The Majestic - Black Swan

One of the first bird on stamps - the Black Swan (1d , Western Australia 1854 stamp ) inspired me to write about this lovely bird and truly i say this is a majestic bird.

Western Australia issued its first postage stamp on 1 August 1854. The 1d black stamp featured the Black Swan, a design used for most of the colony's later stamps as well. This stamp was engraved in England and printed by Perkins Bacon.

Collecting these stamps is a challenge mainly divided by - Perforations, Watermarks and  of design changes between  1854 t0 1912.

Year 1854 - saw the first of Swan stamps on Western Australia postage , this imperforate variety is a lovely collectible ; collecting an example of this stamp with good 4 corners is the challenge with a good cancel.

1854 - Western Australia 1d .

As compared to other Australia states (having other pictorials like Sydney harbour, Kangaroo,Lyrebird) one thing is quiet visible that swan on  stamps came was printed in all possible shades and varieties .

Year 1857 - values of the swan design by imitating the existing stamps, though with the swan on a blank background, but these were only used until 1860, when Perkins Bacon plates of the 1854 design were used to print all values.

Overprint 1d over 2d

Black Swans are mostly black-feathered birds, with white flight feathers. The bill is bright red, with a pale bar and tip; and legs and feet are greyish-black. 

Cobs (males) are slightly larger than pens (females), with a longer and straighter bill. Cygnets (immature birds) are a greyish-brown with pale-edged feathers.

Black Swans @ Sonning UK in 2o12

@Caversham , Reading 2013

The Black Swan was a literary or artistic image with motifs in near history,the Black Swan's role in Australian heraldry and culture extends to the first founding of the colonies in the eighteenth century. 

The Black Swan is featured on the flag, and is both the state and bird emblem, of Western Australia; it also appears in the Coat of Arms and other iconography of the state's institutions.

Black swan with the other swans - Isle Of Man