With a gauge and scale as above suggested, it is extremely easy to quickly mark out a page with pencilled dots, so soon as it is decided how many stamps are to go in each row—experto crede.
Of course, allowance must be made if the stamps of a set are of uneven size, but there is no difficulty if a little patience be exercised.
I have arranged many pages of stamps by the aid of a home-made scale on this and similar plans, and have experienced no trouble in allowing for the occasional inclusion of pairs and short strips—a little mental calculation, and a side movement of the gauge to the extent of the width of one stamp will compensate for, say, a pair instead of a single; and so on.
The specialist can rarely have the advantage of a prepared printed album, as his possessions include pairs, blocks, marginal pieces, original covers, and evidential items of a variety of shapes. He works therefore on albums that have blank pages, generally enclosed within a form of semi-binding which allows the interchanging of the leaves. Spring-back covers are now much used, though there are excellent peg and clutch attachments in the British-made albums of the specialist class. The leaves are either quite plain or with a faint quadrillé ground which is an aid to symmetrical arrangement.
The early stamp collectors used to elaborate their albums with gay colourings; some, following the early artistry of Mr. Booty in the preface to his "Aids to Stamp Collectors" (1862), mounted their stamps on squares of coloured paper, and emblazoned the country's arms and painted its flags upon the pages of their albums. The stamps, being of small size, suffered in the contrast with these gaudy trappings, and in the latter-day philately such contrivances are left to the nouveau riche, who will embellish each of his pages with his name, titles, address, coat of arms, and would add his portrait were album-pages not made so ridiculously small for such big men. To-day all extravagant flourishes and gay trimmings are a vulgarity; simple elegance and nice judgment in the arrangement make for beauty in our albums.
At the same time we must recognise for the specialist two schools of collecting; one is concerned with the collecting of purely philatelic items, the other devotes itself to the formation of an historical as well as philatelic collection. The former does not require much writing-up on the pages. The latter advocates a good deal of it, and it is this form of collecting—the highest exponent of which is the Earl of Crawford—that allows of the most free scope for the individuality of the collector. It is in the collection which aims at a complete history of the stamps of a country, with all the associated circumstances leading up to their issuance and connected with their use, that the highest summit of philatelic pleasure and culture is attained.
In writing-up, there are several details about a stamp, some patent and some latent. To complete the history of a particular stamp, every collector ought to know and to inscribe in the proper place in the album these points, so far as the information can be obtained from reliable sources, and so far as it may be applicable:—
- Date of issue.
- Artist.
- Engraver.
- Printers.
- Mode of production.
- Paper, including watermark.
- Perforation.
- Date of supersession.
In a more elaborate form the writing-up will develop into a full manuscript history—not too diffuse—of the postal issues of a country. The record of each stamp or issue will extend over several pages, interspersed with the collector's specimens, proofs, &c., appropriately inserted at points where they will be explanatory to the text and make a valuable, readable, and individualistic volume. To indicate succinctly the range of the more comprehensive writing-up, it would be the student's endeavour to show and explain the circumstances leading up to the necessity for the stamp; its creation by act, decree, or order; advertisements or requests for designs, tenders for manufacture, &c., with results; a note as to some of the principal essays; the chosen design, with name of artist and source of his inspiration; the engraver; the maker of the plate and the process of printing adopted; the number of stamps on the plate and their arrangement and marginal inscriptions; the varieties (if any) on the plate; how such varieties arose and how frequently they occurred; the paper used—mill-sheet, printing-sheet and post-office sheet—and its watermarking; the printers; the colour, gum, and perforation of the stamps; the quantities printed; the notices to the Post Office and the public of the impending issue; the date of issue; the duration of use; the withdrawal, supersession, or demonetisation; the quantity of remainders (if any), and what became of them.