

ON AUCTION IS A LARGE STAMP ALBUM CONTAINING A COLLECTION OF 53 PLATE CONTROL BLOCKS ALL IN UNUSED AND NEAR MINT CONDITION. VINTAGE FROM THE 1980S. INCLUDED ARE BEAUTIFUL STAMP BLOCKS FROM SOUTH WEST AFRICA, BOPHUTHATSWANA, CISKEI, VENDA AND TRANSKEI. THEY DEPICT MOSTLY THE WIDLIFE AND FAUNA FROM THESE COUNTRIES BUT CONTAIN ALSO AN INTERESTING SET FROM TRANSKEI DEPICTING THE DIFFERENT FISHING FLIES ON DISPLAY.
 
THERE ARE 16 CONTROL BLOCKS OF 5 STAMPS EACH; 28 CONTROL BLOCKS of 10 STAMPS EACH AND 9 CONTROL BLOCKS WITH AN AMAZING 25 STAMPS EACH. ALL IN ALL 585 STAMPS.
 
Stamp Blocks are of interest not only because they are rarer than individual stamps, but they also preserve relative positions of stamps as they were originally printed and contain information in the margins that is crucial to understanding how, where and when the stamps were produced.
 
 
CONDITION: ALL IN UNUSED AND IN MINT CONDITION.
 
BLOCKS, PLATE BLOCKS, CONTROL BLOCKS:
Probably one of the most common ways of collecting stamps is individually, as singles. However, many collectors also like to collect blocks of stamps. Stamp blocks make for an attractive display in a collection and in some cases, even turn out to be a valuable investment.
A stamp block is a group of stamps (usually four) still attached together, which has been separated from the original printers sheet or post office pane. Groups of four stamps are the most common block. 
A Plate Block is a block of stamps which still has the selvage or margins or edges attached to it on two sides of the block. This can only happen by detaching a block of stamps from one of the corners of a stamp sheet. Therefore, each stamp sheet only contains four possible plate blocks.
The edges or margins in each of the four corners of a stamp sheet contains various information about the printing process e.g. the plate number circa pre 1960s (hence, the name plate block), the printers name (called imprint blocks), arrows used to line up perforation (arrow blocks) and colour registration marks (called traffic light or control blocks).
In strictest philatelic terms, the designation plate block can only apply to corner blocks of engraved stamps, in other words, stamps printed from an engraved printing plate. Each printing plate had a serial number engraved upon it and that number helped the printer maintain proper quality control.
By the late 1960s, printing from an engraved plate was being replaced by lithographic printing, which is a completely different process. Since there were no more engraved plates, there was no need for plate numbers. However, the selvage in each of the four corners of the stamp sheet still contained some inscribed information such as the printers name and the stamp designers name. They also had some colour bars in cyan, magenta, yellow and black used to control the quality of the stamp sheets from hence the term control blocks.
 
PLEASE ALSO SEE MY OTHER ITEMS LISTED. I HAVE SOME INTERESTING ITEMS ALSO ON AUCTION THIS WEEK. COPY THE URL UNDERNEATH AND PASTE INTO GOOGLE AND IT WILL TAKE YOU DIRECTLY TO ALL MY LISTINGS THIS WEEK. NOTE ALL MY AUCTIONS END AT 22H30 SO IT IS ADVISABLE TO PUT IN AN AUTOMATIC BID (HIGHEST PRICE YOU ARE WILLING TO PAY) EARLY.
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