Philatelic Literature

A few weeks back, Frank Walton, was kind enough to alert me to the sale of his six-volume The De La Rue Collection (2014) at an Australian auction house – Abacus Auctions; he knew that I have been searching for the set. While I had placed an alarm to wake myself up early that Monday morning, the 31st of August, I cancelled it the previous night when I realised that the price had already gone beyond my budget!

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Next day, checking the prices realised, I saw that the next immediate lot was The Royal Philatelic Collection by Sir John Wilson. Published in late 1952 and winner of The Crawford Medal in 1953, this is the most luxurious and beautiful philatelic book of all time. What left me in astonishment was the realisation – A$ 4312.80 (approximately USD 3,140 or GBP 2,190 at the time of writing this) including buyer’s premium of 19.80%! This price stuck me as being absolutely ridiculous as anyone with basic Google search skills can find out for him/herself.

Background

The Royal Philatelic Collection was edited by Clarence Winchester and authored by Sir John Wilson, Keeper of the Royal Philatelic Collection from 1938 to 1969 as well as the President of The Royal Philatelic Society London from 1934 to 1940 and again from 1949 to 1950. At that time the Royal Collection consisted of 330 large albums containing a total of nearly a quarter million of stamps.

According to Sir John Wilson, it was King George VI who wanted the book to be published and hence it was to him that it was dedicated. The King always wanted, as far as was practical, to share what he had with his people. And since one “can’t allow the whole of Great Britain to come into Buckingham Palace and inspect the collection”, the King allowed his most valuable and interesting stamps to be printed in this volume.

Lord Kemsley, owner of The Dropmore Press, undertook the task of publishing the book. Lord Kemsley was a Welsh colliery owner and newspaper tycoon who owned, amongst others, The Sunday Times. Much effort was involved in its production as the publisher wanted to uphold to the highest standards of book production viz. a binding designed to last for centuries, full thickness red Nigerian Morocco leather covering the boards (one whole goat skin being required for each volume) and stamped in gold with the Royal Coat of Arms on the front and the Tudor rose motif on the back covers, and precise colour photo-lithography using 51 machinings when printers at this time had no experience with more than 25 colours.

The book consists of two parts: (a) introduction narrating the story of the royal collection followed by the (b) catalogue of the collection. The first part is printed on thick coated while the second is printed on thick uncoated paper. The catalogue comprises of five sections for Great Britain, British America, British Africa, British Asia, and British Australasia.

There are 12 colour (depicting stamps and each protected by onionskin paper; printed on one side only) and 16 monochrome plates (depicting albums, housing of the collection, and various album pages; printed on both sides) in the introduction part apart from two photographs of King George V and King George VI as frontispiece. The catalogue part contains 48 monochrome plates of stamps and covers [Note 1].

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The “dog” moniker

The superb production values of the book came with its downside of high cost. Originally expected to be priced at 20 guineas (£21), the cost of the book went up to 60 guineas (£63) or US$180 when published in 1952. This equates to £1,825 in today’s money. Clearly beyond most people given that the average weekly wage levels in Britain in the 1950s was just about £7.

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To market the book, a prospectus (containing 12 pp plus one colour and two monochrome plates) was issued. Agents were appointed to sell the book inside and outside the UK. Further, the publishers were aware of the cost factor and devised instalment plans. Robson offered three plans while The British Book Centre in US offered one (though it is curious that they did not give any discount for the full cash order).

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Dog: People use dog to refer to something that they consider unsatisfactory or of poor quality. [US, informal, disapproval]

Over time, the book became, as William Hagan puts it, “a dog on the market”. Of the edition of 3,000 copies (4,000 as per a knowledgeable English editor; the difference in printing numbers may have been due to printing waste being included in the latter number), 1,500 copies were bound in leather and the remaining sheets were stored flat. Despite hard marketing, the bound copies did not sell well and the price of the book dropped to £30 in England and $85 in the US by the mid-1960s. In 1975 Bridger & Kay was selling a new unpacked book for £85 (Note 2).

