Chats on Postage Stamps

III

SOME
EARLY
PIONEERS
OF
PHILATELY

CHAPTER III

SOME EARLY PIONEERS OF PHILATELY

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."

In the following year (1856) he was exchanging stamps with another collector.

The late editor of Le Timbre-Poste (Brussels), M. J. B. Moëns, started collecting about 1855, and produced the earliest of the continental periodicals devoted exclusively to philately from 1863-1900. His earliest English rival of any pretensions, The Stamp Collector's Magazine, was edited by Dr. C. W. Viner, whose interest in the subject began about 1855 by assisting a lady friend to form a chart representative of the postage-stamps of the world. This simple form of collecting was evidently much in vogue in the later 'fifties and remained during the next decade, and a photograph of one of these taken in the 'sixties will be found among the illustrations. It was not until 1860 that Dr. Viner took up the pursuit on his own behalf. And with 1860 and the next few years we have evidences of the spread of the newer form of stamp-collecting, which was to give the pursuit the scientific interest and value which were to ensure its permanence and to make it in the present year of grace the most widely popular of all collecting hobbies. In those days collections were limited by the comparatively small number of stamps that had been issued, but even then the phantom of completeness was not within reach. "I remember counting my stamps with much glee when they reached a hundred," wrote Dr. Viner in 1889. "I saw some collections with two or three hundred, and heard of one with five hundred. Cancelled specimens were principally seen; but I can recall one collection rich in unused Naples, Sicily, Tuscany, and other Italian States purchased at their several post-offices by a young traveller."

It is very significant that the collectors of this early period of whom any records are preserved were mostly men of culture and of position. The boy was still the main influence and in a majority, but he was in stamp-collecting the father to the man. The historic and scientific possibilities of the pursuit were still but dimly recognised by the mass of collectors. An active exchange of stamps had been carried on from about 1860 in Birchin Lane, London, where crowds of youngsters used to meet and exchange stamps. They were frequently joined by their elders. Fifty to a hundred barterers of all ages and ranks and of both sexes were there in the evenings of the spring of 1862. "We have seen one of Her Majesty's Ministry there," says The Stamp Collector's Magazine of 1863. Characteristic examples of the conversation at these gatherings were given in the same magazine: "Have you a yellow Saxon?"—"I want a Russian"—"I'll give a red Prussian for a blue Brunswicker"—"Will you exchange a Russian for a black English?"—"I wouldn't give a Russian for twenty English." The date attributed to these overheard remarks is 1861. The police intervened later and the exchanging had to be done more or less surreptitiously. But still the group formed in the neighbouring alleys, and still included the Cabinet Minister and "ladies, album in hand," and it is recorded that one of the ladies "contrived to effect a highly advantageous exchange of a very so-so specimen for a rarity, with a young friend of ours, who salvoed his greenness with the apologetic remark that he could not drive a hard bargain with a lady."

Similar scenes went on in the gardens of the Tuilleries at Paris, and in other cities they centred around establishments set up by the earliest dealers in postage stamps. Birchin Lane contained the business premises of at least one dealer—a lady—and there was in Paris, in the rue Taitbout, Mme. Nicholas, a little person, "rather lean, very active, lively and intelligent," of whom M. Mahé tells in his reminiscences. For a long period she held "le sceptre dans le royaume des timbres, royaume où la loi salique n'exerce pas ses injustes rigueurs." A woman with considerable talent for business, she and her husband kept a modest little reading-room in a small shop in the rue Taitbout. To this business she added, possibly at the suggestion of one of the Paris amateurs of the period, the business in stamps. Her shop became the regular meeting-place of the dilettanti, and these were men of substance and intelligence who were not to be charged with following "fancies too weak for boys, too green and idle for girls of nine."

In London, too, there was a coterie of amateurs among whom were men of distinction. We might trace the birth of the higher ideals in stamp collecting in London to the rectory adjoining All Hallows Staining. Charles Dickens described the church, all of which save the tower is now demolished, as "a stuffy little place." The perpetual curate in charge of this old City living at the time of which I write was the Rev. F. J. Stainforth, one of the most zealous promoters of the hobby, "assisting the movement by his well-known readiness to bid high for any real or supposed rarity." Mr. Stainforth gathered around him the chief of the serious collectors of the period, and his influence on the beginnings of the study is probably greater than most collectors of the present day are aware. Cultured, amiable, and generous, his rectory was a rendezvous for all seeking information on the subject of stamps and for those who had information to impart. Perhaps a too abundant good-nature occasionally resulted in the host being imposed upon, for it is said that, "utterly devoid of guile himself, he frequently became the prey of much younger, but more worldly-wise, heads."

