,'*^Jt • - J^- :t ^% ^^■ ~^. T-'vi'r ■ '-i:-' -'^^*' '""'-^'■^ 3-^? ?^ 'v^ .org/details/chatsonpostagestOOmelvrich CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS BOOKS FOR COLLECTORS With Coloured Frontispieces and many Illustrations, Large Crown 8vo, cloth. CHATS ON ENGLISH CHINA. By Arthur Hayden. CHATS ON OLD FURNITURE. By Arthur Hayden. CHATS ON OLD PRINTS. By Arthur Hayden. CHATS ON COSTUME. By G. Woolliscroft Rhead. CHATS ON OLD LACE AND NEEDLEWORK. By E. L. Lowes. CHATS ON ORIENTAL CHINA. By J. F. Blacker. CHATS ON MINIATURES. By J. J. Foster. CHATS ON ENGLISH EARTHENWARE. By Arthur Hayden. (Companion Volume to •* Chats on English China.") CHATS ON AUTOGRAPHS. By A. M. Broadley. CHATS ON OLD PEWTER. By H. J. L. J. Masse, M.A. CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS. By Fred J. Melville. • Chats on Postage Stamps BY FRED J. MELVILLE PRESIDENT OF THE JUNIOR PHILATELIC SOCIETY WITH SEVENTY-FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS NEW YORK FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY PUBLISHERS {All rights reserved.) PREFACE Come and chat in my stamp-den, that I may encircle you with fine-spun webs of curious and rare interest, and bind you for ever to Philately, by which name we designate the love of stamps. The " den " pre- sents no features which would at first sight differen- tiate it from a snug well-filled library, but a close inspection will reveal that many of the books are not the products of Paternoster Row or of Grub Street. Yet in these stamp-albums we shall read, if you will have the kindness to be patient, many things which are writ upon the postage-stamps of all nations, as in a world of books. It is not given to all collectors to know their postage-stamps. There is the collector who merely accumulates specimens without studying them. He has eyes, but he does not see more than that this stamp is red and that one is blue. He has ears, but they only hear that this stamp cost £1^000, and that this other can be purchased wholesale at sixpence the dozen. What shall it profit him if he collect many stamps, but never discover their significance as factors in the rapid spread of civilisation in the 242373 8 PREFACE nineteenth and twentieth centuries ? The true student of stamps will extract from them all that they have to teach ; he will read from them the development of arts and manufactures, social, com- mercial and political progress, and the rise and fall of nations. To the young student our pleasant pastime of stamp-collecting has to offer an encouragement to habits of method and order, for without these collecting can be productive of but little pleasure or satisfaction. It will train him to be ever observant of the minuticB that matter, and it will broaden his outlook as he surveys his stamps "from China to Peru." The present volume is not intended as a complete guide to the postage-stamps of the world ; it is rather a companion volume to the standard catalogues and numerous primers already available to the collector. It has been my endeavour to indicate what counts in modern collecting, and to emphasise those features of the higher Philately of to-day which have not yet been fully comprehended by the average collector. Some of my readers may consider that I have unduly appraised the value in a stamp collection of pairs and blocks, proofs and essays, of documental matter, and also that too much has been demanded in the matter of condition. But all these things are of greater importance than is realised by even the majority of members of the philatelic societies. Condition in particular is a factor which, if dis- regarded, will not only result in the formation of an unsatisfactory collection, but will lessen, if not PREFACE 9 ruin, the collection as an investment. It has been thought that as time passed on the exacting require- ments of condition would have to be relaxed through the gradual absorption of fine copies of old stamps in great collections. The effect has, however, been simply to raise the prices of old stamps in perfect condition. It may be taken as a general precept that a stamp in fine condition at a high price is a far better investment than a stamp in poor condition at any price. In preparing the illustrations for this volume I am indebted to several collectors and dealers, chiefly to Mr. W. H. Peckitt, who has lent me some of the fine items from the "Avery" collection, to Messrs. Stanley Gibbons, Ltd., whose name is as a household word to stamp-collectors all over the world, and to Messrs. Charles Nissen, D. Field, and Herbert F. Johnson. I should also be omitting a very important duty if I failed to acknowledge the general readiness of collectors, and especially of my colleagues the members of the Junior Philatelic Society both at home and abroad, in keeping me constantly au courant with new information connected with the pursuit of Philately. Without such assistance in the past, this work, and the score of others which have come from my pen, could never have been undertaken ; and perhaps the best token of my appreciation of so many kindnesses will be to beg (as I now do) the favour of their continuance in the future. FRED J. MELVILLE. CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE . . . . . .7 PHILATELIC TERMS . . . . .21 CHAPTER I THE GENESIS OF THE POST . . . -55 The earliest letter-carriers — The Roman posita — Princely Postmasters of Thurn and Taxis — Sir Brian Tuke — Hobson of **Hobson's Choice "—The General Letter Office of England — Dockwra's Penny Post of 1680 — Povey's •' Half- penny Carriage " — The Edinburgh and other Penny Posts — Postal rates before 1840 — Uniform Penny Postage — The Postage Stamp regarded as the royal diplomata — The growth of the postal business. CHAPTER n THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN IDEA . . -77 Early instances of contrivances to denote prepayment of postage — The '* Tyio-Sous " Post — Billets de port pay^ — A passage of wit between the French Sappho and M. Pellisson — Dockwra's letter-marks — Some fabulous stamped wrappers of the Dutch Indies — Letter-sheets used in Sardinia — Lieut. Treffenberg's proposals for '* Postage Charts " in Sweden — The postage-stamp idea "in the air" — Early British re- formers and their proposals — The Lords of the Treasury start a competition — Mr. Cheverton's prize plan — A find of papers 11 12 CONTENTS PAGE relating to the contest — A square inch of gummed paper — The Sydney embossed envelopes — The Mulready envelope — The Parliamentary envelopes — The adhesive stamp popularly preferred to the Mulready envelope. CHAPTER III SOME EARLY PIONEERS OF PHILATELY . .113 " Hobbyhorsical " collections — The application of the term *' Foreign Stamp Collecting" — The Stamp Exchange in Birchin Lane — A celebrated lady stamp-dealer — The Saturday rendezvous at the All Hallows Staining Rectory — Prominent collectors of the first period — The first stamp catalogues — The words Philately and Timbrolo^e — Philatelic periodicals — ^Justin Lallier's albums- The Phi- latelic Society, London. CHAPTER IV ON FORMING A COLLECTION . . . -133 The cost of packet collections — The beginner's album — Accessories — Preparation of stamps for mounting — The requirements of " condition " — The use of the stamp-hinge — A suggestion for the ideal mount — A handy gauge for use in arranging stamps — " Writing-up."- CHAPTER V THE SCOPE OF A MODERN COLLECTION . -151 The historical collection : literary and philatelic — The quest for rariora — The " grangerising " of philatelic monographs : its advantages and possibilities — Historic documents — Pro- posals and essays — Original drawings — Sources of stamp- engravings — Proofs and trials — Comparative rarity of some stamps in pairs, &c., or on original envelopes — Coloured postmarks — Portraits, maps, 'and contemporary records — A lost opportunity. CONTENTS 13 CHAPTER VI PAGE ON LIMITING A COLLECTION . . . -197 The difficulties of a general collection — The unconscious trend to specialism — Technical limitations : Modes of pro- duction ; Printers — Geographical groupings : Europe and divisions — Suggested groupings of British Colonies — United States, Protectorates and Spheres of Influence — Islands of the Pacific — The financial side of the "great" philatelic ceuntries. CHAPTER VII STAMP-COLLECTING AS AN INVESTMENT . . 209 The collector, the dealer, and the combination — The factor of expense — Natural rise of cost — Past possibilities in British "Collector's Consols," in Barbados, in British Guiana, in Canada, in "Capes" — Modern speculations: Cayman Islands — Further investments : Ceylon, Cyprus, Fiji Times Express, Gambia, India, Labuan, West Indies — The " Post Office " Mauritius — The early Nevis, British North America, Sydney Views, New Zealand — Provisionals : bond fide and speculative — Some notable appreciations — " Booms." CHAPTER VIII FORGERIES, FAKES, AND FANCIES . . 237 Early counterfeits and their exposers The "honest" facsimile — "Album Weeds" — Forgeries classified — Frauds on the British Post Office — Forgeries "paying" postage — The One Rupee, India — Fraudulent alteration of values — The British los. and £\ "Anchor" — A too-clever "fake" — ^Joined pairs — Drastic tests — New South Wales "Views" and "Registered" — The Swiss Cantonals — Government " imitations " — " Bogus " stamps. 14 CONTENTS CHAPTER IX PAGE FAMOUS COLLECTIONS . . . , . 261 The "mania" in the 'sixties — Some wonderful early collec- tions — The first auction sale — Judge Philbrick and his collection — The Image collection — Lord Crawford's "United States" and '* Great Britain" — Other great modern collec- tions — M. la Renotiere's " legions of stamps " — Synopsis 01 sales of collections. CHAPTER X ROYAL AND NATIONAL COLLECTIONS . . . 303 The late Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha as a collector — King George's stamps : Great Britain, Mauritius, British Guiana, Barbados, Nevis — The " King of Spain Reprints " — The late Grand Duke Alexis Michaelovitch — Prince Doria Pamphilj —The "Tapling" Collection— The Berlin Postal Museum — The late Duke of Leinster's bequest to Ireland — Mr. Worthington's promised gift to the United States. BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 333 INDEX . . . . . . .351 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT PAGE Perforation Gauge . . . . . . • 43 The Commemorative Letter Balance designed by Mr. S. King, o- Bath (1840). A monument "which may be possessed by every family in the United Kingdom " . . .72 Mr. King's Letter Balance had a tripod base, as in the uppermost figure, thus affording three tablets on which the associations of J. Palmer, Rowland Hill, and Queen Victoria with postal reform are recorded . . . . . -73 A Facsimile of the Address Side of a Penny Post Letter in 1686, showing the ** Peny Post Payd " mark instituted by Dockwra and continued by the Government authorities . . '83 Facsimile of the Contents of the Penny Post Letter of 1686 . 84 The Official Notification of December 3, 18 18, relating to the use of the Sardinian Letter Sheets. Described in the records of the Schroeder collection as "the oldest official notification of any country in the world relating to postage-stamps " . .86 {Continuation from previous page.) The models show the devices for the three denominations : 15, 25, and 50 centesimi respectively . . . . . . '87 Proof of the Mulready Envelope, signed by Rowland Hill. (From the "Peacock" Papers) . . . . .111 Gauge for Arranging Stamps in a Blank Album . . . 144 15 16 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGB Autograph Letter from Rowland Hill to John Dickinson, the paper-maker, asking for six or eight sheets of the silk-thread paper for trial impressions of the adhesive stamps . . 164 Original Sketch for the '• Canoe " Type of Fiji Stamps . . 169 A Postal Memento of New Zealand's '* Universal Penny Postage," January i, 1901 ...... 190 The First Postage Stamp of the present reign, together with the Post Office notice concerning its issue on November 4, 1910 . 193 The Official Notice of the Issue of the New Stamps of Great Britain for the reign of King George V. . . . 195 LIST OF PLATES Sir Rowland Hill. (From the painting by J. A. Vinter, R.A., in the National Portrait Gallery) .... Frontispiece Examples of some Philatelic Terms : — A Pair of Great Britain embossed Sixpence. — A Pair of Cape of Good Hope Triangular Shilling. — A Block of four Great Britain Penny Red.— A Strip of three Grenada ** 4d." on Two Shillings . 25 Examples of some Philatelic Terms: — The figures "201" indicate the Plate Number , and " 238 " the Current Number. The Plate Number is also on each of these stamps in micro- scopic numerals. — Corner pair showing Current Number " 575 " in margin. — Corner pair showing Plate Number ** 15" in margin. The Plate Number is also seen in small figures on each stamp. — The above stamps are those of Great Britain overprinted for use in Cyprus . . . . .29 Examples of some Philatelic Terms : — A sheet of stamps of Gambia, composed of two Panes of sixty stamps each. — The single " Crown and CA " watermark, as it appears looking from the back of the Gambia sheet illustrated above. The watermark is arranged in panes to coincide with the im- pressions from the plate . . . . '33 Examples of some Philatelic Terms : — A " Bisect," or " Bisected Provisional." The One Penny stamp of Jamaica was in 186 1 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 17 PAGE permitted to be cut in halves diagonally, and each half used as a halfpenny stamp . . . . '37 Examples of some Philatelic Terms : — Photograph of a flat steel die engraved in taille dotue [i.e.^ with the lines of the design cut into the plate). The stamp is the 50 lepta of Greece, issue of 1 90 1, showing Hermes adapted from the Mercury of Giovanni da Bologna . . . . . 'Si Scarce Pamphlet (first page) in which William Dockwra announces the Penny Post of 1680 . . . . .65 A Post Office in 1790 . . . . . .69 Sardinian Letter Sheet of 1818: 15 centesimi.— The 25 centesimi Letter Sheet of Sardinia. Issued in Sardinia, 1818; the earliest use of Letter Sheets with embossed stamps . . 89 The highest denomination, 50 centesimi, of the Sardinian Letter Sheets. — One of the temporary envelopes issued for the use of members of the House of Lords, prior to the issue of stamps and covers to the public, 1840 . . -93 The "James Chalmers " Essay. — Rough sketches in water-colours submitted by Rowland Hill to the Chancellor of the Exchequer for the first postage stamps . . -99 Hitherto unpublished examples of the proposals submitted to the Lords of the Treasury in 1839 in competition for prizes offered in connection with the Penny Postage plan. (From the Author's Collection) ..... 103 The address side of the model letter which has the stamp (shown below) affixed to the back as a seal. — Another of the unpublished essays submitted in the competition of 1839 for the Penny Postage plan. (From the Author's Collection) . 107 A Postage Stamp "Chart" — one of the early forms of stamp- collecting . . . . . . .119 The small "experimental" plate from which impressions of the Two Pence, Great Britain, were made on "Dickinson" paper. Only two rows of four stamps were impressed on each piece of the paper, ((y. next plate) . . -157 The Two Pence, Great Britain, on * ' Dickinson " paper. The upper block is in red (24 stamps printed in all, of which nine copies are known), and the lower block in blue (16 stamps printed. 18 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE of which twelve copies are known). The above blocks of six each are in the possession of Mr. Lewis Evans ; the pairs cut from the left side of each block were in the collection of the late Mrs. John Evans ...... i6l One of the rough pencil sketches by W. Mulready, R.A., for the envelope. The "flying" figures are not shown in this sketch . . . . . . . .165 Engraver's proof of the Queen's head die for the first adhesive postage stamps, with note in the handwriting of Edward Henry Corbould attributing the engraving to Frederick Heath . . . . . . . .173 An exceptional block of twenty unused One Penny black stamps, lettered *' V R" in the upper corners for official use. (From the collection of the late Sir William Avery, Bart.) . . 177 An envelope bearing the rare stamp issued in 1846 by the Postmaster of Millbury, Massachusetts. — One of the stamps issued by the Postmaster of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, during the Civil War, 1861 . . . . . . iSl Another of the Confederate States rarities issued by the Postmaster of Goliad, Texas.— The stamp issued by the Postmaster of Livingston, Alabama. (From the " Avery " Collection) . 183 The One Penny ** Post Office " Mauritius on the original letter- cover. (From the " Duveen " Collection) . . .187 A roughly printed card showing the designs and colours for the Unified ' * Postage and Revenue " stamps of Great Britain, 1884 191 The King's copy of the Two Pence **Post Office" Mauritius stamp. — The magnificent unused copies of the One Penny and Two Pence " Post Office " Mauritius stamps acquired by Henry J. Duveen, Esq., out of the collection formed by the late Sir William Avery, Bart. ..... 22$ The famous *• Stock Exchange " Forgery of the One Shilling green stamp of Great Britain. — A Genuine "Plate 6." — One specimen was used on October 31, 1872, and the other on June 13 of the next year. The enlargements betray trifling differences in the details of the design, as compared with the genuine stamp above ...... 245 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 19 PAGB The unique envelope of Annapolis (Maryland, U.S.A.) in Lord Crawford's collection of stamps of the United States . . 279 Part sheet (175 stamps) of the ordinary One Penny black stamp of Great Britain, 1840. (From the collection of the Earl of Crawford, K.T.) . . . . . .283 Nearly a complete sheet (219 stamps out of 240) of the highly valued One Penny black " V R " stamp, intended for official use. (From the collection of the Earl of Crawford, K.T.) .285 Part sheet (lacking but six horizontal rows) of the scarce Two Pence blue stamp "without white lines" issued in Great Britain, 1840. (From the collection of the Earl of Crawford, K.T.) . . . . . .287 The unique block of the " double Geneva " stamp, the rarest of the Swiss " Cantonals." (Formerly in the " Avery " Collec- tion, now in the possession of Henry J. Duveen, Esq.) . 291 Part sheet of the scarce 5c. " Large Eagle " stamp of Geneva, showing the marginal inscription at the top. (From the collection of Henry J. Duveen, Esq.) .... 293 A Page of the 5 cents, and 13 cents. Hawaiian " Missionary " stamps. (From the " Crocker " Collection) . . .297 Hawaiian Islands, 1851. The 5 cents "Missionary" stamp on original envelope. (From the " Crocker " Collection) . 299 A Page from the King's historic collection of the stamps of Great Britain, showing the method of "writing up" . 307 The three copies of the unissued 2d. " Tyrian-plum " stamp of Great Britain, in the collection of H. M. the King. The one on the envelope is the only specimen known to have passed through the post ..... 309 Design for the King Edward One Penny stamp, approved and initialled by His late Majesty. (From the collection of H.M. King George V.) . , . . . 313 The companion design to that on ps^e 313, and showing the correct pose of the head, but in a different frame which was not adopted. (From the collection of H.M. the King) . 315 A Page of the One Penny " Post Paid " stamps of Mauritius. (In the collection of H.M. the King) .... 319 2 20 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE The Two Pence *♦ Post Paid " stamp of Mauritius. Unique block showing the error (the first stamp in the illustration), lettered " Penoe » for *• Pence ". (In the collection of i H.M. the King) 323 A specimen page rom the "Tapling" Collection at the British Museum. Probably the most valuable page, showing the Hawaiian "Missionaries." The two stamps at the top have been removed from the cases and are now kept in a safe in the " Cracherode '* Room. ..... 327 PHILATELIC TERMS PHILATELIC TERMS Albino. — An impression made either from an uninked embossing die, or from a similar inked die, under which two pieces of paper have been simul- taneously placed, only the upper one receiving the colour. Aniline. — A term strictly applicable to coal-tar colours, but commonly used for brilliant tones very soluble in water. B4tonn6. — See Paper. Bisect. — A term applied to a moiety of a stamp, used as of half the value of the entire label. Bleut6. — This word implies that the blueness of the paper has been acquired since the stamp was printed, as the result of chemical action. Block. — An unsevered group of stamps, consisting of at least two horizontal rows of two each. Bogus. — An expression applied to any stamp not designed for use. Burel6. — A fine network forming part of design of stamp, or covering the front or back of entire sheet. Cancelled to order. — Stamps which, though postmarked or otherwise obliterated, have not done postal or fiscal duty. 24 PHILATELIC TERMS Centimetre (cm.). — The one - hundredth part of a metre = '3937 inch. Chalky, or chalk-surfaced. — Before being used for printing, paper sometimes has its surface coated with a preparation largely composed of chalk or similar substance : this renders the print liable to rub off if wetted ; and, in combination with a doubly-fugitive ink, renders fraudulent cleaning practically impossible. Cliche. — The ultimate production from the die, and of a number of which the printing plate is com- posed. Colour trials. — Impressions taken in various colours from a plate, so that a selection may be made. Comb machine. — A variety of perforating machine, which produces, at each descent of the needles, a line of holes along a horizontal (or vertical) row of stamps, and a short line of holes down the two sides (or top and bottom) of each stamp in that horizontal (or vertical) row. And see Perforation. Commemoratives. — A term applied to labels issued chiefly for sale to collectors, and commemorating the contemporaneous happening, or the anni- versary, centenary, &c., of some often unim- portant or almost forgotten event. Compound. — See Perforation. Control. — An arbitrary letter or number, or both, printed on the margin of a sheet of stamps, for facilitating a check on the supply. Also used to denote a design overprinted on a stamp {e,g, Persia, 1899) as a protection against forgery. A Pair of Great Britain embossed Six Pence. A Pair of- Cape of Good Hope Triangular Shilling, A Block of four Great Britain Penny Ked. ■J^-: 'mW- IT. Xi3Dra3VEc: Sl3riI33a5Ci:- [Lr«I:T€aCt'13r A strip of three Grenada "4d." on Two Shillings. EXAMPLES OF SOME PHILATELIC TERMS. 25 PHILATELIC TERMS 27 Current number. — The consecutive number of a plate, irrespective of the denomination of the stamp. Cut-outs. — A term used to denote the impressions, originally part of envelopes, postcards, &c., but cut off for use as ordinary stamps. Cut-squares. — Stamps cut from envelopes, &c., with a rectangular margin of paper attached, are known as "cut-squares." Dickinson paper. — See Paper. Die. — The original engraving from which the printing plates are produced ; or, sometimes, from which the stamps are printed direct. See Plate and Embossed. Doubly-fugitive. — See Fugitive. Double-print. — Strictly applicable to two similar im- pressions, more or less coincident, on the same piece of paper ; though often, but erroneously, applied to instances where the paper, not being firmly held, has touched the plate, so receiving a partial impression, and then, resuming its correct position, has been properly printed. Duty-plate. — Many modern stamps are printed from two plates, one being the same (key-plate, which see) for all the values, but the other differing for each denomination : this latter is the duty-plate. Electro. — A reproduction of the original die, made by means of a galvanic battery from a secondary die. See Matrix. Embossed. — Stamps produced from a die, or reproduc- tions thereof, on which the design is cut to varying depths, are necessarily in relief, ?>., embossed. And see Printing. 28 PHILATELIC TERMS Engraved. — The term is often used to denote stamps printed direct from a plate, on which the lines of the design are cut into the metal. And see Printing. Entires. — This expression includes not only postal stationery (which see), but when used in de- scribing an adhesive stamp, as being " on entire," implies that the stamp is on the envelope or letter as when posted. Envelope stamp. — A stamp belonging to, and printed on, an envelope. Error. — An incorrect stamp — either in design, colour, paper, &c.— which has been issued for use. Essay. — A rejected design for a stamp ; in the French sense also applied to proofs of accepted designs. Pacsimile. — A euphemism for a forgery. Fake. — A genuine stamp, which has been manipulated in order to increase its philatelic or postal value. Fiscal. — A stamp intended for payment of a duty or tax, as distinguished from postage. Flap ornament. — This refers to the ornament (usually) embossed on the tip of the upper flap of envelopes, and variously termed Rosace or Tresse, or (incorrectly) Patte, which see. Fugitive. — Colours printed in " singly-fugitive " ink suffer on an attempt to remove an ordinary ink cancellation ; but if in " doubly-fugitive " ink it was thought that the removal of writing-mV would injure the appearance of the stamp. And see Chalky. ir/k^iHtrr fh irn-m-r th* ^mifnt. (201) r.8 The figures " 201 " indicate the Plate Number, and "238" the Current Number. The Plate Number is also on each of these stamps in microscopic numerals. i 2ri^ M ®'2¥'i CYPRUS CYPRUS; Corner pair showing Current Number "575" in margin. Corner pair showing Plate Number " 15 " margin. The Plate Number is also se* in small figures on each stamp. The above stamps are those of Great Britain overprinted for use in Cyprus. EXAMPLES OF SOME PHILATELIC TERMS. PHILATELIC TERMS 31 Generalising. — The collecting of all the postage-stamps of the world. Government imitation. — Sometimes, when it is desired to reprint an obsolete issue, the original dies or plates are not forthcoming. New dies have, in these circumstances, been officially made, and the resulting labels are euphemistically called "Government imitations." "Forgeries" would be more candid. Granite. — See Paper. Grille. — Small plain dots, generally arranged in a small rectangle, but sometimes covering the entire stamp, embossed on certain issues of Peru and the United States. The idea of this was to so break up the fibre of the paper, as to allow the ink of the postmark to penetrate it and render cleaning impossible. Guillotine. — The term used to define a perforating- machine which punches a single straight line of holes at each descent of the needles. Gumpap. — A fancy term of opprobrium applied to a stamp issued purely for sale to collectors and not to meet a postal requirement. Hair-line. — Originally used to indicate the fine line crossing the outer angles of the corner blocks of some British stamps, inserted to distinguish impressions from certain plates, this term is now often employed to denote any fine line, in white or in colour, and whether intentional or accidental, which may be found on a stamp. Hand-made. — See Paper. 32 PHILATELIC TERMS Harrow. — The form of perforating-machine which is capable of operating on an entire sheet of stamps at each descent of the needles. And see Perforation. Head-plate. — See Key-plate. Imperforate. — Stamps which have not been perforated or rouletted (both of which see) are thus described. Imprimatur. — A word usually found in conjunction with " sheet," when it indicates the first impres- sion from a plate endorsed with an official certificate to that effect, and a direction that the plate be used for printing stamps. Imprint. — The name of the printer, whether below each stamp, or only on the margin of the sheet, is called the " imprint." Inverted. — Simply upside-down. And see Reversed. Irregular. — See Perforation. "Jubilee" line. — Since 1887, the year of Queen Victoria's first Jubilee — whence the name — a line of " printer's rule " has been added round each pane, or plate, of most surface-printed British and British Colonial stamps, in order to protect the edges of the outer rows of cliches from undue wear and tear. The " rule " shows as a coloured line on the sheets of stamps. Key-plate. — Stamps of the same design, when printed in two colours, require two plates for each value ; that which prints the design (apart from the value, and sometimes the name of the country), and is common to and used for two or more stamps, is termed the head-plate or key-plate. And see Duty-plate. © « - ;^■^'^:■■-^•^"■^•V.^;: \M % "' .^ ^ ■•■' '^ ■' .'■' ;■' 'f ■'-' 'r a-s!. , ' K- ,-!-> l^-C- ■ ' ^^,:^: ' '^' ^y 'V f :>. ^ ^,- 5; ' ■ ~ ^ i -^ ^^ , ^ ! ;c- 1 [?( ^ ^ : . . . . ! ^ir :- :; :. 1 ,T ■■ '-v -1^^'^. . , . , , 1 \'> . . ■ , ! ^. - 1 "a? , .■ . , ,.,.., J r-. '^t-Miy=,i}iiiJM-%\k^^iki^^i}id'^uiM 1 & m J A sheet of stamps of Gambia, composed of two Panes of sixty stamps each. AD AO AO AO AO AO AO AO AO AO AO @ AO AO AO AO t AO J AO AO AO AO AO t ^ AO AO AO AO AO t AO AO AO AO AO AO AO AO AO AO AO AO AO AO AO AO AO AO (F? AO t. AO AO AO AO : AD t AO AO AO AO -i_ .5> "Tr 0/1 ^ «^ A AO AO AO AO AO AO AO AO AO AO AO AO N AO AO AO AO AO AO t AO AO AO AO AO § (0) fi-, t AS 1^ AO t AO AO AO AO AO t AO AO @ AO AO AO AO AO AO U t AO AO AO t AO H AO AO AO AO t AO S AO AO AO AO AO t -5 n/i w\n r^ CSl ^ J- The single " Crown and CA " watermark as it appears looking from the hack of the Gambia sheet illustrated above. The watermark is arranged in panes to coincide with the PHILATELIC TERMS 35 B^nife. — This is a technical term for the cutter of the machine which cuts out the (unfolded) envelope blank, and is principally used in connection with the numerous varieties of shape in the United States envelopes, amongst which the same size may show several variations in the flap. Laid. — See Paper. Laid batonn^. — See Paper. Line-engraved. — Is properly applied to a print from a plate engraved in taille douce (which see) but is often applied to the plate itself Lithographed. — Stamps printed from a design laid down on a stone and neither raised nor de- pressed in the printing lines are denoted by this term. And see Printing. Locals. — Stamps having a franking power within a definitely restricted area. Manila. — See Paper. Matrix. — A counterpart impression in metal or other material from an original die, and which in its turn is used to produce copies exactly similar to the original die. Millimetre (mm.). — The one - thousandth part of a metre = '03937 inch. Mill-sheet. — See Sheet. Mint. — A term used to denote that a stamp or envelope, &c., is in exactly the same condition as when issued by the post-office — unused, clean, unmutilated in the slightest degree and with all the original gum undisturbed. Mixed (Perforations). — In some of the 190 1-7 stamps of New Zealand, the original perforation was to 36 PHILATELIC TERMS some extent defective : such portions of the sheet were patched with strips of paper on the back and re-perforated, usually in a different gauge. Mounted. — Usually applied to indicate that a stamp, which has been trimmed close to the design, has had new margins added. And see Fake. Native-made paper. — See Paper. Obliteration. — A general term used for any mark employed to cancel a stamp and so render it incapable of further use. Obsolete. — Strictly, an obsolete stamp is one which has been withdrawn from circulation and is no longer available for postal use ; but the term is often applied simply to old issues, no longer on sale at the post-office. Original die. — The first engraved piece of metal, from which the printing plates are directly or indirectly produced. Original gum. — Practically all stamps were, before issue, gummed on the back, and the actual gum so applied is known as " original " : the usual abbreviation is " o.g." : it is also implied in the expression "mint", which see. Overprint. — An inscription or device printed upon a stamp additional to its original design. Cf. Surcharge. Pair. — Two stamps joined together as when originally printed. Without qualification, a pair is generally accepted as being of two stamps side by side : if a pair of two stamps joined top to bottom is intended, it is spoken of as a vertical pair. -I CIS Oi 11 ^^ a CO G C5 cx; ^ r- £ w . '^ - . c .2-1 •r c« s> « c o ■*-• - Xi !