Chess and Baden-Powell

Staffa is an uninhabited island of the Inner Hebrides. Labels inscribed STAFFA SCOTLAND were sold as local or tourist souvenirs; they are cinderellas, not British postage stamps, and are associated with Clive Feigenbaum. This 1976 issue pairs chess with Scouting. Designer, printer and exact size are not established. The labels have no postage-catalogue numbers.

The perforated sheet holds eight values in two columns. Each label is lettered STAFFA SCOTLAND and shows, at left, four white chess silhouettes — king, bishop, knight and rook — on coloured quarters above a chequer strip, and at right a profile of Baden-Powell in a campaign hat inside a white disc, with a Scout fleur-de-lis. A small triangular Staffa device sits at the foot. The 1 p, 2 p, 3 p and 4 p read POSTAGE; the 5 p, 10 p, 20 p and 25 p read AIRMAIL. The example in the collection is cancelled to order with two circular STAFFA SCOTLAND marks dated May 1976.

A separate imperforate 50 p souvenir sheet, listed as 19 July 1976, uses the same island name and Staffa device but a different layout: a gold fleur-de-lis in a white disc on red, a purple king on a diamond chessboard, and Baden-Powell in a white disc on orange, lettered POSTAGE 50p. A small MILAN '72 mark appears at lower left; the sheet does not explain it.