By 1955, Dropmore Press had gone bankrupt. There was no interest in the remaining copies, which had remained flat and unbound, due to their poor sales record. Finally, in 1963, 1,000 of the unbound pages of the catalogue part were acquired by Stamp Collecting Ltd (Note 3); the remaining being destroyed. The catalogue was divided into five separate books to comply with the stipulation that they be different from the original 1,500. Kenneth F. Chapman, the then editor of Stamp Collecting, added his own comments to each section (Note 4). They were divided up and priced as follows:

• Section 1: Great Britain (74 pp, 1 colour & 16, monotone plates) – £10
• Section 2: British America (48 pp, 3 colour & 8 monotone plates) – £5
• Section 3: British Africa (63 pp, 2 colour & 8 monotone plates) – £5
• Section 4: British Asia (62 pp, 1 colour & 8 monotone plates) – £5
• Section 5: British Australasia (75 pp, 2 colour & 8 monotone plates) – £5

In the US, Section 1 sold for US$28 and the others for US$14 each.

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In Volume 2 of his magnum opus, Philatelic Literature A History and a Select Bibliography From 1861 to 1999, Dr. Manfred Amrhein tells a story of seeing the book in 1965 at the Weill Brothers “Rare Stamp Shop” in New Orleans but not being able to afford it. He sounds a warning note familiar to most publishers of philatelic books:

The story of The Royal Philatelic Collection confirms that no matter how good the research, how scholarly the prose, or how luxurious the production, most philatelic works, aside from the yearly published catalogues, rarely sell in a quantity to be a commercial success.

Other Versions

Apart from the original leather bound edition and the individual sections of Stamp Collecting, a red cloth bound version exists. I am not sure of its genesis but it may have been brought out by the publishers as a low-cost alternative [Note 5]. Limited numbers must have been published since it seems to be scarcer than the leather bound version.

As an aside, both the leather and the cloth bound editions are housed in a red cloth-covered wooden slipcase. The slipcase is not strong enough to house such a heavy book and hence most slipcases have associated wear and tear.

Hagan also records a few books bound in grey cloth. Their origin is not known and I have never seen one. Hagan also records the book’s appearance as a catalogue without the introduction. In this form, some 20 plates and 98 pages are omitted; the colour plates are included though. Finally, there exists some copies which seem to have been privately bound.

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Prices

Two copies sold in Prestige Auctions (another Australian auction house now taken over by Abacus) on 14 November 2014 for A$ 2,574 and A$ 2,808 including buyer’s premium (lots 923 and 924). High prices are not just confined to Australia though. Another two copies were sold in Heinrich Köhler’s special literature auction held on 3 November 2012, to coincide with the International Philatelic Literature Exhibition (IPHLA) in Mainz, for EUR 1,428 each including buyer’s premium (lot numbers 9306 and 9307). In a Cavendish auction sale on 4 March 2020, a copy sold for £1,920 including buyer’s premium of 20%; but the main attraction of this lot (number 213) were the accompanying ephemera viz. contemporary press photographs for the publication of the book, the prospectus and advanced publicity booklets, letters to and from Clarence Winchester (including from Buckingham Palace and some framed behind glass), and two menus from a dinner held to celebrate the publication.

Apart from these realisations, I have recently not seen copies going for such high prices. In fact I agree with Hagan; there are just too many of them available for sale at any point in time and hence the overhang will always reflect on the price. A simple internet search leads to copies selling for anywhere between 10% and 25% of these prices! Further, most copies are in a great condition given that, physically, it is not an easy book to handle and most of them have hardly been used.

In parting

Due to the democratisation of information thanks to the internet, many items, hitherto expensive, are available cheaper than ever before. So one wonders: why do people buy easy-to-find stuff at unjustifiably high prices? Do they not have the time or the thought to check ongoing rates? Or is it that some do not know how to do this? Whatever be the reason, this is not the first or the last time people are literally giving away their good money.