^- u.n ind cxjcuc ,\ Un 1 rnki irs Compk t , for rl c *u. d fti>, niuch (.\pcicc of urt^ a d fortTiLr M(.tkd:>, ^Cthtj loix ;\ n Irsbccii much Noil, il o t tiie j uk Ferry Ifjf, w'licli h s rifen thir h i the UndorUkcrs c..n fufrciei^ly Evid<.i c \ ready to produce, for the Jufti'icstion or U- " 'fo many Caulicfs and Unjuft R.:. it hi^ly Ntceilary to undeceive t! _ Tpring, vtz. Some Men fuppoR-, : atleai Delayed,) becaufethey Lavs ;x- 1 o f • L sard Ten Pourd n w !.l D iLn^sof 1 1 Lc UiO ? rr .1 , h^rc- ll 1 d Buiit c< J n-^ ui « sfor aD( »fca\eTp i\ 1^. sof "o ndsCrarfc ii. Good , t 1 I . ch (it '^pr3 i tt hj he tc,cf{ il P0 5l Will 11 , iiid 1 CJ liN>.v > 1 »\<- \ rh r t ll! n L ch Alu ti) in 1 !•; -1. ■> \\\ \ S 1 ^y^ / THE GENESIS OF THE POST 67 their chances of employment, vented their spleen in the manner of vulgar rioters. Proceedings were taken against Dockwra for in- fringement of the Crown's monopoly, and the case being carried, the London Penny Post was shortly afterwards re-established and carried on under authority for nearly a hundred and twenty years, until 1 80 1, when the penny rate was doubled and the Penny Post became the Twopenny Post. Charles Povey's " halfpenny carriage " (1708) was a poor copy of Dockwra's post, covering a smaller area at the lower fee of one halfpenny. Its originator was fined ;£"ioo in 1760, and the incident of this post is only remarkable in postal history for its having originated the use of the "bellman" for collecting letters in the streets. The Edinburgh Penny Post, set up by the keeper of a coffee-shop in the hall of Parliament House, Peter Williamson, in 1768, was also stopped by the authorities as a private enterprise ; but its pro- moter was given a pension of ;£"25 a year and the post was carried on by the General Post Office. Just three years previously, local Penny Posts had been legalised by the Act of 5 George HI., c. 25, provided they were set up where adjudged to be necessary by the Postmaster-General. Such penny posts increased rapidly towards the end of the eighteenth century, and just before Uniform Penny Postage was introduced there were more than two thousand of them in operation in different parts of the country. In spite of the increase in these local posts, however, the general postage was high, the 68 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS tendency of the later changes in the rates being to increase rather than to lessen them. In the early part of the nineteenth century, the rates were such that few but the rich could make frequent use of the luxury of postage, and these rates, coming close up to the period of the new regime of 1840, form an extraordinary series of contrasts. Here is an old post-office rate-book kept by the postmaster (or mistress) at Southampton in the 'thirties, which I like to show my friends when they sigh for the good old times. It is a printed list of the chief places to which letters could be sent, with columns to be filled in by the postal official after calculating distances and exercising simple arithmetic. In Great Britain the rates were for single letters : — From any post office in England or Wales to any place not exceeding 15 miles from such office Between 15 and 20 miles... 20 30 30 50 so 80 80 120 120 170 170 230 230 300 '.*' .. 4u. .. 6d. .. 7d. .. 8d. .. 9d. .. lOd. .. iid. .. I2d. and one penny in addition on each single letter for every 100 miles beyond 300. These rates did not include " id. in addition to be taken for penny postage" and in certain cases toll-fees. Under these rates, a single letter to Kirkwall from Southampton cost is. ^d. ; to London 9d., APosT-CrMCE IV 17SG. By permission of the Proprietors of the City Pre V. THE GENESIS OF THE POST 71 plus the penny postage ; Cork is. 3d., &c. These rates were for a single-sheet letter, the charge being multiplied by two for a double letter, by four for an ounce, which is one-quarter of the weight at present allowed on a letter which costs us a modest penny. Letters for overseas were correspondingly high as the following comparisons will show : — Single-sheet Letter. I oz. Letter. 1830. 1911. Austria 2S. 3d. ... 2jd. Brazil x Buenos Aires I Chili, reru, &c. J 3s. 5d. ... 2id. Canary Islands 2s. 6d. ... 2id. Germany IS. 9d. ... 2jd. Hayti 2S. iid. ... 2id. Honduras 2S. I id. ... 2id. Portugal 2S. 2d. ... 2jd. Russia 2S. 3d. ... 2jd. Spain 2S. 2d. ... 2id. Sweden IS. 8d. ... 2jd. Turkey 2S. 2d. ... 2id. United States 2S. id. ... Id. British West Indies and ) British North America 1 2S. id. ... Id. Malta, Gibraltar 2S. 2d. ... Id. St. Helena IS. 8id. ... Id. The registration fee on foreign letters was, in the early nineteenth century, one guinea per letter ; to- day it is twopence. These are but a few examples showing what a mighty change was wrought with the introduction of the Uniform Penny Postage plan of Rowland Hill. The circumstances under which the new plan was introduced included several factors to which may THE COMMEMORATIVE LETTER BALANCE DESIGNED BY MR. S. KING, OF BATH (1840). A monument " which may be possessed by every family in the United Kingdom." 72 MR. king's letter BALANCE HAD A TRIPOD BASE, AS IN THE UPPERMOST FIGURE, THUS AFFORDING THREE TABLETS, ON WHICH THE ASSOCIATIONS OF J. PALMER, ROWLAND HILL, AND gUEEN VICTORIA WITH POSTAL REFORM ARE RECORDED. 78 74 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS be attributed a share in the success of Hill's plan. First, the uniform and low minimum rate of one penny on inland letters, dispensing with tedious calculations of distance. By some it was feared that the necessity for calculating the weight would be more troublesome than examining the letter against a lighted candle to see if it were " single " or " double," and scores of " penny post letter balances " were placed upon the market at the outset. Next was the increased facility of transit provided by the then growing system of railways, and the subsequent development of steam-power at sea. But the one factor which to us is the most notable contribution to the success of the Penny Postage plan, was the square inch of paper with its backing of glutinous wash. This enabled the authorities to effect the introduction of prepayment, and save the long delays formerly occasioned by the postman having to await payment for each letter on delivery. It saved the complicated system by which the Post Office had to ensure that the postman did get paid, and in his turn accounted for the money to his office. It was to this simple contrivance of a small label, issued by authority, to indicate the prepay- ment of postage that the practical success of Hill's plan was greatly due. The little stamps are the royal diplomata which enable us all, at a modest fee, to use His Majesty's mails, a privilege enjoyed by great and small, by rich and poor. So stamp-col- lectors deem the objects of their interest to have achieved a vast reform in internal and universal communications, giving a powerful impetus to social THE GENESIS OF THE POST 75 progress, international commerce, and the world's peace. The year before the introduction of Uniform Penny Postage there were 75,907,572 letters dealt with by the Post Office. The number was more than doubled in the first year of the new system, and the subsequent growth of correspondence is outlined in the figures (letters only) for the following years; — 1840 .. 168,768,344 1880 .. 1,176,423,600 1850 . .. 347,069,071 1890 .. 1,705,800,000 i860 . 564,002,000 1900 .. . 2,323,600,000 1870 862,722,000 I9I0 .. 2,947,100,000 n THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN IDEA CHAPTER II THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN IDEA Early instances of contrivances to denote prepayment of postage — The "Two Sous" 1*051 — Billets de port pay i — A passage of wit between the French Sappho and M. PelHsson — Dockwra's letter- marks — Some fabulous stamped wrappers of the Dutch Indies — • Letter-sheets used in Sardinia — Lieut. TrefFenberg's proposals for^ "Postage Charts" in Sweden — The postage-stamp idea "in the air " — Early British reformers and their proposals — The Lords of the Treasury start a competition — Mr. Cheverton's prize plan — A find of papers relating to the contest — A square inch of gummed paper — The Sydney embossed envelopes — The Mulready envelope — The Parliamentary envelopes — The adhesive stamp popularly preferred to the Mulready envelope. The simplest inventions are usually apt adaptations. The postage-stamp, as we know it to-day, can scarcely be said to have been invented, though much wild controversy has raged about the identity of its "inventor." The historian must prefer to regard the postage-stamp of to-day as the development of an idea. It would not serve any purpose useful to the present subject to trace to its beginnings the use of stamped paper for the collection of Government revenues ; but it is highly interesting to disentangle 79 80 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS from the web of history the facts which show this system to have been recognised as applicable to the collection of postages by the prototypes of the reformers of 1840. The first known instance of special printed wrappers being sold for the convenience of users of a postal organisation occurred in Paris in 1653. At this time France had its General Post, just as England about the same time had set up a General Letter Office in the City of London ; but in neither case did the General Post handle local letters. To despatch a letter to the country from Paris, or from London, there was no choice but to deliver it person- ally, or send it by private messenger, to the one solitary repository in either city for the conveyance of correspondence by the Government post. The porters of London found no small part of the exercise of their trade in carrying letters to the General Letter Office, and in Paris, no doubt, a similar class of men enjoyed the benefit of catering at individual rates for what is now done on the vast co-operative plan of the State monopoly. In 1653, a Frenchman, M. de Villayer, afterwards Comte de Villayer, set up as a private enterprise (but with royal authority) the petite poste in Paris, which had for its raison ditre the carrying of letters to the General Post, and also the delivery of local letters within the city. He distributed letter-boxes at prominent positions in the chief thoroughfares in Paris, into which his customers could drop their letters and from whence his laquais could collect them at regular intervals. At certain appointed THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN IDEA 81 places M. de Villayer placed on sale letter-covers, or wrappers, which bore a marque particulier^ and which, being sold at the rate of a penny each (two sous)^ were permitted to frank any letter deposited in the numerous letter-boxes of the Villayer post to any point within the city. The post is the one afterwards referred to by Voltaire as the " \.viO'Sous post." These wrappers, then, were the first printed franks for the collection of postage from the public. The exact nature of the matter imprinted upon them is uncertain ; but it probably included M. de Villayer's coat of arms, and it was on this hypothesis that the late M. Maury, the French philatelist, reconstructed an approximate imitation of the original form of cover. The covers, it should be stated, were wrapped around the letters by the senders, and were then dropped in the boxes. In the process of sorting for delivery, the servants of M. de Villayer removed the special cover, which removal was practically the equivalent of the cancellation of the stamps of to-day. These covers undoubtedly represent the first known form of printed postage-stamps, being the forerunners of the impressed non-adhesive stamps of to-day. The Maury reconstruction is fanciful, but the inscriptions thereon are literally correct. Owing to the removal of the covers (which were probably broken in the process) during the postal operations no originals of these covers are now known to exist. Indeed, the only true relics of the billets de port payd of M. de Villayer are in the two fragments of correspondence between M. Pellisson and the French Sappho, Mile. 5 82 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS Scud^ri. Pellisson, who was not noted for his good looks, addressed " Mademoiselle Sapho, demeurant en la rue, au pays des Nouveaux Sansomates^ k Paris, par billet de port pay6." Signing himself " Pisandre," he inquired if the lady could give him a remedy for love. Her reply, sent by the same means, was, " My dear Pisandre, you have only to look at yourself in a mirror." It was of this correspondent that the lady once declared, " It is permissible to be ugly, but Pellisson has really abused the permission." The London Penny Post of 1680, while it did not use special covers for the prepayment of letters, introduced the system of marking on letters, by means of hand-stamps, the time and place of post- ing and the intimation " Penny Post Payd." Dockwra, instead of setting up boxes in the public streets, organised a great circle of receiving houses to which the senders took their letters and paid their pennies over the counter. So the principle of the postage- stamp, as we know it to-day, was not represented in the triangular hand-stamps of Dockwra, or of his successors in the official Penny Post. A device representing the arms of Castile and Leon was used in the eighteenth century as a kind of frank or stamp which passed official correspon- dence through the posts, and in the last quarter of that century the Chevalier Paris de I'Epinard pro- posed in Brussels the erection of a local post with a mark or stamp of some kind to denote postage prepaid — a plan which, however, was not adopted. There is a curious account given by a corre- spondent in The Philatelic Record \yi\\. 138] of some "<;i Q It - o - K w H k2 |o go a: 2 8A THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN IDEA 85 so-called stamps said to have been used in the Dutch Indies. The writer, whose account has never so far as I am aware received any definite confirmation, says : — "At the beginning of this year [1890] were dis- covered amongst some old Government documents at Batavia some curious and hitherto — whether here or in Europe — unknown postally used envelopes, with value indicated. ... In the time of Louis XIV. it is believed that postage-stamps existed ; but no- body has been able to bring them to light, conse- quently we have in these hand-stamped envelopes of the Dutch East Indian Company absolutely the oldest documents of philatelic lore. "The letter-sheets are all made from the same paper, and are all of the same size — namely, about 23 X 19 centimetres ; whilst the side which is most interesting to us — the * address ' or * stamp ' side — is folded to a size of 103 x 88 mm. Up to the present the following values have been found : — black i> red black (daukli; that is to say, two stamps ** 1 of 6 stivers side by side. red *' On the address-side is no date stamp, and no indication of the office of departure ; also the figures denoting the year are only discernible on the seal 3 stivers ... 5 » ... 5 n ... 6 „ ... 6 „ ... 10 „ ... 10 „ ... IS .» ... MANIFESTO CAMERALE toTlstitt notificanza che la Carta Postale-bollata , stabillta colle Regie Pateoti delH 7 (lello scorso novembre , sara prowisionalmeote posta in corso noo filagraoata ; della dfhoeniiobe ordlnaria della Carta cos\ delta da Lcttere , « munltQ dei bolli retaiivi alie tre quality della medesima pienamente cooformt agH impmoti tvi delioeati. In data delU 3 dicembre 1818. TORINO , DALLA STAMPERIA REALE. THE OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION OF DECEMBER 3, I818, RELATING TO THE USE OF THE SARDINIAN LETTER SHEETS. Described In tht records of the Schroeder collection as "tlie oldest ofAcial notification of any country in the world relating to postage stamps." 86 3. Che air epoca in cui comincier^ la distrlbuziooe dcIU nuova carta filagranata cesser^ V uso della carta bollala Hon filagranata ; e che i foglj rimanenti della raedestma potranno essere cangiati contro altrettanll della ouova con filagraoa. I diversi boUi che verranno appostl sovra la carta prov- iri&ionale non filagranata , saraono pienamenle cooformi agP impronti infra delineati , i quali unitamenle ai loro modclli , ed agli esemplari della carta suddetta sono stati depositati negli Archivj nostrl giusta il disposto dalTar- ticolo 2 delle mentovate Regie Palenti- delli 7 dello scorso novembre. ^ Modelli de BoHu nfandiamo il prescnte pubblicarsi ai luoghi , e modi soliti, ed alle copie che ne verranno stampate nella Stamperia Rcalc prestarsi la stessa fede che all' originale. Dat, in Torino li ire dicembre mille ottocento diciolto. Per delta Eccellentissima Regia CAMERA X FAVA. {Continuation from previous P<^.) THE MODELS SHOW THE DEVICES FOR THB THREE DENOMINA- TIONS : 15, 25, AND 50 CBNTBSIMI RESPECTIVELY. 87 88 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS of each letter. On the specimens hitherto found are the dates from 1794 to 1809; but it is quite possible that other values may be unearthed. So far, of all the above values together, only about thirty specimens are known. . . . These envelopes came from various places in the Dutch Indian Archipelago." The foregoing statement is open to much ques- tion, in view of the lapse of twenty years since the matter was first aired in The Philatelic Record, If authentic, these would be the earliest denominated stamps for the prepayment of postage, the Dutch stuiver in use in the colonies being a copper coin equal to about one penny. Perhaps the introduction of the matter in these Chats will, in the light of increased modern facilities for research, bring the subject before the notice of our Dutch philatelic confreres. The Sardinian letter sheets of the early nineteenth century are now tolerably well known to stamp- collectors. They, however, represented a Govern- ment tax on the privilege of letter-carrying, rather than a direct prepayment of postage. These were the product of a curious anomaly in the exercise of the postal monopoly by the Government of Sardinia. It was forbidden to send letters and packets otherwise than through the Government post ; but as this latter was very inefficient, and in many parts of the country was practically non- existent, the authorities established by decree, in 18 1 8, a system whereby the people for whom the Government post was inconvenient, if not absolutely SARDINIAN LETTER SHEET OF 1818 : 15 CENTESIMI. 11. THE 25 CENTESIMI LETTER SHEET OF SARDINIA. Issued in Sardinia, 1818 : the earliest use of Letter Sheets with embossed stamps. 89 THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN IDEA 91 useless, could send their letters by other means. To effect this the senders had to supply themselves from a post-office with a stock of special letter sheets, stamped with a device of a mounted post-boy, within a circular, oval, or octagonal frame, at a cost of 15, 25, or 50 centesimi apiece. The use of these stamped letter sheets, bought from the post-office, was an authority for their conveyance by private means, but not through the ordinary channels of the ■Sardinian postal organisation. Thus, while the Post Office took its full charges for the conveyance of such letters, it did not perform the work of collecting, transmitting, and delivering them. The three de- nominations, 15, 25, and 50 centesimij were used for letters conveyed varying distances according to the Government postal tariff, from which, however, the actual messenger derived no benefit, his remuneration being over and above these official charges. The next proposal of stamped covers the historian has to note, is that embodied in a Bill introduced in the Swedish Riksdag, March 3, 1823, by Lieutenant Curry Gabriel Treffenberg. His proposals included : " Stamped paper of varying values, to be used as wrappers for letters, should be introduced and kept for sale in the cities by the Chartae Sigillatse deputies, or by other persons appointed for that purpose by the General Chartae Sigillatse Office at Stockholm, and in the rural districts, by the sheriffs and other private persons." Private persons were to be granted the privilege of selling these "Postage Charts" by the local officials representing the Crown authorities on obtaining proper security. 92 CHATS ON POSTAGE ^STAMPS The actual proposals for the distinguishing character of the stamped covers were : — " The Postage Charts should be made of the size of an ordinary letter sheet, but without being folded lengthwise as these are. The paper should be strong but not coarse, and in order to make forgery more difficult, should contain a circular design, easy to discover. It should also be of some light colour. "In the centre of the paper two stamps should be impressed side by side, occupying together a space of six square inches. One of the stamps should be impressed into the paper and the other should be printed with black ink. Both should contain, besides the value of the Chart, some suitable emblem which would be difficult to imitate. The assortment of values should be made to meet all requirements." The letters were to be folded so that the stamps would be outside, and so easily cancelled or otherwise marked if required ; and in the case of the despatch of packets too large to enclose within a chart, the latter could be cut down, preserving the stamped portion, which was to be sent along with the packet, both packet and chart bearing marks by which the two could be identified and associated in the course of the post. The Bill did not pass the Riksdag, and so Sweden was deprived of the national credit of giving a lead to the nations of the world in a postage-stamp y system, not very different in principle from that of Great Britain in 1840. I now come to the period of the active development r ;5f:jvn-. -a Ju^ Crr^/i€n%^^ //4 f^^M'^^^^^\ THE HIGHEST DENOMINATION, $0 CENTESIMI, OF THE SARDINIAN LETTER SHEETS. '! ; • ' ; :?; til. W. x :'s-: or L>>hI)< o\\\y\ ' • i -ONE PENNY.- \V.i^:ht ,u>t t- fer!^^^ -. h j^^^jg^^^.' Jy^y' ./y>r^^ 'J.^-/^^'^ - >^^ ONE OF THE TEMPORARY ENVELOPES ISSUED FOR THE USE OF MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS, PRIOR TO THE ISSUE OF STAMPS AND COVERS TO THE PUBLIC, I84O. 93 THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN IDEA 95 of the idea, and so far from the stamp being a particular invention of the fourth decade of the nineteenth century, we must recognise that, beyond all controversy, the notion — whether for an impressed or an adhesive stamp is of little matter — was " in the air." It was stated before the Select Committee on Postage, on February 23, 1838, by a Mr. Louis, formerly Superintendent of Mails, that a plan for stamped covers was communicated to him " by Mr. Stead of Yarmouth, a gentleman who has interested himself a good deal about the Post Office." ^ The sheets of paper were to be stamped and sold to persons who would then be at liberty " to send their letters by conveyances not suitable to Post Office hours." The scheme had been proposed to the Post Office according to Mr. Louis in his evidence " many years ago," and it is attributed by some writers to 1829, though I can trace no source for their information as to this date. The plan, from the rather vague remembrance of the witness before the Committee, may have been simply one to introduce the Sardinian method of 18 1 8 into this country, and in any case there are no concrete relics of Mr. Stead's ideas in the shape of essays. Mr. Charles Whiting, of the Beaufort House Press, entered the arena of postal reform some time prior to March, 1830, but we have no definite knowledge of his proposals previous to that date. In that year Mr. Whiting suggested the use of * "Select Committee on Postage, First Report, 1838," p. 122, questions 1829, 1830. 96 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS stamped bands for the prepayment of postage on printed matter.^ Mr. Whiting called his stamped wrappers "Go frees," and he is understood to have intended the plan to extend to written matter, if it proved success- ful in an experimental trial with printed matter. The plan did not get a trial, and no greater success attended the efforts of Mr. Charles Knight, the celebrated publisher, who suggested stamped wrappers as a means of collecting postage on newspapers, subject to the abolition of the "Taxes on Know- ledge," which were the occasion of a vigorous campaign set on foot in 1834. According to Hansard^ a resolution was moved by Mr. Edward Lytton Bulwer, May 22, 1834, "that it is expedient to repeal the Stamp Duty on newspapers at the earliest possible period," and in the course of the debate the member for Hull, Mr. Matthew Davenport Hill, advocating the payment of a penny upon an unstamped newspaper sent by post, said : " To put an end to any objections that might be made as to the difficulty of collecting the money, he would adopt the suggestion of a person well qualified to give an opinion on the subject — he alluded to Mr. Knight, the publisher. That gentleman recom- mended that a stamped wrapper should be prepared for such newspapers as it was desired to send by post ; and that each wrapper should be sold at the * It should be remembered that newspapers had for many years (since 17 12) been the subject of a tax, and until 1855, when the newspaper tax was abolished, such papers passed through the post free. THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN IDEA 97 rate of a penny by the distributors of stamps in the same way as receipt stamps." ^ Mr. Knight had made the proposal referred to in a private letter to Lord Althorp, Chancellor of the Exchequer.2 The ultimate result of the campaign was the reduction, not the abolition, of the Newspaper Tax, and, as the reduced tax of one penny for an ordinary newspaper included free transmission in the post, there was no need for the adoption of Mr. Knight's proposal at that time. It is to be noted, however, that Mr. Knight was an active supporter of Rowland Hill's plan a few years later, and that Hill was not unaware of the suggestion, for he wrote of it in his pamphlet that : " Availing myself of this excellent suggestion, I propose the following arrangement : — Let stamped covers and sheets of paper be supplied to the public from the Stamp Office or Post Office, as may be most convenient, and sold at such a price as to include the postage : letters so stamped might be put into the letter-box, as at present." Dr. Gray, the eminent zoologist of the British Museum and one of the earliest scientific collectors of postage-stamps, made a somewhat ambiguous claim to the authorship of the proposal for the prepayment of postage by means of stamps. When challenged by Rowland Hill in The AthencBum^^ he stated in that journal that " I have simply said I believe I was the first who proposed the system * Hansard^ xxxiii., p. 12 14. " Athenceum^ No. 1836, January 3, 1863, p. 18. 3 Nos. 1834 (December 20, 1862) and 1835 (December 27, 1862). 98 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS of a small uniform rate of postage to be prepaid by stamps." When Mr. Knight entered upon the Athencsum correspondence, Dr. Gray reminded him of an incident : "In the spring of 1834 we [Knight and Gray] were fellow-passengers in the basket of a Blackheath coach, when the subject was discussed. I then stated, as I had frequently done before to other fellow-travellers, my views in relation to the pre- payment of postage by stamps. These views Mr. Knight combated, and so little was he then prepared to adopt them that he exclaimed, as he quitted the coach at the corner of Fleet Street, ' Gray, you are more fit for Bedlam than for the British Museum.' " Knight, whose case has the advantage of attaining substantial record in Hansard and The Mirror of Parliament^ disclaimed any connection with the incident, and left his friends to decide " whether the language, stated to have been used by me to a gentle- man of scientific eminence, would not have been better suited to a costermonger returning from Greenwich fair than to mine." Mr. Wallace, the member for Greenock, was perhaps the first to turn Rowland Hill's attention in the direction of a serious campaign for postal reform, and Wallace succeeded in 1837 in getting a Committee " to inquire into the present rates and modes of charging postage, with a view to such a reduction thereof as may be made without injury to the revenue ; and for this purpose, to examine especially into the mode recommended for charging and collecting postage in a pamphlet published by *'0 f «^:'<: THE "JAMES CHALMERS" ESSAY. ROUGH SKETCHES IX WATEK-COLOLKS SUBMITTED BY ROWLAND HILL TO THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER FOR THE FIRST POSTAGE STAMPS. 99 THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN IDEA lOT Mr. Rowland Hill." The Committee started its sessions in February, 1838, and it had the advantage of the reports of the Commissioners of Post Office Inquiry, and the collection of much valuable material by a Mercantile Committee, of which Mr. (afterwards Sir) Henry Cole was secretary. The proposals from this time on, till the issue of the stamps, were numerous. The Commissioners of Post Office Inquiry had printed samples of several suggested letter-sheets for use by the London Dis- trict post, in their "Ninth Report, 1837." Mr. J. W. Parker, of the Cambridge Bible Warehouse, West Strand, London, printed a somewhat similar letter- sheet, with advertisement on the reverse, which was circulated with W. H. Ashurst's " Facts and Reasons in support of Mr. Rowland Hill's plan for a Universal Penny Postage,"^ and Mr. James Chalmers of Dundee first communicated to the Mercantile Committee a proposal that stamped slips should be printed at the Stamp Office on prepared paper, furnished with adhesive matter on the back. These slips were to be sold to the public, and affixed by senders to their letters; and postmasters were to deface the stamps in the course of the post. He included two specimens ; similar specimens were submitted by Chalmers to the Treasury in the same year. In 1839, t^^ fi^st uniform postage Act (2 and 3 Vict. c. 52) was passed, and the Lords of the Treasury, in preparing to give effect to the plan of Rowland Hill, extended an invitation to " artists, men of science and the public in general " to submit * Second edition 1838. iOSr CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS proposals in competition for prizes of ;f 200 and ;£"ioo, for the best and next best proposals. My Lords stated that in the course of the inquiries and discus- sions on the subject, several plans were suggested, viz.