New Orleans La., 5c Bright Red on Bluish (62X7). Full to large margins, bright shade with traces of Brown ink on deeply blued paper, "New Orleans 17 Sep." (1861) circular datestamp, thins and sealed tear at lower right

VERY FINE APPEARANCE. ONLY THREE OF THE SEVEN RECORDED EXAMPLES OF THE NEW ORLEANS 5-CENT RED ERROR ARE PRINTED ON BLUISH PAPER. ONE OF THE RAREST SOUTHERN POSTMASTERS' PROVISIONALS AND THE ONLY COLOR ERROR IN CONFEDERATE PHILATELY.

There is only one true color error among all Southern Postmasters' Provisionals: the New Orleans 5c Red, which is found on both White and Bluish papers.

In his 1978 Congress Book article, Dr. Hubert C. Skinner theorized that either "too much red ink was introduced onto the platen in blending the brown ink or the components of the ink separated while the press was idle for a time." This, he speculated, "produced a mottled impression on a very few sheets" and "would have been corrected as soon as the rollers passed across the platen a few times re-mixing or blending the ink." The discovery of the hybrid Red-and-Brown stamp (lot 1101) confirmed Dr. Skinner's theory. The ink mixture error had to have occurred more than once, because the stamps on White paper were printed in June, and the stamps on Blue paper were printed in August.

The five stamps offered in lots 1100 to 1104 in our 2012 sale of the "D.K." collection (Sale 1022) constituted the largest number of the New Orleans 5c Red Color Error ever assembled by one collector. Two of those stamps are offered in this Rarities sale. Each shade of Red is different, and the stamps provide an opportunity to see the shades compared to one another.

Our records contain the following examples of the 5c Red error

White Paper (62X6): 1) Unused with traces of gum, ex Ferrary, Hind and Brooks; 2) "DUE (3cts)" straightline, partly rebacked over thins, ex Caspary, Lilly, Kilbourne and "D.K." collection, offered in this sale as lot 754; 3) Cut in at bottom, tied by "Paid" straightline on part of cover to Mrs. Wm. Reynaud, Baton Rouge, photo by Hiram Deats in P.F. files; 4) Mixture of Red and Brown, corner strike of circular datestamp, partly rebacked over thins and tear, ex "D.K." collection.

Blue Paper (62X7): 5) Dec. 4 circular datestamp, thin spots and small repair, ex Crocker, Felton and "D.K." collection; 6) Sep. 17 circular datestamp, small faults, ex Ferrary, Hind, Lilly and "D.K." collection, the stamp offered here; 7) Position 1, "Paid" and part datestamp, thinned with small nicks at left, ex Caspary, Dr. Skinner and "D.K." collection.

Ex Ferrary (with his purple trefoil backstamp), Hind, Lilly, Dr. Graves and "D.K." collection

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