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 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 languages, and are sent out to show postal officers
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-office. 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 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 £75.
These things do happen, but in the "legitimate" stamp-collecting
they are necessarily of rarer occurrence in these days of popular
newspapers, over-educating in certain directions, or at least pandering
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 accumulation 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 Judge) Philbrick and the late Mr.
W. A. S. Westoby, and published by the Philatelic Society, London, in
1881. This book was sold by auction after Mr. Peacock's death, and
realised only £19, 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.
[Illustration: 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.
(_Cf._ next plate.)]
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 collection the
early history of the Post Office in this country, and have been
fortunate enough to secure several of those _raræ 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 convenient for
inclusion with the stamp collection, but those relating to the issuance
of stamps should be included where possible. The original of the
"pretended 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 "association
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 of
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
prepayment. 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 _facsimiles_ of Ormond Hill's pattern
instructions for the paper for the Ten Pence and Shilling adhesives in
"Great Britain: Embossed Adhesive 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.
[Illustration: 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, 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.]
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
collection 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 manuscript 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.
[Illustration: 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.]
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
_cliché_, 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 _cliché_ showing only the obverse with
the Queen's head is more convenient for mounting in the album, in a
heavily sunk card, and protected with "glass" paper.
[Illustration: ONE OF THE ROUGH PENCIL SKETCHES BY W. MULREADY, R.A.,
FOR THE ENVELOPE.
The "flying" figures are not shown in this sketch.]
Original drawings are in nearly every case unique in themselves.
Curiously enough, Mulready is supposed to have made two, possibly
three, original sketches for his envelope, though even here each must
be regarded as dissimilar from the others. One is a pencil design in
outline, and is in the possession of His Majesty the King; the sketch
was sold with other drawings and sketches by Christie, Manson & Woods
on April 28, 1864, when it was stated by the auctioneer that this was
the only sketch of the design made by the artist. It is practically
the whole of the design as printed, and shares the peculiarity of the
issued envelopes and covers that one of the flying angels is drawn
without a second leg. Another sketch, according to Sir Henry Cole,[9]
had this omission corrected before it was presented to Mr. Thomas
Baring, M.P. If Sir Henry Cole were not mistaken, I must consider the
sketch in the possession of Miss Jaffray to be yet a third "original,"
as it is lacking the winged four figures entirely.
Another pair of sketches of unequalled importance is in the possession
of His Majesty. These are the two rough sketches in water-colours
of the designs of the first (1840) One Penny and Two Pence stamps,
submitted by Mr. Rowland Hill for approval of the Chancellor of the
Exchequer: across the head of the one in black Rowland Hill has written
"1d." in pencil, and similarly "2d." across the one in blue.
Original drawings of issued stamps very rarely leave the Government
or printer's establishments, but in a few cases they have come on the
market. A few years ago, in a large collection of colour-proofs of
stamps printed by De La Rue, I saw the original drawing for the 1881
stamps of Cyprus, a unique item which went to embellish the specialised
collection of the stamps of that colony formed by Mr. J. C. North, of
Huddersfield. Shortly afterwards I myself secured two original colour
drawings for the 1897 issue of British Central Africa.[10] I found them
in the Strand, where, strange to say, many of these out-of-the-way
items are often moderately priced, quite out of proportion to their
interest and relative scarcity, for it is only in comparatively recent
times that specialism has admitted these historic side-issues into the
stamp album. Mr. Charles J. Phillips, one of those rare combinations of
student and dealer, has permitted me to reproduce an original sketch
of the canoe type of Fiji, from the fine collection of this colony
formed by him.[11] The drawing was by Mr. Leslie J. Walker, Postmaster
of Suva, and represents "a young colony (the canoe forging ahead
towards the rising sun shows the progress of the colony); the crown is
retained, indicating that it is a colony of England."
Other sources of stamp-engravings are of interest, and some are not
difficult of access. A familiar one is the source of the picture on
the "Omaha" $1 stamp which the United States Post Office literally
"cribbed" from the etching published by Dunthorne, of Vigo Street, of
the late Mr. MacWhirter's painting "The Vanguard." The American Post
Office altered the title to "Western Cattle in Storm," but the picture
is unmistakably the same. My statement of MacWhirter's authorship of
the picture having been challenged by an artist, who was probably
misled by the Scottish painter's devotion to landscape, led me to
submit the stamp to Mr. MacWhirter, whose reply admits of no doubt.