^ stamped covers, stamped paper, and stamps to be used separately, and " the points which the Board consider of the greatest importance are : — " I. The convenience as regards the public use. "2. The security against forgery. " 3. The facility of being checked and distinguished at the Post Office, which must of necessity be rapid. " 4. The expense of the production and circulation of the stamps." The contest brought in about 2,700 suggestions, and although none was actually adopted, the suggestions contained in some were deemed of value. The Treasury increased the amount of prizes to ;f400, dividing that sum equally between Mr. Benjamin Cheverton, Mr. Charles Whiting, Mr. Henry Cole, and Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co. Mr. Stead of Norwich, Mr. John Dickinson, the paper-maker, Mr. R. W. Sievier, the sculptor, Mr. S. Henderson of Dalkeith and others were included amongst the com- petitors. Until recently, however, little or nothing has been known as to the nature of these suggestions, except that the majority were impracticable ; but it is on record that Mr. Charles Whiting sent in at least one hundred samples, embodying his ideas or illustrative of designs and methods of duplication in use at his printing establishment. However, in May, 1910, an article which I con- HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED EXAMPLES OF THE PROPOSALS SUBMITTED TO THE LORDS OF THE TREASURY IN 1839 IN COMPETITION FOR PRIZES OFFERED IN CON- NECTION WITH THE PENNY POSTAGE PLAN. {From the Author's Collection.) 103 THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN IDEA 105 tributed to The Daily Mail brought from the daughter of Mr. Cheverton a letter in which she made the interesting statement that her late father's papers relating to the proposals made by him in 1839 were still in her possession. She very kindly pro- mised me a sight of them. Enthusiasts know how difficult it is, when on the verge of an anticipated discovery, to possess their souls in patience, hoping for at least a sight of the find ; but my patience in this case was un- availing, for the next I heard of the treasured papers and the dies was — and this is some consolation — that they were in the capable hands of the Earl of Craw- ford, who prepared and subsequently read before the Royal Philatelic Society a scholarly reconstruc- tion of Cheverton's plan. Fortune, however, made me some compensation shortly afterwards. The upheaval and dispersal of an old store of rubbish and unconsidered trifles brought into my possession a considerable parcel of papers accumulated by the Lords of the Treasury in response to their invitation of 1839, and which, after lying hidden for nearly three-quarters of a century, have fortunately escaped total destruction in the year of grace 191 1. The suggestions are mostly crude designs in the form of pencil or crayon work on envelopes, pen and ink drawings for adhesive labels, and in one case the latter were made up in such form as to suggest how the labels would be printed in sheets. The unravelling of the plans for which these various suggestions were made is not yet complete, but they 6 106 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS will, I trust, yield to further investigation and admit of extensive description in a forthcoming work in which Mr. Charles Nissen is collaborating with me on the subject of British essays and proofs for postage-stamps. It was towards the end of 1839 that Mr. Henry Cole visited Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co., then at Fleet Street, and told them that the idea of the authorities was that the adhesive labels should be about one square inch in size, and on December 3, 1839, that firm submitted their first estimate of not exceeding eightpence per thousand, nor less than sixpence per thousand, the price being exclusive of paper. The process by which they were to be produced is the now well-known system known as the " Perkins mill and die " process, a method of production which was adopted in due course, and has never been superseded for the production of artistic stamps. The history of the making of the stamp, the com- bination of the art of Wyon, Corbould, and Heath, I have dealt with elsewhere, so I turn to the envelope plan. Stamped covers, as we have seen, had been used in Sardinia in i8i8 and, in a different fashion, in Paris as early as 1653. In 1838, while Britain was in the throes of the postal agitation. New South Wales actually issued and used embossed envelopes, which were sold in Sydney at is. 3d. per dozen sheets. The embossed design consisted of the royal coat of arms of William IV. enclosed in a circular frame, bearing the words " General Post Office — New South Wales." % ^ // ^^-^ /L^.^^^ ^ yy^ ^^ ^ / P'l.JL^ '-l^^'Z^y^ / THE ADDRESS SIDE OF THE MODEL LETTER WHICH HAS THE STAMP (SHOWN BELOW) AFFIXED TO THE BACK AS A SEAL. yy A^/y^^if^^^ ^. e^ /'^■^-o^ A^ ANOTHER OF THE UNPUBLISHED ESSAYS SUBMITTED IN THE COMPETITION OF 1839 FOR THE PENNY POSTAGE PLAN. {From the Author's Collection.) 107 THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN IDEA 109 The envelope proposals that were before the Treasury in 1839 consisted mainly of rough sketches, but in a few cases of elaborate printed designs {e.g.y Harwood's envelope), and the patterns made up of intricate geometrical work like the specimens in Ashurst's " Facts and Reasons " and the " Ninth Report." Cole called upon Mr. William Mul- ready and invited him to draw a design for the envelope, and it was decided that this design should be printed on the paper with the silk threads em- bedded in its substance, a paper which has since been known to philatelists as " Dickinson " paper, after the name of its inventor. Mr. Dickinson had all along been keenly interested in the proposals for postage reform, and was a witness before the Select Com- mittee in 1837, providing paper with threads in it for the essays in the Report. Many of the chief officials and the agitators were convinced of the protection that this paper offered against forgery, and it is not generally known — I mention it as specimens of the paper are by no means commonly met with — that Mr. Dilke was so convinced of the importance of the use of this paper that he printed the entire issue of The Athenceum for April 28, 1838, on the thread paper. ^ Mr. Dickinson's firm was at that time supplying the regular Athenceum paper. Among the rarities for which collectors, even general collectors, will pay high prices are the temporary letter-covers prepared in January, 1840, to give members of Parliament the first privilege of * Mr. John Collins Francis refers to this issue in his two volumes, "John Francis and The Athernxunty^ published by Bentley in 1888. 110 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS using the penny "post-frees." There are several kinds with inscriptions reading " Houses of Parlia- ment," " House of Lords," and " House of Commons." These were in use from January i6th, but their great rarity suggests that the use of them was not extensive. That, no doubt, was attributable to the injunction, " To be posted at the House of . . . only." The public in London first saw the stamps on May I, 1840, when Sir Rowland Hill reports, "Great bustle at the Stamp Office" — £2,soo worth were sold on the first day. They did not come into use, however, until May 6th, when Sir Henry Cole went to the Post Office and reported that "about half the letters were stamped." The envelopes, covers and labels were issued simultaneously. Within six days the " labels " won the race for popular favour. " I fear," wrote Hill on May 12th, "we shall be obliged to substitute some other stamp for that designed by Mulready, which is abused and ridiculed on all sides. ... I am already turning my attention to the substitution of another stamp, combining with it, as the public have shown their disregard and even distaste for beauty, some further economy in the production." Sir Rowland Hill was perhaps pardonably piqued at the success which the label won from the start, at the expense of the elaborate envelope design on which the artistic ideals of both Cole and Hill had set their hopes.^ It was not the public lack of ^ It is said to have cost ;^ 1,000; the art of the label cost, to Mr. Corbould ;^I2 I2s., to Mr. Heath ^CS^ lOs. Ill 112 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS appreciation of beauty or art, but their ready selection of the convenient and the practical, instead of the imaginative and sentimental, and, it must be admitted, very impracticable, design for the envelopes and covers. More than two decades later — May, 1863 — Sir Rowland Hill, writing to Signor Perazzi, who was making inquiries on behalf of the Italian authorities, said, " I do consider them [stamped envelopes] as of real use to the public, although the small proportion used (not more than i per cent., I believe), shows that the demand for them is com- paratively insignificant" m SOME EARLY PIONEERS OF PHILATELY CHAPTER III SOME EARLY PIONEERS OF PHILATELY ** Hobbyhorsical " collections — The application ot the term " Foreign Stamp Collecting" — The Stamp Exchange in Birchin Lane — A celebrated lady stamp-dealer — The Saturday rendezvous at the All Hallows Staining Rectory — Prominent collectors of the first period — The first stamp catalogues — The words Philately and Timbrologic — Philatelic periodicals — Justin Lallier's albums — The Philatelic Society, London. We have already seen something of the growth of the postage-stamp idea among the nations of the world. It will now be convenient for us to discuss the manner in which these postage-stamps first came to be regarded in the light of objets de curiositi. From the beginning of the postage-stamp system there is no doubt many people of advanced ideas took a very keen interest in the success of the new institution. The accumulating of the stamps by individuals began almost immediately after their issue in 1840, as is clear from the advertisement in The Times of 1841 in which " A young lady being desirous of covering her dressing room with cancelled postage-stamps " invited the assistance of strangers in her fanciful project. This is probably lis 116 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS typical of the character and motif of the collecting until circa 1850, and Punch's quip (1842) that the ladies of England betrayed more anxiety to treasure up Queen's heads than King Henry VIII. did to get rid of them, has served to perpetuate the popular early definition of the stamps of the Victorian reign as " Queen's heads." This form of collecting was " hobbyhorsical " in the extreme ; it recognised no other objects than the attainment of numbers, or the production of a new form of wall-paper, using the old stamps as the tessercB of a mosaic. At these times collect- ing was probably considered a test of the bona fides of philanthropic appellants, for we trace to the earliest decade of stamp issuing the popular notion that the accumulated treasure of a million of old stamps will provide an " open sesame " for an orphan into a home, or that in old age one may find a haven of rest in an asylum. There is the grain of truth in the latter prospect which is sufficient to perpetuate a great error. To take a million stamps collected from old letters to any asylum might well ensure a ready admittance and hospitable retention. It was during the middle 'fifties that schoolboys began to give their attention to the " foreign stamp collecting." I say " foreign " advisedly, for the early interest was almost entirely centred in the stamp issues of other countries, and it pleased the youthful mind to receive specimens from Brazil or the United States. The stamps which passed in the post before his own eyes every day were treated EARLY PIONEERS OF PHILATELY 117 with the contempt that is bred of familiarity. In later years the old designation of " foreign stamp collecting" is by no means correct as applied to the scope of modern Philately. Patriotism had led the fashion of the time to the cult of the stamps of our own nation and its possessions. There are several claims to priority of interest in collecting stamps which have been put forward in recent years. Mr. E. S. Gibbons is said to have collected when at school in 1854. He was then fourteen, having been born in the year of the introduction of postage stamps. He is said to have been dealing in stamps about 1856. Mr. W. S. Lincoln tells of an album still in his possession inscribed "Collection of stamps made by W. Lincoln 1854." The memoranda in that book are: " 1854, 210 varieties. 1855, 310 varieties." In the following year (1856) he was exchanging stamps with another collector. The late editor of Le Timbre-Poste (Brussels), M. J. B. Moens, started collecting about 1855, and produced the earliest of the continental periodi- cals devoted exclusively to philately from 1863- 1900. His earliest English rival of any pretensions, The Stamp Collector's Magazine^ was edited by Dr. C. W. Viner, whose interest in the subject begajm about 1855 by assisting a lady friend to form a chart representative of the postage-stamps of the world. This simple form of collecting was evidently much in vogue in the later 'fifties and remained 118 OHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS during the next decade, and a photograph of one of these taken in the 'sixties will be found among the illustrations. It was not until i860 that Dr. Viner took up the pursuit on his own behalf. And with i860 and the next few years we have evidences of the spread of the newer form of stamp-collecting, which was to givQ the pursuit the scientific interest and value which were to ensure its permanence and to make it in the present year of grace the most widely popular of all collecting hobbies. In those days collections were limited by the com- paratively small number of stamps that had been issued, but even then the phantom of completeness was not within reach. " I remember counting my stamps with much glee when they reached a hundred," wrote Dr. Viner in 1889. " I saw some collections with two or three hundred, and keard of one with five hundred. Cancelled specimens were principally seen ; but I can recall one collection rich in unused Naples, Sicily, Tuscany, and other Italian States purchased at their several post-offices by a young traveller." It is very significant that the collectors of this early period of whom any records are preserved were mostly men of culture and of position. The boy was still the main influence and in a majority, but he was in stamp-collecting the father to the man. The historic and scientific possibilities of the pursuit were still but dimly recognised by the mass of collectors. An active exchange of stamps had been carried on from about i860 in Birchin Lane, London, where crowds of youngsters used to - ^^'5^1 ^TWi o« q: e EZlQ^illJlHHiiaK SH^S -m D l:h.»iu»-. -^rtiMtcJc:;!:. .UNlauiiu. U^iliuiu..^" VmUmuV. o\''iitAVw -'.V"«*'1'ic,!;'n.:i,,.^,f ?X«<7<. WK..t.i/. II.IU.-.V1U, l-.'-aniu-. l?t.V.vaiu-. lioXii.v.Vi^.v b'rtflViiia.vuV k:»-iiic. ('.'Aamlvii.-.j. vV l.vuV . t'l .'ii.wmlvrii.j. •>.' i'l'.ViitHiiiij. •';' y.-iiii.'H'i.-K. •'A>»'ii;UiiiKr.i.'.VLV;.K«Vt(' '.V lulxvlv . '.ViMAi-. :YA>ftUM\\>VKAiu'.vw- ;ViOaii»iiia:A.::i.^uA- .'•:.iu\«v.v. ?<.»iiiAV.3iKii^«ii.35M:.^^^^^^ i>' l.v.-.il" ^•'' lini. II.'.' i\i,;.v. -V.^li.'iiliVi.V.'. -■'" I iti.Ki'li'U". -■"-«. hill. .v.'k«.vii|iw..''i ^VWyidit. .vr;iriil». A'>-' iM.^f 111, ..■'Vi\iili.vsv,..\<.y »■»■••' ''''^^''■•*">'l'''»-. iV.^u'iirtlTc cVo.vo. I'l l1;u- .\iii.v. lY'-riiiu. ;.\'ii.t..> iv.<>\iii.u-. oa.Wiuyaii l5;iiii."viiK. i\"> v?.\ii.\A\, ■'."I'.niiK* o *v.'iiKv o>\Miit.in»- »\>i.H.»i.v .i'''iVi.vir.'i.»tu\ •V»lii.«<.-afu\ri>'»ii iS^h'w A POSTAGE STAMP "CHART "—ONE OF THE EARLY FORMS OF STAMP-COLLECTING. 119 EARLY PIONEERS OF PHILATELY 121 meet and exchange stamps. They were frequently joined by their elders. Fifty to a hundred barterers of all ages and ranks and of both sexes were there in the evenings of the spring of 1862. "We have seen one of Her Majesty's Ministry there," says The Stamp Collector's Magazine of 1863. Charac- teristic examples of the conversation at these gather- ings were given in the same magazine : " Have you a yellow Saxon ? " — " I want a Russian " — " I'll give a red Prussian for a blue Brunswicker " — " Will you exchange a Russian for a black .English? " — " I wouldn't give a Russian for twenty English." The date attributed to these overheard remarks is 1861. The police intervened later and the exchanging p had to be done more or less surreptitiously. But / still the group formed in the neighbouring alleys, and still included the Cabinet Minister and " ladies, album in hand," and it is recorded that one of the ladies " contrived to effect a highly advantageous exchange of a very so-so specimen for a rarity, with a young friend of ours, who salvoed his green- ness with the apologetic remark that he could not drive a hard bargain with a lady." Similar scenes went on in the gardens of the Tuilleries at Paris, and in other cities they centred around establishments set up by the earliest dealers in postage stamps. Birchin Lane contained the business premises of at least one dealer — a lady — and there was in Paris, in the rue Taitbout, Mme. Nicholas, a little person, " rather lean, very active, lively and intelligent," of whom M. Mahd tells in his reminiscences. For a long period she 122 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS held "le sceptre dans le royaume des timbres, royaume ou la loi salique n'exerce pas ses injustes rigueurs." A woman with considerable talent for business, she and her husband kept a modest little reading-room in a small shop in the rue Taitbout. To this business she added, possibly at the sug- gestion of one of the Paris amateurs of the period, the business in stamps. Her shop became the regular meeting-place of the dilettanti^ and these were men of substance and intelligence who were not to be charged with following " fancies too weak for boys, too green and idle for girls of nine." In London, too, there was a coterie of amateurs among whom were men of distinction. We might trace the birth of the higher ideals in stamp collect- ing in London to the rectory adjoining All Hallows Staining. Charles Dickens described the church, all of which save the tower is now demolished, as " a stuffy little place." The perpetual curate in charge of this old City living at the time of which I write was the Rev. F. J. Stainforth, one of the most zealous promoters of the hobby, "assisting the movement by his well-known readiness to bid high for any real or supposed rarity." Mr. Stain- forth gathered around him the chief of the serious collectors of the period, and his influence on the beginnings of the study is probably greater than most collectors of the present day are aware. Cultured, amiable, and generous, his rectory was a rendezvous for all seeking information on the subject of stamps and for those who had informa- tion to impart. Perhaps a too abundant good-nature EARLY PIONEERS OF PHILATELY 123 occasionally resulted in the host being imposed upon, for it is said that, " utterly devoid of guile himself, he frequently became the prey of much younger, but more worldly-wise, heads." But if there were those who abused the welcome of the rectory, there were others who imparted a lustre to the little gatherings in the upper room. Sir Daniel Cooper, Bart, the first Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of New South Wales, was one of these. He returned from Australia about 1 860-61, and formed an important collection of stamps. He was elected first President of the Philatelic Society when that body was formed in 1869. The legal profession was frequently represented at the rectory by Mr. Philbrick, afterwards his Honour Judge Phil- brick, K.C., and Mr. Hughes- Hughes, who had been called to the Bar in 1842. There was also a physi- cian in Dr. Viner, a young merchant in Mr. Mount Brown, and a youngster in his 'teens, who occa- sionally travelled to town to attend the Saturday afternoon gatherings and who quickly displayed an intuition for the scientific in philately which few have surpassed, and made the name of E. L. Pember- ton one of the most distinguished in the annals of philately. The cult was not confined to the metropolis. Most of the early dealers began operations in the country. The first published list of stamps for collectors came from a young artist residing in Brighton. Mr. Frederick Booty was aged twenty when he issued his "Aids to Stamp Collectors" in April, 1862. Mr. Mount Brown was twenty-five when his "Catalogue 124 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS of British, Colonial, and Foreign Stamps " appeared in May of the same year. The wide difference of years among the enthusiasts of this time is notable in the third of the early English chroniclers, Dr. Gray, the eminent naturalist and all-round scientist of the British Museum, who published his first " Hand Catalogue of Postage Stamps " towards the end of 1862, the author being then sixty- two years of age. The first three catalogues represent three distinct independent aspects of the collecting of the time. Booty, of Brighton, coming of an artistic stock, an artist himself, discusses in his preface the " great variety in execution, colour, and engraving of the design," the "tasteful arrangement," the whole of a collection, in Mr. Booty's view, arranged with the embellishments suggested by the artist, forming "a handsome appendage to the drawing-room table." Mr. Mount Brown's catalogue was more practical, if less imaginative in view. Dr. Gray brought the profundity of his scientific training into his classification of stamps in his " Hand Catalogue." So far as we know, he worked within the precincts of the British Museum, where he resided, and had little association, if any, with the rectory reunions. Mr. Overy Taylor (another of the early and able writers on philately and the editor of the later editions of " Gray ") tells us that the venerable scientist regarded stamps as " the visible signs of the complete realisation of a system of communication which in his early maturity was scarcely more than a generous dream, and by treating them as such in EARLY PIONEERS OF PHILATELY 125 the preface to his catalogue he at once lifted them above the level of mere meaningless curiosities." The same writer points out that Dr. Gray, " bringing to the task the habits and predilections acquired in the classification of zoological specimens, attached no importance to colour; to him the design was everything ; and whether printed in black on coloured paper or in coloured ink on white was to him of very little importance. The intricacies of design he described with the utmost minuteness, and some of the terms he introduced into his description have been generally adopted." The early continental catalogues showed a similar diversity of treatment of the subject. The first lists of M. Frangois George Oscar Berger-Levrault (1861) were mere twelve-page indices to the stamps known to the compiler, and were printed by autographic lithography at Strasbourg. The first edition of the catalogue of Alfred Poti- quet was the first regularly published guide for the amateur. Its first edition, the rarest of the items in the collections of the philatelic bibliophiles, was dated from Paris, 1862, but was actually issued at the end of 1861. The author, who was an employe of the French Ministry, essayed to present his cata- logue in a geographical classification, but abandoned it in favour of the alphabetical arrangement as " le plus commode." His descriptions, though in many cases now known to be inaccurate, were for the most part very minute, and he notes variations in shade, the method of production {lithographies^ gravis en tailk'douce^ typographies and, more remarkable still, 7 126 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS he states when the specimens are perforated (^piques). The catalogue of Francois Valette — " P^re Valette," as the juniors of the time used to call him — is the most remarkable of all the early works of this kind. It was more ambitious in its scientific treatment of the subject. Valette, already an elderly man in 1862, was "un drudit, un demi-savant," perhaps even a " savant tout entier." He was a contributor to the journal La Science and acting-proprietor of the Bazar Parizer. His list was arranged on a synoptic basis, and his introductory essays are the most ambi- tious of any of the philatelic writings of 1862, the chapter on frauds and counterfeits providing a most conclusive indication of the extent to which stamp collecting was rapidly becoming a popular cult "Old stamps having become rare, there are those who have sought methods of counterfeiting them." Valette's " tableaux synoptiques " are typical of the remarkable character of this work, and may be briefly summarised here as representing three styles of classification: (i) Genealogical; (2) heraldic; (3) systematic, the latter being a scheme for arrang- ing the stamps according to their colours for com- parison. It was in Paris that the serious collectors first began to systematically note the watermarks and to measure the perforations. The collectors there were divided into two camps over the designation of the new study. Dr. Legrand, a veteran collector happily still with us, and still having a warm regard for the objects of his early studies, led the group who EARLY PIONEERS OF PHILATELY 127 preferred the style of " timbrophile," while M. G. Herpin produced by a combination of the Greek words (piXog (" philos " = fond of), arEXna (" ateleia " = exemption from tax) the word Philatele, which was accepted by many as indicating their interest in the little labels which denoted that the tax or postage had been paid. For a long time there was war between the rival camps, and to this day while Philately (ugly word as it is) is generally accepted in English-speaking countries and in many other places, Timbrologie is still preferred by many of the French collectors, and is used in the title of the chief Parisian institution, the Soci^t6 Fran^aise de Tim- brologie. Although several of the English dealers claim to have been engaged in the business prior to 1862, the study of stamps has been reduced to so exact a science that students are sceptical of mere reminis- cence and require documental evidence to support claims of this kind. These should be forthcoming in advertisements in periodicals of the time, most of which have been thoroughly searched by the his- torian, and in early dated lists. In the order of their first known appearances in print as dealers Mr. P. J. Anderson, of the Aberdeen University Library, records from The Boys' Own Magazine^ 1862, Mount Brown, J. J. Woods, Henry R. Victor, of Belfast, H. Stafford Smith, of Bath (September, 1862, founder of Stafford Smith and Smith, now Alfred Smith & Son), Edward L. Pemberton (October), and " Wm. Lincoln, jr., at W. S. Lincoln & Sons" (December, 1862). Of these the veteran Mr. Lincoln is still engaged in the 128 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS business of stamp-dealing, as also are a son of Alfred Smith and a son of Edward L. Pemberton. In 1862 the special periodical literature of the new cult began with The Monthly Advertiser (December 15th), though The Monthly Intelligencer and Contro- versialist^ published a few months earlier (September), had been chiefly, but not wholly, devoted to stamp- collecting. In 1863 The Stamp Collector's Magazine was founded, and this publication achieved a splendid record during the twelve years of its existence and laid the basis of much of what is accurate and pre- cise in our knowledge of the early issues of stamps. Le Timbre' Poste^ of Brussels (i 863-1 900), shared with its British contemporary a high place in the records of the period and enjoyed a much longer life of thirty-eight years, the publication having only ceased upon the retirement of its founder, M. J. B. Moens. The beginning having been made, it must soon have become apparent that there was something in stamp-collecting which called for an extensive periodical literature ; the output practically ever since has been extremely prolific. These and almost countless monographs have swelled the libraries of the philatelic bibliophiles to an extent which must impress, if not necessarily convince, the unbeliever in the fact of there being some real basis of interest and value to not merely stimulate the cacoethes scribendiy but also to justify so vast a number of printers' bills. The albums of Justin Lallier date back to 1862, and the name is one with which to conjure in these days. To describe an old collection for sale as in a "Lallier" so piques the curiosity of many buyers EARLY PIONEERS OF PHILATELY 129 that I wot there are many such old collections made up in these days upon the basis of an old discarded album of the 'sixties or 'seventies, and offered as tempting baits at the auctions. Lallier is said to have been no philatelist, and probably that is correct enough, for those early albums had their spaces so arranged that the collectors of long ago were led to trim their fine " octagonals " to shape, and to otherwise vandalise choice items by removing in- tegral portions of them to beautify the purely com- mercially issued works which were intended to be "elegant appendages to the drawing-room table," a character which, if it did not imply deep study, certainly gave the stamp album of those days a place second only in veneration and respect to the Family Bible. Arising out of the gatherings at Mr. Stainforth's rectory there grew up in 1869 the Philatelic Society of London, which started its auspicious career under the presidency of Sir Daniel Cooper, Bart., and has a roll of Presidents and Vice-Presidents more distin- guished than almost any other learned society can claim. It may fittingly close my third chapter if I give an outline of this notable succession, adding only that in November, 1906, His Majesty King Edward VII. graciously allowed the Society the style and dignity of the prefix "Royal," and that throughout its long career of usefulness the work of the Society has been strengthened by numerous other bodies of enthusiasts who have formed societies in the metropolis, in the provinces and abroad, ex- tending the popularity of the stamp collector's hobby 130 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS in every country which has seen the dawn of civilisa- tion, and moreover creating a bond of universal brotherhood which makes Philately a world-wide Freemasonry, and an " open sesame " to the fellow- ship and hospitality of collectors everywhere. ROLL OF PRESIDENTS AND VICE-PRESI- DENTS OF THE ROYAL PHILATELIC SOCIETY, LONDON. Presidents. Sir Daniel Cooper, Bart, F.R.G.S., April lo, 1869. His Honour Judge F. A. Philbrick, K.C. (elected when Mr. Philbrick), July 20, 1878. H.R.H. the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, K.G. (Hon. President), (elected when Duke of Edinburgh), December 19, 1890. The Earl of Kingston, May 20, 