But if there were those who abused the welcome of the rectory, there were others who imparted a lustre to the little gatherings in the upper room. Sir Daniel Cooper, Bart., the first Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of New South Wales, was one of these. He returned from Australia about 1860-61, and formed an important collection of stamps. He was elected first President of the Philatelic Society when that body was formed in 1869. The legal profession was frequently represented at the rectory by Mr. Philbrick, afterwards his Honour Judge Philbrick, K.C., and Mr. Hughes-Hughes, who had been called to the Bar in 1842. There was also a physician in Dr. Viner, a young merchant in Mr. Mount Brown, and a youngster in his 'teens, who occasionally travelled to town to attend the Saturday afternoon gatherings and who quickly displayed an intuition for the scientific in philately which few have surpassed, and made the name of E. L. Pemberton one of the most distinguished in the annals of philately.

The cult was not confined to the metropolis. Most of the early dealers began operations in the country. The first published list of stamps for collectors came from a young artist residing in Brighton. Mr. Frederick Booty was aged twenty when he issued his "Aids to Stamp Collectors" in April, 1862. Mr. Mount Brown was twenty-five when his "Catalogue of British, Colonial, and Foreign Stamps" appeared in May of the same year. The wide difference of years among the enthusiasts of this time is notable in the third of the early English chroniclers, Dr. Gray, the eminent naturalist and all-round scientist of the British Museum, who published his first "Hand Catalogue of Postage Stamps" towards the end of 1862, the author being then sixty-two years of age.

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.

Arising out of the gatherings at Mr. Stainforth's rectory there grew up in 1869 the Philatelic Society of London, which started its auspicious career under the presidency of Sir Daniel Cooper, Bart., and has a roll of Presidents and Vice-Presidents more distinguished than almost any other learned society can claim. It may fittingly close my third chapter if I give an outline of this notable succession, adding only that in November, 1906, His Majesty King Edward VII. graciously allowed the Society the style and dignity of the prefix "Royal," and that throughout its long career of usefulness the work of the Society has been strengthened by numerous other bodies of enthusiasts who have formed societies in the metropolis, in the provinces and abroad, extending the popularity of the stamp collector's hobby in every country which has seen the dawn of civilisation, and moreover creating a bond of universal brotherhood which makes Philately a world-wide Freemasonry, and an "open sesame" to the fellowship and hospitality of collectors everywhere.

ROLL OF PRESIDENTS AND VICE-PRESIDENTS OF THE ROYAL PHILATELIC SOCIETY, LONDON.

Presidents.

• Sir Daniel Cooper, Bart., F.R.G.S., April 10, 1869.
• His Honour Judge F. A. Philbrick, K.C. (elected when Mr. Philbrick), July 20, 1878.
• H.R.H. the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, K.G. (Hon. President), (elected when Duke of Edinburgh), December 19, 1890.
• The Earl of Kingston, May 20, 1892.
• His Majesty King George V. (elected when Duke of York), May 29, 1896.
• The Earl of Crawford, K.T., June 16, 1910.

Vice-Presidents.

• His Honour Judge F. A. Philbrick, K.C. (elected when Mr. Philbrick), April 10, 1869.
• V. G. de Ysasi, Esq., May 20, 1880.
• T. K. Tapling, Esq., M.P., November 5, 1881.
• M. P. Castle, Esq., J.P., May 29, 1891.
• His Majesty King George V. (Hon. Vice-President), (elected when Duke of York), March 10, 1893.
• The Earl of Crawford, K.T., June 13, 1902.
• M. P. Castle, Esq., J.P. (Hon. Vice-President, June 13, 1902), June 16, 1910.

IV

ON
FORMING A
COLLECTION

CHAPTER IV

ON FORMING A COLLECTION

It may be reasonable to judge a philatelist by the stamps he has, rather than by the way in which he puts them together in his collection. Yet none can have justice in the process unless he has given due attention to order and method. Postage-stamps, more perhaps than any other objets de collectionner, are well suited to neat, orderly arrangement and effective display, with a minimum of house-room. This very suitability and convenience make some collectors careless of the arrangement of their specimens, especially the commoner issues, but I would have everyone treat stamps rare or common with the same tenderness, and with a keen eye to the beauty of their arrangement. A rare stamp in itself has little significance; it requires to be allocated to its fitting place in the mosaic of stamp-issues comprising a collection, and there can be no beauty in a few rare stamps if there has been no proper care exercised in the selection and arrangement of the accompanying issues which go to complete the picture.

