Perkins Bacon

Perkins Bacon
Name	Perkins Bacon
Type	Private company
Industry	Printing
Founded	1819
Founder	Jacob Perkins, Charles Heath, Jacob Perkins (engraver) (linked for clarity)
Defunct	1935 (approx.)
Headquarters	London
Products	Postage stamps, banknotes, security documents
Key people	Jacob Perkins, John Dickinson, Augustus Applegath

Perkins Bacon

Perkins Bacon was a nineteenth- and early twentieth-century British printing firm prominent in London for line-engraving, intaglio, and security printing. Founded through the collaboration of notable figures in engraving and printing, the firm supplied postage stamps, banknotes, and official stationery to numerous British Empire and international clients. Its output intersected with major postal, financial, and colonial institutions during the Victorian and Edwardian eras, influencing design, reproduction, and anti-forgery techniques.

History

The company traces roots to innovations by Jacob Perkins, whose work in Massachusetts and later England connected with printers such as Charles Heath and managers descended from the distinguished Heath family. During the 1830s and 1840s the firm became a principal contractor to the Post Office under officials like Rowland Hill and interacted with leading administrators and reformers, including Anthony Trollope in his capacity as a postal official. Throughout the mid-19th century Perkins Bacon supplied provisional and definitive postage stamps for colonial governments, cooperating with colonial governors and postal reform commissioners in territories including New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, Sierra Leone, Natal, and Canada. The firm navigated the changing landscape of British imperial administration, currency issuance, and wartime exigencies, contracting with ministries such as the Colonial Office and the Treasury on security printing. In the later 19th and early 20th centuries, ownership and management evolved amid competition from firms like Bradbury Wilkinson & Company and Thomas de la Rue & Company, eventually declining as monopolies and state presses emerged.

Products and Services

Perkins Bacon produced engraved postage stamps, revenue stamps, banknotes, bonds, stock certificates, passports, and other security documents for institutions including colonial treasuries, municipal councils, and private banks. Its client list encompassed entities such as the Bank of England for specimen notes, provincial administrations in Ceylon and Jamaica, and municipal corporations in Hong Kong. The firm offered line-engraving, steel plate intaglio, typographic printing partnerships, and hand-finishing for presentation pieces commissioned by aristocrats, governments, and commercial houses like East India Company successors. It also executed illustrated publication plates for books and periodicals associated with publishers like John Murray and lithographic projects for exhibitions tied to the Great Exhibition.

Notable Works and Commissions

Perkins Bacon produced some of the most iconic early postage issues, notably commissions for the colonial adhesions that followed the introduction of the Penny Black era. Key projects included stamps for New South Wales (the "Sydney Views"), early issues for British Guiana, and postage for the Cape of Good Hope triangulars—works that engaged designers, engravers, and colonial governors. The firm provided banknote plates and specimen sets for the Bank of England and private banks in Scotland and Ireland, as well as revenue stamps for customs administrations in Malta and Gibraltar. Presentation commissions ranged from coronation stationery for events linked to Queen Victoria to diplomatic envelopes for delegations to the Paris Exhibition. These productions placed Perkins Bacon at the center of philatelic, numismatic, and archival collections collected by institutions such as the British Museum and philatelic societies like the Royal Philatelic Society London.

Technology and Innovations

Perkins Bacon advanced engraving and printing techniques during a period of rapid technical change. Drawing on innovations by Jacob Perkins (engineer) in steel plate engraving and secure printing, the firm refined intaglio processes, cylinder press adaptations, and multi-stage plate hardening for durability. It experimented with surface and recess printing combinations that anticipated later rotary press and photogravure methods promoted by innovators like Gustave Le Gray and companies including Rothauser. Security features—micro-engraving, complex guilloché patterns, and watermark coordination—were developed to counter forgers exemplified by cases involving counterfeiters pursued by the Metropolitan Police and legal actions in courts such as the High Court of Justice. Collaborations with papermakers in Oxfordshire and suppliers of inks and varnishes contributed to long-lived impressions and colorfastness.

Business and Corporate Structure

Perkins Bacon operated as a privately held firm with partnerships and family involvement common in 19th-century British industry. Governance featured principal engravers and managing partners who negotiated government contracts through tenders adjudicated by departments including the Treasury and the Post Office. The company engaged subcontractors for lithography and typography, maintained workshops in central London districts, and employed apprentices trained under master engravers connected to guild-like networks such as the Stationers' Company. Competitive pressures from emerging conglomerates and statutory changes in contract procurement shifted business away from small specialist houses toward larger firms with integrated capital, prompting mergers, buyouts, and the eventual cessation or absorption of many of its operations.

Legacy and Influence on Philately

Perkins Bacon's output remains seminal to collectors, curators, and historians. Its stamp designs, printing varieties, and plate flaws form core study areas within philatelic scholarship represented in journals of the Royal Philatelic Society London, auction catalogues at houses like Sotheby's, and catalogues produced by entities such as Stanley Gibbons. Several iconic issues printed by the firm are among the most studied and valuable in collections featuring material from British Guiana and Australian colonies. The firm's techniques influenced later security printers and helped establish standards adopted by central banks and postal administrations internationally, informing regulatory practices in bodies like the Universal Postal Union and shaping provenance research in national archives including the Public Record Office (United Kingdom). Its works continue to be exhibited in museums including the Postal Museum (United Kingdom) and studied in academic discourse on imperial material culture.

Category:Printing companies of the United Kingdom