Watermark Blues
Ongoing Confusion
Generally speaking the collector views a watermark as seen from the back of the stamp. However the illustrations of watermarks in catalogues depict them as seen from the front of the stamp. Up to 1980, in the introduction to a Stanley Gibbons Part I catalogue there was a specific note which stated...they are always described as seen from the ‘front’ of the stamp... The SG Elizabethan catalogue included watermark varieties that were omitted from Part I, but their listing continued ‘as seen from the front of the stamp’.

South Africa and South West Africa QEII Stamps
From 1963 a new multiple watermark in a triangle reading ‘RSA’ was introduced and in July 1967 a variation of the foregoing became watermark ‘RSA Tete-Beche’ (See SAP Oct 1967). On the grounds that both watermarks were faint and difficult to detect...the SG policy was to simply ‘lump’ them together under one listing. As a compromise SG included a footnote explaining the foregoing.
Another RSA and SWA variation include printings on Swiss and Harrison papers. Under a UV light they respectively appear ‘pink’ and ‘violet’ from the reverse.

Watermark RSA
On the horizontal designs the watermark is either upright or reversed and on vertical designs it is sideways. A footnote in the 1984 Elizabethan catalogue under RSA (SG 198 - 210 and SG 238 - 251) and SWA (SG 202 - 216) is very specific and states...All the sideways watermarks...face right, ‘as seen from the front of the stamp’...

After the SG Elizabethan catalogue was discontinued, the Part I continued its policy of not listing inverted watermarks, thus the RSA and SWA (Elizabethan footnotes) did not feature. This ‘no comment’ policy continued up to and including the 1997 (99th edition) of Part I - From 1993 to 2002 the SG Part I was issued in two volumes.

1998 SG Part I (100th edition) Inverted watermarks, a change in Policy
The editorial announced the inclusion of watermark varieties and new ‘modified’ footnotes appeared under RSA (SG 198 - 210 and SG 238 - 251) and SWA (SG 202 - 216) which state...The normal sideways watermark shows the top of RSA to left ‘as seen from the back of the stamp’...

The South African Colour Catalogue
Their initial policy for listing watermarks was not in line with Stanley Gibbons as they noted them ‘as seen from the back of the stamp’. I recall having a conversation with Lutz Hefferman, the editor of the SACC, at one of the Rosebank SAPDA shows in Johannesburg during the early 1990’s.
I pointed this difference in policy out to him and he informed me that he intended to change in line with SG...however it appears that by 1998 the accepted policy for watermarks had changed to ‘as seen from the back of the stamp’. When, how or why it changed I do not know and it is perhaps academic...except that and obvious error, in both the SG and SACC, may be the result of the ‘chopping and changing’ policy for viewing watermarks... somehow the viewing from either the front or the back created ongoing problems that have not been resolved to this day. I refer in particular to SWA the 1967 - 1970 printings of the 7½c SG 212 or SACC 207b.

2015 SG Commonwealth Catalogue (117th edition) under ‘Preface’.
..The two ‘RSA’ watermarks of South Africa and South West Africa are now separately listed...

South West Africa RSA Watermark (1967 - 1970)
The watermark on the ½c is inverted and upright on the 2½c and on the other values it is sideways. According to the SG catalogue the ‘normal’ version has the RSA triangle pointing left (as seen from the back).
Thus a variation ought to be facing right. SG lists two such variations being the 1c and 7½c both facing right numbered SG A203a and A212w.
The normal 7½c (issued 1967) is noted as SG A212 facing left and the SACC agrees stating it as 207b...as the first printing is during 1967 and there is no footnote, both the foregoing is essentally incorrect.

RSA facing left occurs on the 1c, 2c, 3½c & 7½c (as seen from the back)

RSA facing right
On the 1c the SG listing does not appear in the SACC and so far I have not seen an example of this variation. There was only one printing of the 1 cent.

Both SG and the SACC initimate (incorrectly) that the initial 1967 printing of the 7½c has the watermark facing left - it faces right!

Bechuanaland