1892. His Majesty King George V. (elected when Duke of York), May 29, 1896. The Earl of Crawford, K.T., June 16, 1910. Vice-Presidents. His Honour Judge F. A. Philbrick, K.C. (elected when Mr. Philbrick), April 10, 1869. V. G. de Ysasi, Esq., May 20, 1880. T. K. Tapling, Esq., M.P., November 5, 1881. M. P. Castle, Esq., J.P., May 29, 1891. His Majesty King George V. (Hon. Vice-President), (elected when Duke of York), March 10, 1893. The Earl of Crawford, K.T., June 13, 1902. M. P. Castle, Esq., J. P. (Hon. Vice-President, June 13, 1902), June 16, 1910. m IV ON FORMING A COLLECTION CHAPTER IV ON FORMING A COLLECTION The cost of packet collections— The beginner's album— Acces- sories — Preparation of stamps for mounting — The requirements of " condition "—The use of the stamp-hinge— A suggestion for the ideal mount — A handy gauge for use in arranging stamps — **Writing-up." It may be reasonable to judge a philatelist by the stamps he has, rather than by the way in which he puts them together in his collection. Yet none can have justice in the process unless he has given due attention to order and method. Postage-stamps, more perhaps than any other objets de collectionner^ are well suited to neat, orderly arrangement and effective display, with a minimum of house-room. This very suitability and convenience make some collectors careless of the arrangement of their speci- mens, especially the commoner issues, but I would have everyone treat stamps rare or common with the same tenderness, and with a keen eye to the beauty of their arrangement. A rare stamp in itself has little significance ; it requires to be allocated to its fitting place in the mosaic of stamp-issues comprising a collection, and there can be no beauty 185 136 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS in a few rare stamps if there has been no proper care exercised in the selection and arrangement of the accompanying issues which go to complete the picture. It is scarcely necessary for me to more than briefly discuss the methods of starting to collect stamps, but it may serve some useful purpose to indicate a sound method of establishing a good start. The prime necessity to the collector is stamps — if he be an enthusiast he can never have too many. But at the outset, if he have none, the best start is in one of the numerous packet collections, the stamps in which are all different. These are sold by all dealers, and a fair price for such packets is indicated in the following scale: — | per packet*; 500 varieties from 3s. 6d. to 4s. pe 1,000 „ 1 2s. to 15s. 1,500 30s. to 35s. 2,000 „ 4SS. to £^ 3.000 „ ;^8 to £S los. 4.000 „ ;^I3 lOS. to £h Such packets contain the commoner stamps, as a matter of course, but they are a necessity to the general collection, which is made up of all grades of common to rare specimens. The album for the beginner should be a small inexpensive one, the importance of keeping the small collection compact being that it is more readily com- prehensible than if scattered meagrely through a wilderness of blank, or nearly blank, pages. If the stamps are carefully arranged in a small album. ON FORMING A COLLECTION 137 a rare delight will be found later on, when the col- lection is bulging the first album covers, in transfer- ring it to a more commodious home. But at the outset too many beginners waste their substance in an elaborate album instead of on the all-important stamps. They buy cumbersome volumes in which the collection in embryo is lost. They should realise from the start that the purpose of the album is to assist in the formation of the collection, by keeping the stamps easy of access for reference and study. A supply of stamp-hinges or " mounts " should be acquired at the outset (their use is explained here- after), and a pair of tweezers — the kinds sold by stamp-dealers are the most suitable — the points of which should not be too sharp or pointed, lest they penetrate into the delicate substance of a stamp. The collector should cultivate the habit of holding stamps always by means of the tweezers. A good catalogue arranged on a chronological basis is indispensable ; the beginner will find the illustrations in it of great assistance in allocating his specimens to their proper places in the album. So much for the primary needs of the beginner. The general collector, who is advancing towards the large collection, will probably use one of the large printed and spaced-out albums provided for his needs by the enterprise of philatelic publishers. He has his work made easy for him, so far as the identification of specimens is concerned, and the allocation and symmetrical distribution of them upon the pages. Being saved all this, and nearly all necessity for individual annotation, he should 138 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS give his best attention to the excellence of condition in his stamps and the perfection of mounting. The stamps should be clean before they are mounted, that is to say, they should have any superfluous envelope-paper removed by careful float- ing on warm water, or by moistening between damp sheets of clean white blotting-paper. If there be any extraneous marking or blemish, it may be re- moved if it admits of removal without damage to the specimen. The result of atmospheric action on some colours (such as vermilion and ultramarine), which will frequently be found to have turned a red or blue stamp into one that appears to be black, or at any rate black in parts, is removed by treat- ment with peroxide of hydrogen applied with a camel's-hair brush to the parts which have been affected by the action of the atmosphere. The pro- cess is erroneously called " de-oxidising " by many philatelists ; it is really de-sulphurisation. In the case of very stubborn specimens with this defect, they may be steeped in the peroxide and allowed to soak, but should not be left longer than is necessary to restore the original fresh colour. A crease in an unused stamp may, if it has not cracked the paper, be removed by following the crease on the back of the stamp with a fine camel's- hair brush dipped in water. The slight soaking swells the gum and enables one to gently press the paper into its normal position. Pressure in the case of a big crease is best applied by ironing, the stamp being protected between glazed cards. Where the gum is untidy on the back of an unused stamp ON FORMING A COLLECTION 139 it will sometimes be useful to lay it, after cleaning, upon the surface of smooth glass or the glazing- sheets used for glossy prints by photographers, which will preserve what remains of the original gum, and impart a gloss which compensates for a partial loss of gum. To preserve the tidy appearance of a collection in a printed album one must sacrifice those portions of the margins adjoining stamps from the outer edges of the printed sheets. In most cases it serves no purpose to retain them, and they interfere with the symmetry of the pages. The collector, too, must use his judgment as to the desirability of trimming away unnecessary ragged protrusions of the perforation. For all cleaning purposes benzine is an excellent medium, as its rapid evaporation is a convenience, and it does not injure the stamp. Most used stamps may be soaked in benzine and be much improved by the bath ; but where the colours of the stamp are such that immersion in liquid is unsafe, treatment may be applied to the edges or to the back as required by means of the camel's-hair brush. The whole purpose of this care with individual stamps is to preserve the specimens and to impart a composite beauty of condition to the whole, without which no collection can be pleasing to its owner or to any one else. Every unused stamp should be spotless so far as extraneous blemishes are concerned; the colour should be fresh as when it came from the printers' workshops; the perforations of each stamp should be complete, and should have been neatly severed, and the gum on the back, unless it is so 140 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS thick and crackly that it is a danger to the stamps, should be preserved intact. A used stamp should be selected for its lightness of postmark, though there are often times when a more heavily postmarked copy showing the date of use will be valuable evidence in the pursuit of his- torical researches. The colour of the used stamp should not be less good than that of an unused one, and the perforations should be all there. In the case of imperforate stamps it is desirable always to have as large margins round the printed impression as possible ; while in all perforated stamps one should endeavour to secure well-centred copies — that is to say, copies in which the printed impression falls evenly between the perforations on all four sides. These are the chief desiderata for the general collector. They read rather portentously; but the cult of condition comes by practice to all who have the true love of stamps, for if stamps are worth collecting at all they are worthy of our best en- deavours to keep them in the pink of condition. " It is part of the decency of scholars," says Richard de Bury, " that whenever they return from meals to their study, washing should invariably precede read- ing, and that no grease-stained finger should unfasten the clasps or turn the leaves of a book " ; it should be no less a part oC-the decency of the philatelist, and in the case of his treasures the true lover of stamps will not neglect the merest trifles which will perpetuate the perfect preservation of his specimens. The use of the stamp-hinge or mount is simple, and, with proper care, perfectly effective. It is a ON FORMING A COLLECTION 141 small strip of paper gummed on the one side for folding in the form of a hinge, the gummed surface being on the outside of the hinge when folded. One arm of the hinge is lightly affixed to the top back, or right side of the back of the stamp, the other portion being fixed to the album. The slightest touch of moisture is sufficient for the purpose. The best hinges are stamped with a die out of a kind of onion-skin paper, are semi-transparent, and evenly coated on the one side with a colourless mucilage. In folding for use, the hinge should be formed of a long arm for the album — say, two-thirds of the hinge — and a short one — one-third — for the stamp. The short arm should be applied quite close to the top or side (top mounting is the more general), so that in turning up a stamp for examination there is no creasing of the upper part of the stamp. The pro- cess should be manipulated with the tweezers, so that the stamp is never fingered, and in smoothing down the page of mounted stamps a clean blotter should be used. There can be no doubt that repeatedly mounting a stamp, even if carefully done by a practised hand, has a cumulative detrimental effect on the specimens. The temptation to use the convenient digit is present on every occasion, and even the cleanest finger must make some — perhaps infinitesimal — mark on the face ; multiply this by, say, seven times, and the stamp, from being " mint," becomes merely " un- used," and so on until after the proverbial seventy times seven the stamp would come within the cate- gory of "soiled." So, too, with each successive 8 142 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS remounting, unless the first mount be preserved intact (as is possible with good " peelable " mounts handled with care), through a succession of removals of the stamp there is a loss of the gum which is part of the stamp, and in the various stages this becomes a skinned, or " thinned," copy. A stamp is a tender, delicate thing — especially if "chalky" — and should be handled as little as pos- sible, whether common, scarce, or rare ; in fact, the old Latin proverb, Maxima debetur pueris reverentia, might well be parodied, if one knew the Latin for stamps. Care, coolness (physical), and cleanliness are necessary attributes of the ideal collector, and even he would do well to use tweezers instead of fingers ; but if he must use a finger, let him interpose a piece of tissue or blotting paper between it and the stamp. The best peelable mounts are good ; but the ideal mount which, once affixed to the back of the stamp, need never be removed therefrom has yet to be manufactured. I will hand on a suggestion for the ideal mount, a little troublesome to adopt in the first instance, but which well repays a little extra initial trouble in the preservation of the stamps, and which even saves trouble in the event of " removals." Imagine a mount, of standard size, and of very thin tough paper, manufactured from linen rags to give it a long fibre, to be sold ready folded, but gummed only on the upper part above the fold ; this is fixed in the usual way to the stamp. Accompanying each mount are several narrow (say, \ in.) slips of similar paper, gummed at ON FORMING A COLLECTION 143 the extreme ends, and as long as the mount is wide. Cut into the mount are two vertical slits — thin pieces punched out, not mere cuts — immediately below the fold, one about -^ in. from each edge of the mount. Insert one of the narrow slips, so that the two gummed ends are at the back of, but away from, the mount ; slightly moisten each of these gummed tips — instead of, as usual, the back of the mount — and fasten the stamp on the page of the album as if the hinge were of the ordinary make ; the stamp will be fixed just as firmly as if the mount were fastened to the page by a square inch of gummed back. When it is desired to move the stamp, a snip with a pair of small scissors will sever the narrow slip where it crossed the upper side of the mount, which will then pull off from the two pieces. To remount use a fresh narrow slip. It sounds tedious, and the original mounting may take longer than usual, but a removal takes con- siderably less time than the ordinary remounting if the hinge has stuck firmly, and there is in any case absolutely no wear and tear of the stamp, risk of " skinning," " cockling " from moisture, or possible loss of gum. In fact, a permanent mount, secured by a movable slip, which can be renewed. This ideal mount answers wonderfully well, and should be tried by all who care for their stamps, and the slight extra cost and trouble should be more than repaid by the preservation of the stamp, even if the commonest " continental " ever printed : ii may, 144 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS though it is no reason for treating it properly, some day be rare. In mounting on blank pages some kind of gauge is necessary, and I offer this one as a very serviceable assistance to the specialist mounting stamps on either blank or quadrille leaves or cards. The gauge should be in the form of a letter H, the centre-bar being equal in length to the width of the space available for mounting stamps, and the uprights about the same height as the full page. Suppose the available stamp space, after allowing for leaf-margins and linen hinge, is 9J in. high by 7 in. wide, then the gauge would be thus, cut out of fairly stout white cardboard with a sharp knife : — ,7m., The long sides being placed and kept parallel with the sides of the ornamental border on the leaf are obviously to enable the centre - bar to be kept ON FORMING A COLLECTION 145 perfectly horizontal, whether at the top or bottom of the page. In the measurements about to be given " c " stands for centre, when the number of stamps in a row is odd ; and the figures represent inches, to be measured from the centre of the page when the number of stamps is even, or from " c ", as the case may be. One of two methods can be adopted — mark the lower edge of the centre-bar in thirty-seconds of an inch, starting from the centre and working in each direction horizontally ; or use a separate gauge for differently sized {viz.^ in width) stamps, in which case mark the gauge to show the position of the centre of the middle stamp (if an odd number), and of the inner corner of any other stamps to be placed equi- distant from the centre. The former is the prefer- able course ; and the following scale will, it is hoped, be useful, premising that it is unnecessary to give measurements when there are only two or three stamps in a row. Width of No. in stamp. row. Centre li" 4 ij \ . \ li ItV 4 iH \ . i HI If" 4 iH ^ . h m IT^" 4 1* ^ . ^ li ir 4 iH ^ . ^ iH 5 2i 1 c i 2h lA" 4 If A . ^ If 5 2^V tl c II 2^ ir 4 I* i , i li 5 m H c H iK ItV 4 III I . i Ifl 5 2^V #1 c U 2A I" 4 If i: . i If 146 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS Width of No. in stamp. row. Centre. 5 2 I C I 2 5 Iff M c fl Iff - r 4 I| i . i If 5 iH H c H iH 1«M 7 8 t? 4 '/ 6 2/^ l/^ ,V . A IH 2^ 7 2t\ I^ ^ C ^ I^ 2A 4 i^ i ■ J ItV 5 Iff fi c fl iM 6 27»T I^V A • /^ I^V 2^ 7 2if lif ^ C iJ IM 2^1 4 li i . i i^ 2t If f C f If 2| 2*1^1. i Ij 2j 2i li 4 C i If 2i 2ii IH II T^ • ^ H IH 2^ lA i • J itV 6 2^ li t'? . 1^ li 2t^ 7 2^4 IH if C if lil 2M 8 2j iH ^ ^ . tV ^ iH 2j 4 If J . i i| 5 lii H c H lii 6 2t^ It^ ^ . T^ ItV 2tV 7 2^ IT^^ A C t\ It^ 2^^ 2| I| I i . i I I| 2| 2ii IM lA tV C t2^ Ij% III 2H I^ i . i IVV TT 4 *TS 5 Iff f^ c H Iff 6 2tV li -a . tV iJ 2tV 7 8 9 4 ^ , , , 5 li t c t li lyf lya T5 • T^ Itf IT6 7 2§ li f C f Ij 2§ 8 2| If f i . * ^ If 2i 9 2| 2 li i C 4 Ij 2 2| 10 2|| 2/t Iff ft /^ . sV ff Iff 2^^ 2^1 2tV ii ts ' tV iJ 2tV 2^ Iff fl C ^^ IH 2/7 2^ li If * . i If If 2^ 2M Iff IfV ff C if lA I|i 2fl Ij J . i li ON FORMING A COLLECTION 147 With a gauge and scale as above suggested, it is extremely easy to quickly mark out a page with pencilled dots, so soon as it is decided how many stamps are to go in each row — experto crede. Of course, allowance must be made if the stamps of a set are of uneven size, but there is no difficulty if a little patience be exercised. I have arranged many pages of stamps by the aid of a home-made scale on this and similar plans, and have experienced no trouble in allowing for the occasional inclusion of pairs and short strips — a little mental calculation, and a side movement of the gauge to the extent of the width of one stamp will compensate for, say, a pair instead of a single ; and so on. The specialist can rarely have the advantage of a prepared printed album, as his possessions include pairs, blocks, marginal pieces, original covers, and evidential items of a variety of shapes. He works therefore on albums that have blank pages, generally enclosed within a form of semi-binding which allows the interchanging of the leaves. Spring-back covers are now much used, though there are excellent peg and clutch attachments in the British-made albums of the specialist class. The leaves are either quite plain or with a faint quadrille ground which is an aid to symmetrical arrangement. The early stamp collectors used to elaborate their albums with gay colourings ; some, following the early artistry of Mr. Booty in the preface to his " Aids to Stamp Collectors" (1862), mounted their stamps on squares of coloured paper, and emblazoned the 148 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS country's arms and painted its flags upon the pages of their albums. The stamps, being of small size, suffered in the contrast with these gaudy trappings, and in the latter-day philately such contrivances are left to the nouveau riche^ who will embellish each of his pages with his name, titles, address, coat of arms, and would add his portrait were album-pages not made so ridiculously small for such big men. To-day all extravagant flourishes and gay trimmings are a vulgarity ; simple elegance and nice judg- ment in the arrangement make for beauty in our albums. At the same time we must recognise for the specialist two schools of collecting ; one is concerned with the collecting of purely philatelic items, the other devotes itself to the formation of an historical as well as philatelic collection. The former does not require much writing-up on the pages. The latter advocates a good deal of it, and it is this form of collecting — the highest exponent of which is the Earl of Crawford — that allows of the most free scope for the individuality of the collector. It is in the collection which aims at a complete history of the stamps of a country, with all the associated circum- stances leading up to their issuance and connected with their use, that the highest summit of philatelic pleasure and culture is attained. In writing-up, there are several details about a stamp, some patent and some latent. To complete the history of a particular stamp, every collector ought to know and to inscribe in the proper place in the album these points, so far as the information can ON FORMING A COLLECTION 149 be obtained from reliable sources, and so far as it may be applicable : — Date of issue. Artist. Engraver. Printers. Mode of production. Paper, including watermark. Perforation. Date of supers In a more elaborate form the writing-up will develop into a full manuscript history — not too diffuse — of the postal issues of a country. The record of each stamp or issue will extend over several pages, interspersed with the collector's specimens, proofs, &c., appropriately inserted at points where they will be explanatory to the text and make a valuable, readable, and individualistic volume. To indicate succinctly the range of the more comprehensive writing-up, it would be the student's endeavour to show and explain the circumstances leading up to the necessity for the stamp ; its creation by act, decree, or order; advertisements or requests for designs, tenders for manufacture, &c., with results ; a note as to some of the principal essays ; the chosen design, with name of artist and source of his inspira- tion ; the engraver ; the maker of the plate and the process of printing adopted ; the number of stamps on the plate and their arrangement and marginal inscriptions ; the varieties (if any) on the plate ; how such varieties arose and how frequently they occurred ; the paper used — mill-sheet, printing- sheet /- 150 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS and post-office sheet — and its watermarking ; the printers ; the colour, gum, and perforation of the stamps ; the quantities printed ; the notices to the Post Office and the public of the impending issue ; the date of issue; the duration of use; the with- drawal, supersession, or demonetisation ; the quantity of remainders (if any), and what became of them. THE SCOPE OF A MODERN COLLECTION CHAPTER V THE SCOPE OF A MODERN COLLECTION The historical collection : literary and philatelic — The quest for rariora — The **grangerising" of philatelic monographs: its advantages and possibilities — Historic documents — Proposals and essays — Original drawings — Sources of stamp engravings — Proofs and trials — Comparative rarity of some stamps in pairs, &c., or on original envelopes — Coloured postmarks — Portraits, maps, and contemporary records — A lost opportunity. The scope of the modern collector extends beyond the collection of actually issued stamps. He uses the stamps as a starting-point, but in the historical collection he works — as it is said the writers of detective stories used to do — backwards. He traces to its earliest inception the service which ultimately gave us the postage stamp. The collection is literary as well as philatelic : stamps are preceded by documents, prints and postal records of all kinds. The essays, as we term the suggestions for stamp designs submitted by artists, inventors or printers to a Government or other issuing authority, are of a high degree of interest and should be included in the historical collection, which will also show, where possible, the engraver's proofs taken in the course of 163 154 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS his work, the finished die-proofs in black, plate-proofs in black and in colours, and the stamps, generally of the first printing, which are overprinted with the word " Specimen," or its equivalent in other lan- guages, and are sent out to show postal ofificers what the newly-authorised stamps are like. It is in this broad field that the collector in these days gets the most enjoyment ; here he may heighten the pleasures of the hunt for philatelic and associated rariora. So many wonderful tales have been told of the fabulous fortunes acquired in the finding of a few old letters bearing stamps, that many a deal is frustrated by the uninitiated owner having too fanciful an idea of the value of his goods. It is rare in these days for such an incident to happen as I witnessed about twelve years ago. A gentleman, who had been turning out some old papers, came across an unsevered block of eight five-shilling British stamps which had been sent to his father, presumably as a remittance, somewhere in the early 'eighties. Here was £2 lying idle for years, but having luckily noticed them in clearing out these old papers, the gentleman thought he would see if they were still exchangeable at a post-ofBce. At the first post- office he visited, he was told that the stamps were of an old issue, and that to get them converted into cash he would have to take them to Somerset House. On his way thither he noticed a stamp-dealer's show case, and apparently the possible interest of his specimens in the stamp-market then first occurred to him. He called in, and simply asked if the dealer would give him the £2^ to save him the trouble of SCOPE OF A MODERN COLLECTION 155 going on to Somerset House. The dealer, who had probably never seen an unsevered block of eight of the five-shillings "anchor" of 1882, obliged him readily, which he could well afford to do, as he passed on the stamps the same week to a collector for £7^, These things do happen, but in the " legitimate " stamp-collecting they are necessarily of rarer occur- rence in these days of popular newspapers, over- educating in certain directions, or at least pander- ing to the common desire for a royal road to easy wealth. Many dealers have told me that it is their experience that, if they make a fair offer for valuable stamps submitted to them by the uninitiated, they never succeed in effecting a purchase at all in these days. The hawker of "finds" visits the stamp- shops to get an idea of the value of his wares, and plays off one dealer against another, with the result that it is necessary for the seller nowadays to state his price in the first instance. The modern collection is specialised, that is to say, it deals with the postal history of a country or group of countries, instead of being a mere accumu- lation of specimens of the postage-stamps of the world. The advanced collector's albums of to-day are like the "association books" of the autograph collector, and indeed there have been many successes in " grangerising " the more important specialist monographs on stamps. One of the most interesting of these latter was the late Mr. Thomas Peacock's copy of " The Postage and Telegraph Stamps of Great Britain," written by the late Mr. (afterwards 156 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS Judge) Philbrick and the late Mr. W. A. S. Westoby, and published by the Philatelic Society, London, in 1 88 1. This book was sold by auction after Mr. Peacock's death, and realised only ;^I9, its treasures not having been generally noticed before the sale ; and it had been denuded of some of its wealth before I saw it, an act for which it is not easy to forgive the man of commerce. Peacock, as Inspector of Stamping at Somerset House (1853-93), had had intimate associations with the Hill family (of whom several members got comfortable positions in the Government service), and his connection with the mechanical side of the production of stamps enabled him to enrich his " Philbrick and Westoby " with copious notes, photographs, proofs, and stamps. Major Evans published most of the notes in Gibbons Stamp Weekly^ and I had the privilege of adding the notes and some photographs from the original to my own copy of this book. The collector "grangerising" a book on the British stamps to-day would, of course, work on the later authority, " The Adhesive Stamps of the British Isles," by the late Mr. Hastings E. Wright, and Mr. A. B. Creeke, jun., or on the sectional works of mine, of which Mr. W. H. Peckitt has issued large paper sets with special bindings for that purpose. Generally, however, it is the stamp collection itself that is enriched by a variety of evidential matter and extensive notes by the owner. I have traced with fair success in my Great Britain collec- tion the early history of the Post Office in this country, and have been fortunate enough to secure THE SMALL " EXPP:RIMEXTAL" PLATE FROM WHICH IMPRESSIONS OF THE TWO PENCE, GREAT BRITAIN, WERE MADE ON " DICKINSON " PAPER. Only two rows of four stamps were impressed on each piece of the paper. (C/. next plate.) 167 SCOPE OF A MODERN COLLECTION 159 several of those rarce aves among historic documents, the proclamations relating to the post. Lord Crawford has the finest set of these in any private collection, and he has given a list of them in the catalogue of the philatelic section of the Bibliotheca Lindesiana^ with details of the location of all known copies. Acts of Parliament are not always con- venient for inclusion with the stamp collection, but those relating to the issuance of stamps should be included where possible. The original of the " pre- tended Act " of the Commonwealth, to which I have already alluded, was a bookstall-bargain, costing a few shillings. The Uniform Penny Postage Acts of 1839 and 1840 should be included in the " associa- tion collection " of the stamps of Great Britain. My copy of the former is an original, but the 1840 one is a reprint. The years 1837-39 are of great importance in the history of postage-stamps ; this was the first period of the essays and proposals for the system, to the advocacy q% which Rowland Hill devoted himself with such tenacity of purpose. The published proposals, samples of the printed envelopes and covers of which were included in the " Ninth Report of the Commissioners appointed to Inquire into the Management of the Post Office " (1837), and in Mr. Ashurst's " Facts and Reasons in support of Mr. Rowland Hill's Plan," are accessible to the specialist, and are the natural priores of the Mulready envelopes and covers. Not so accessible are the proposals of Forrester, Cheverton, Dickinson, and the minor lights who sought to provide the Treasury with the key to success in the adoption of pre- 9 160 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS payment. My " Forrester " is a perfect copy which came from the sale of the Philbrick library, where it had been overlooked and classed among some more ponderous but less treasured productions. The Cheverton papers and the metal dies intended for striking the impressions of his proposed labels remain in the possession of the inventor's relative, Miss Eliza Cooper, though casts have been made of the die for the collections of his Majesty the King, Lord Crawford, the British Museum, and the Royal Society. Mr. Lewis Evans, the grandson of the late Mr. John Dickinson, the great paper manufacturer — a contemporary of Fourdrinier and no mean rival of that genius — has a family treasure-store in the Dickinson correspondence with Rowland, Ormond, and Edwin Hill, and Mr. Spring Rice, Chancellor of the Exchequer ; and particularly in a fine series of the patterns drawn up by Ormond Hill for the envelopes printed on Dickinson " thread " paper. Samples of the actual thread-papers (unprinted) as used for the Mulready and the later embossed envelopes and for the first Ten Pence and One Shilling embossed stamps are surprisingly rare — indeed, the authors of " Wright and Creeke " had only seen three-quarters of a mill-sheet at the time of writing their book. Mr. Lewis Evans has a number of the original samples, and has been good enough to allow me to prepare a complete transcript of the Dickinson papers, so far as they relate to postal matters, and I have included facsimt/es of Ormond Hill's pattern instruc- tions for the paper for the Ten Pence and Shilling adhesives in " Great Britain : Embossed Adhesive THE TWO PEXCE, GREAT BRITAIN, OX " DICKINSON " PAPER. The upper block is in red (24 stamps printed in all, of which nine copies are known) and the lower block in blue (16 stamps printed, of which twelve copies are known). The above blocks of six each are in the possession of Mr. Lewis Evans ; the pairs cut from the left side of each block were in the collection of the late Mrs. John Evans. 