[Illustration: ORIGINAL SKETCH FOR THE "CANOE" TYPE OF FIJI STAMPS.]
"_August 26 [1906]._
"DEAR SIR,--Certainly the picture was painted by me. It was
exhibited in the R.A. about 15 or 18 years since. It was named
by me 'The Vanguard.' The picture belongs now, I believe, to
Lord Blythswood, near Glasgow. It is published as an etching by
Dunthorne, Vigo Street.
"Truly,
"J. MACWHIRTER.
"F. J. Melville, Esq."
A more scarce engraving, which was the basis of some of the most
classic designs in the history of postage-stamps, is the mezzotint by
Samuel Cousins, A.R.A., of the portrait of Queen Victoria painted by
Alfred Edward Chalon, R.A., in 1837. The original picture was a present
from the Queen to her mother, the Duchess of Kent, as a souvenir of Her
Majesty's visit to the House of Lords to prorogue Parliament on July
17, 1837. According to _The Athenæum_, the original picture "may take
its place as _the_ portrait, whether in right of the likeness, which is
faithful and characteristic, or in right of its artistic treatment."
From the mezzotint Edward Henry Corbould, the son of the artist of the
"Penny Black" of Great Britain, made a drawing in water colours, from
which the engraver William Humphrys produced the fine miniature for the
first stamps of New Zealand.
In a number of cases photographs have provided the subject for stamp
vignettes, and here the collector is able, if he takes a little
trouble, to procure copies for extra-illustrating his collection. The
photograph of the Llandovery Falls in Jamaica, used on the picture
stamp of that colony in 1900, was an unauthorised copy of one of a
published series of local views; that of the Victoria Falls on the
1905 stamps of the British South Africa Company recently formed a
frontispiece to _The Stamp Lover_ (October, 1910). The subject of the
quaint vignette on the British New Guinea and Papua stamps was engraved
from a photograph taken by a naval officer, and I traced a copy to the
collection of a returned missionary.
Bank-note and other engravings of a like character have provided copies
for stamp pictures, and Lord Crawford has formed a truly magnificent
historical collection of the United States stamps, in which his
lordship, in the course of about forty volumes, traces each design
to its inception, in some cases to the first rough pencil sketch.
He endeavours to show every stage in the development of the stamp,
and, as every philatelist should do, he follows the stamp through its
period of currency, showing the different kinds of obliterations,
the varying shades of successive printings, and where they exist
re-issues, reprintings, and forgeries. His lordship's collections of
Great Britain and of the Italian States are equally comprehensive, but
that this manner of collecting is not entirely exclusive is evidenced
by the number of collectors who have formed really worthy individual
"association albums"--to borrow an expressive term--of the stamps of
these same countries.
Proofs are comparatively easy of access, which, considering their
relative scarcity, is surprising. The reason that they were neglected
in the middle period of stamp-collecting was probably that the
creation of a market for such items had led in some instances to an
illegitimate supply by the employés of printing firms entrusted with
the storage of Government dies. The misuse of stamp dies is rare now,
most self-respecting Governments taking ample precautions not to admit
of any improper use of their property. The opportunities for finds in
the way of rare proofs are still plentiful. Stamp-collecting, though
firmly established, is still young, and it is little over seventy
years since the first adhesive postage-stamp was issued. A number of
near descendants of the originators of the first postage-stamp are
alive, and no doubt there are still treasures in the way of proofs
among the little-valued waste of later stamp-engravers and designers.
