One of my favourite philatelic books in recent times is Great Britain Victorian Mixed-Franking Covers Illustrating Postage Stamp Development by Ray Simpson and Karl Louis (2020) (Figure 1).
The book expertly bridges philately and postal history and makes philately fascinating for the postal historian and vice-versa. In addition, the 400-odd illustrated covers, with colourful stamps and postal markings, make it a visual delight.
Simpson has been interested in stamp perforations for a long time. He co-authored, with Peter Sargent, Stamp Perforation: The Somerset House Years, 1848 to 1880, which was published by the Royal Philatelic Society in 2006. A free PDF extract of 109 pages can be found online. Another of Simpson’s interests is stamp usage; a sub-topic under this would be mixed frankings.
Louis is well-known as the prior Managing Director of Corinphila Auctions AG. He is also the compiler of the world-famous ‘card index’ of Great Britain. As of 2023, the index consisted of more than 130,000 cards and 150,000 individual items!
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