161 SCOPE OF A MODERN COLLECTION 163 Stamps." These are items which form part of the life-history of the stamps or impressed stationery to which they relate, and are properly included with the stamp collection. But, 'except in the facsimile state, it will be obvious that but few can enrich their collections with items of so unique a character as Ormond Hill's carefully measured and ruled patterns and the autograph letters with instructions from Rowland Hill. But it is open to each specialist to introduce much individuality into a collection of Great Britain, or some other country, on these and similar lines. Mention has already been made of the " find " of a quantity of the suggestions submitted to the Treasury in 1839 as a result of the offer of prize-money. These, too, are within the scope of the stamp collec- tion carried out on the thorough historical basis, but then nearly every item being unique designs in pen and ink, in crayon and watercolour, and with manu- script matter, they are not to enrich more than one collection at a time. Yet there may be others of a different kind, each in itself unique, to be had at some future timely frustration of a holocaust of waste- paper. The City Medal of William Wyon is closely associated with the history of our stamps, and used to be represented in my collection by a silver cliche^ though it has now been replaced by the medal in silver. The medal is accessible to the collector in bronze, silver, or gold, but for most philatelic purposes a clichi showing only the obverse with the Queen's head is more convenient for mounting in the album, 'tffj. I m^§kM w^kM wUk m^%m*' 180 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS to take the scissors to a fine block of imperforates, simply because he is a collector of the one-stamp-of- a-kind order and has no use for a block. Mr. Hugo Griebert of London, in a painstaking study of the " Diligencias " of Uruguay, says : " If blocks and pairs had been available it would have saved me years of work"; and again, "It is very unfortunate that blocks of the * Diligencia ' stamps are practically unknown. Not a single pair even of the 60 centavos or i real has come to my knowledge." Of the 80 centavos, there are a priceless block of fifteen and a block of four in a collection in the United States ; there may be others to be found, and they would well repay the finding ! A block of eight of the Penny Black stamp (used) has fetched ^15, and a block of sixteen would bring its owner at least £2$ — some thou- sands per cent, over the catalogue quotation for single copies. Here, too, I may remark that with old used stamps, especially the imperforates, really fine copies cannot always be got at the prices indicated for them in the standard catalogues. The same applies to some extent to the unused copies also ; but the beginner would be well advised to choose even his (apparently) common stamps with painstaking regard to their perfection of condition, and not to break up pairs or blocks of early imperforates, even though they may be inconvenient for insertion in his album. Fine copies are often sold by the smaller dealers and in the provinces and from private sources at prices based on the catalogue rates, and it is in these directions that Ml l^ "I 'J J ■^■y ^^^jx-o- ^yy^^-i'^j '^-^^ X/ h 'yc^. -O:: AX ENVELOPE BEARING THE RARE STAMP ISSUED IN 1 846 BY THE POSTMASTER OF MILLBURY, MASSACHUSETTS. r y ) J I ' / / ONE OF THE STAMPS ISSUED BY THE POSTMASTER OF BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA, DURING THE CIVIL WAR, 1861. 181 ANOTHER OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES RARITIES ISSUED BY THE POSTMASTER OF GOLIAD, TEXAS. THE STAMP ISSUED BY THE POSTMASTER OF LIVINGSTON, ALABAMA. {From the ^^ Avery"" Collection) 183 SCOPE OF A MODERN COLLECTION 185 even to-day, with many thousands of keen hunters, bargains are still to be had by the collector possessing an appreciative eye for the rarity of condition. In the advanced collection of to-day there is no wavering over the used and the unused question. A lot of ink has been spilt in the controversies over the comparative interest, importance, or other claim of \^ these two general conditions of postage-stamps. To- day both unused and used stamps are necessary to the study of stamps. A specialised collection con- taining only unused specimens would indeed be an " ill-roasted ^g%r and would fail to show the history of the stamps during their currency. The unused stamps show the pristine condition of the varying shades of successive printings ; the used ones enable the collector to place those successive shades in their correct sequence, even to show for what purpose special printings were required. The most evidential items in a stamp collection are often the used copies which have been preserved on the entire original envelope, a fact which gives to the stamp used on the envelope a special value not always to be gauged by the catalogue quotation for an ordinary used copy. A Penny Black stamp of Great Britain should be worth at least two to three times "catalogue" if on the entire original ; but if the original had been used on May 6, 1840 (the first day authorised for its use), the envelope with stamp would acquire an excep- tional interest out of all proportion to "catalogue." In a specialised price list before me at this moment it is priced at ;£"io, less 25 per cent, for the entire letter ; one used on the following Sunday, May \ 186 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS loth, IS priced at £1$.^ The Rev. G. C. B. Madden, of Armitage Bridge, had a copy on a letter of May 5th, but the stamp was not, cancelled. The cover bears the stamp and the indication — ** Paid Penny Postage, *' Miss Jones, * * Addington Square, " Camberwell." and the enclosure is as follows : — '*Brompton Place, '^ May 5, 1840. " My Dear Floral Friend, — To make you stare I send you a Queen's Head, the day before it is in Penny Circulation. To-morrow it will be obliterated by a Post Office Stamp. What a pity that they should make Victoria Gummy like an old woman, without teeth as I am. I write this without spectacles, therefore will strain my ninety- and-one eyes no longer than in saying I hope you are All well at Home. '* Yours ** Gratefully, ♦* John Alexander.'* The cancellation may also be a factor in the relative scarcity of a used specimen. Coloured post- marks often have some special significance or may be merely accidental applications of the " chops " to the wrong inking pad. In the price list already mentioned I find the Penny Black quoted with the various coloured Maltese cross postmarks (ordinary used copies, not on " entire ") as follows : — red 8d., black 9d., blue 60s., violet 40s., marone 4s., brown Ss., ^ I mention these and certain other quotations, not as standard valua- tions, but to indicate the comparative importance of these and other factors in determining the rarity of individual specimens. • A 2 m_ m n n 1 mmijo "itc * %. •C 1 i.^-^ i o \ < ^ 187 SCOPE OF A MODERN COLLECTION 189 orange 7s. 6d., yellow 15s., vermilion 4s., carmine 2s. 6d. Beyond the items the character of which I have indicated as desirable in the historical collection, there are others, which will readily suggest them- selves to the collector who develops a keen enthusiasm for his specialite. Portraits of persons concerned in \>^^ the production of the stamps and in their use often lend an enhanced interest to the collection as a whole, and sometimes maps are conveniently inserted ^L--^ in the album to show the geographical disposition of the places where stamps were issued or used. No one can expect those who have not studied the particular speciality to understand, without such a guide, the use of the " zemstvo " stamps of Russia, the courier stamps of Morocco, the Treaty-Port stamps of China, the provisionals of Mexico, or the Chilian stamps used in the Peruvian campaign of 1881-3. In concluding this chapter I would allude to the interest and value of the collector's acquisition and preservation of modern documents. In the present day there are few events of importance that are not duly chronicled in the newspapers, and events of philatelic interest are largely recorded in the news- papers specially devoted to Philately, such as The Postage Stamp (weekly) in Britain and MekeeVs Weekly Stamp News in the United States. But with the enormous increase in bulk of newspaper records, they are becoming constantly more difficult of ready access for information on many points of even con- siderable importance. Further, the original Act, 10 100 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS Decree, Postal Notice included within the album containing the stamps referred to leaves no room for any question of printer's errors, which may often crop up in newspaper reproductions, telegraphed perhaps in cipher from a distant colony. Among modern items added to my own collection I regard the card sent out by the Rt. Hon. Sir Joseph Ward, as Premier and Postmaster of New Zealand, on the establishment of Universal Penny Postage from that colony as of historic interest. WITH THE HON. J. G. WARDS COMPLIMENTS. 3n cye-ixdina jot ijout acceptaticc tfiio, ovu o| t-fte -f^ia-t atticfeo jxx>tcd itnSc* tkc ^nivctaai ^mnvj So>tcu^ ocf\^\ni. an3 9at«- MOW tfu5 Ma^on:> aw*ttn (U a ON LIMITING A COLLECTION 205 America, Cuba, Hayti, the Dominican Republic are comparatively fresh soil, and the student can invest at present prices with a good assurance that, as United States expansion and influence become more overwhelming in the Western Hemisphere, all these countries will enjoy increased popularity with the stamp-collector. The foregoing British Empire groups are given as examples of how this great division may be sub- divided. Of the stamps of the great English-speaking Republic and the countries now or lately under her protection or looking to her for financial help groups may be formed : — United States : The General Issues :— (a) With Of without — The Postmasters' stamps. The Carrier's stamps. Confederate States, General issues. Confederate States, Postmasters' stamps. (b) With or without — Cuba (since 1899). Guam (since 1899). Hawaii (since 1898). Panama Canal Zone (since 1904). Philippine Islands (since 1899). Porto Rico (since 1898). (c) With or without — Dominican Republic. Haytian Republic. (d) With or without — Liberia. 206 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS Other suggested groupings may be taken from : — The Pacific Islands. (a) British. Aitutaki. British Solomon Islands. Cook Islands. Fiji (after Sept., 1874). Gilbert and Ellice Islands. New Hebrides (Condominium). Niue. Papua. Penrhyn. Tonga. (b) French. New Caledonia. New Hebrides (Condominium). Oceanic Settlements. Tahiti. (c) German. Caroline Islands. German New Guinea. Marianne Islands. Marshall Islands. Samoa (since 1899). (d) United States. Guam. Hawaii (since July, 1898). Philippine Islands (since 1899). Each of these, and the numerous other groupings, political, geographical, &c., which they will readily suggest to the reader, is capable of subdivision down to single countries or colonies, or into periods, just as others are capable of expansion if larger groups be desired. In making his choice the collector will do well to give free scope to his tastes and inclinations, but he should not be disregardful of the financial side of the question, which is apt to confine the limitations of a speciality rather more closely than would his inclinations. It is well to realise from the start that some capital will be required to tackle a large group, and if the collector wants to specialise in the first issues of British Guiana, * The Oceanic Settlements comprise the more easterly French islands, administered by a Governor, with Privy and Administrative Councils, &c., the seat of government being at Papeete, in Tahiti, ON LIMITING A COLLECTION 207 the "Missionaries" of Hawaii, the "Post Offices" and "Post Paids" of Mauritius, the "Gold Diggings" of New South Wales, the "circular" Moldavias, he will have to loosen wide the strings of a bounteously filled purse. Happily for the stamp collector, the interest and charm of his hobby is its broad adaptability to all requirements, and it cannot be gainsaid that the joys of the hunt for stamps are more real and stimulating to the collector of modest means, who personally knows and loves his stamps, than to the magnate who deputes the " collecting " to a secretary. In many instances, of course, the secretary is a desideratum; the vast collections of modern times practically necessitate an expert assistant, especially where the owner is a busy man ; but in the really great collections of postage- stamps it is good to see the evidences of the personal attention and study of the owner. Philately is indeed fortunate in the number of wealthy stamp- lovers who build up monumental collections, at great personal labour and expense, and are ever ready to show portions of them at exhibitions and societies' meetings, and, indeed, to publish the results of their researches for the benefit of their fellow- students. 11 VII STAMP- COLLECTING AS AN INVESTMENT CHAPTER VII STAMP-COLLECTING AS AN INVESTMENT The collector, the dealer, and the combination — ^The factor of expense — Natural rise of cost — Past possibilities in British "Collector's Consols," in Barbados, in British Guiana, in Canada, in "Capes" — Modern speculations: Cayman Islands — Further investments : Ceylon, Cyprus, Fiji Times Express, Gambia, India, Labuan, West Indies — The "Post Office" Mauritius — The early Nevis, British North America, Sydney Views, New Zealand — Provisionals : bond fide and speculative — Some notable appreciations — * ' Booms. " If we define the philatelist as a lover of postage- stamps, we may very properly express the view that his affections should be chiefly centred upon their historic and philatelic associations. Stamp-collect- ing for most of us is a recreation and a respite from the anxieties of the money-market, and many collectors are quite content with the joys of collation and research. At the same time we are not out of sympathy with the individual who, "Whatever thing he had to do He did, and made it pay him too." He represents one of the strongest influences in an 212 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS the collecting world, and is no doubt a tower of strength, imparting stability to the stamp-market. The term " amateur " is little used in connection with our pursuit, and the quibbles which seem inseparable in other pursuits, from the endeavour to draw an imaginary line round the amateur to separate him from the professional, are all but non-existent in philately. We use the terms "collector" and "dealer," but that one is not the negation of the other is clear from the admission of the compound term " collector-dealer," which combination applies to a very great proportion of the more promiscuous portion of the philatelic world. The mere vending of postage-stamps would not, I think, convert the collector into the collector- dealer, as by the ingenious and widespread system of stamp-exchanges collectors are obliged to put a price upon their duplicates, and cash is the universal medium of exchange. In a broad sense the collector-dealer class is composed of collectors who are glad to enjoy their hobby, but are under the necessity, or have the desire, to make their hobby pay for itself, and perhaps yield an addition to their regular income. It is perhaps due to the all-absorbing character of the hunt for rare stamps that collectors and dealers enjoy unrestrained intercourse in most of the societies, though in the Royal Philatelic Society the rules forbid the admission of regular dealers to membership. Among the best dealers we find some of the most advanced students of philately, who when it comes to research have many a time risen above considerations COLLECTING AS AN INVESTMENT 213 of commerce. Some of the most valuable contribu- tions to the literature of philately have come from their unaccustomed but painstaking pens, and most of the dealers of repute take a pleasure in assisting the student to unravel a problem. In whatever spirit we form our collections, and with no matter what object in view, it is but human to nourish the hope, even if some shrinking from the admission of pecuniary motives never permits us to express it, that the collection formed with loving care and a considerable expenditure of money shall not, if parted with, result in a loss, or if retained suffer a heavy depreciation. If we desire to interest others we must be prepared for the motif of the primary questions of the uninitiated, " What is it worth ? " " What did you give for it ? " though one can never hope to satisfy the ingenuous folk who ask the collector of many years' standing " How many stamps have you got? " and " I suppose they ought to be worth pots of money — how much do you think?" There are several factors in the stamp trade which y^ are worth noting, as they have contributed in no small measure to the prosperity of the business, and they must increase our confidence in the security of our collections as investments. A world-wide market is open to the vendor of rare stamps ; it is convenient of access beyond all other markets for bric-h-brac^ because the rarest stamp in the world may be safely transmitted anywhere, within an envelope, through the post. The adaptability of the postage-stamp to effective and convenient arrangement is not of more 214 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS importance to the collector than the portability of his goods, rare or common, is to the dealer. It involves no more trouble to sell a rare stamp in Yokohama than it does over a counter in that thoroughfare of stamp-dealers, the Strand. Nor is there the risk of damage that would attend the transmission of a bulky article of vertu to a customer in a remote country. It is this same portability which is constantly increasing the demand for good and rare stamps from collectors. For the majority, almost any form of collecting brings with it a serious problem of space, arrangement, and security. We may display our collection of old English porcelain about the house, and beautify our surroundings, but it is at the cost of no little risk from the philistine fingers of the abigail. We may bring together a great array of ornithological specimens, but the cabinet space taken up by a collection of but moderate proportions is out of all comparison to the compact album, which may contain a large and portable collection of stamps. I would not be understood to even cursorily enter upon comparisons of different hobbies, but it is useful to mention the comparative facility with which transactions in rare stamps can be negotiated to indicate the cumulative effect this convenience must have in the value of old stamps. Another important factor is the comparative standardisation of stamp values. No person of average intelligence need ever be totally in the dark as to the approximate selling value of the majority of old postage-stamps, for in nearly every COLLECTING AS AN INVESTMENT 215 language, excepting some of the Oriental tongues, there are standard price-lists of the leading dealers which serve as guides to the majority of both buyers and sellers, for these works are accessible both to the dealer and the collector. When we come to consider the supply of old postage-stamps, we cannot but recognise a further important factor in their security as an investment The majority of the rare, medium and common postage-stamps have been issued with the Govern- ment imprimatur; re-issues and reprintings are known, but they are the exception. Generally speaking, a stamp is no sooner obsolete than it commences to soar in the stamp-dealers' price-lists. In the cases of stamps of the larger countries which have had a long period of currency the rise is slow, but the frequency of the occurrence of unusual cir- cumstances which cut short the life of a stamp on the active postal list has introduced a sporting element into even the collecting of current stamps. But it is inevitable that, with the retirement of a postage-stamp from use, there must come sooner or later a stoppage in the supply at the normal rates prevailing during its period of currency. The older stamps, most of the early issues of all countries, have for fifty years past been gradually absorbed in the great collections, some of them extremely limited in their original use, now withdrawn from the market into the stable repositories of national museums, and the supply is the one serious difficulty with which the dealer has to contend. This difficulty has its value to the collector, for to replenish their stocks the r 216 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS dealers have to buy back from the collector, and they compete keenly for the acquisition of collections formed by private individuals, if they contain the right class of stamps. My endeavour in this chat will be to indicate the character of the stamps which have risen in the philatelic period 1862 to 191 1, all of which may be classed as " Collector's Consols," but most of which are at this date and at present prices likely to yield an excellent return in the future. To take our own country first, for here purchases would have been made at first-hand, that is, at the post-office, there are many stamps, some of com- paratively low facial value, that would have formed most desirable investments if one had only been able to prophesy, and prophesy correctly. The most notable examples amongst British stamps of rapid and great appreciation in value are the Twopence Halfpenny of 1875, with error of lettering, the Two Shillings, orange-brown, the Ten Shillings and One Pound of 1878-83, the Five Pounds — both telegraph and postage in the earliest shade — and certain " Officials " : there are, of course, others which show an even greater appreciation on their original face-value, but the reason in that case is that small printings were made of certain stamps from a particular plate or on certain paper — "abnormals" to give them their usual name — and such stamps were not obtainable except by accident. The Twopence Halfpenny error, though not known to the philatelic world until 1893, ^^.s present in every sheet printed from Plate 2 of that value, to the COLLECTING AS AN INVESTMENT 217 number of no less than 35,000, and yet, in mint unused condition, it is a very scarce stamp, probably worth £2^. And yet none amongst the thousands who purchased and used one of these errors thought — even if he noticed the fact — that a mistake in one of the corner letters would some day cause a great rise in value. Another well-known example is the Two Shillings, brown : issued originally in 1867, the first colour of that value was blue ; but in 1880, to avoid confusion with other stamps, it was changed to orange-brown. It is said that only 1,000 sheets, or 240,000 stamps, were printed, a large number certainly, but com- paratively small when it is remembered that of some stamps many millions were issued ; small, too, when it is considered that the minimum charge on tele- grams was a shilling, and foreign postal rates were high. An early price in dealers' catalogues was seven shillings and sixpence ; now a fine unused copy realises more pounds than it formerly did shillings. The desiderata of British stamps— ignoring the " abnormal " varieties of plate and paper — are the Ten Shillings and One Pound of 1878-83. Few among the great multitude of collectors purchased the two stamps, each on Cross pat^ paper and each on that watermarked with a Large Anchor, when current. But those few who did, and who kept them through the years when the rise in value was very slight, ultimately realised at the top of the market — say, £>ITS to ;^200 — towards the end of the 'nineties. The £1 " Anchor" on bluish paper, which one could 218 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS have bought in 1882 for twenty shillings, is now priced at ;^8o, showing a profit which makes many a collector in these days sigh over lost oppor- tunities. Five Pounds is a high facial value, but that sum invested in the purchase of the telegraph-stamp, or of the postage-stamp which superseded it, would now be represented approximately by ;^ioo ; but in the case of the Five Pounds postage-stamp, the paper must be " blued " — " naturally," and not through the medium of the blue-bag — and the colour should be of a vermilion almost merging into orange, and not the scarlet-vermilion in which this stamp finished its career in 1902. In a somewhat different category are the various Official stamps, but as they were obtainable up to about 1 890 by any respectable applicant at Somerset House, the earlier varieties may fairly be included. Sets bought during the 1884-90 period appreciated very little until towards the close of the last century, when they attained high prices, the One Pound " I.R. Official" in brown-violet, on Imperial Crown paper, being the rarest, even rarer than the similar stamp on the Orb paper, which without the Official overprint is rarer than the normal variety. Of subsequent Official stamps, not obtainable for the asking, special mention should be made of the three high values of the Edwardian issue — Five Shillings, Ten Shillings, and One Pound : in 1903 mint PAIRS of the three stamps were sold for forty guineas, and single sets for ^25. Nowadays, pairs — the particular ones above referred to were sub- COLLECTING AS AN INVESTMENT 219 sequently severed — would probably fetch a sum running into four figures. It may be interesting to record a few of the notable rises in value, in the space of a comparatively short period, of stamps issued in one or other of the British colonies, or in some foreign country. In March, 1878, there was an unexpected shortage in Barbados of the then current One Penny stamp, and the island Post Office authorities supplied the deficiency by means of a provisional : they perforated the large Five Shillings stamp down the centre, sur- charging each half " id." These makeshifts in due course reached England, and orders were duly sent out for a supply for the stamp-market ; one dealer's order was actually held back by the Barbados post- master until the arrival of a further supply of the ordinary One Penny, when a supply of that stamp was sent him. Other dealers and collectors probably fared as badly, and an unused pair, or even a single copy, of this rare stamp supplies an example of un- earned increment which would delight a Chancellor of the Exchequer on the look-out for more subjects for taxation. What a nice little nest-egg would a shilling's-worth of those stamps now represent ! Of the circular British Guiana stamps of 1850-51 it is hardly fair to speak, as they were issued and became obsolete before even the oldest philatelist ever thought of collecting; but if any far-seeing individual had then invested the modest sum of thirteenpence in the purchase of an unused copy of each of the four values, and had had them "laid down " until the present year of grace, or even until 220 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS so comparatively far back as 1890, the sum they would realise in open market would not fall far short of ;£"2,5oo. So, too, with the very rare large oblong type-set stamps of 1856, one of which — the One Cent, black on magenta — is literally unique. The smaller stamps of 1862, printed from ordinary type with a frame of fancy ornaments, and issued on a shortage of One, Two, and Four Cents stamps, were for some considerable time fairly common, being obtainable for a few shillings, or sometimes, if one were fortunate, for pence ; now a used set of the commonest variety of each value costs nearly £^0. Canada provides a rarity, dating back to 185 1. A stamp — and it is a beautiful piece of work — of the apparently peculiar value of Twelve Pence was issued, but for some reason a very small portion of the large supply was sold, the remainder disappear- ing without a trace, never to be found even to this day : that stamp is now worth two thousand times its original cost. The reason for the value being expressed somewhat quaintly was that, whereas " One Shilling " was a fluctuating amount according to locality, " Twelve Pence " was the same every- where. It goes without saying that it is the rarities which have appreciated the most, and therefore a list of the stamps which ought to have been secured as an investment is practically a list of the rare and scarce stamps. Beautifully engraved, of chaste design, and of quaint shape, the Cape " triangulars " are, and always have been, favourites ; but they have been out- COLLECTING AS AN INVESTMENT 221 distanced, as regards profitable investment records, by the two roughly-executed stamps, of similar design and shape, printed from hurriedly made stereotyped blocks to meet a temporary shortness of the ordinary One Penny and Fourpence. These provisionals, erroneously called (as they always will be) " wood-blocks," were issued early in 1 86 1, and the ordinary specimens are of considerable scarcity even used, and very difficult of acquisition unpostmarked ; much more then are the errors, caused by the unintentional inclusion in the group of stereotypes of each value of one block of the other denomination. These two stamps — the One Penny in blue, and the Four Pence in red, instead of vice versd — are well-known rarities used, and there are only three known copies in an unused condition ; one of these, obtained by its owner during the period when the wood-blocks were in issue at " face," realised five-and- thirty years later no less than ;!S"SOO. " Prodigious," but true ! Another desirable Cape stamp owes its rarity to having been printed in a small quantity on a paper in use for a short time only — the Five Shillings, orange-yellow, of 1883, on paper watermarked with a Crown and " CA ". For some three to four years, 1883-87, these stamps were purchasable unused at the post-office ; and now — ;£"ioo, perhaps. Cayman Islands, that hotbed of official speculation and jobbery, furnishes a more modern instance — instances would be more correct — of sudden and excessive rise in price, if not in philatelic worth ; 222 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS certain provisionals, made by surcharging higher value stamps to meet the usual, and often