Shortly after the death of the engraver Herbert Bourne (1825-1907), I
acquired practically the whole of his reliques in the way of proofs
of stamp dies; but during his long life the engraver had done so
many engravings that a little while prior to his death he had been
burning the proofs he had saved to clear them out of the way. His son
fortunately saved the thirty to forty items now in my collection, of
which one of the most curious, if least in dimensions, is the extremely
small head of King Carlos for the small opening in the frame of the
picture stamps of Portuguese Nyassa. He appears to have done the die
for the 1876 (June) issue of Spain, which stamps, printed in _taille
douce_ by Messrs. Bradbury, Wilkinson & Co., are a flat contradiction
of the statements of both the Somerset House authorities and the
Crown Agents for the Colonies. Each of these departments has averred
that the recess-plate printing offers more scope to the forger than
our paltry surface-printing, yet Spain, prior to 1876, had to change
her stamp issues practically every year owing to the prevalence of
forgeries making heavy inroads on the Government revenues. Yet the
forgeries were of surface-printed issues, and this first Spanish issue
in _taille-douce_ engraving, printed in London from the die of a London
engraver, was never forged to defraud the Government, neither have
the stamps been successfully imitated to deceive the collector.
[Illustration: 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.]
As an instance of how little Mr. Bourne had regarded the proofs taken
of his work at various stages, a very fine proof in the set obtained
by me was the Queensland head die proved upon a large sheet of thick
porous paper, the whole of which proof had been used as a convenient
blotting-pad!
Proofs of the Mulready are not very difficult to obtain, even on India
paper. There was in the Peacock papers a proof on India paper to which
Rowland Hill had affixed his signature, the latter being added on a
separate piece of writing-paper pasted over the India paper, which does
not take writing.
There must be many engravers of stamp dies who have accumulated a
stock of proof specimens of their work, and these are well worth
looking out for. A particularly choice item--said to be one of three
copies originally taken--is the engraver's proof of the first adhesive
postage, head only, without "POSTAGE," and undenominated. Mrs. Haywood,
a grand-daughter of Henry Corbould and daughter of Edward Henry,
and who is still further associated with the stamp as the niece of
Frederick Heath, the engraver, has one of the three, which is in itself
a unique item, for it bears in the handwriting of Edward Henry Corbould
the note:
"Engraver's Proof by Fredk. Heath after drawing by Henry
Corbould, F.S.A."
To this undoubtedly important piece of evidence I give special
prominence, as it should establish the association of Frederick Heath,
rather than his father Charles, with the engraving of this stamp. To
Charles it was popularly attributed at the time of the issue of the
stamp, as the father's name had been generally associated with much
of the work done under his supervision, but not necessarily by his
own hand, by his many pupils and assistants.[12] Mrs. Haywood tells
me that there has never been any doubt among the older members of the
family--the Heaths and Corboulds having intermarried--that Frederick
was the engraver and not Charles, and Edward Henry Corbould was himself
a collaborator with Frederick Heath on the coin-shaped Five Shillings
stamp of New South Wales, of which Mrs. Haywood treasures also an
engraver's proof.
In the plate stage proofs are more common than die-proofs, but still in
many cases they are scarce compared with the stamps; yet, by a strange
inversion of scarcity value, one can obtain a magnificent proof of the
famous "twelve pence" black stamp of Canada for fewer shillings than
the stamp itself costs in pounds. The old-fashioned collector used
to say he only wanted "stamps," and turned up his nose at a "proof,"
but the modern advanced school is changing all that. The old idea
is the more ridiculous when one considers that the Connell essay of
New Brunswick (it was never issued for postal use), if perforated
and gummed, _though still not an issued stamp_, fetches £30,
while an imperforate proof costs 20s. More absurd still is it where
philatelists, in the desire to establish _rariora_, are inconsistent
enough to deem an undoubted "proof" of Cape Colony, the celebrated
1d. red-brown triangular stamp on paper watermarked Crown over CC,
as an issued stamp, and to pay a fabulous sum for the privilege of
possessing it. The price--if its rarity be the token by which price
may be gauged--was cheap enough; there are about ten copies known to
collectors, all the specimens being unused, but by that same token we
know that it was never used in the post nor issued to any post-office.
