The first philatelic journal, The Monthly Advertiser, was published on 15 December 1862. Over the next few decades, until the new century, hundreds of them took birth; most died after a few issues and well within their first year. These 19th century periodicals were usually not worth the paper they were printed on and and…
A few weeks back I wrote a blog post on an 1834 entire from Calcutta taking the curricle from Morpeth to Edinburgh. In it, I discuss how one needs to know the distances between the various towns the letter passed through in order to figure out the inland rate markings in Great Britain. Further, I…
This article was republished, with some modifications, as “The Calumnies of Samuel Singer, Charles Phillips, and Stanley Gibbons” Philatelic Literature Review 71 no. 4 Whole no. 277 (Fourth Quarter 2022). Philatelic Literature Review is the journal of the American Philatelic Research Library. Some years ago, while leafing through the auction catalogue of the George T….
Webb’s (Figure 1) The Philatelic and Postal History of Hong Kong and the Treaty Ports of China and Japan (PPHK) has been on my purchase short-list for some time now. A few days back I saw a reprint of book on eBay but it looked, well, different. I bid and managed to bag it. Having…
I tried to learn German over many months last year, mainly from a philatelic perspective, but have not succeeded much. A few days back I wrote to Philip Robinson curious as to how he brought himself up to the level where he is translating long philatelic texts from German to English. Philip’s reply attached a…
In my previous blog I had mentioned that the F. A. Bellamy library was bought by Albert H. Harris (not to be confused with H. E. Harris of the US). This blog is about the man who was a philatelic literature dealer, writer, and proprietor and editor of various stamp magazines. Albert Henry Harris (Figure 1) was…
Frank Arthur Bellamy (Figure 1) was one of the greatest philatelic literature collectors of all time. After the library of the Earl of Crawford was bequeathed to the British Museum (now in the British Library), Bellamy’s library was considered the largest in the world until its sale in 1938. Bellamy was born in Oxford on…
In the last few years of the 19th and the first couple of decades of the 20th century, The Philatelic Society of India (PSI) was the premier society in the British Empire outside of the UK or even London. It members consisted of the top most Anglo-Indian philatelists of the day many of whom were…
After many suggestions and discussions (Figure 1), eight stalwarts (of the 49 invited) met exactly 150 years ago on 10 April 1869 (Figure 2) at 93, Great Russell Street and formed The Philatelic Society, London. These fore-bearers included: Sir Daniel Cooper, who was elected the President Frederick A. Philbrick, the Vice President W. Dudley Atlee,…