avoidable, shortage. Fortunate, indeed, from the investors* point of view, are those who, subscribing to some " new issue " service, managed to obtain even single copies of these scarce labels at a small percentage over face. Ceylon I The name raises a vision of the gorgeous East, and, to the philatelist, of rare imperforates, issued in the early days before Philately was. Who in the end of the 'fifties would have thought of investing in, say, a block of four of the Fourpence, dull rose, and, having held it for forty years, receiving the handsome return of — what shall I say ? — £7 SO ? And yet it would be so. Another Ceylon which has appreciated at a rapid rate is the Two Rupees Fifty Cents issued in 1880; for long it was catalogued and obtainable at 7s. 6d., but on suddenly becoming obsolete (through a change of postal rates) its price began to rise by leaps and bounds, until it is worth about twice as many shillings as it formerly was pence. A glance at the catalogue prices of the first Cyprus set of Edwardian stamps, which were printed on paper known to philatelists as "Single Crown CA" — z.e.f one entire watermark to each stamp — is a mild example of the abnormal rise which took place in nearly all colonial stamps, bearing the head of King Edward and printed on this "single" paper, when the unexpected change was made in 1904 to a " multiple " paper — that is, one in which the water- marks were arranged very closely together, so that COLLECTING AS AN INVESTMENT 223 each stamp must show parts of three or four of the devices. Stamps sold in 1902 or 1903 at a little over their original cost jumped up and up in price until they fetched, even at auction, 700 or 800 or even 1,000 per cent, over "face": small fortunes were made ; but, as has happened, the rise was permanent and still continues. The quaint " Fiji Times Express" stamps, produced by private enterprise, and which were the forerunners of a most interesting series of stamps, many rare, were issued within the memory of many collectors — One Penny, Three Pence, Six Pence, and One Shilling — and yet that set of four stamps, dating from only 1870, is worth five hundred times "face," a fair return even for a wait of forty years. Certain stamps of a subsequent (1874) issue are now also very scarce ; but they are varieties as distinguished from the normal printings, and scarcely come within the category of stamps obtainable by the casual purchaser. The pretty embossed Gambias, particularly those printed on the old "Crown CC" paper, afford another instance of unearned increment : the set of seven values was, say in 1885, to be bought for 3s. or 4s. — now it is valued at about £6. The reward of any far-seeing investor who had happened to purchase the Four Annas, red and blue, issued in India in 1854, would have been a rich one had he noticed an inversion of the Queen's head as regards its frame — copies of this rarity are known on the entire original envelope, so evidently they were, even if noticed, regarded merely as the results of carelessness. It would have been a (perhaps fatal) 12 224 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS shock to any specialist in Indian stamps who had happened to purchase one of these rare errors still on the original, to find that he, by the irony of fate, had addressed and presumably stamped that very envelope thirty or forty years previously. The stamp bought originally for a few pence would have repre- sented to-day, say, ;^I30 unused, £yo used. The purchase of a few copies of the Two Cents and Twelve Cents of the first issue of Labuan, in 1879, some years before the advent of the handsome " labels," all happily now obsolete, would not have proved a matter for regret, seeing that the prices have for some years been well over ;f 10 for the two. At present, the current Five Shillings stamps of Montserrat, Sierra Leone, Southern Nigeria, &c., are catalogued, unused, at about 25 per cent, over face, as once were the Two Rupees Fifty of Ceylon, the Five Shillings St. Vincent, and the Five Shillings Victoria, blue on yellow; without recommending it as an investment, it is by no means impossible that within twenty years from now a Montserrat Five Shillings may be worth ;^io or even £1^. Incomparable as regards romantic interest and actual value, the first two stamps of Mauritius have been, ever since their discovery in the 'sixties, the desiderata of every collector. Other stamps — and there are several — may be rarer ; but, as examples of a genuinely necessary issue, small in quantity, the One Penny and Two- pence "Post Of^ce" of sixty-four years ago will always be looked upon as the ultimate, even if seldom attained, goal of the Philatelist. v-iTWO PK Net THE king's copy OF THE TWO PENCE '• POST OFFICE " MAURITIUS. T'. The great rarity of South Australia is the Fourpence, specially printed in blue in 1870-71, to be surcharged " 3-PENCE ", but from a sheet (or possibly part of a sheet) of which the new value was accidentally omitted. Very few copies are known, and all but two are used : the two being in a " pair." The first issue of Tasmania, then known as " Van Diemen's Land," affords an instance of a substantial rise during the last thirty years ; but, although substantial, it is not abnormal. The Fourpence, blue, of 1870-71, would have proved a satisfactory investment to the purchaser of a moderate quantity at its original cost, for it is now catalogued at £^. Owing to the greater part of the stock of the Sixpence, stone, 1884, of Tobago, with watermark of Crown " CA", having been used for a provisional surcharged Halfpenny, that stamp rose from its first catalogue price of about is. 3d. to its present value of £'j los. No dealer seems to have obtained more than a small supply of this Sixpence, and the subsequent consignments from London to 232 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS Tobago were printed in a totally different colour, orange-brown. Practically all the stamps of the Transvaal have greatly appreciated, and large sums have been made by the fortunate holders of stock acquired at the old 1882 figures. In an old, but well- known catalogue, thirty-five stamps are priced in unused state, varying from 3d. to los., the latter being for a One Penny in red, on Sixpence, black, of May, 1879: and sixty- four used, ranging from 6d. to 7s. 6d., and including amongst the inter- mediate prices those of four of the May, 1879, provisionals. A glance at Gibbons will show, even taking the commonest varieties, a great rise all round, sufficient even to satisfy a greedy investor. Of minor Transvaal varieties there are many, and several of these show an abnormal rise in price : on the other hand, some have appreciated very little. How, therefore, is the would-be speculator- investor to know what to take? In the old catalogue above referred to, some of the 1 88 1 Turks' Islands provisionals are priced from 6d. to 2s. each unused — presumably the commonest varieties : now these stamps vary from 1 25. to £s for the "J", from £^ to ;^30 for the "2j", and from 30s. to £7 for the "4". The One Shilling, lilac, of 1873-79, largely used for the above provisionals, has increased some twelve-fold in value since 1882. If the reverend gentleman who, by the help of a typewriter, evolved the earliest of the 1895 issues of Uganda, had only a few remainders on COLLECTING AS AN INVESTMENT 233 hand, he should reap a handsome return for his original outlay of two or three hundred cowries : but most probably he did not keep any, conse- quently the stamps are, and will remain, scarce and expensive. The Five Shillings, Victoria, blue on yellow, is a striking stamp, and its present value is somewhere about £i^ unused : a very famous collection contains several mint copies, which the owner once remarked were " Not bad at 7s. 6d. each." Mr. Stanley Gibbons's well-known half-sheet of the Twopence, Western Australia, printed in 1879, in mauve, the colour of the Sixpence, affords a fitting close to this cursory list of good invest- ments in British Colonies : acquired at 6d. each, the price to the collector was 5 s., then raised to £2, and now it stands at over ;f 20. Space precludes a similarly long list of foreign stamps which have greatly appreciated ; but the following examples, with early prices (as indicated) and those at present asked, may be interesting, showing the rises in many of the medium stamps : — Egypt — 1st issue, set, 6s. 3d. (in 1882), now £6 2s. 6d. Oldenburg — ist issue, ^q thaler, is. (in 1882), now £2. Oldenburg — 1859-61 issues (in 1882), from 9d. each ; now 4s. is the lowest, I2s. the next, and the highest ;^ii. Schleswig-Holstein — the pretty little stamps of 1850 were (in 1882) 9d. and is. 6d. each: they have now risen to 28s. and 50s. 234 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS Holland — ist issue, Qd., 6d., and is. respectively for the three values, unused : now 15s., 20s., and 30s. Of the following, most, if purchased twenty years ago, would now show a very handsome profit, even after allowing 5 per cent, compound interest. The Swiss Cantonals, first issue Roumania (Mol- davia), tete-beche pairs of France, inverted U.S.A., Paris prints of Greece, early Uruguays, some Brazils, early Japans, middle-period Hawaiian Islands, Italian States, early Spain and Colonies, first Samoas, first Shanghais, &c. Concerning the inverted U.S.A., it is said — though these stories are often more interesting than true — that a purchaser of a quantity of one of these errors took them back to the post-office and had them exchanged for normally printed stamps. If true, the present feelings of the purchaser (if he survives) on being reminded of his neglected opportunity would be interesting. Instances might be multiplied almost indefinitely by comparing the prices in old and present catalogues, but the instances given are sufficient to show the great profits which might have been made by the judicious investment of small amounts in the proper stamps : large amounts would probably lower prices. A purchase in 1882 of twenty £1 "Anchor" would not lower the market if now offered for sale, but ;£"500 worth would probably result in a slump. However, it is generally a case of Hinc illce lacrymce^ for the would-be traveller on the royal road to ease and great wealth has either never invested at all or has selected stamps which show a marked deprecia- COLLECTING AS AN INVESTMENT 235 tion as the years roll on — e.g.y the Fourpence Half- penny of Great Britain, which was going to rise abnormally, but which has been "unloaded" at, or even under, " face." Only a trifling instance, but it serves to show the risks of investment in stamps when current or just obsolete ; it is safer to buy those which have during a period of some years shown an inclination to rise steadily — but then investors and speculators are generally impatient and won't wait. During the late South African War, there was an excessive speculation by the uninitiated among the soldiers and the populace in the provisional stamps overprinted "V.R.I." and " E.R.I." ; thousands ap- peared to think that a few pounds invested during the war would enable them to retire on reaching the Strand with their booty. They all bought to sell, and genuine collectors, finding the supply so exces- sive, have only required a little patience to benefit their pockets by acquiring at " greatly reduced prices," much under " face," from the would-be get-rich-quicks who wouldn't or couldn't wait. As a rule, however, it is the early bird who catches the worm, and only at such rare seasons of extraordinary national excite- ment are excessive booms possible ; and the early bird must have some solid ground of knowledge and intelligence to guide him to the worm. vra FORGERIES, FAKES, AND FANCIES CHAPTER VIII FORGERIES, FAKES, AND FANCIES Early counterfeits and their exposers — The " honest " facsimile — ** Album Weeds" — Forgeries classified — Frauds on the British Post Office — Forgeries "paying" postage — The One Rupee, India — Fraudulent alteration of values — The British los. and £l ''Anchor " — A too-clever "fake" — Joined pairs — Drastic tests — New South Wales "Views" and " Registered "—The Swiss Cantonals — Government "imitations" — "Bogus" stamps. Mr. Edward L. Pemberton, whose early writings on Philately will always be regarded as little short of inspired from the marvellous intuition which led him to the precise and the accurate, wrote a booklet on " Forged Stamps, and How to Detect Them " in 1863. Already in the history of this new hobby the forger had been at work catering for collectors ; it was, of course, from still earlier times that the unscrupulous had endeavoured to relieve Governments of some portions of their revenues by counterfeiting what is a kind of paper currency. Pemberton was not the first author on this subject, but I turn to him because he was the best of several contemporary writers in this as well as in other directions. Of this superiority he was not entirely unconscious, for in his " Introduc- 240 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS tion " he says : " We have tested the usefulness of the only English work on the ' Falsification of Postage Stamps,' having gone through it carefully, and after an impartial reading, feel convinced that, from the vagueness of the descriptions, both of the forgeries and genuine stamps, many persons testing stamps from them would select the forgery as genuine, and vice versd." To satisfy (in some measure) the curiosity of his readers, our early authority gives some particulars of the forgers. The "first and foremost" in the nefarious practice was a Zurich forger, whose pro- ductions — Swiss Cantonals, Modena, Romagna, &c. — had the largest circulation in Mr. Pemberton's time. This gentleman (evidently well known to the author) had an agent for the sale of his wares at Basle, the prices of these latter being quoted at " for most of the Swiss 80 cts. each used, or unused I franc ; for the Orts Post and Poste Locale 50 cts. each ; for Modena and Romagna 80 cts." The dealer who occupied the second position of dishonour in the estimation of this philatelic Sherlock Holmes was a Brussels individual, whose provisional Parma, Modena, Naples, and Spain sold largely and were well executed. These two appear to have been the leaders of the counterfeiting of their time, " those indeed who have made almost a trade of it " ; but there was also a Brunswick dealer who " tried his hand at the Danish essays," and a few forged stamps were supposed to hail from Leipsic. A couple of years later John Marmaduke Stourton, FORGERIES, FAKES, AND FANCIES 241 in a brochure " How to Detect Forged Stamps," gives evidence of a swarm of forgers cropping up in even our own country at Glasgow, Manchester, New- castle, and London, in Hamburg and New York, as well as the Swiss and Belgian forgers who still plied their traffic. The Glasgow productions were of the " facsimile " class, and were possibly manufactured with the well-intentioned but unwise endeavour to provide approximately correct coloured facsimiles of stamps which were too scarce to be readily accessible to all collectors. The "facsimile" has no doubt often been produced with the best of intentions by firms of high repute, but the protecting word " fac- simile " or " Falsch," or other sign by which the true nature of the copy may be identified, has so often been removed for fraudulent purposes after it has left honest hands that there is no alternative in these days of later and fuller experience to define "fac- simile," so far as it relates to Philately, as, in the words of my glossary, " a euphemism for a forgery." It is, however, to be borne in mind by the student that in the beginning of Philately there was not entirely the same attitude towards the production of legitimate (if any could so be called) or honest fac- similes, and, indeed, a writer in one of the early journals, in proposing the formation of a philatelic society, suggests that one of the duties such an institution could properly fulfil would be the repro- duction of choice editions (copies) of rare stamps for limited circulation ! Also in the Stamp Collectof^s Magazine^ whose proprietors and engravers were as free of just reproach as Caesar's wife, we find the 13 242 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS engraver so pleased with the illustration he has pro- duced for that jotirnal of the Nicaragua stamp of 1862 that he announces: — " NiCARAGUAN STAMP.— Will be ready in a week. A beautiful proof of the Nicaraguan Stamp (equal to the original) will be sent for 13 postage-stamps. Only 75 proofs of this will be taken ; each proof will be numbered, and then the block burnt. An early application is really necessary, 25 copies being already sold. Address . . ." These " proofs," rarer, no doubt, than the originals, were endorsed editorially, and collectors unable to procure the original stamp were told they " would do well to provide themselves with one of these fac- similes." The astute Mr. Pemberton, however, took a very different view. " Although he tells every one that they are merely facsimiles and not the real stamps, we cannot but help thinking that he is acting wrongly; for less scrupulous dealers than himself will sell them as genuine. . . . Again, these imita- tions are by far the best executed of any we have seen. The regularly forged stamps are wretched in comparison with these, and therefore all the more caution will be required to detect them." So he proceeds to a detailed description of the small differences existing between genuine and imitation. There is no royal road by which the collector can attain to the accurate and ready discrimina- tion between the right and the wrong copies of stamps. Forgeries have multiplied enormously be- FORGERIES, FAKES, AND FANCIES 243 tween 1863 and 191 1, so that now the standard handbook by the Rev. R. B. Earee is a master- piece of detail entitled " Album Weeds," occupying two large volumes containing nearly 1,300 pages of text. It would be idle to pretend that even the expert has every description contained therein "at his fingers' ends." Yet the expert is rarely deceived in a stamp, even when he has not access at the time to Mr. Earde's work or other references. I remember an early instruction, the only one that covers the subject, but I forget whence it comes. It was that if you study your stamps an imper- ceptible sense will come to you that will enable you at once to acclaim the true and to suspect if not denounce the false. Beyond this I can only advise the reader that, as a complete novice, he would be unwise to purchase costly rarities and valuable stamps from unknown and irresponsible persons. The novice will remain a novice in these matters, unless he acquires some knowledge of the differences (generally readily distinguishable) between a stamp that is from an engraved plate and a forgery that is, say, litho- graphed or from a wood-cut. It is important to remember also — at least for the new collector — that strange though it may seem to him, stamps really do fetch what they are considered to be worth by collectors and dealers of experience, and that if rare stamps are offered much below the current quotation by individuals supposed to know their true worth, it may often be, and generally is, that the wares they have for sale are either 244 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS forgeries or carefully mended copies of damaged originals. There is little danger of the collector being much at the mercy of the forger if his transac- tions are confined to the reputable dealers, for these latter have done more to purify the honest trade in stamps than can, I think, be said of the dealers in the objects of other forms of collecting. They have expert knowledge on their staff, and access to highly specialised opinions and advice in the various branches of the subject. Personally, I do not consider the forgery question nearly so serious an obstacle in Philately as in other crafts. Most active stamp-collectors are com- panionable with other students of the same subject, and there would be little opportunity for an Affaire Vrain-Lucas^ in which during a period of several years a French autograph collector accumu- lated 27,000 autographs for about ;£"6,ooo, mostly forgeries, and all from the same source, or for such a string of incidents as was exposed in the recent china case in Great Britain. Forgeries of stamps are made either for the purpose of defrauding the Government or else for rifling the pockets of the stamp collector ; these may be classed in two groups: (i) where a stamp is a forgery either in its entirety or in some added, as distinguished from " altered," material detail ; and (2) where a genuine stamp is so altered as to apparently convert it into some other stamp. The first group are generally covered in the term " forgeries," the second being specially distinguished A GENUINE "PLATE 6. THE FAMOUS "STOCK EXCHANGE" FORGERY OF THE ONE SHILLING GREEN STAMP OF ( BRITAIN. One specimen was used on October 31, 1872, and the other on June 13 of the next year enlargements betray trifling differences in the details of the design as cornpared w genuine stamp above. 845 FORGERIES, FAKES, AND FANCIES 247 as " fakes." There is another class dubbed " bogus," or sometimes more elegantly timbres de fantasia^ which comprises labels which are a pure invention, and never had any genuine existence at all. The first attack on the Post Office revenue of which there is any record is the subject of a letter from Downing Street, London, dated September 2, 1840, and addressed to the late Sir (then Mr.) Rowland Hill : — " Mr. Smith has just called and informed me that a forgery of the Penny Label was yesterday detected in his office. The letter bearing the forged stamp has been handed over to the Stamp Office to be dealt with by them . . . the forged stamp is a wood-cut. . . ." An entry a few days later in Mr. Hill's diary reads : — " At the Stamp Office I saw the forged label. It is a miserable thing and could not possibly deceive any except the most stupid and ignorant." The above seems to have been an almost isolated attempt to defraud the revenue, but it is interesting as being the earliest known forgery, appearing, as it did, within four months of the issue of the first postage-stamp. A far more romantic forgery, and one of almost colossal magnitude, was discovered in 1898. About that time, a large quantity of British One Shilling stamps — those of the 1865 type in green, with large uncoloured letters in the corners — came on the market, though, as they had been used on telegram forms, they ought to have been destroyed : probably the guilty parties relied on this official practice, not always honoured in observance, as 248 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS offering a security against not merely the tracing of the offence but the discovering of the fraud itself. Anyhow, after a lapse of twenty-six years, it was found that amongst these one shilling stamps there was a large proportion of forgeries (purporting to be from plate 5), all used on July 23, 1872, at the Stock Exchange Telegraph Office, London, E.G. More recent discoveries show that the fraud was continued for over twelve months,^ and, as an indication of the precautions taken by the forgers, plate 6 (which came into use in March, 1872) was duly imitated, although the change of the small figures was a detail probably never noticed by members of the general public. According to calculations, based on the average numbers used on several days, the Post Office must have lost about ;^50 a day during the period mentioned above. Who were the originators and perpetrators of the fraud will probably never be known : poss^'bly a stock-broker's clerk (or a small " syndicate " of those gentlemen), or, more probably, a clerk in the Post Office itself It was an ingenious fraud, well planned and cleverly carried out at a minimum of risk, and, but for the market for old stamps, it would never have been discovered. Amongst foreign countries, Spain has been the greatest sufferer from forgery: her numerous, and until recent times almost yearly, issues were mainly necessitated by the circulation of counterfeits, which * See Thi Postage Stamps vi. 153. FOEGEEIES, FAKES, AND FANCIES 249 appeared on letters within a very short time after each new series of stamps had been put on sale. Some of the old Italian States, particularly Naples and the Neapolitan Provinces, were defrauded of part of their revenue by numerous forgeries of some of their stamps ; and in these cases, as in that of Spain, letters survive on which the postage has been entirely, or in part, " paid " by means of counterfeits. An ingenious fraud on the Indian Post Office was discovered in 1890, through the care with which collectors frequently examine their stamps. The One Rupee, slate, of the 1882-88 issue, very cleverly imitated, was found to be frequently coming to this country on letters from Bombay, and police inquiries, made on the information of a well-known philatelist, led to the detection of the culprit ; he, it seems, engraved a facsimile on box- wood, and printed his stamps, one by one, on paper as similar as possible to the genuine, but without watermark ; the perforation he effected by placing the printed label between two plates of thin metal each with holes corresponding to the intended perforations, and then, by the aid of a blunt wire, punching out the small circular pieces of paper ! Other instances have been noted, but those given are the best known, and serve as good examples of frauds against Post Offices, so far as forgery of the entire stamp is concerned ; but, of recent years, a new kind of fraud has come into vogue — the alteration of a genuine stamp into one 250 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS of a much higher denomination, affecting British Colonies only. The possibility of this has resulted from the desire of the authorities to print the majority of colonial stamps, available for postal or fiscal purposes, in two colours — one being distinctive of the particular value, and the other a purple or green, very susceptible to any attempt to remove an obliteration or cancellation, whether by the Post Office or by a member of the public : by the latter, in writing-ink. The modus operandi is ingenious — a stamp is selected, of which nearly the whole design is, say, in green, the name and (low) value being in some distinctive colour ; the original value and name are removed by chemical means, the name and new (high) value being substituted in a colour applicable to the higher denomination — ^result, if the work be carefully done, a stamp which would deceive not only the ordinary official (who is seldom of real philatelic inclinations) but even, at first glance, the average collector, unless he is on the look-out for such " fakes," which, as a matter of fact, have been made for his delectation also. As has been remarked, the number of forgeries made to deceive collectors has been immeasurably greater than of those prepared for defrauding the Revenue ; and it has been endeavoured to select some of the most daring, and often successful, attempts to palm off a clever forgery as a genuine — generally rare, but sometimes quite common — postage-stamp. FORGERIES, FAKES, AND FANCIES 251 In 1903, taking our own country first, an attempt was made to place on the market unused copies of the rare Ten Shillings and One Pound stamps of 1878-83, printed on Large Anchor paper, and perforated 14 : these were almost at once discovered by Mr. Nissen, the same philatelist who first noticed the One Shilling (plate 5) counterfeits used at the Stock Exchange Post Office, to be ex- ceedingly clever forgeries. They were, save for a slight lack of finish in the finer details, practically of design identical with that of the original stamps ; the colours were well matched, and, most deceptive of all, the paper and perforation were undoubtedly genuine. This timely discovery nipped the forgers' schemes in the bud, but, some eight years subse- quently, the lower of these two forged stamps came agam on the market, this time provided with a neat, though fraudulent, postmark. So far as can be judged from the examination of specimens of this forgery, the paper used was that on which were printed certain " Inland Revenue " stamps — probably the Threepence, which alone was watermarked and perforated as were the two stamps imitated ; but possibly other fiscals also were used — the colour being chemically removed, leaving a blank piece of paper, properly and genuinely watermarked and perforated, all ready to receive the fraudulent imitation. An undoubtedly clever, but almost unsuccessful, fraud on collectors ; though rumour has it that a well- known philatelist, usually credited with capability to protect himself, was a victim for a substantial sum, as the price of an unused " Pound Anchor " 1 252 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS A recently attempted fraud — this time of the kind known as a " fake " — has been, it is hoped, successfully exposed. As is well known, especially to collectors of British stamps, the first Twopence Halfpenny stamp, issued in 1875, shows an error of corner-lettering on plate 2 : the twelfth and last stamp in the eighth horizontal row should have been lettered " L.H- — H.L." but, through want of care, actually bore the letters " L.H. — F.L." This error, especially in unused condition, is scarce, and the faker has naturally made an effort to supply the deficiency. Obviously, the easiest way to manufacture this error is to select a stamp from plate 2 with the lettering of " L.F. — F.L." (the last stamp in the sixth row), and alter the first "F" into "H", with hope of probable success because the collector's criticism would naturally (if wrongly) be concen- trated on the incorrect letter in the lower left-hand corner. Unfortunately for the "fake," which was very well executed, its creator, wishing no doubt to enhance its value, had left the "error" in pair with the eleventh stamp in the same row: result, a very nice pair from the sixth row, lettered *' K.F.— F.K.", " LH.