Meanwhile, sellers may do well to consign this book in particular to auction houses rather than sell them privately. After all, every dog has its day!

Notes

1. I have seen listings on eBay wherein cutouts of stamps from these plates are being sold for obscene prices. Perhaps the sellers are trying to do what was done to the Fournier and Sperati albums; but the latter are actual stamps albeit forgeries whereas the ones in the plates are just prints. I do hope these cutouts are from the unbound pages and bound books are not been ransacked this way.
2. I bought my copy from them in 2013; perhaps one of their last available copies, they were happy to sell it at a fraction of recent auction prices.
3. Both Hagan and Amrhein mention incorrectly that the remainders were bought over by the owners of The Stamp Lover.
4. The five individual sections sold at an Corinphila Auction No. 227 held 26 November 2018 (Lot 1765) for CHF 360 exclusive of buyer’s premium.
5. Update on 8 Sep 2020: Within an hour of this blog being published, Rudolf Buschhaus of Germany emailed me with more information. He thinks that the cloth bound version is likely to have been published first and may have been for libraries. In his copy is an error on page 29 wherein Plate 12 is mentioned (line 14 from top) instead of Plate II and a page correcting this error to Plate II is laid in. According to Jan Vellakoop, Plate II is itself an error and it should be Plate XI (see comments below). I think that while plates have Roman numerals on them, they are referred to in the text using Arabic numbers; for example page 27 refers to Plates One and Two using Arabic numbers (I and II). Hence the corrected page 29 line 14 is actually a ‘eleven’ (II).

6. Update on 9 Sep 2020: Rudolf has drawn my attention to articles and letters to the Editor which appeared in 2/2014 and 3/2014 issues of Wolfgang Maassen’s Phila Historica; I was not aware of them. One interesting information that Maassen gives is that the cost of the 12 colour plates alone worked out to £12,000 and of the entire project upwards of £100,000. The rest of the information is based on inquiries made by Rainer Fuchs with The Royal Philatelic Society London. Howard Summers and later Rainer Fuchs sent me a copy of the letter that the RPSL sent to Fuchs. The reader will note that some of the information is contradictory to what may be found elsewhere in the blog; at this time, I would go with Hagan’s information since that is more contemporary.

7. Update on 9 Sep 2020: Howard Summars has also sent some photos of his book in a disbound state. Wonder if it is an example from the pre-production period in the 1950s? The details of the book are as follows:
   1. Size 375 x 265 mm (the usual pages are 357 x 255 mm)
   2. Pages are uncut with no gilt on the top edge
   3. Page 29 Line 14 has ‘II’ and not ’12’
   4. The copyright line on the dedication page opposite King George VI’s photo does not exist

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8. Update on 2 Oct 2020: In today’s auction by Argyll Etkin, lot 618 containing a King George VI signed copy was sold for £3,300 plus buyer’s premium. According to the description, since the King died on 6 February 1952, the year the book was published, this copy is probably a early proof edition. It is also inscribed “A Right Royal Binding JW” and signed by Sir John Wilson. The auction company informed me that it was in the collection of the previous owner for 30 years. I fancied a bid but when the lot opened at £1,800 I closed my live bidding window!

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References

1. Amrhein, Manfred. Philatelic Literature: A History and a Select Bibliography from 1861 to 1991 Volume 2. Vol. 2. 4 vols. San Jose, Costa Rica: The Author, 1997
2. Birch, Brian J. The Philatelic Bibliophile’s Companion. Montignac Toupinerie, France: The Author, 2020
3. Hagan, William. “Philatelic Literature Price Trends.” Philatelic Literature Review Vol. 28 No. 1 Whole No. 102 (First Quarter 1979): 29-33
4. Holmes, H. R. “King Georve V and his Stamp Collection.” The London Philatelist Vol. LXII Whole No. 723 (February 1953): 21-23
5. https://stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=24199. Accessed on 7 September 2020. Note that some of the posts on this thread are mine.
6. Maassen, Wolfgang. Sir John Wilson: The Royal Philatelic Collection. Phila Historica Nr. 2 July 2014: 157-161.
7. Letters to Editor from Jan Vellekoop, Frank Walton, and Federico Borromeo all published in Phila Historica Nr. 2 October 2014: 5-10