It is scarcely necessary for me to more than briefly discuss the methods of starting to collect stamps, but it may serve some useful purpose to indicate a sound method of establishing a good start. The prime necessity to the collector is stamps—if he be an enthusiast he can never have too many. But at the outset, if he have none, the best start is in one of the numerous packet collections, the stamps in which are all different. These are sold by all dealers, and a fair price for such packets is indicated in the following scale:—

Such packets contain the commoner stamps, as a matter of course, but they are a necessity to the general collection, which is made up of all grades of common to rare specimens.

The album for the beginner should be a small inexpensive one, the importance of keeping the small collection compact being that it is more readily comprehensible than if scattered meagrely through a wilderness of blank, or nearly blank, pages. If the stamps are carefully arranged in a small album, a rare delight will be found later on, when the collection is bulging the first album covers, in transferring it to a more commodious home. But at the outset too many beginners waste their substance in an elaborate album instead of on the all-important stamps. They buy cumbersome volumes in which the collection in embryo is lost. They should realise from the start that the purpose of the album is to assist in the formation of the collection, by keeping the stamps easy of access for reference and study.

A supply of stamp-hinges or "mounts" should be acquired at the outset (their use is explained hereafter), and a pair of tweezers—the kinds sold by stamp-dealers are the most suitable—the points of which should not be too sharp or pointed, lest they penetrate into the delicate substance of a stamp. The collector should cultivate the habit of holding stamps always by means of the tweezers.

A good catalogue arranged on a chronological basis is indispensable; the beginner will find the illustrations in it of great assistance in allocating his specimens to their proper places in the album.

So much for the primary needs of the beginner. The general collector, who is advancing towards the large collection, will probably use one of the large printed and spaced-out albums provided for his needs by the enterprise of philatelic publishers. He has his work made easy for him, so far as the identification of specimens is concerned, and the allocation and symmetrical distribution of them upon the pages. Being saved all this, and nearly all necessity for individual annotation, he should give his best attention to the excellence of condition in his stamps and the perfection of mounting.

The stamps should be clean before they are mounted, that is to say, they should have any superfluous envelope-paper removed by careful floating on warm water, or by moistening between damp sheets of clean white blotting-paper. If there be any extraneous marking or blemish, it may be removed if it admits of removal without damage to the specimen. The result of atmospheric action on some colours (such as vermilion and ultramarine), which will frequently be found to have turned a red or blue stamp into one that appears to be black, or at any rate black in parts, is removed by treatment with peroxide of hydrogen applied with a camel's-hair brush to the parts which have been affected by the action of the atmosphere. The process is erroneously called "de-oxidising" by many philatelists; it is really de-sulphurisation.

In the case of very stubborn specimens with this defect, they may be steeped in the peroxide and allowed to soak, but should not be left longer than is necessary to restore the original fresh colour.

A crease in an unused stamp may, if it has not cracked the paper, be removed by following the crease on the back of the stamp with a fine camel's-hair brush dipped in water. The slight soaking swells the gum and enables one to gently press the paper into its normal position. Pressure in the case of a big crease is best applied by ironing, the stamp being protected between glazed cards. Where the gum is untidy on the back of an unused stamp it will sometimes be useful to lay it, after cleaning, upon the surface of smooth glass or the glazing-sheets used for glossy prints by photographers, which will preserve what remains of the original gum, and impart a gloss which compensates for a partial loss of gum.

To preserve the tidy appearance of a collection in a printed album one must sacrifice those portions of the margins adjoining stamps from the outer edges of the printed sheets. In most cases it serves no purpose to retain them, and they interfere with the symmetry of the pages. The collector, too, must use his judgment as to the desirability of trimming away unnecessary ragged protrusions of the perforation.

For all cleaning purposes benzine is an excellent medium, as its rapid evaporation is a convenience, and it does not injure the stamp. Most used stamps may be soaked in benzine and be much improved by the bath; but where the colours of the stamp are such that immersion in liquid is unsafe, treatment may be applied to the edges or to the back as required by means of the camel's-hair brush.

The whole purpose of this care with individual stamps is to preserve the specimens and to impart a composite beauty of condition to the whole, without which no collection can be pleasing to its owner or to any one else. Every unused stamp should be spotless so far as extraneous blemishes are concerned; the colour should be fresh as when it came from the printers' workshops; the perforations of each stamp should be complete, and should have been neatly severed, and the gum on the back, unless it is so thick and crackly that it is a danger to the stamps, should be preserved intact.

