Reference Material

When I began collecting the fantastic Cinderellas designed by Mr. Gerald King (stamps, covers, proofs, trials, etc.), I spent quite a lot of time on the Internet searching and reading about Cinderellas.

Among other things, I used a great deal of time to identify the various catalogs, books etc. about the GK Cinderellas.

In this post I will gather the various reference materials for Gerald King Cinderellas  … thus helping new Gerald King collectors with getting started.

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The original list for the 1st printing of the Gerald King Catalogue of the Postage Stamps of Wonderland 1840-71 – Including the territory of Looking-glass Land

From: 1965

July 1965 was the Centenary of the first publication of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”. This event, momentous as it was, cut little or no ice with the G.P.O. (Grand Post Office), who seemed to insist on persons of note being deceased for at least 100 years before giving the nod of approval to commemorative issues.

Carroll lived until 1898 and not having the patience to wait thirty-odd years, Gerald King decided to produce his own little set of perhaps half a dosen designs. The plan was to produce six designs but this number quickly grew to thirty six.

Below is a scan of the original list for the 1st printing of the thirty-six stamps.

The list is smaller than A4, with no pictures, only text describing the different stamps) and with the text “Catalogue for the 1st Printing” written on the top of the page.

On the back of the list the following is written: “Original Catalogue 1965, dealing with the first printings, large format, Black on colored papers, Perf. 11 3/4″…

1st printing (1965, black on colored papers) exists in at least two states. Imperforate and Perforated 11 3/4”.

Some of the printed sheets from Red Lodge Press, were “sent to Harry Rooke (Cinderella journalist for magazine “Stamp Collecting Weekly”) who in turn sent them to someone who had a perforating machine. They came back with at least two thirds badly perforated right into the design. Gerald King never used this guy again as by this time Gerald had been contacted by Dave Stirling who had his own machine which was much better at it.

No covers were produced together with the 1st printing stamps…

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The original list for the 2nd printing of the Gerald King Catalogue of the Postage Stamps of Wonderland 1840-71 – Including the territory of Looking-glass Land

From: 1970

A second printing was made, a few stamps added, and by this time Gerald King was looking into the Postal History angle, and using the obvious (Alice’s letter to her right foot) and winkling out the more subtle clues from the text, amassed an array of over twenty different covers complete with the likely addresses, postmarks etc.

Below is a scan of the original list for the 2nd printing of the now 45 different stamps.

Large format, Box-rouletted 13 1/2”, black ink on 10 different coloured papers. The 10 paper colours were deep green, sap green, pale blue, lilac, scarlet, rose, salmon, orange, yellow and white.

Printed by: Bone of Great Queen Street, London WC1

The rouletting was by: Trade Finishers (Walthamstow) Ltd. London, E17.

New stamps:
The “Too Late”-stamp (7 1/2 Winks), the “Mourning”-stamp (2 Golden Slumbers), the “Postage Due”-stamp (4 Winks), the “Alice’s Coronation”-stamp (20 Winks), a strongly retouched “2nd Botanical Congress” (2 Golden Slumbers), the “Health”-stamp (4 Winks and 2 Winks), the “Political Prisoner’s Relief Fund” (Half Wink) has been “relieved” of another ¼ Wink.

For the “Freedom from Hunger” (leg of mutton) issue the well-known major plate flaw (Cracked Plate) in pair with normal, the flaw now appears on the left-hand copy of the stamps.

Furthermore, the 1 Wink and the 3 Winks Alice heads were printed in blocks of 4 (not counted as separate stamps in the 45 stamps mentioned above).

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Wonderland Stamps, 3rd Printing. Imperforated

From: Late 1970´s – Colored designs on colored paper. 6 colors of stamps on 4 colors of paper – so 24 variants of each stamp.

To provide additional definitives for use on covers, a special plate was laid down providing blocks of nine of the 1 Wink and the 3 Winks values, with designer’s imprint in the lower left corner “Dodo, Lory & Co.”.

Frame breaks permit plating of all nine positions of the 1 Wink, but in any case each stamp, as the 3 Winks, bears code letters: AA- AB – AC / BA – BB – BC / CA – CB – CC etc. Furthermore, the third stamp (code letters AC) of the 3 Winks is inverted.

The printing was carried out by “Storyville Publications & Co.” of Walthamstow, with black ink on matt surface-coloured paper, imperforate, in 10 colours (white, pale blue, yellow, pale orange, dark orange, pale green, dark green, pink, red and mauve).