[Illustration: 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._)]
In regard to the actual stamps, there is much in the modern advanced
collection which has not yet been fully appreciated even by the
majority of collectors. Much less has it been grasped by the
uninitiated vendor of "finds" among old letters and papers. It is but
little known that a stamp in itself may be very common, but in a pair
it may be of a high degree of value. This is putting it by extremes;
but in the case of early imperforate stamps it is a fact that many of
the first issues of Great Britain, her colonies, Holland, Belgium,
German States, Uruguay, Chili, and other countries, the stamps are
readily accessible as single copies, but pairs, much less blocks of
four, are almost unheard-of rarities. Our own first stamp, the Penny
Black, may cost 6d. to 1s. for a single used specimen, but a pair
fetches 6s. to 7s. 6d., and a block of four would be worth 40s. to 50s.
Alas! that many a one even among collectors has never yet realised that
it is vandalism 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 1 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 £25--some thousands per
cent. over the catalogue quotation for single copies.
[Illustration: AN ENVELOPE BEARING THE RARE STAMP ISSUED IN 1846 BY THE
POSTMASTER OF MILLBURY, MASSACHUSETTS.]
[Illustration: ONE OF THE STAMPS ISSUED BY THE POSTMASTER OF BATON
ROUGE, LOUISIANA, DURING THE CIVIL WAR, 1861.]
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 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.
[Illustration: ANOTHER OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES RARITIES ISSUED BY THE
POSTMASTER OF GOLIAD, TEXAS.]
[Illustration: THE STAMP ISSUED BY THE POSTMASTER OF LIVINGSTON,
ALABAMA.
(_From the "Avery" Collection._)]
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 containing only unused specimens would indeed be an
"ill-roasted egg," 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 exceptional interest out of
all proportion to "catalogue." In a specialised price list before me
at this moment it is priced at £10, less 25 per cent., for the entire
letter; one used on the following Sunday, May 10th, is priced at
£15.[13] 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 postmarks 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 5s., orange 7s. 6d., yellow 15s.,
vermilion 4s., carmine 2s. 6d.
[Illustration: THE ONE PENNY "POST OFFICE" MAURITIUS ON THE ORIGINAL
LETTER-COVER.
(_From the "Duveen" Collection._)]
Beyond the items the character of which I have indicated as desirable
in the historical collection, there are others, which will readily
suggest themselves to the collector who develops a keen enthusiasm for
his _specialité_. 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
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 _specialité_ 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 newspapers specially devoted to Philately,
such as _The Postage Stamp_ (weekly) in Britain and _Mekeel's 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 considerable
importance. Further, the original Act, 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.
[Illustration:
WITH THE HON. J. G. WARD'S COMPLIMENTS.
In sending for your acceptance this, one of the first
articles posted under the Universal Penny Postage scheme, and
date-stamped as the bells are ringing in the new century, I
offer you the season's greetings, and trust that the year which
brings New Zealand within the circle of the penny post may be
one of happiness and prosperity to you and yours.
_GENERAL POST OFFICE.
WELLINGTON, NZ_
Sir Joseph Ward]
Another is a typewritten circular calling for designs from artists in
competition for the new stamps of the Australian Commonwealth, and I
was recently indebted to a correspondent in Pretoria for sending me the
following notice, the historic interest in which needs no enlarging
upon from me.
[Illustration: A ROUGHLY PRINTED CARD SHOWING THE DESIGNS AND COLOURS
FOR THE UNIFIED "POSTAGE AND REVENUE" STAMPS OF GREAT BRITAIN, 1884.
DESIGNS AND COLOURS OF THE STAMPS
THAT WILL BE IN USE AFTER
APRIL THE 1ST 1884.]
[Illustration: THE FIRST POSTAGE STAMP OF THE PRESENT REIGN, TOGETHER
WITH THE POST OFFICE NOTICE CONCERNING ITS ISSUE ON NOVEMBER 4, 1910.
_Union of South Africa._
It is notified that a new postage stamp of the 2½d. denomination
will be on sale from the 4th November the day of the opening of
the Union Parliament and will be practically, therefore, a stamp
commemorative of the culminating fact of Union. The denomination
represents the Universal Postal Union unit of postage, and the stamp is
being issued in advance of, and apart from, any general issue for the
South African Union.
By Order.
Pretoria, 1st October, 1910.]