A used stamp should be selected for its lightness of postmark, though there are often times when a more heavily postmarked copy showing the date of use will be valuable evidence in the pursuit of historical researches. The colour of the used stamp should not be less good than that of an unused one, and the perforations should be all there.

In the case of imperforate stamps it is desirable always to have as large margins round the printed impression as possible; while in all perforated stamps one should endeavour to secure well-centred copies—that is to say, copies in which the printed impression falls evenly between the perforations on all four sides.

These are the chief desiderata for the general collector. They read rather portentously; but the cult of condition comes by practice to all who have the true love of stamps, for if stamps are worth collecting at all they are worthy of our best endeavours to keep them in the pink of condition. "It is part of the decency of scholars," says Richard de Bury, "that whenever they return from meals to their study, washing should invariably precede reading, and that no grease-stained finger should unfasten the clasps or turn the leaves of a book"; it should be no less a part of the decency of the philatelist, and in the case of his treasures the true lover of stamps will not neglect the merest trifles which will perpetuate the perfect preservation of his specimens.

The use of the stamp-hinge or mount is simple, and, with proper care, perfectly effective. It is a small strip of paper gummed on the one side for folding in the form of a hinge, the gummed surface being on the outside of the hinge when folded. One arm of the hinge is lightly affixed to the top back, or right side of the back of the stamp, the other portion being fixed to the album. The slightest touch of moisture is sufficient for the purpose. The best hinges are stamped with a die out of a kind of onion-skin paper, are semi-transparent, and evenly coated on the one side with a colourless mucilage. In folding for use, the hinge should be formed of a long arm for the album—say, two-thirds of the hinge—and a short one—one-third—for the stamp. The short arm should be applied quite close to the top or side (top mounting is the more general), so that in turning up a stamp for examination there is no creasing of the upper part of the stamp. The process should be manipulated with the tweezers, so that the stamp is never fingered, and in smoothing down the page of mounted stamps a clean blotter should be used.

There can be no doubt that repeatedly mounting a stamp, even if carefully done by a practised hand, has a cumulative detrimental effect on the specimens. The temptation to use the convenient digit is present on every occasion, and even the cleanest finger must make some—perhaps infinitesimal—mark on the face; multiply this by, say, seven times, and the stamp, from being "mint," becomes merely "unused," and so on until after the proverbial seventy times seven the stamp would come within the category of "soiled." So, too, with each successive remounting, unless the first mount be preserved intact (as is possible with good "peelable" mounts handled with care), through a succession of removals of the stamp there is a loss of the gum which is part of the stamp, and in the various stages this becomes a skinned, or "thinned," copy.

A stamp is a tender, delicate thing—especially if "chalky"—and should be handled as little as possible, whether common, scarce, or rare; in fact, the old Latin proverb, Maxima debetur pueris reverentia, might well be parodied, if one knew the Latin for stamps. Care, coolness (physical), and cleanliness are necessary attributes of the ideal collector, and even he would do well to use tweezers instead of fingers; but if he must use a finger, let him interpose a piece of tissue or blotting paper between it and the stamp.

The best peelable mounts are good; but the ideal mount which, once affixed to the back of the stamp, need never be removed therefrom has yet to be manufactured. I will hand on a suggestion for the ideal mount, a little troublesome to adopt in the first instance, but which well repays a little extra initial trouble in the preservation of the stamps, and which even saves trouble in the event of "removals."

Imagine a mount, of standard size, and of very thin tough paper, manufactured from linen rags to give it a long fibre, to be sold ready folded, but gummed only on the upper part above the fold; this is fixed in the usual way to the stamp.

Accompanying each mount are several narrow (say, ¹/₈ in.) slips of similar paper, gummed at the extreme ends, and as long as the mount is wide.

Cut into the mount are two vertical slits—thin pieces punched out, not mere cuts—immediately below the fold, one about ³/₁₆ in. from each edge of the mount. Insert one of the narrow slips, so that the two gummed ends are at the back of, but away from, the mount; slightly moisten each of these gummed tips—instead of, as usual, the back of the mount—and fasten the stamp on the page of the album as if the hinge were of the ordinary make; the stamp will be fixed just as firmly as if the mount were fastened to the page by a square inch of gummed back.

When it is desired to move the stamp, a snip with a pair of small scissors will sever the narrow slip where it crossed the upper side of the mount, which will then pull off from the two pieces. To remount use a fresh narrow slip.

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.

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.