It sounds tedious, and the original mounting may take longer than usual, but a removal takes considerably less time than the ordinary remounting if the hinge has stuck firmly, and there is in any case absolutely no wear and tear of the stamp, risk of "skinning," "cockling" from moisture, or possible loss of gum. In fact, a permanent mount, secured by a movable slip, which can be renewed.
This ideal mount answers wonderfully well, and should be tried by all who care for their stamps, and the slight extra cost and trouble should be more than repaid by the preservation of the stamp, even if the commonest "continental" ever printed: it may, though it is no reason for treating it properly, some day be rare.
In mounting on blank pages some kind of gauge is necessary, and I offer this one as a very serviceable assistance to the specialist mounting stamps on either blank or quadrillé leaves or cards.
The gauge should be in the form of a letter H, the centre-bar being equal in length to the width of the space available for mounting stamps, and the uprights about the same height as the full page.
Suppose the available stamp space, after allowing for leaf-margins and linen hinge, is 91/2 in. high by 7 in. wide, then the gauge would be thus, cut out of fairly stout white cardboard with a sharp knife:—
The long sides being placed and kept parallel with the sides of the ornamental border on the leaf are obviously to enable the centre-bar to be kept perfectly horizontal, whether at the top or bottom of the page.
In the measurements about to be given "c" stands for centre, when the number of stamps in a row is odd; and the figures represent inches, to be measured from the centre of the page when the number of stamps is even, or from "c", as the case may be.
One of two methods can be adopted—mark the lower edge of the centre-bar in thirty-seconds of an inch, starting from the centre and working in each direction horizontally; or use a separate gauge for differently sized (viz., in width) stamps, in which case mark the gauge to show the position of the centre of the middle stamp (if an odd number), and of the inner corner of any other stamps to be placed equidistant from the centre. The former is the preferable course; and the following scale will, it is hoped, be useful, premising that it is unnecessary to give measurements when there are only two or three stamps in a row.