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."