More than a 100 years back, the best philatelic bibliography ever, Bibliotheca Lindesiana Vol VII: A Bibliography of the Writings General Special and Periodical forming the Literature of Philately or more popularly, ‘The Crawford Catalogue’, was published. Since then many libraries and private collectors (such as Dr. Stanley Bierman and Albert Kronenberg) have published bibliographies of their holdings; Negus (1991) does a survey of them in his brilliant and indispensable work.

Amongst these is ‘The Stockholm Catalogue’ of philatelic books in the Postmuseum, Stockholm. Published in 1954 and with a supplement coming out in 1968, this may well be, next to The Crawford, the most important philatelic bibliographic work existing. An important point is that it also covers books (but unfortunately not periodicals and bibliographic works) published in the nearly half-century after Crawford, an information-wise dark period with which many philatelic bibliographers and historians struggle.

When the main work came out, the Postmuseum had 20,000 literature titles in its library. That number has grown to 60,000 to 70,000 now. Unfortunately, the Postmuseum is not yet a contributing library to the Global Philatelic Library (GPL) initiative and hence one does not know the extent and contents of its current holdings.

The Catalogue

[Org, Votele]. Handbok över Monografier m. m. i Postmuseums Filatelistiska Bibliotek, Stockholm (=Handbook of Monographs, etc., in the Postmuseum Philatelic Library, Stockholm). Stockholm: Royal General Post Office Board, 1954.

The catalogue was published in five paperbound volumes with grey covers. Each volume covers the following:

• Del I, pp.i-ii + 1-323: Preface and Aalborg – Cyrenaika.
• Del II, pp.324-631: Dahomey – Italienska Ostafrika.
• Del III, pp.632-946: Jaipur – Oudeypoor Palumpoor.
• Del IV, pp.947-1265: Pahang – Syrien.
• Del V, pp.1266-1468: Tahiti – Övre Volta;
• Register [Index], pp.1469-1506

The volumes, when published, were labelled with their volume number only on their spine.

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As can be seen from the above, the catalogue is arranged country-wise in alphabetic order. Since the Swedish language has three letters at the end of the alphabet (å, ä, ö), the last volume ends with the letter Ö. While the language used in the book is Swedish, the names of books remain in their original language and are not translated. Within each country, general works are placed next and then come the various sub-divisions i.e.

• Proofs
• Varieties
• Reprints
• Air mail
• Local postage stamps (government issues)
• Private postage stamps and Christmas seals
• Military post
• Railway stamps
• Revenue stamps
• Forgeries
• Bogus stamps
• Pre-philatelic postmarks, postmarks and forerunners
• Postal stationery
• History and Geography

Books are listed alphabetically by author and the citations given are in full, including size and number of numbered and unnumbered pages.

One of the important aspects of this catalogue is that contents of encyclopaedic books such as the Kohl-Handbuch, Robson Lowe’s Encyclopaedia, Lindquist’s Stamp Specialist, the American Philatelic Congress Books, the Stamp Collector’s Annuals, and Earée’s Album Weeds are also included. So if someone goes to the Thailand section and searches for references on its airmails, the book will show the exact page location amongst these comprehensive works.

It was intended that periodicals would be covered at a later date, but as is common with such projects, that never happened. Further, regular supplements were also supposed to be released frequently; however, only one came out 15 years later.

The Supplement

Org, Votele. Bibliografi över Filatelistisk Litteratur: Supplement till Handbok över Monografier m.m. i Postmuseums Filatelistiska Bibliothek (=Philatelic Literature Bibliography: Supplement to the Handbook of Monographs, etc. in the Postmuseum Philatelic Library). Stockholm: Postmuseum, 1968. vii + 207pp.