This class of document should be the more accessible to collectors from
the little interest attached to them by the officials to whom they are
generally sent. How little they appreciate their evidential value was
brought home to me in a painful disappointment a year or so ago. Having
been on the Continent for a few days, I returned to find among my
correspondence an offer from an elderly man who had kept a post-office
for a long period of years, and he had saved in a series of portfolios
all the printed notices sent out from the General Post Office to
postmasters from the 'fifties until the end of the nineteenth century.
I had had some curiosities from this individual before, which led him
to offer me these papers when he came upon them in a clearing-up mood.
I was then engaged on a section of my history of the English stamps,
and wrote off immediately upon my return home. To my utter dismay he
replied that, not having heard from me, after a few days of waiting he
had burnt the lot to get rid of them!
[Illustration: THE OFFICIAL NOTICE OF THE ISSUE OF THE NEW STAMPS OF
GREAT BRITAIN FOR THE REIGN OF KING GEORGE V.
INTRODUCTION OF
GEORGE V. POSTAGE STAMPS
SALE OF LETTER CARDS, THIN POST-CARDS AND
BOOKS OF STAMPS AT FACE VALUE.
REDUCTION IN PRICES OF EMBOSSED ENVELOPES & WRAPPERS
Halfpenny and Penny adhesive Postage Stamps of new design bearing the
effigy of His Majesty King George, and registered letter envelopes
and thin post-cards bearing impressed stamps with the same effigy,
will be placed on sale on the 22nd of June, the day of His Majesty's
Coronation, at all Post Offices open on that day. At other Post Offices
they will first be sold on the 23rd of June, or, at Offices which are
closed on that day also on the 24th of June. New adhesive stamps of
other denominations and other articles of stationery bearing impressed
stamps of new design will be issued as soon as possible afterwards
Adhesive postage stamps and stamped stationery of the present issue
will also be on sale at Post Offices until the remaining stocks are
exhausted. All Edward VII postage stamps and all stamps of previous
issues which are at present available in payment of postage will still
be available
The following reductions in the prices of the principal articles of
stamped stationery WHICH WILL APPLY TO ARTICLES BOTH OF THE PRESENT AND
THE NEW ISSUES, will take effect on Coronation Day:
POST-CARDS.--Thin post-cards bearing ½d. stamp--½d. each
(Stout post-cards will continue to be sold at 6d a packet of
11, or ¾d. for a single card)
LETTER CARDS bearing 1d. stamp--1d. each.
BOOKS OF STAMPS--Books containing eighteen 1d. and twelve
½d. stamps of George V design will be issued at an early
date--price 2s. each. Pending their issue the present books,
containing eighteen 1d. and eleven ½d stamps of Edward VII.
design, will, on and after the 22nd of June, be sold for 1s.
11½d instead of 2s. as at present.
EMBOSSED ENVELOPES--
Court size (bearing 1d. stamp)--1s. a packet of 11
Commercial size (bearing 1d. stamp)--2s. a packet of 23
Foolscap size (bearing ½d stamp)--1s. a packet of 21.
Commercial size (bearing ½d. stamp)--1s. a packet of 22.
NEWSPAPER WRAPPERS--(Bearing ½d stamp)--1s. a packet of 22.
(Bearing 1d. stamp)--2s a packet of 23.
All cards, envelopes and wrappers are sold in any quantities less than
a complete packet at proportionate prices. Full tables of these prices
will appear in the Post Office Guide issued on the 1st of July.
GENERAL POST OFFICE.
20th June, 1911. By Command of the Postmaster General.
(1120) Printed for His Majesty's Stationery Office by W P Griffith &
Sons Ld. Prujean Square. Old Bailey, E C. 6/11]
FOOTNOTES:
[9] "Fifty Years of Public Life," p. 63.
[10] Illustrated in "British Central Africa and Nyasaland
Protectorate," by Fred J. Melville, 1909.
[11] See further in "The Postage Stamps of the Fiji Islands," by
Charles J. Phillips, 1908.
[12] See the obituary of Charles Heath in _The Art Journal_, 1849, p.
20, and the argument in my "Great Britain: Line-engraved Stamps."
[13] I mention these and certain other quotations, not as standard
valuations, but to indicate the comparative importance of these and
other factors in determining the rarity of individual specimens.
VI
ON LIMITING
A COLLECTION