—F.L.", showing (as a con- sequence of being in pair) a mistake — " H " for " F " in the upper right-hand corner. This, of course, condemned the error at once, but the example serves to show how very careful one must be, and how necessary it is to examine and consider every circumstance in connection with the particular stamp under observation. FORGERIES, FAKES, AND FANCIES 253 There are two varieties of stamps, differing from the normal through some slip in the process of manufacture — bicoloured stamps, in which the portion printed in one colour is inverted as regards the remainder of the design, caused by carelessness in " feeding " the partly-printed sheet wrong way up into the press, for the second impression com- pleting the design ; and pairs of stamps, which, each quite normal if severed, are when se tenant inverted in respect to each other, a condition philatelically termed tete-beche. The fraudulent manipulator has turned his atten- tion to these, generally scarce and frequently very rare, eccentricities, cutting out from the bicoloured s, stamp the part printed in one colour and replacing it with great care, but upside down ; and, as to the tete-beche pairs, manufacturing them by means of two single copies, a strong adhesive mixture and heavy pressure. Sometimes, so well have these frauds been made that nothing short of several hours' boiling has sufficed to dissolve the illegal union of the two pieces of paper — a drastic test, and one somewhat detrimental to the value of such copies as are enabled, by their genuineness, to survive the ordeal. The possible result to, say, a mint imperforate Fourpence, Ceylon, suspected of having recently acquired its otherwise desirable " margins," reminds me of the test given (not advocated) by a famous philatelist for the detection of forgeries of early Cashmere stamps, which were printed in water- colour — " Put them in water ; if the colour is * fast * 254 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS the stamp is a forgery ; if it comes off, leaving a blank piece of paper, the stamp is genuine " ! A famous forgery was put on the market some years ago, the stamp imitated being the One Penny value of the well-known first issue of New South Wales, commonly called "Sydney Views." This stamp was issued in sheets of twenty-five, each repe- tition of the design being separately engraved on the plate and so giving twenty-five minor varieties ; and subsequently the entire plate was re-cut, doubling the number of varieties for the specialist. The forger engraved his fraudulent wares and printed the labels, as were the originals, direct from the plate, in a very good imitation of the ink used in 1850 and on similar paper; and these reproductions, often in pairs, were affixed to old envelopes and cancelled with forged postmarks. So well executed were these forgeries that sus- picions as to their character were not raised until an endeavour was made to ascertain the original posi- tions on the sheet of these desirable (?) specimens : then it was found that the details of design did not tally with those of any of the known varieties, and the career of yet another forgery was brought (some- what tardily) to an untimely end. Watermarks in the paper were for many years a stumbling-block to the counterfeiter, and practically all the old and generally poorly lithographed forgeries were on plain paper : nowadays, however, the water- mark is imitated by actually thinning the paper where necessary, or by impressing it with a die cut to resemble the design, or by painting the "water- FORGERIES, FAKES, AND FANCIES 255 mark " on the back with an oily composition which renders the paper slightly transparent, and so apparently thinner. In a comparatively recent forgery of the Registra- tion stamp of New South Wales sent by a corre- spondent, the counterfeit was produced by the same process (from line-engraved plates) as the original ; the watermark showed very distinctly when the label was placed face down, but was not visible at all when held up to the light : it was a " paint " mark in a very faint tint of the ink used for printing that part of the forgery where it appeared. Occasionally, but it must be admitted not very often, forgeries are so inscribed. A notable instance is the series of large handsome stamps issued by the United States during 1875-95 for payment of the postage on newspapers, singly or in bulk, and ranging from one cent to the high value of one hundred dollars : on each of these particular counterfeits the word " Falsch " was engraved as part of the design, and " Facsimile " was printed across the central por- tion of the stamp. Practically the same course was adopted in the native manufacture of forged sets of the early Japanese stamps, the counterfeits (which were pro- duced by the same process as the originals) being marked in the design with two microscopic characters signifying " facsimile " : unfortunately for the honest intention of the forger to give due notice of the spuriousness of his productions, the incriminating letters are so small that a carefully applied post- mark is apt to completely hide them. 256 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS Some stamps have been very extensively forged : for instance, of the 2j rappen issued in the Swiss Canton of Basle, in 1845, no less than seventeen distinct counterfeits have been detected. The stamp, of which an embossed dove carrying a letter in its beak is the central part of the design, is tricoloured — pale greenish blue, dull crimson and black — and, in common with most of the other Swiss Cantonals, is becoming rare. Copies have also been faked by thinning down card proofs of the genuine impression and adding gum. Of the rarest Cantonal stamp, usually known as the " double Geneva," and consisting of two stamps of 5 centimes each, joined at the top by a long label inscribed with the aggregate value of 10 centimes, fifteen (probably more) forgeries are known ; and as the entire stamp is priced at £'j^ unused and £2Z used, it is naturally worth the counterfeiter's while to persist in the improvement of his imitations, with little hope, however, of attaining a perfection sufficient to defy discovery. Individuals, however, are not the only forgers of postage-stamps : Governments, too, in their anxiety to provide so-called "reprints" for sale to dealers and collectors, have not hesitated to supply the necessary dies and plates, replacing those originally A. ^ used and long since cancelled ; and some have sunk so low as to deliberately manufacture counterfeits, and sell them as genuine stamps out of a supposed stock left on hand ! ^^r*^ A reprint is an impression from the old original die, plate, or stone, taken after the stamp has become FORGERIES, FAKES, AND FANCIES 257 obsolete ; but prints from a new die, however faithful a copy it may be, can only be correctly given one name — forgery. In 1875, the United States Government, desiring to exhibit a complete series of their postage-stamps, and finding that the original dies and plates used for production of the Five and Ten Cents, 1847, were not available, ordered new dies to be cut : impressions from these, though closely approaching the originals, can be distinguished therefrom by certain minute but well-defined differences in the design. The first issue of Fiji — a series printed from ordinary printers' type at the office of a local newspaper, and known amongst philatelists as the " Fiji Times Express " stamps — has been twice " re- printed " from a special setting-up of similar type ; but, as the original printing forme had been "dis- tributed," even a re-setting of the actual type would produce little less than a forgery of a class euphem- istically described as " official imitations." The greatest sinners in this respect were the officials at Jassy, Roumania, who, in response to numerous applications for copies of the four very rare stamps of July, 1858, caused to be made, at different times, no less than three varying types of the 54, 81, and 108 paras — which they sold as genuine. It was only in the late 'seventies that this official fraud was thoroughly exposed. As I have indicated, it is impossible, within the limits of a single chapter, to do more than touch the fringe of the subject of forgery and " faking," and the dissection of a few skilful imitations would not 258 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS materially add to the warning which the previous few pages will have conveyed — that the interest taken by the forger in Philately is a purely mercenary one, detrimental to our scientific hobby and damaging to our pockets ; the collector must always be on the defensive and on the look-out for pitfalls, not relying too much on a guarantee of genuineness (which only secures reimbursement of money paid) to prevent the admission into his album of a forgery or clever fake. The prevalence of forgery — and the almost equally reprehensible "reprinting" — should be no insur- mountable obstacle to the collector ; rather it should be a spur to prick the sides of his intent to intimate study and patient research. By collecting in a thorough and scientific manner, the collector will so impress on his memory the general features of the majority of the world's issues, together with the details of the safeguards afforded by paper, water- mark and perforation, that the first glimpse at a forgery or fake will reveal a something which at once rouses suspicion that the particular label is not the legitimate offspring of the Post Office. The " bogus " stamp, that is, the fraudulent label which has never existed as an original, is not to be feared : standard catalogues of the present day con- tain a practically accurate list of the designs of all issued stamps, and information as to new issues is so widely disseminated by the philatelic press that the chances of successfully placing a bogus stamp or issue are very small. There have been frauds of this kind, but they are so few, and their character is so easily ascertained FORGERIES, FAKES, AND FANCIES 259 from the perusal of any catalogue deserving of the name, that it will suffice to merely mention two or three countries which have had bogus issues foisted on them. A place supposed to be named Sedang and said to be ruled by a Frenchman was credited with a set of stamps for its non-existent Post Office ; Brunei, in 1895 or thereabouts, was reported to have issued a set of stamps, which eventually turned out to be the private speculation of some European trader ; and 1 Cordoba (a province of Argentina) had her two legitimate stamps of 5 and 10 centavos supplemented by four higher values of similar design made for the j delectation of collectors. There are a good many more, including the so- called issues for Clipperton Island, Torres Straits, Principality of Trinidad, Counani (the character of these last named is, I believe, still contested), Spits- bergen ; and certain labels purporting to hail from Hayti, Hawaii, German East Africa, and Mozambique. For the novice it may be well to add that the absence of a variety of a known stamp from the catalogue does not necessarily signify that it must be so rare in that particular form that it is unknown to the cataloguer. It may, of course, be a new dis- covery, but it is not less likely to be a variety which has been built up by some one interested in beguiling you with a fancy of his own. Forgers have been known to add new denominations to the sets of stamps they have been counterfeiting, that is to say, bearing face values unknown in the genuine series, and sometimes fictitious overprints or surcharges are 14 260 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS applied to genuine stamps. The most remarkable instance of the latter I can recall is the " Two Cents " overprint on the 3 cents brown on yellow Sarawak, which even the local authorities had come to believe in as having been applied by an up-country official in need of Two Cents stamps, but which were sur- charged in London, where the dies of the surcharge and the very genuine-looking combinations of post- marks were subsequently found during an important cause celebre. IX FAMOUS COLLECTIONS CHAPTER IX FAMOUS COLLECTIONS The "mania" in the 'sixties — Some wonderful early collections — The first auction sale — Judge Philbrick and his collection — The Image collection — Lord Crawford's ** United States " and '* Great Britain" — Other great modem collections — M. la Renotiere's "legions of stamps" — Synopsis of sales of collections. To fail to emphasise the broadly democratic character of the world of stamp collectors would be to overlook an important aspect of the popularity of this science, or, as it is to the majority, the " hobby " of stamps. I have already indicated the dual side of the collecting in the 'sixties, when the boy-collector predominated in numbers, but the adult student had the influence that gave " Philately" or " Timbrologie " a permanent place among the recreative studies. A note on the " Postage Stamp Exchange " in The Express^ in April, 1 862, indicates the benevolent toleration on the part of the out- side public and the press concerning the new " mania." "... We may mention that the mania has been increased in such a degree as to lead to the for- mation of a postage-stamp exchange, the locality being Change Alley, leading out of Birchin Lane. 264 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS There every evening about fifty boys, and some men^ tooy may be seen industriously exchanging old dis- figured stamps, most of which are carefully fastened in books. The earnestness and assiduity with which the * trade ' is carried on is very remarkable." "'Some men, too,'" says Mr. Mount Brown in sending me the paragraph, "is very lovely." It would be idle to disguise the fact that the mantle of bare toleration of the " mania " has not been entirely discarded by the uninitiated, and it has been a very disconcerting privilege to have for chairmen at lectures on postage-stamps, at literary and scientific institutions, gentlemen who have in- troduced the subject by confessing that they had once been collectors themselves, but that was when they were at school. The press, however, has shown a greater respect for the substantial basis of scientific interest which underlies the hobby, and to-day The Daily Telegraphy which has led the modern journalism in the matter of regular specialised articles, has its column of " Postage Stamp " notes every week, and so too has The Evening News. To-day, the press frequently discusses interesting new issues of stamps, and much publicity is now given to that argumentum ad populum^ the remark- able prices which are constantly being realised in the stamp-market. Considering that stamp-collect- ing can scarcely be regarded as having started prior to 1 860-6 1, the prices of stamps quickly attained respectable proportions. In The Young Ladies' Journal of December 14, 1864, there is this paragraph : — FAMOUS COLLECTIONS 265 " We had almost heard nothing of late of the postage-stamp collecting mania, till suddenly the formidable announcement is made by advertisement that an amateur is ready to sell his collection — for what sum would it be thought? — nothing less than ^250." Had the doubting Thomas ^ (for I dare say gentlemen edited ladies' papers in those days, much as they undertake the duties of " Aunt Molly " and the " Editress's Confidences " in the ladies' journals of to-day) had the foresight to buy a collection worth ;^250 in 1864, it would have been worth not less than, say, ;^25,ooo, probably more, to-day. The collecting of stamps has at all times in the history of Philately been enjoyed by young and old, by men and women of all ranks and stations. Kings have shared this pastime with the humblest of their subjects, and do so to this day. His Majesty King George V. once wrote of stamp-collecting to a friend that " it is one of the greatest pleasures of my life." A letter "enthusing" on the delights of stamp-hunting reached me the other day from a correspondent who claimed to be "only a work- * Earlier in the same year this boudoir gossiper had answered no fewer than three correspondents, '* Mercury," *' Daniel," and '* Milly " at one shot thus ; '* We cannot encourage * exchanging foreign stamps,' for we do not see the smallest good resulting from it. This foreign stamp-collecting has been a mania, which is at length dying out. Were the stamps works of art, then the collecting them might be justified. Were they, in short, anything but bits of defaced printing, totally worthless, we would try to say something in their favour. There are now so many lithographic forgeries in the market that he is the cleverest of the clever who can detect the spurious stamps from the true." — The Young Ladies' Journal^ April 27, 1864. 286 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS ing-man.'* There are few old stagers amongst collectors who have not encountered, and perhaps even been stimulated by, the boastful eagerness with which a youngster in his 'teens tells you of bargains got from Gibbons's books, or of a rare "snap," an unnoticed variety priced as the normal from Peckitt. For the Strand is full of bargains to-day, to the personal hunter who has the right knowledge. Having alluded to the wide differences in ages and in stations of collectors throughout the phila- telic period 1862-1911, it will be interesting to follow the more notable collections in their vicissi- tudes. M. Alfred Potiquet, one of the very earliest collectors, whose catalogue is of extreme rarity in its first edition, was probably an almost solitary example of the collector of unused stamps only, in the first days of the hobby. It is strange that in these later days the collectors on the Continent, almost to a man, prefer used stamps. But to return to Potiquet : he was probably the first collector of importance to sell his collection out- right, which he did about the time the second edition of his catalogue was issued by Lacroix. The collection was a small one, about five hundred stamps, all unused, and he sold the lot to Edard de Laplante in 1862 for five hundred francs, of which sum the purchaser had to borrow one half to complete the deal. But, if the reader considers that five hundred francs represents approximately ;£^20, he will appreciate the purchaser's bargain when told that the collection included the New Brunswick is. FAMOUS COLLECTIONS 267 (representing to-day £70) ; the Nova Scotia is. {£SS~£^S to-day) ; the Natal 3d. and 6d. embossed in plain relief, which now are almost unattainable, except as reprints ; Tuscany's 60 crazie (now worth ^35) and the i soldo {£7 to £%)\ and the 4 and 5 centimes " Poste Locale " stamps of the transitional period of Switzerland, which catalogue at £100 and £10 respectively ; and add to these many of the early issues of the Americas, the prices ot which are now leaping up in the catalogues, and of which we know Potiquet to have had a good number, including the very rare error, the half-peso of Peru, printed in rose-red instead of yellow, through a transfer of that denomination getting mixed up in the making up of the litho- graphic stone for the i peseta. The above error is priced £1^ used, but an unused copy would be worth very considerably more. He had also the I real and 2 reales of the Pacific Steam Naviga- tion Company stamps, on blued paper. Who was the amateur whose collection was referred to in the Young Ladies' Journal in 1864? It was possibly the " long cherished album " of that "worthy embodiment of Christian and gentle- man," the Rev. F. Stainforth, the chief gems of which passed about this time into the possession of Mr. Philbrick. What price the reverend invalid (he survived the sale but eighteen months) received has not been handed down to us, but as Mr. Stain- forth had been in the swim from the beginning, as he was a ready and high bidder for "any real or supposed rarity," and as his album was a general 268 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS reference collection at the Saturday afternoon rendezvous at the rectory of All Hallows, London Wall, it goes without saying that it was rich in stamps that to-day would be of the greatest value. At least two of the St. Louis Postmaster stamps were included. The first " Patimus " British Guiana known was in the Stainforth collection, a rarity with the motto of the colony Damns petimusque vicissim^ wrongly spelt "patimus," an error which, as Mr. Edward L. Pemberton pointed out, laid the colonists open to " the charge of selecting that which was beyond their ability to spell," but which was purely an engraver's error. The Stainforth collection was also rich in the American locals, and it was to this collection that Mr. Mount Brown was indebted for the useful lists of these stamps in his catalogues. From the little we know of the reverend gentleman's collection, we may be sure it would have well justified the remarkable price of ;£'25o even in 1864 or 1865. Few — very few — collectors of that period, and indeed of later times, withstood the temptations of a rapidly rising market or the emergencies of pecuniary embarrassments ; many sold their col- lections when prices seemed to be great but were, as events have proved, still in their early stages. One collector retained his collection from 1859 to 1896: its owner, Mr. W. Hughes-Hughes, of the Inner Temple, started collecting in the former year, but ceased active collecting in 1874, from which time his album was latent until 1896 — with the exception of some items lent for display at the FAMOUS COLLECTIONS 269 London Exhibition of 1890. Happily for our instruction, Mr. Hughes-Hughes was one of those methodical men who keep a strict account of expenditures, and he had spent £6(^ on his stamp- collection in those fifteen years. In 1896 he sold that collection for ;£"3,ooo. It was then cheap at the latter price, for it contained among its 2,900 varieties a yellow Austrian " Mercury " unused ; a 4 cents British Guiana of 1856, on blue "sugar" paper; the I2d. black of Canada unused; plate 77 of the id. Great Britain unused ; and, mirabile dictUy an unused copy of the 4d. red " woodblock " error of the Cape of Good Hope, a stamp which afterwards fetched ;^50o. One could go on to the rare used stamps, and so " pile on the agony," but let it suffice for the present to say that the collection contained many gems, especially in those classic early issues of Victoria, Trinidad, Mauritius, France, Reunion (the 15 centimes), Mexico, Naples (the J Tornese in both types), Tuscany, Saxony, &c., the very names of which countries conjure up for the present-day philatelist visions of pocket-money for millionaires. Hying back to the Continent, the troubles in France led to considerable disruption of the phila- telic life, and no doubt many collectors and their albums were parted. M. Oscar Berger-Levrault was the producer of the earliest privately printed lists of stamps. His firm of typographical printers, which had been established in Strasburg (the city of Gutenberg associations), had to move from Stras- burg to Nancy, as a result of the German annexa- tion of Alsace and Lorraine. The work of setting 270 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS up, in a new centre, establishments for his four hundred workmen left M. Berger-Levrault no time for stamps from 1870 to 1873, and this lapse in the continuity of his collection was so serious a gap that he decided to sell, especially as he had to undertake long bibliographical researches into his family history. He has told us something of his collection, but not the price it realise^! in 1873. Here is a brief statistical outline : — Contents of the collection, September, 1861 . .. Stamps 673 „ „ „ August, 1862 „ 1,142 „ „ „ April, 1863 „ 1.553 July, 1864 ... „ 1,857 These figures are without counting varieties of shade. In 1870 the collection contained 10,400 stamps in all, including 6,300 unused, and more than 1,400 genuine essays. " I was only short of fifty postage-stamps known at that date," he writes, " as also a certain number of Australian stamps, with their various watermarks, which I had begun to study towards 1866, with my old friends and col- laborators, F. A. Philbrick and Dr. Magnus." ^ Here indeed was a collection, probably as near to the collector's elusive ideal of completeness as has ever been attained in a general collection. Writing from memory, in January, 1890, he gives the following list of special items he remembers to have been amongst the 6,300 unused stamps : — ' The pseudonym of Dr. Legrand. FAMOUS COLLECTIONS 271 Bergedorf .. Nov. I, 186I ... J sch. violet. 3 sch. rose. Saxony ... 1850 ... 3pf. Great Britain ... 1840 ... id.V.R, Switzerland : Zurich ... 1843 ... 4 rapp. >j j> M ... 6 rapp. „ "Vaud" ... — ... 4 centimes. »> »» ... ... 5 Tuscany ... 1849 ... I soldo. )) ... M ... 2 soldi. >> ... J) ... 60 crazie. Naples i860 ... ^T. arms. >» ... »i ... J T. cross. Reunion ... I85I ... 15 centimes. »> ... »> ... 30 centimes. "Indies" 1854 ... J anna red. New Zealand ... 1855 ... IS. New Brunswick ... 1857 ... IS. Nova Scotia ... 1857 ... IS. British Guiana ... 1856 ... 4 cents carmine. Peru ... 1858 ... i peso. Buenos Ayres ... April 1858 ... 3 pesos. »» >» »» t) ... 4 pesos red. »» »> >» »» ... 4 „ brown. >> >» »i )» ... 5 „ orange. >> >> Oct. n ... 4 rl. brown. )> a >> >> I peso brown (:IN Ps). j> j> Jan. 1859 ... ipesoblue(:INPs) »> >> if >> I „ „ (TOPS) " On the other hand, Spain, without its colonies, was represented in my collection for the period of 1850 to the end of 1856 by 79 unused stamps, 80 postmarked stamps, 8 essays of the Madrid stamp (bear), and was very complete." Even on the ex- tenuated scale of the modern Gibbons catalogue, the total of varieties of the issues 1850-56 only numbers 125. 272 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS The first four-figure price for a stamp collection was obtained in 1878, when the magnificent collec- tion of Sir Daniel Cooper, Bart, K.C.M.G., was transferred to the ownership of Mr. Philbrick, Q.C., for ;£'3,ooo. Sir Daniel's public career, chiefly in con- nection with the promotion of "Advance, Australia ! ", is still well remembered, but it is significant of the character of the assemblages at Mr. Stainforth's rectory that this distinguished Australian should have been one of their most active promoters in 1861 and the following years. He was, with Mr. Philbrick, one of the founders of the Philatelic Society in 1869, and was the first of the line of distinguished occupants of the presidential chair of the now Royal Philatelic Society. It is only natural that, with his intimate associations with Australia, the early stamps of that continent and of New Zealand should figure strongly in his collection. It was he who supplied the data which enabled the young philatelic giant, Mr. E. L. Pemberton, to announce the existence of a pre-Rowland Hill stamped envelope in New South Wales, leading to the discovery of the embossed letter-sheets of Sydney, 1838. On March 18, 1872, there was held the first auction of rare postage-stamps at the rooms of Messrs. Sotheby, in Wellington Street, London. The experiment was made with what was described as a portion of an American collection, and the only reason the whole collection was not offered was that the time of the public was too valuable to spread over three days ! A criticism in the columns of FAMOUS COLLECTIONS 273 The Philatelical Journal oi April 15, 1872, attributes some of the prices, even then considered low, to the distrust of amateurs when the owner was bidding. I give a few of the prices realised. Lot 6 was the IS cents error, United States, 1869, with the frame inverted : " This fetched a good priced' in the opinion of the contemporary philatelic writer, being knocked down to Mr. Atlee for 36s. My friend, Mr. E. B. Power, in his priced work " United States Stamps," 1909, prices this stamp at $2,500 unused, $150 used. Lot 12 was a 5 cents Brattleboro : " a beauty, was bought in at £1 ; it would have sold well but for the owner's bidding," &c. I suppose a Brattle- boro, especially " a beauty," would find ready com- petition in three figures to-day. Other lots bought in were : — Lot 15, St. Louis, all three varieties of the 5c. ... £2 13s. Lot 16, „ „ „ „ IOC. ... £2 7s. Lot 17, „ 20c., "unique" ... £(). Lot 1 8, „ 20 c, "variety not unique" ... ;[^8 12s. The 5 cent St. Louis used is now catalogued at ;f 25, and the 10 cent at £10 ; a pair of the 20 cents, these stamps being part of the treasure- trove of the celebrated find of 1895, was sold in the 'nineties for ;£'i,026. Some of the Blood locals were bought in, but Mr. Pemberton secured for £^ a copy of the very rare pink Jefferson Market P.O. stamp. " Here," says our chronicler, " occurred something amusing ; the auctioneer probably fancied that as this was unique and exciting competition, it was a 274 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS handsome stamp, so as the bidding rose described it as 'beautifully engraved,' which created great laughter, for it was a foully hideous thing, and the engraving apparently done by a blind man with a skewer." Altogether there were many rare American locals, the majority of which fell to Sir Daniel Cooper, Mr. Atlee, and Mr. Pemberton. Then came "some miscellaneous lots, sets of used, &c., of which some fetched exorbitant prices, for instance, four varieties of 5 cents, green, eagle, Bolivia, were sold for 14s., the 5 cent lilac for 23s., the 10 cent brown for 17s. The early Luzons (Philippines), used, were good lots and the 5 and 10 cent 1854, with i and 2 rs., fetched in the aggregate £6 9s., so they were no bargain." Lot 1 50 was the J T. Naples, arms type, bought in for 40s., and the cross type was bought in for 9s. Lot 160 was "a remarkably good 13 cent of the commoner type of the 1852 figure Sandwich Islands, which the owner boldly started at £6 and bought in for an additional ten shillings, a very full price indeed!' Nevertheless it would have cost £go or more to-day. The record of this sale deserves more attention than I am able to give it here : the event was cer- tainly one of extraordinary interest, though it was considered at the time something of a failure, and was not repeated. The next auction sale of stamps did not take place until sixteen years later. But I . must spare a few lines for my chronicler's peroration. " The results of this sale are so far satisfactory that they prove that Philately is not yet on the wane, and FAMOUS COLLECTIONS 275 never will be. It is a young science, but before many years pass, we shall regard £^ for a valuable stamp as calmly as we do now the pound sterling for an ordinary specimen; and those who have been the mainstays of the dealers will undoubtedly find that their outlays, however extensive, will produce at least cent, per cent. What are we to think of the matchless collections of Mr. Philbrick, Sir Daniel Cooper, Mr. Atlee, Baron Arthur de Rothschild, E. J., and others, gathered together with unflagging toil and patience, but all of which contain practically unattainable things ? And will not these in the course of years inevitably become of fabulous value ? " Four years after the Cooper collection was sold for ;f 3,000, Mr. Philbrick, to the deep regret of all his British colleagues, sold his general collection (not the Great Britain portion) to M. la Rdnotiere in Paris, for the then record price of £Zfyoo, At his death, which occurred so recently as Christmas, 1910, it would have represented the comfortable fortune of, say, ;^50,ooo! It would be a shorter task to say what was not in this truly wonderful collection than to attempt a list of its gems, for the absentees were almost nil. The best idea of the strength of this collection must be gathered from the valuable papers Philbrick contributed to The Stamp Collectof^s Maga- zine and The Philatelic Record^ chiefly under the pseudonyms " Damus petimusque vicissim," " An Amateur," and several " By the author of the 'Postage Stamps of British Guiana,' " and by his collaborated work with the late Mr. W. A. S. Westoby, "The 15 276 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS Postage and Telegraph Stamps of Great Britain." Here I may fittingly place on record a souvenir I recently acquired of this collaboration and close friendship between these two most renowned of the students of stamps, whose work is a classic in the literature of Philately, and is still constantly referred to, being only in some respects superseded by later authorities. The letter itself amply justifies publica- tion in entirety here, as it throws an interesting light on the philatelic evidence before the Joint Committee on Postage Stamps appointed