The contents of the supplement are listed below:

• Contents
• Foreword, pp.ii-iv
• Adélieland – Östrumelien, pp.1-194
• Register [Index], pp.195-207

The supplement is also paperbound in the same manner and style of the main work.

While Org was not credited as the complier in the five-volume main work, his name clearly appears as the author in the supplement’s title page; in the preface to the supplement Org confirms that it was he who compiled the work over eight years.

While it was published in 1968, the supplement to the book covers the works received in the library between 1953 and 1957 only. The contents are laid out in the same format as the main catalogue.

The five-volume main catalogue is pretty scarce since it was published in a run of 100 copies only. Presumably 100 copies of the supplement were published as well.

Hunting for the Handbok

Having read Negus (1991) like my philatelic bible (or rather Bhagavad Gita, I have been trying to find a copy of this catalogue for long.

When I went to the Postmuseum, Stockholm in May 2019, I searched for and took some photographs of the work. However, despite advance inquiries with the library itself and with some dealers in the city, I was not able to find a copy.

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Therefore, when I saw the catalogue up for sale in Cavendish‘s Philatelic Literature auction scheduled to be held on 30 July 2020, I was excited at the prospect of buying it. Like most other items in this sale, the catalogue is ex-Junior Philatelic Society (later National Philatelic Society) and contains Junior PS (JPS) hand stamp inside front covers (as confirmed by Greg Springer of the auction company). Lotted at number 191 and estimated at a lowly £30, I was under the grand (and false) impression that I would be able to snare the work for £100-150, at most £200. Further, and curiously, the supplement was lurking in a box bearing lot number 184 with other literature titles and was also estimated at £30.

During the live auction, when lot 184 went for £280, I was wondering if it was because of the supplement; the other more common titles put together surely could not have attracted this high a bid. And when lot 191 opened at £500, I looked on in horror as my worst fears came true; I alone was not looking out for a copy of this catalogue! As the bidding quickly went up and the catalogue sold for £700 (plus buyer’s premium), I rationalised that I should live to fight another day! Perhaps someone else wants the volumes for his own library quite badly and this is pretty understandable for a quality and scarce work like this.

Now until the next opportunity comes my way, I will take James Negus’ advice from his Bibliographical Notes no. 14 titled Guides to Sources of Philatelic Information dated 24 August 1958 and reproduced in Birch (2020):

A useful substitute for the large and expensive Stockholm Catalogue, suitable for the individual student, is the Catalogue of a private collection of books on philately and postal history, by Alb. A. Kronenberg

Off to pull out my copy of Kronenberg.

References

1. Birch, Brian J. The Philatelic Bibliophile’s Companion. Montignac Toupinerie, France: The Author, 2020.
2. Negus, James. Philatelic Literature: Compilation Techniques and Reference Sources. Limassol, Cyprus: James Bendon, 1991.

Since the earliest days of stamp collecting in the 1860s to date, there have been so many great philatelists that it is almost impossible to choose the GOAT – greatest of all time. However it is certain that Robson Lowe (1905 – 1997) would find his name in any potential voter’s top three list.

Auctioneer, dealer, writer, expertiser, not to mention a collector as well, Robson Lowe was as multi-faceted a philatelic personality as there has ever been. Interested readers may refer to Dr. Stanley Bierman’s two-part biography of the man in the Quarter 1 and 2 issues of The Philatelic Literature Review.​

Photo

As far as his writings is concerned, “Robbie”, as he was affectionately called by his friends, is known for publishing The Philatelist, one of the best stamp magazines of its time, as well as editing it from its beginnings in the 1930s to the 1970s. However he is probably more famous across the world for his magisterial six-volume The Encyclopaedia of British Empire Postage Stamps. Published between 1948 and 1991 they are arguably the most read philatelic books ever; particularly the first four volumes.

This blog is about the relative scarcity and prices of the six volumes. The first remark I would like to make is that despite being many decades old, these books are still quite useful and in demand and hence, unlike many other books in this internet age, never sell cheap.

