(From the collection of the Earl of Crawford, K.T.)
The collections of Mr. Leslie L. R. Hausburg, have, next to those of the Earl of Crawford, attracted widespread attention and the unstinted admiration of philatelists. They have hitherto dealt chiefly with the Australasian portions of the British Empire, but latterly have been extended to a number of foreign countries. Mr. M. P. Castle, J.P., has formed several great collections, as will be noted in the list of sales which concludes this chapter, and Mr. Henry J. Duveen has one of the three finest collections of Mauritius, including the superb "Post Offices," both unused, from the Avery collection, and a matchless block of four, unused, of the 1d. Post Paid, for which wonderful item its possessor paid £1,000. These "Post Offices" are the ones which in 1910 carried the record price for this popular pair of rarities up to £3,500. Mr. Duveen's Switzerland collection is also a very notable one, and contains the block of double Genevas, and the part sheet of "large Eagles" from the Avery collection, and the beautiful block of fifteen Basle "doves," which was the subject of a recent find in Berne. Baron Anthony de Worms is the owner of a fine collection of Great Britain and the collection par excellence of Ceylon. Mr. Harvey R. G. Clarke's collection of New South Wales is justly celebrated, and in the less costly countries the honours of possessing the most perfect collections are distributed by no means exclusively among the very wealthy. In stamp-collecting the personal search is often more productive than lavish expenditure without personal effort.
THE UNIQUE BLOCK OF THE "DOUBLE GENEVA" STAMP, THE RAREST OF THE SWISS "CANTONALS."
(Formerly in the "Avery" Collection, but now in the possession of Henry J. Duveen, Esq.)
In America there are some collections of great note. That of Mr. George H. Worthington has been referred to elsewhere. Mr. Henry J. Crocker, a San Francisco magnate, had the misfortune to lose about £15,000 worth of his stamps in the disastrous fire which followed the earthquake of 1906. This included eleven out of forty-three of his albums, but luckily his greatest work, the Hawaiian collection, was safely in England at the time of the catastrophe. A wonderful collection of Japanese was completely destroyed. Mr. Crocker has no fewer than sixteen of the Hawaiian "Missionaries"; outside of the British Museum, his is the only copy of the 2 cents, Type I.; he has four used copies of the 5 cents, two of them being on the entire envelopes; and there is a unique item in an unbroken strip of three 13 cents "Hawaiian Postage" on entire. Two of the stamps are Type I. and the other Type II.; he has also an unused and two used copies of each type. Of the "H.I. & U.S. Postage" 13 cents stamp there are two specimens, one of each type used together.[19]
PART SHEET OF THE SCARCE 5C. "LARGE EAGLE" STAMP OF GENEVA, SHOWING THE MARGINAL INSCRIPTION AT THE TOP.