The layout of the third printing part sheet:
The denomination was cleared from the 1 Wink design, and new values created. These were laid down in two rows of five stamps, denominations being 1/2, 1/2, 2, 2, 4, 5 (all in Winks) in the top row, and below 1/2, 1/2, 8, 10, 20 (all in Winks) and the “Political Prisoner’s Relief Fund” (Half Wink). Two different types of the 1/2 Winks denominations (diagonal fraction bar versus horizontal fraction bar).

Above the two rows, the two blocks of nine and between the blocks a new high-value definitive of 1 Golden Slumber, and flanking the se-tenant block another new design, a super-sized 30 Winks Jabberwocky Centennial value.

The book “Alice Through The Pillar-box” (from 1978) mainly shows 1st Printing stamps and 2nd Printing stamps, and the last couple of pages of the book also gives examples of the 3rd Printing stamps.

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Wonderland Stamps, 4th printing: Perforated 11 3/4″ and Imperforated

From: 1979/1980

Smaller format (compared to the previous printings), Coloured stamps on coloured and white papers, Perforated 11 3/4″ and Imperforated.

Six different authentic ink colours of the Victorian period: deep shades of blue, green and carmine, reddish-brown and claret as well as black.
Four different paper colours: white, buff, pale blue and rose.
24 varieties of each stamp.

Printed by: The Phantasmagoria Security Printing Co.

Catalogue covering the 4th Printing stamps: “Curiouser and Curiouser” (1980, Jan. 1982 and Jan. 1998).

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Wonderland Stamps, 5th printing: Perforated 11 3/4″ and Imperforated

From: 2000

Smaller format (compared to the previous printings), Multi Coloured stamps on white papers, Perforated 11 3/4″.

Printed by: The Phantasmagoria Security Printing Co.

Catalogue covering the 5th Printing stamps: “The Millennium Collection” (June 2000).

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Book – Alice Through the Pillar Box

From: 1978

By Gerald M King published by Whizzard Press in 1978 features Alice in Wonderland stamps and stationery invented by Mr. King.

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Catalogue – The Postage stamps of Wonderland 1840-1865

From: 1979

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Wonderland – 1840-1844 – 4 Plates

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Catalogue – Curiouser and Curiouser The Postage Stamps of Wonderland 1840-71 – Including the territory of Looking-glass Land

The listings are different to those in the later catalogs and help to throw light on the earlier issues. One thing it doesn’t mention is colors. Possibly because the third printing (colored stamps on colored and white papers) involved six colors and four papers for each stamp – so 24 varieties of each stamp!

There are three editions of the “Curiouser And Curioser !” Catalogue.  The 3 editions are shown below.

From: 1980 (1st Edition)

From: 1982 (2nd Edition)

From: 1998 (3rd Edition)

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Catalogue – Alice, The Millennium Collection (Covers both Wonderland and Looking Glass Land)

From: June 2000

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Catalogue – Elizatoria Great Britain

From: October 1998

Gerald King Catalogue for the Elizatoria Great Britain Postage stamps – The first of two Catalogues for the Elizatoria stamps.

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Catalogue – Elizatoria Part Two

From: October 1998

Gerald King Catalogue for the Elizatoria Part Two stamps – The second of two Catalogues for the Elizatoria stamps.

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Catalogue – Snark Island 1876-1901

From: May 1983

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Catalogue – Lundy, The Alternative Collection

From: November 2002

Which covers the postage stamps, revenues, officials, railway stamps, telegraphs, postal stationery and postal history – this last has letters sent from Lundy to real and fictional characters.

The catalogue include a 4 page Supplement / Addenda with information regarding the Royal Silver Wedding.

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Information about the Matrimonial Cause Stamps

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Illustrations of the Christmas 1981 Issue

From: 1981

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The Revenue Society of Great Britain – 82nd Philatelic Congress

From: 8-10 September 2000 in London

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Letter to Ken Lake

The letter is from 1964 and written by Gerald to Ken Lake (Ken Lake was one half of Lake and Brooks who produced the ‘Year of the Child covers’).

The letter clearly shows Gerry’s wit and humor.

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The “Alice” Christmas Card

From: TBD (Before 1998)

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The Polish Special Forces in Lundy 1940-45

From: TBD

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The Burma Fantail

From: October 2006

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Gibbons Christmas Carroll

From: December 1982

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Stampex 1998 (Elizatoria)

From: 1998

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The Paraphilately Page

From: 2007