Current dealer-quoted prices of the volumes in descending order is:

• Australasia – perhaps £75-85 for a copy in G/VG condition
• Africa and Asia – perhaps £45-60
• British North America Special Edition – £40-45
• Leeward Islands – £35-40
• Great Britain and Europe Second Edition – £25-30
• British North America – £20-30
• Great Britain and Europe Second Edition – £10-15

Africa contains information for many well-collected countries and hence sees good demand. Asia is sought after for the main reason that India and some other countries covered have not seen as much original research in certain areas. Further these two volumes were printed in lower quantities than some others. Leeward Islands was published not so long back and perhaps not that many copies have come back to second-hand market. British North America covers Canada and its provinces only and hence is not as popular. Finally Great Britain ranks towards the end since much original research has been published on it over the last 70 years or so.

Now it is frequently mentioned by dealers that Australasia is the rarest of all the titles in this series. So does that mean that the Australasia volume was printed in lower numbers than the others?

​​In a letter to the Editor published in Q2 1992 issue of The Philatelic Literature Review, Jim Ryan mentions the printing quantities of the Encyclopaedia; he received these details from Robson Lowe himself.​

Volume	Year Published	Nos. Printed
G.B. and the Empire in Europe	1948 Jan (First Edition)*	4,000
-do-	1952 (Second Edition)	4,000
The Empire in Africa	1949 Mar	2,000
The Empire in Asia	1951 Jun	3,000
The Empire in Australasia	1962 Feb	4,000
The Empire in British North America	1973 Regular Edition	3,500
-do-	1973 Special Edition (two volumes with slipcase)	500
The Leeward Islands	1991	2,000

* Corrected and reprinted in March 1948

As can be seen, quantities printed of the Australasia book is the highest (along with G.B. and B.N.A.) in the series. So it begs the question: why are they termed scarce and consequently priced higher?

There could be two theories. One is that they are indeed scarce for some reason; perhaps many copies have been destroyed or pulped. So there is a ‘supply issue’. Second is that someone started the adage sometime in the past and it has persisted into the present.

​I think both these reasons may be to blame, to a greater or lesser degree.

​What is surely scarce is finding these books with their dust jackets. While the final two volumes almost certainly have their dust jackets on, perhaps only 10-20% of the first four volumes are so lucky. Further the jackets are more likely than not to be in poor to fair condition only.

One reason for this is that these jackets were printed on not-so-thick paper and are fragile. Further these books are so good and so intensively used by their owners that the dust jacket suffer and are subsequently removed.

That’s quite a shame since the dust jackets add quite a bit of charm to these books. There can be a price difference of 25-35% between the same title with and without a dust jacket.

Notes:

1. I thank Casper Pottle of HH Sales for his inputs especially with respect to current prices. The final decision on prices mentioned was however mine.
2. All images are from a past eBay sale listing. See https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/encyclopaedia-british-empire-postage-1828878498

Arthur Hind was arguably 20th century’s greatest stamp collector. He was to the second and third decade of the century what Philippe De Ferrari​ and Thomas K. Tapling were to the final two of the previous one. Amongst his prized possessions were the British Guiana 1c magenta, currently the most expensive item in philately last auctioned in 2014  for US$ 9.48 million, and the “Bordeaux” cover with the one-penny orange and two-pence blue “Post Office” stamps of Mauritius.*

* In my book, this superb piece of philately and postal history, much more pretty and attractive than the ugly British Guiana stamp, is the most valuable philatelic item in existence and will likely realise upwards of US$ 10 million if it ever comes for auction.

Since this post is about the auction catalogues of the Arthur Hind collection, I am not going to dwell on the man and his philately. Those interested may want to read up on him in Dr. Stanley Bierman’s The World’s Greatest Stamp Collectors (from where some of the information given below is taken).

The Arthur Hind collection was auctioned by two great philatelic auctioneers in two of the biggest philatelic centres of the world:

• New York, where United States including the Confederate States were auctioned by Charles J. Phillips (ex-Managing Director and owner of Stanley Gibbons) between Nov 20 and 24, 1933.
• London, where the British Empire and Foreign Countries were auctioned by H. R. Harmer between Apr 1934 and Jun 1935.

