CHAPTER III

SOME EARLY PIONEERS OF PHILATELY

"Hobbyhorsical" collections--The application of the term "Foreign Stamp Collecting"--The Stamp Exchange in Birchin Lane--A celebrated lady stamp-dealer--The Saturday rendezvous at the All Hallows Staining Rectory--Prominent collectors of the first period--The first stamp catalogues--The words _Philately_ and _Timbrologie_--Philatelic periodicals--Justin Lallier's albums--The Philatelic Society, London.

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