XV.
Great Collections.
reat collections of postage stamps, like great collections of pictures, in these days acquire an international rank and reputation. The great stamp collections of to-day are in a few hands, and have been built up by lavish wealth and lavish industry. Wealth alone will not suffice to gather together a really great philatelic collection. There must be patient research, and there can be no research apart from that full knowledge which comes only to the industrious and painstaking Philatelist. The gem that is wanted to complete the finest page in the rich man's collection has not unfrequently to be personally sought for in the byways, the alleys, and lanes of stamp collecting; and despite the keenest search of the wealthy, it sometimes, after all, falls by grim mischance into the laboriously gathered collection of the man of very limited means.
The Prince of Wales is known to be an enthusiastic and keen stamp collector. He is the acting President of the Philatelic Society of London. During his recent tour round the world he displayed his great interest in the postal issues of the colonies which he visited, and brought home much valuable philatelic information and a number of proofs of sheets of old colonial stamps which will help to clear up many doubtful points. H.R.H. collects only the stamps of Great Britain and her colonies, and he possesses many specimens that are absolutely unique.
The collection which was made by the late Mr. T. K. Tapling, M.P., is now in the keeping of the British Museum, having been bequeathed to the nation by its possessor, who was one of the most cultured and shrewdest collectors of his day. His collection was his life-work—from boyhood till his early death in 1891. It was largely made up of the amalgamation of great collections. In his day Tapling had the first pick in every direction, and, as a result, his collection is to-day one of the grandest and richest and most scientific general collections extant. Great rarities may be said to be conspicuous by their prominence and by their matchless condition.
But the greatest collection of all is that of M. Philipp la Renotiérè, of Paris, known to most collectors as Herr von Ferrary. In the course of the last thirty years he has purchased many well-known old collections, amongst which may be mentioned that of Judge Philbrick for £7,000, Sir Daniel Cooper's for £3,000, W. B. Thornhill's Australians, etc. M. la Renotiérè has been a large buyer in the leading capitals of Europe for a great many years. His expenditure with our own publishers is said to average from £3,000 to £4,000 a year. He employs two secretaries who are paid large salaries, one to look after the postage stamps and the other the post cards, envelopes, and wrappers.
Mr. F. Breitfuss, of St. Petersburg, who has been collecting since 1860, is credited with the third finest collection in the world. He is an omnivorous, but scientific general collector.