The reasons behind this split is quite interesting.

The realisations of the US portion amounted to just US$ 244,810 (about £47,000), mainly due to two reasons – one was the ongoing Great Depression and the other was the careless way in which Hind had treated many of the priceless items including by affixing them to album pages with adhesive tapes and Band-Aid! After this sale concluded, Phillips had printed the catalogue and plates for a second sale of 3,506 lots of Hind’s British Empire collection to be conducted on Mar 31 as well as Apr 2 to 7 and 9 of 1934. A third sale of Europe and Colonies was planned for Oct or Nov of that year and a few more were planned for 1935.

Given the disappointing first sale, Hind’s nephew reached out to H. R. Harmer who, in Feb 1934, sailed to New York. After 24 hours of non-stop negotiations with the executors of Hind’s estate – First Citizens Bank and Trust Company – he bought the British Empire and Foreign Countries collections (but not the British Guiana 1c magenta)** for US$450,000. Phillips’ already announced Empire auction had to be hence cancelled and the catalogue’s price refunded to anyone who wanted it. It was the “sale that never took place.”

The  Hind collection was duly brought to London and a series of 11 sales took place between Apr 1934 and Jun 1935. A total of 6,334 lots realised £135,000 (about US$ 675,000). The 11 Harmer auction catalogues were published staple bound with yellow card covers.

** Firstly the stamp was “lost” at that time and was eventually found in a registered letter in which it had arrived after being displayed in an exhibition; Hind had failed to remove the stamp from the envelope and the cover itself was found in his safe! Secondly the ownership of the stamp was being contested with Hind’s widow, who had not been bequeathed his stamp collection, claiming that the 1c was a gifted to her by her late husband.

Today, will a US$ 10 million stamp travel across the seas in a registered letter? No way!

They were later bound up by the auction company in their house binding and published in two parts; the yellow front and back covers were however discarded.

• British Empire section bound in red leather and buckram. This volume contains Sale Nos. 1 (Great Britain, European Colonies, and British North America), 2 (British Possessions in West Indies and Central and South America), 3 (British Possessions in Asia and including India and States), 4 (British Possessions in Africa and including Mauritius), and 5 (Australia and Oceanic Possessions). The sales were all held between Apr and Jul 1934 and hence this volume must have been published perhaps sometime in the second half of 1934 or first half of 1935.
• Foreign Countries bound in green leather and buckram. This volume contains Sale Nos. 6 (France, Post Offices and Colonies), 7 (Northern European Countries and Possessions), 8 (Southern European Countries and Possessions), 9 (Spain and Colonies), 10 (Asia and Africa), and 11 (Central and South America, Cuba, Philippine Islands, Porto Rico and Hawaiian Islands). The sales were held between Oct 1934 and Jun 1935 and hence this volume (with a introduction by one of the greatest philatelists of all time – Fred J. Melville) must have been published perhaps sometime in the second half of 1935 or first half of 1936.

Over the last couple of years I have frequently wondered why the two bindings that I have are different. The red is bound in quarter leather while the green in half. Was it that the green, which would have been published at a later date, given a more royal treatment now that the success of the 11 sales was known in entirety? However I have seen, on the internet, a red bound in half leather.

When I visited Stockholmia 2019 in May, I took the opportunity to see the city’s Postmuseum. While browsing the shelves of its superb philatelic library, I happened upon the two house bindings. The difference is that the bindings are reversed: their red is bound in half leather and the green in quarter.

This leads me to believe that there was no particular logic in the way the volumes were bound; it seems to have been random. Sometimes just a simple (even if it is disappointingly so) explanation suffices!

There is this very popular saying in Hindi: जब भगवन देता है चपड़ फाड् कर देता है।

This literally translates as, “When God gives, he tears down the roof and gives.” The implied meaning is that when good things have to happen, they often happen together in quick succession (Of course it applies equally to the not-so-good stuff in life as well!)