by the Postmaster- General, the " confidential " report of which was printed in 1885 ("Bibl. Lindesiana," p. 159). " II, Earl's Avenub, Folkestone, " December igth. *'My Dear Philbrick,— " After seeing you on Saturday I wrote a letter to Mr. Jeflfery saying that you had told me the substance of what passed, and that I most thoroughly endorsed what you had said about forgery. It was not the difficulty of forging a stamp which constituted their protection, so much as the difficulty of disposing of the stamps when forged. *' I further said that if they determined on having a surface printed series not combined with embossing they must allow me to point out what I considered to be a fatal error in all Messrs. De La Rue's designs, and this was the introduction of a lined background, the lines of which were almost coincident with the lines of shading in the head. The merit of Bacon's design was that he had a light head thrown up by a dark background, and I could scarcely point out an instance where surface-printed stamps had not either a solid background or none at all, like the Hungarian of 1872. As they would possibly not like a solid background I suggested to them to adopt a standard profile of the Queen's head, and for all the stamps up to is. to reduce it by photo- graphy to the size of the head on the 2d., and for those above they might reduce it to a larger size, so as to keep the same likeness through all, and to put it on a plain white ground, and I sent them a 2d. from which I had removed the lined background like as I have done in the id. annexed. " That if they would excuse my making a further suggestion it would FAMOUS COLLECTIONS 277 be that for all the stamps up to is. about four colours would suffice, if the framings were made different and distinctly visible, . . . thus : — Green id. Ijd. 3d. pink like the present 5s. fid. J 2d. (4d. blue ike the 2S. 2id. 5d. olive " I have had a very courteous reply from Mr. Jeffery, thanking me much for the letter, and saying he would lay it before the Committee at the next meeting. " I forgot to mention one thing I said. That I knew that stamp collectors were not regarded with too much favour by the authorities, who were inclined to regard them as too curious and desiring to look into mysteries into which even angels were forbidden to look, but that they ought to take a very different view, for we were the greatest pro- tectors against forgeries of stamps that they could have. Not one came out, but was immediately denounced in the publications circu- lating amongst collectors and the forger's trade stopped. *' I have written you a long lot of twaddle, but I have tried to sound the trumpet of the Philatelist — what Bunhill Row will think I do not know nor care ; I said their manufacture was good — the best — but that the least said about their designs and colours the better. I also said that as to the lettering I agreed with you that it was practically useless if the stamp was properly obliterated and the saving slips done away with. " The kind of stamp I suggested that they should have the design made of as a trial was the 2d. head turned the other way, when they could see the effect. " Ever yours very affectionately, "W. A. S. Westoby." I am not entering upon any details of the Philbrick collection, for the most I could give would be a bald citation of an almost untold list of rarities. Imagine — if you can — a complete list of all known stamps up to 1880, imagine also some of the rarities not merely in duplicate or triplicate, but in the course of advanced plating of the settings (especially in British Guiana), and you may get some idea of 278 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS what was in this great collection — and is still pre- served in the collection of M. la R^noti^re. His two used " Post Offices " of Mauritius were the first known copies of these rarities, and were at first considered to be an error of the inscription "Post Paid" of 1848, instead of a distinct issue of 1847. They came from the correspondence of a M. Borchard, whose widow found no fewer than thirteen of the twenty-five copies now known. The first pair was exchanged for a couple of " Montevideos," which had, in the eyes of the lady, so M. Moens tells us, " the supreme advantage of having a place indicated for them in the Lallier album, where the ' Post Office,' like many other stamps, were not indicated." The two stamps were used on one envelope, and were postmarked together with one impression of the "Inland" handstamp, the id. specimen having the left upper corner defective. M. Albert Coutures, a youngster of twenty, secured the stamps in the "swap," and afterwards (October, 1865) parted with them to M. Moens through the medium of a Bordeaux merchant, M. E. Gimet. The price Moens paid must have been a mere trifle, as he parted with them to Mr. Philbrick on February 15, 1866, for a few pounds. The record of these stamps Nos. I and 2 in Moens's " A History of the Twenty Known Specimens, &c.," is therefore briefly — Year. Owner. 1847 Borchard. 1864 (?) Coutures. 1865 Gimet. 1865 Moens. 1866 Philbrick. 1882 La Renotiere. C'-ii ^\ s^ S o Is c < ■< en O a, o > ._^ a X H 279 FAMOUS COLLECTIONS 281 To-day their "weight in gold" would, of course, repre- sent but an infinitesimal fraction of their market value. The Image collection was sold in the same year as the Philbrick albums. Mr. W. E. Image was yet another of the vieille garde of Philately, though he ploughed a lone furrow during the early years of his collecting, which began in 1859. His collec- tion, sold for ;^3,ooo in 1882, deserves to be especially noted, as it was in one sense the basis of the great national collection now at the British Museum. The late Mr. T. K. Tapling, M.P., was the purchaser, and so magnificent was his new acquisition that he at one time thought of parting with his own and continuing the Image collection. At this juncture, the death of Mr. Tapling's father enabled him to amalgamate the two collections, his own with that of Mr. Image, and to launch out upon the grandly conceived collection bequeathed in 1 89 1 to the nation. Mr. Image at first compiled his collection almost entirely by correspondence, and did not see the inside of a dealer's shop until the 'seventies. He is said, however, to have never refused a good specimen of a stamp he lacked, save on one occasion, an historic one. Moens offered him for ;^240 the two Post Office Mauritius, but he declined, as he hoped to get another chance at a more moderate figure. That was in the 'seventies. Image lived to the advanced age of ninety-six (b. 1807), and within a few months of his death a copy of the 2d. Post Office alone was sold by Messrs. Puttick and Simpson for £i,^lo. 282 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS But if he lacked the " Post Offices," there was an abundance of other rarities. Philbrick travelled to Bury St. Edmunds to see Image'? wonderful unused 6d. orange of Victoria (" beaded oval "), a stamp which in the Mirabaud sale (1909) fetched ;6"i40. The copy from the Avery collection attained in 19 10 a price still higher. British Guiana, Guadalajara and the American locals were amongst the specially strong sections of this collection. There have been so many really important col- lections formed since the Philbrick collection that almost any entry into details becomes invidious in a brief review. The collections of to-day are, as I have indicated, on a more broadly historical basis than was general in the early days of the study, though even the collections of Dr. Gray, Sir Daniel Cooper and Judge Philbrick, and others, were on a sound basis of historical research. Philately has had no more precise or more able historians than Judge Philbrick and his collaborator, Mr. W. A. S. Westoby, while to Dr. Gray we are indebted for the history of most of the English essays of the first period. But the collections of Lord Crawford have carried the historical and scientific aspects of Philately to more profound depths, and the stamps have been collected on a more lavish scale to provide ample reference material not only for present but future study. Condition, too, has received more attention, and is now a primary consideration. The collections are mostly arranged r* ifelClOCKidOQOaQ ooooootujoooa u-,^.^ ■■ .' -. ■ ■ .. . . .... ^. .. - .. ..— .ja^a^u ..-JJ.M.. .m^^i^^ odooooyooaaa QpoaoQaaaaiH aoQaaoaaaaoii TBBI^ ^MHIF ^■Hir ^hlBBr' ^wWPf^ ^^Wln TWBH^ ^*WWw^ ^WW^ ^^^*c ^wi^w^ ^^^^ aonoaaaiiociaQ ^mHDT "^w^^r '^■^IW^ ^WWr "sWHB^ ^^tHWSt ^HBBBr ^JlflW^ ^jf^wr viuwsi wmwu T^m^at aaaaaaaoaaaa aoaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaa^ 009000000000*^ f i i f aaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaa PART SHEET (175 STAMPS) OF THE ORDINARY ONE PENNY BLACK STAMP OF GREAT BRITAIN, 184O. {From the collection of the Earl of Crawford, K. T^ oaagaaaaaQaa aaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaiaaaaaa naar in ii9i9iii.Mvi: PART SHEET (LACKING BUT SIX HORIZONTAL ROWS) OF THE SCARCE TWO PENCE BLUE STAMP "WITHOUT WHITE LINES" ISSUED IN GREAT BRITAIN, 184O. {From the collection of the Earl of Crawford, K.T.) 287 FAMOUS COLLECTIONS 289 in countries or groups, and few suspect the wealth of material as yet not disclosed, among the sections which have not yet been publicly dis- played. The United States collection, when shown to the New York Collectors' Club a few years ago, opened up a new aspect of Philately to the col- lectors in the States, and gave an effective stimulus to the serious side of collecting in America. The collection is very fully written up in the Earl's own writing, much of which was done on board his yacht, the Valhalla. The collection contains practically all that could be got together to illustrate the postal history of the United States, and makes the mention of particular items useless. The unique envelope of Annapolis, however, is especially noteworthy, and also the lo cents, black on white, adhesive stamp of Baltimore, of which but three copies are known. Of Great Britain, too. Lord Crawford has a large number of well-filled albums, including some extraordinarily large blocks ("part sheets" would describe them better) of the imperforate line- engraved stamps. There is nearly a complete sheet of the id. black "V.R." (219 stamps out of the 240), a part sheet of the ordinary id. black (175 stamps), and all but six rows of a sheet of the scarce 2d. blue, "no lines," which was the companion stamp of the id. black, and was issued on May 6, 1840. The collections of Mr. Leslie L. R. Hausburg, have, next to those of the Earl of Crawford, attracted widespread attention and the unstinted 290 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS admiration of philatelists. They have hitherto dealt chiefly with the Australasian portions of the British Empire, but latterly have been extended to a number of foreign countries. Mr. M. P. Castle, J.P., has formed several great collections, as will be noted in the list of sales which con- cludes this chapter, and Mr. Henry J. Duveen has one of the three finest collections of Mauritius, including the superb "Post Offices," both unused, from the Avery collection, and a matchless block of four, unused, of the id. Post Paid, for which wonderful item its possessor paid ;^i,ooo. These "Post Offices" are the ones which in 1910 carried the record price for this popular pair of rarities up to ;^3,500. Mr. Duveen's Switzerland collec- tion is also a very notable one, and contains the block of double Genevas, and the part sheet of "large Eagles" from the Avery collection, and the beautiful block of fifteen Basle "doves," which was the subject of a recent find in Berne. Baron Anthony de Worms is the owner of a fine collec- tion of Great Britain and the collection par excellence of Ceylon. Mr. Harvey R. G. Clarke's collection of New South Wales is justly celebrated, and in the less costly countries the honours of possessing the most perfect collections are dis- tributed by no means exclusively among the very wealthy. In stamp-collecting the personal search is often more productive than lavish expenditure without personal effort. In America there are some collections of great note. That of Mr. George H. Worthington has i iiA<\,', t'i'/' / , /f/i ^ »v. ^^ THE UNIQUE BLOCK OF THE "DOUBLE GENEVA" STAMP, THE RAREST OF THE SWISS "CANTONALS." Formerly in the ^' Avery'' Collection^ but now in the possession of Henry /. Duveen, Esq 291 XJ SJ O "§ ^ •1?* ss z 1 •v o . e c^ 5-v' V ^tV $ 5 «^ 5^ f •^■ '^^ 5 <^ ■^-<'»' o o i 1 ^ s ■ 1 o -*-• - § §^^ *> -li >: ;l ■ ■> ^ ^-^•3 '^ "^ 5 ^ ^1 s 1 s '^ O ^^ ^ s § »5 5 ^ ^ '^ FAMOUS COLLECTIONS 295 been referred to elsewhere. Mr. Henry J. Crocker, a San Francisco magnate, had the misfortune to lose about ;^ 15,000 worth of his stamps in the disastrous fire which followed the earthquake of 1906. This included eleven out of forty-three of his albums, but luckily his greatest work, the Hawaiian collection, was safely in England at the time of the catastrophe. A wonderful collection of Japanese was completely destroyed. Mr. Crocker has no fewer than sixteen of the Hawaiian " Missionaries" ; outside of the British Museum, his is the only copy of the 2 cents. Type I. ; he has four used copies of the 5 cents, two of them being on the entire envelopes ; and there is a unique item in an unbroken strip of three 1 3 cents " Hawaiian Postage " on entire. Two of the stamps are Type L and the other Type H. ; he has also an unused and two used copies of each type. Of the " H.I. & U.S. Postage" 13 cents stamp there are two specimens, one of each type used together.^ Of other American collections, that of Mr. Francis C. Foster, of Boston, impressed me as much as any that I have seen across the Atlantic. Mr. Foster has been interested in stamps probably longer than any other living collector in the United States, and his collection now comprises the United States, the possessions, and British North America. In the general issues of the Republic he has a superb set of the premieres gravures^ and all the early ^ See further " Postage Stamps of the Hawaiian Islands in the Collection of Henry J. Crocker," described and illustrated by Fred J. Melville, London, 1908. 296 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS issues are extensively shown, together with the beautiful proofs and essays associated with them. The Confederate States Postmasters' stamps include the 5c. Athens used on the envelope ; the 5c. and IOC Goliad ; and the Livingston, Alabama. The late Mr. Thorne, an old New York collector, showed me his collection in 1906, which was of great proportions and was exclusively composed of blocks of four, a state in which he had the greatest difficulty in obtaining even many modern stamps. His collection, or some of it, has been disposed of by auction in America. The late Mr. J. F. Seybold, of Syracuse, had the credit of fostering the cult of collecting the used stamps on the entire envelope or letter, which from the his- torical point of view is extremely useful. His collection, however, was bought for about ;^5,ooo by Mr. J. T. Coit, and subsequently realised nearly £7^000 at auction. Of the great collections of the Continent, that of M. Philippe la R^notiere is the greatest ever brought together, but its owner has not been in the habit of exhibiting it, and the number of living philatelists who have seen even portions of it must be extremely few. He has certainly got together in the aggregate a collection greater than the Tapling one, and he has absorbed in the process the albums of Sir Daniel Cooper and Judge Philbrick, and has had the pick of all the greatest collections which have come on the market for many years. It was estimated years ago that he must have spent a quarter of a million of money on the collection,^ and as he commenced » "The Stamp Collector," by W. J. Hardy and E. D. Bacon, 1897. />,. / .^^ \ ^'^ I %#^^fif$i. A PAGE OF THE 5 CENTS AND I3 CENTS I HAWAIIAN "^MISSIONARY " STAMPS. {From the ''^Crocker'''' Collection^ 297 \.< 4 FAMOUS COLLECTIONS 301 about 1864, the extent of his treasures has brought him to be regarded as a philatelic Comte de Monte Cristo. The unique British Guiana i cent stamp of 1856 is in this collection, together with five Post Office Mauritius, including one of the two known copies of the id. unused. Other great rarities are mostly represented by several copies. The collection of the late M. Paul Mirabaud, a wealthy Parisian banker, was exceptional for the beauty of the condition of the stamps it contained, and at the auction sale many of the stamps fetched prices much beyond the standard quotations of the catalogues. The Swiss portion, which formed the basis of a most sumptuously illustrated work written in collaboration by M. Mirabaud and the Baron A. de Reuterskiold, was sold privately. The following synopsis of the chief sales of collections (whether by auction or privately) covers only those which are known to have realised £\,0QO and upwards; there are many more which have doubtless been sold for amounts well into four figures, but the transactions, or at any rate the amounts, have not been disclosed. The amounts given below must not in every case be taken as the exact purchase price ; where not exact they are approximate. 302 CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS Year. Collection. Character. Amount. 1878 Cooper. General. £ 3>ooo 1882 Philbrick. General. 8,000 1882 Image. General. 3,000 1885 Burnett. General. 1,000 1890 Caillebotte. General. 5,000 1891 Colman. British Colonies. 2,000 1894 Winzer. General. 3,000 1894 Castle. Australia. 10,000 1894 Philbrick. Great Britain. 1,500 189s Harrison. United States. 1,330 1895 Harbeck. General. 3,000 189s W. Cooper. General. 1895 J. E. Wilbey. General. — 1896 Hughes-Hughes. General. 3,000 1896 Ehrenbach. Germany. 6,000 1896 Earl of Kingston. British Empire. 1,800 1896-7 Blest. New South Wales, New Zea- land, and Queensland. 4,750 1897 F. W. Ayer. General (dispersed gradually). 45,000 1897 Dr. Legrand. Part of General. 12,000 1898 Russell. General (unused, strong in British Colonies). 4,600 1898 H. L. Hayman. General. 4,000 1899 Pauwels. General. 4,000 1900 M. P. Castle. Europe. 27,500 1901 W. T. Willett. Great Britain (with Nevis). 2,000 1902 Major-Gen. Lamb- ton. C. Hollander. British Colonies. 3,400 1902 South Africa. 1,500 1903 J. N. Marsden. General. 2,350 1903 E. J. Nankivell. Transvaal. 3,000 1904 P. Fabri. General. 3,000 1904 A titled collector. Selection of great rarities. 4,700 1904 Prince Doria Pam- philj. M. P. Castle. General. 2,000 1905 Australia. 5»75o 1906 W. W. Mann. Europe. 30,000 1906 A. Bagshawe. Straits Settlements. 2,000 1907 V. Roberts. Cape Colony, Queensland, &c. 3,800 1907 Tomson. West Indies. 6,800 1908 P. Mirabaud. (Switzerland, ;^8,ooo ( Rest of Collection, j^22,ooo j 30,000 1909 Sir W. B. Avery. General. 24,500 1909 J. W. Paul, jun. General. 11,400 1909 J. F. Seybold. General. S,(:) 175 Corbould, Mr. Henry, 106, 175 Cordoba, 259 Counani, 259 Cousins, Mr. Samuel, 170 Coutures, M. Albert, 278 Crawford, The Earl of, 105, 131, 148, 159, 160, 171, 282-289, 279 Creased stamps, How to treat, 138 Creeke, Mr. A. B., jun., 156, 160 Crocker, Mr. Henry J., 295, 297, 299 Cromwell, Thomas, 62 Crown Agents for the Colonies, 172 Cuba, 205, 306 Current-number, 27, 29 Cut-outs, cut-squares, 27 Cyprus, 29, 168, 222, 306 Daily Telegraphy The, 264 Darius, I., 59 David's letter to Joab, 58 De la Rue & Co., Limited, i 202, 276 Denmark, 240, 306 "De-oxidisation," 138 De-sulphurisation of stamps, 138 Dickens, Charles, 122 Dickinson, Mr. John, 102, 109, 159, 160, 164 "Dickinson" paper, 27, 41, 109, 157, 161, 164 Dies, postage-stamp, 23, 24, 27, 3i» 35. 36, 46, 51 Dilke, Mr., of The Athenaeum, 109 Diplomata of the Roman Em- perors, 60 Dockwra, Mr. William, 64-67, 82-84 Dominica, 204 Dominican Republic, 205 Doria Pamphilj, Prince, 302, 326 Double prints, 27 Dutch East Indian Company, 85 Dutch Indies, 85 Duty-plate, 27, 32 Duveen, Mr. Henry J., 187, 225, 290-293 Earee, Rev. R. B., 243 Edinburgh, H.R.H. the Duke of, I3i» 305-311 Edward VII., H.M. King, 129, 313. 317, 318 Egypt, 233 Ehrenbach, Mr. R., 302 Electrotypes, 27 Embossing, 27 Engraving, 28 Entires, 28 Envelope stamps, 28 Errors, 28 Essays for postage stamps, 28, 103, 107 European stamps, 202, 203 Evans, Major E. B., 156 Evans, Mrs. John, 161 Evans, Mr. Lewis, 160, 161 Evening News, The, 264 Express, The, 263 356 INDEX Fabri, Sr. p., 302 Facsimiles of postage stamps, 28, 241 " Facts and Reasons," Mr. Ashurst's, loi, 109 Fakes, 28, 249-253 " Falsification of Postage Stamps, The," 240 Fernando Po, 306 Field, Mr. D., 9, 321 Fiji, 168, 169, 206, 223, 257 Fiscal stamps, 28, 45, 48 Flap ornaments, 28 ** Forged Stamps and How to De- tect Them," 239 Forgeries, 28, 31, 239-260 Forrester, Mr. Samuel, 159, 160 France, 234, 269, 326 Francis, Mr. John, 109 Francis, Mr. John Collins, 109 French Revolution, 61 Fuchs, Herr Emil, 317 Fugitive inks, 28 Gambia, 37, 204, 223 Gambin, Sr. Miguel, 302 Gauge for measuring perforations, see ' ' Perforation Gauge " Gauge for use in arranging stamps, 144-147 General Post Office, London, 57, 80, 195 Generalising, 31,49, 199, 200 Geneva, 256, 290-293, 326 George v., H.M. King, 131, 160, 167, 195, 225, 265, 305-325 German East Africa, 259 German Empire, 61 German New Guinea, 206 German States, 61, 71, 179, 203, 330 Gibbons, Mr. E. S., 117, 233 Gibbons Stamp Weekly y 156 Gibraltar, 71, 306 Gilbert and Ellice Islands, 20 Gimet, M. E., 278 Gold Coast, 204 Goliad, 183, 332 Government imitations, 31, 256 Grangerising philatelic monographs, 155 Granite paper, 31, 41 Gray, Dr. J. E., 97, 98, 124, 282 Great Britain, 25, 31, 32, 45, 53, 62, 68, 99, 154-161, 170-173, 177- 180, 191, 195, 201, 216-219, 235. 244-248, 251, 269, 271, 275, 283- 290> 307. 312-321 "Great Britain: Embossed Adhe- sive Stamps," 160 Greece, 51, 234, 306 Grenada, 25, 322 Griebert, Mr. Hugo, 180 Grille, The, 31 Grove Hill, 332 Guadalajara, 282 Guam, 205, 206 Guillotine perforation, 31 Gum, 36 Gumpaps, 31 PIair-lines, 31 "Hand Catalogue of Postage Stamps," Dr. Gray's, 124 Hand-made paper, 31, 39 Hanover, 61, 326 Hansardy 96-98 Harbeck, Mr. C. T., 302 Hardy, Mr. W. J., 298 Harrison, Mr. G. 302 Harrow perforating machine, 32 Plarwood's envelope, 109 Hausburg, M*-. L. L. R., 289 Hawaii, 205-207, 234, 259, 274, 295-299. 327-331 Hayman, Mr. H. L., 302 INDEX 357 Hayti, 71, 201, 205, 259 Haywood, Mrs., 175 Head-plate, 32 Heath, Mr. Charles, 106, 176 Heath, Mr. Frederick, 106, 173, 175 Helena, 332 Heligoland, 306 Henderson, Mr. S., of Dalkeith, 102 Herodotus, 59 Herpin, M. G., 127 Hill, Mr. Edwin, 160 Hill, Mr. John, 64 Hill, Mr. Matthew Davenport, 96 Hill, Mr. Ormond, 160 Hill, Sir Rowland, 71-75, 97-101, 110-112, 159, 160, 164, 167, 175, 247, 272, 312 and frontispiece Hinges for mounting stamps, 137, 140-144 Hobson, Tobias, 62 Holland, 179, 234 Hollander, Mr. C, 302 Holstein, 61 Honduras, 71 Hong Kong, 322 House of Commons envelopes, no House of Lords envelopes, 93, no ** How to Detect Forged Stamps," 241 Hughes- Hughes, Mr., 123, 268, 302 Humphrys, Mr. William, 170 Hungary, 276 Iceland, 306 Image, Mr. W. E., 281, 302 Imperforate stamps, 32, 140, 179- 18s Imprimatur, 32 Imprint, 32 India, 223, 249 Inverted, 32 Ionian Islands, 306 Irish National Museum, 331 Irregular perforation, 32 Italian States, 118, 171, 203, 234, 249, 326 Italy, 60 Jaffray, Miss, 167 Jamaica, 37, 170 James II., King, 64 Japan, 234, 255, 295 Jezebel's forged letters, 59 Joab, 59 Johnson, Mr. H. F., 9 Joint-Committee on Postage Stamps, 276 Jubilee line, 32 Junior Philatelic Society, 9, 322 Kent, H.R.H. the Duchess of, 170 Key-plate, 27, 32 King, Mr. S., of Bath, 72, 73 King's Messengers, 62 Kingston, The Earl of, 131, 302 Kintore, The Earl of, 321 Knife, 35 Knight, Mr. Charles, 96-98 Labuan, 224 Lacroix, M., 266 Lagos, 204 Laid batonne paper, 35 Laid paper, 35, 39 Lallier, M. Justin, 128, 278 Lambton, Major-General, 302 Laplante, M. Edard de, 266 Lauenburg, 61 Lawn & Barlow, 329 Leeward Islands, 204 Legrand, Dr. A., 126, 270, 302 Leinster, The Duke of, 331 358 INDEX L'Epinard, Chevalier Paris de, 82 Letter-balances, 72-74 Letter-office of England, The, 63, 80 Letters, The earliest, 58, 59 ; penny- post letter in 1686, 83, 84 ; statistics, 75 Lincoln, Mr. W. S., 117, 127 Line-engraving, 35, 46 Lithography, 35, 46 Livingston, 183 Locals, 35, 273 Louis, Mr., witness, Select Com- mittee, 95 Luxemburg, 61, 326 Macon, 332 MacWhirter, Mr. John, 169 Madden, Rev. G. C. B., 186 ♦* Magnus," Dr., 270 Malta, 71, 306 Manila paper, 35, 40 Mann, Mr. W. W., 302 Manuel, H.M. King, 325 Marianne Islands, 206 Marsden, Mr. J. N., 302 Marshall Islands, 206 Matrix, 27, 35, 50 Mauritius, 47, 187, 202, 207, 224- 227, 269, 278, 281, 290, 301, 319-323. 329-332 Maury, M. A., 81 Mecklenburg-Schwerin, 61 MekeePs Weekly Stamp News, 189 Mercantile Committee, The, lOi Mexico, 189, 203, 269, 305 Millbury, 181 Millimetre, 35 Million stamps fable. The, 116 Mill-sheet, 35 Mint, 35, 141 Mirabaud, M. Paul, 282, 301, 302 Mirror of Parliament, The, 98 Mixed perforations, 35 Modena, 240 Moens, M.J. B., 117, 128, 278 Moldavia, 207, 234, 306, 329, 331 Montenegro, 306 Monthly Advertiser, The, 128 Monthly Intelligencer and Contro- versialist, The, 128 Montserrat, 204, 224 Morocco, 189 " Mounted " stamps, 36 Mounting stamps in albums, 137 Mounts, 137 Mozambique, 259 Mulready, Mr. William : envelopes and covers, 109-111, 159, 160, 165, 167, I75» 312 Nankivell, Mr. E. J., 302 Naples, 47, 118, 240, 249, 269, 271, 274 Natal, 202, 267, 311 Native-made paper, 36, 40 Nepal, 40 Netherlands, 61 Nevis, 204, 227, 311, 322, 326 New Brunswick, 176, 228, 266, 271 New Caledonia, 206 Newfoundland, 228, 329 New Hebrides, 206 New South Wales, 106, 123, 176, 207, 229, 254, 255, 272, 290, 3H Newspaper tax, 96 New Zealand, 35, 170, 190, 229, 271, 272 Nicaragua, 242 Nicholas, Mme., 121 Niger Coast Protectorate, 204, 230 Nissen, Mr. C., 9, 106, 251 Niue, 206 North, Mr. J. C, 168 Northern Nigeria, 204 Norway, 306 INDEX 359 Nova Scotia, 228, 267, 271 Nuncii et Cursores, 62 Gates, Titus, 64 Obliterations, 36 Obsolete, 36, 47 Oceanic Settlements, 206 Oil Rivers Protectorate, 204 Oldenburg, 61, 233, 326 Original covers, stamps used on, 185 Original die, 36 Original gum, 36 Overprint, 36 Pacific Steam Navigation Co., 267 Packet-collections, 136 Pairs, 25, 36 Palmer, J., 73 Panama Canal Zone, 205 Panes of Stamps, 33, 39 Paper, 39-41 Papua, 170, 206 Paraphe, 41 Parker, Mr. J. W. , loi Parliament, Temporary letter- covers for Members of, 93, 109 Parma, 240 Patte, 28, 41 Paul, Mr. J. W., jun., 302 Pauwels, Mr. J., 302 Peacock papers, The, iii, 155, 175 Peckitt, Mr. W. H., 9, 156, 266, 321 Pellisson, M., 81 Pelure paper, 40, 41 Pemberton, Mr. E. L., 123, 127, 239, 242, 268, 272, 274 Pen-cancelled, 41 Penny post, first proposed, 64 ; in Edinburgh, 67 ; local penny posts, 67 Penny post of 1680, 4, 82-84 Penrhyn, 206 Perazzi, Signor, 112 Perce, per9age, 41, 42 Perforation, 24, 31, 32, 35, 42-44, 48, 139 Perforation-gauge, 43, 44 Perkins, Bacon & Co., 102, 106, 201, 228 Peroxide ofhydrogen. The use of, 138 Persia, 24, 59 Peru, 31, 71, 189, 267, 271, 325 Petersburg, 326 Petite Foste, 80 Philatelic Record, The, 82, 88, 275 Philatelic Society, The Royal, 105, 123, 129, 131, 158, 160, 229, 272, 306, 322, 325 Philatelical Journal, The, 272 Philatelist, The, 305 Philately, Definition of, 7, 44, 127 Philately, The higher, 8 Philbrick, Judge, 123, 131, 155, 270, 272, 275-282, 298, 302 Philippine Islands, 205, 206, 274 Phillips, Mr. Charles J., 168 Pin-perforation, 42, 45, 48 Plate, 24, 27, 45, 46 Plate-number, 29, 45 Porto- Rico, 41, 205, 306 Portugal, 71 ; King of, 305 Portuguese Nyassa, 172 Post, Genesis of the, 55-75 " Post," Origin of the word, 59 " Postage and Telegraph Stamps of Great Britain, The," 155, 276 ''Postage Charts" proposed in Sweden, 91, 92 Postage Stamp, The, 189 Postage Stamp "chart," A, 119 " Postage Stamps and their Col- lection," 332 Postal fiscal, 45 Postal Stationery, 27, 28, 45 Postmarks, 23, 36, 41, 45, 140, 185 360 INDEX Post-office in 1790, 69 Posts in early times, 59-75 Posts, Master of the, 62 Potiquet, M. Alfred, 125, 266 Povey, Mr. Charles, 67 Power, Mr. E. B., 273 Pre-cancellation, 45 Presidents and Vice-Presidents of The Royal Philatelic Society, London, 131 Prices of old stamps, 9 Printers of postage stamps, 202 Printing postage stamps, 46 Proofs, 46, 171-179 Provisionals, 46 Prussia, 61 Punchy 116 Puttick & Simpson, 281, 321 Quadrille paper for albums, 147 ; for stamps, 39, 46 ** Queen's Heads " ; the early use of the term, 116 Queensland, 175 Re-cutting, 47 Re-drawing, 47 Re-engraving, 47 Re-issues, 47 Remainders, 47 Renotiere, M. la, 275, 278, 296 Rep paper, 40, 47 Reprints, 47, 256, 325 Resetting, 47 Retouching, 47 Reunion, 269, 271, 329, 331 Reliterskiold, Baron A. de, 301 Revenue, 48 Reversed, 48 Ribbed paper, 40, 48 Roberts, Mr. Vernon, 302 Romagna, 240 Roman /(jJzVfl, The, 59 Rosace, 28, 41, 48 Rothschild, Baron Arthur, 275 Rough perforation, 48 Rouletting, 41, 42, 48; in coloured lines, 48 Roumania, 234, 257 Royal Niger Co. , 204 Russell, Mr., 302 Russia, 71, 189, 325 ** Safety " paper, 40, 49 St. Christopher, 204 St. Helena, 71 St. Kitts-Nevis, 204 St. Louis, 268, 273 St. Vincent, 224, 230, 311 Samoa, 206, 234 Sandwich Islands. See Hawaii Sappho, The French, 81, 82 Sarawak, 201, 260 Sardinia : Letter sheets of 181 8, 86-93 Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, H.R.H. the Duke of, 131, 305-311 Saxony, 61, 269, 271 Schleswig-Holstein, 233 Scud^ri, Mdlle., 81, 82 Scythia : early communications, 59 Sedang, 259 Seebeck, Mr. N. F. , 49 Select Committee on Postage, 95, 98-101 Serpentine roulette, 49 Servia, 306 Se tenant, 49 Seybold, Mr. J. F., 296, 302 Shanghai, 234 Sheet of paper, of stamps, 49 Sicily, 118 Sierra Leone, 204, 224, 231 Sievier, Mr. R. W., 102 Silk-thread paper, 49 Single-line perifomtion, 49 INDEX 361 Smith, Mr. Alfred, 127 Smith, Mr. Stafford, 127 Societ6 Frangaise de Timbrologie, 127 Somerset House, 154-156, 172, 321 South African War provisionals, 235 South America, 49, 203 South Australia, 231 Southern Nigeria, 204, 224 Spain, 60, 71, 172, 234, 240, 248, 271, 3ii> 325. 326 Spandrel, 49 Specialising, 49, 200-207 Spitsbergen, 259 Stainforth, Rev. F. J., 122, 129, 267, 272 ** Stamp Collector, The," 298 Stamp Collector's Magazine^ They 117, 121, 128, 241, 275 Stamp Lover ^ The^ 170 Stanley Gibbons, Ltd., 9, 266 Stationery, 45, 50 Stead, Mr.', of Norwich, 102 Stead, Mr., of Yarmouth, 95 Stephan, Dr. von, 330 Stereotyping, 46, 50 Stourton, Mr. J. M., 240 Strip of Stamps, 25, 50 Surcharge, 36, 50 Surface-printed, 46, 50 Sweden, 71, 91, 306, 311 Switzerland, 234, 240, 256, 267, 271, 290, 291, 301, 311, 325 Sydney, Embossed envelopes used in, 106, 272 Tahiti, 206 Taille douce, 35, 50 Tapling, Mr. T. K., M.P., 131, 281, 298, 326-330 •* Tapling" Collection of Stamps and Postal Stationery, The," 329 Tasmania, 231 Taxes on knowledge, 96 Taylor, Mr. Overy, 124 Tete-beche pairs, 50, 253 Thorne, Mr. W., 296 Thurn and Taxis, Counts of, 60- 62 Timbre- Poste^ Le^ 117, 128 Timbrologie i 127 Times, The, 115 Tobago, 231 Tomson, Mr. A. S., 302 Toned paper, 50 Tonga, 206 Torres Straits, 259 Transvaal, 232, 318 Treasury Competition, The, 102- 109, 163 Treffenberg, Lieut. Curry Gabriel, 91 Tresse, 28, 41, 50 Trials, 50 Trinidad, 269, 322, 326 Trinidad, Principality of, 259 Tuilleries open-air stamp exchange, 121 Tuke, Sir Brian, 62 Turkey, 71 Turks' Islands, 232, 322 Tuscany, 118, 267, 269, 271 Two-j