SOME EARLY PIONEERS OF PHILATELY
"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 _Timbrologie_--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 curiosité_. 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 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 _tesseræ_ of a mosaic. At these times collecting 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 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. Moëns,
started collecting about 1855, and produced the earliest of the
continental periodicals 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 began 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 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 1860 that Dr. Viner took up the pursuit on his own behalf.
And with 1860 and the next few years we have evidences of the spread
of the newer form of stamp-collecting, which was to give 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
comparatively 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 _heard_ 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."
[Illustration: A POSTAGE STAMP "CHART"--ONE OF THE EARLY FORMS OF
STAMP-COLLECTING.]
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 1860 in Birchin Lane, London, where crowds of youngsters
used to 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. Characteristic examples of the conversation at
these gatherings 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 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 greenness 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. Mahé tells in his
reminiscences. For a long period she held "le sceptre dans le royaume
des timbres, royaume où 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 suggestion 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
collecting 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. Stainforth 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 information to impart. Perhaps a too abundant
good-nature 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 1860-61, 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 Philbrick,
K.C., and Mr. Hughes-Hughes, who had been called to the Bar in 1842.
There was also a physician in Dr. Viner, a young merchant in Mr. Mount
Brown, and a youngster in his 'teens, who occasionally 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. Pemberton 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
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 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. François 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 Potiquet 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 employé of the French Ministry, essayed to
present his catalogue 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 (_lithographiés_, _gravés en taille-douce_,
_typographie_), and, more remarkable still, he states when the
specimens are perforated (_piqués_).
The catalogue of François Valette--"Père 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
érudit, 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 ambitious 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: (1) Genealogical; (2) heraldic; (3) systematic,
the latter being a scheme for arranging the stamps according to their
colours for comparison.
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 preferred the style of "timbrophile," while M. G.
Herpin produced by a combination of the Greek words φίλος
("philos" = fond of), ἀτέλεια ("ateleia" = exemption from tax)
the word _Philatèle_, 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 Société Française de
Timbrologie.
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 reminiscence
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 historian, 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 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 Controversialist_, 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 precise in our knowledge of the early issues of stamps.
_Le Timbre-Poste_, of Brussels (1863-1900), 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. Moëns. 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 _cacoëthes scribendi_, 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 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 integral portions of them
to beautify the purely commercially 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 distinguished 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,
extending the popularity of the stamp collector's hobby in every
country which has seen the dawn of civilisation, and moreover creating
a bond of universal brotherhood which makes Philately a world-wide
Freemasonry, and an "open sesame" to the fellowship and hospitality of
collectors everywhere.
ROLL OF PRESIDENTS AND VICE-PRESIDENTS OF THE ROYAL PHILATELIC SOCIETY,
LONDON.
PRESIDENTS.
Sir Daniel Cooper, Bart., F.R.G.S., April 10, 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.
IV
ON
FORMING A
COLLECTION