Chats on Postage Stamps

by Frederick John Melville

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.