I have faced many such ‘When God gives…’ situations in my philatelic literature collecting journey. Books, which I have been searching for years to no avail, suddenly become available, well not in hordes, but in multiple copies. Given that most philatelic literature titles are scarce and the most popular and in-demand ones are rare to very rare, we surely cannot expect hordes.​

I had been searching for one such extremely collectable book, Early English Philatelic Literature by P. J. Anderson and B. T. K. Smith, for many years. As die-hard bibliophiles will know, this is one of the most important works of philatelic bibliography ever written, perhaps only next to the great Crawford Catalogue. Further given that it is a work published by The Philatelic Literature Society, a society consisting of the giants of philatelic literature collecting and inquiry, makes it extremely collectable. Finally with just 125 copies* published, it is not a common title with just 15 unnumbered and 30 numbered copies identified as existing by Brian Birch in his magnum-opus The Philatelic Bibliophile’s Companion (available on Global Philatelic Library)

​* While an earlier notice in The Journal of the Philatelic Literature Society mentions that the book will be a run of 120 copies, a later notice in the same journal says 125 copies were printed of which 20 were given to Mr. Anderson and 5 to Mr. Smith. I would assume that they were all unnumbered.​ In case you are wondering why unnumbered copies exist, you can read my articles on The Philatelic Literature Society and its publications. Briefly it is because this publication was printed only for members and their number in 1912-end were 79; hence apart from Anderson and Smith’s copies, which would probably have been unnumbered, other unnumbered surplus copies exist.​

Now coming back to my story. In late 2018 I acquired a copy from, very surprisingly, an Indian dealer. I would have never expected a copy to be lurking around in this country. The dealer informs me that the copy came in a lot which he had purchased years ago from England. There exists a small sticker of the bookbinder Higginbotham & Co., who were (still are but under an Indian management) one of India’s most well-known general books dealer with shops in Madras and Bangalore. This implies that one of the previous owners was an Englishman (there exists his signature on the title page, scroll down) stationed in India, maybe even born there.

​That copy is numbered 89/120 and is bound; thankfully the covers are still intact and the deckled edges have not been trimmed.

Last last month I bought a copy from another unlikely source, a US non-philatelic eBayer; this arrived in my hands today. The copy is unnumbered and is in the same unbound uncut state (deckled edges and oversized card covers) in which it was published in 1912. How very rare and how very exciting!​

So the number of known copies of this book has now increased from 45 to 47! I would think that my contribution to the 4.4% jump is pretty respectable!

I am right now so very excited with my latest acquisition that I think I will sleep tonight hugging the book! On second thoughts, that would not be good for the book; let me rephrase and say that I will sleep with the book on the side table next to me.

On the half title page are inscribed the presenter and the presentee? Can someone identify who they are? I can read “W. S. Mitchell” and “D. (or Dr) W. Douglas Simpson” respectively. Please do contact me if you have any information on these two gentlemen.

Update on 15 Aug 2019: When my blog went online last night, Casper Pottle of HH Sales immediately reverted back on my query. Dr. William Douglas Simpson was librarian at Aberdeen University Library for 40 years and  William Smith Mitchell was the author of Catalogue of The Incunabula in Aberdeen University Library and A History of Scottish Bookbinding 1432 to 1650 both published by Aberdeen University. If one also considers that one of the co-authors, P. J. Anderson, was also a past librarian of the University and had bequeathed all his books to it, they all form a nice common connection.

So my next query: the bound copy has the following signature. Can anyone identify it for me? As mentioned above, it could be some Englishman stationed in India.

Update on 15 Aug 2019: Casper has once again identified the signature. He thinks it is probably of H.F. Murland. Murland was a Lieutenant-Colonel in the 2nd Battalion, Madras Pioneers (and wrote their Battalion history). He would have been stationed in Madras and that ties in with the binding details. Capt. H.F. Murland is listed as a member of The Royal Philatelic Society in 1917-18.