Printer's sample stamp

Phillips Collection at the British Postal Museum and Archive contains a number of sample stamps produced by De La Rue before 1900, bearing their name and demonstrating their printing abilities for the British Post Office.

[1] Waterlow & Sons produced many small sheetlets of sample stamps in the same design as genuine stamps produced for their customers, but with the colours changed and overprinted diagonally "Waterlow & Sons Ltd. Specimen".

[3] The Prince Consort Essay was a printer's sample stamp created in 1851[4] as an example of the surface printed stamps that Henry Archer proposed to print and perforate under contract with the British government at a lower price than the current printing firm of Perkins Bacon.

The Prince Consort stamps were provided by the artist Robert Edward Branston, from an engraving executed by Samuel William Reynolds.

The concept has been used worldwide with modern sample stamps from printers in Switzerland and the Netherlands, amongst other countries, commonly seen in philatelic circles.

A 1925 sample stamp from Waterlow & Sons Limited produced for the British Empire Exhibition.
Sample stamps from De La Rue produced c. 1884 in connection with a proposal for stamp booklets.
Waterlow sample stamps for North Borneo from the 1897-1902 issue in the typical format of a small sheetlet of 3 x 3.
The Prince Consort Essay in black.