CHAPTER IV

ON FORMING A COLLECTION

The cost of packet collections--The beginner's album--Accessories--Preparation of stamps for mounting--The requirements of "condition"--The use of the stamp-hinge--A suggestion for the ideal mount--A handy gauge for use in arranging stamps--"Writing-up."

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:--

500 varieties from 3s. 6d. to 4s. per packet 1,000 " " 12s. to 15s. " 1,500 " " 30s. to 35s. " 2,000 " " 45s. to £3 " 3,000 " " £8 to £8 10s. " 4,000 " " £13 10s. to £14 "

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 9½ 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.

Width No. of in stamp. row. Centre

1¹/₂" 4 1⁷/₈ ¹/₈ . ¹/₈ 1⁷/₈ 1⁷/₁₆" 4 1¹³/₁₆ ¹/₈ . ¹/₈ 1¹³/₁₆ 1³/₈" 4 1¹⁵/₁₆ ³/₁₆ . ³/₁₆ 1¹⁵/₁₆ 1⁵/₁₆" 4 1⁷/₈ ³/₁₆ . ³/₁₆ 1⁷/₈ 1¹/₄" 4 1¹³/₁₆ ³/₁₆ . ³/₁₆ 1¹³/₁₆ 5 2¹/₈ ³/₄ c ³/₄ 2¹/₈ 1³/₁₆" 4 1³/₄ ³/₁₆ . ³/₁₆ 1³/₄ 5 2¹/₃₂ ²³/₃₂ c ²³/₃₂ 2¹/₃₂ 1¹/₈" 4 1⁷/₈ ¹/₄ . ¹/₄ 1⁷/₈ 5 1¹⁵/₁₆ ¹¹/₁₆ c ¹¹₁₆ 1¹⁵/₁₆ 1¹/₁₆" 4 1¹³/₁₆ ¹/₄ . ¹/₄ 1¹³/₁₆ 5 2³/₃₂ ²⁵/₃₂ c ²⁵/₃₂ 2³/₃₂ 1" 4 1³/₄ ¹/₄ . ¹/₄ 1³/₄ 5 2 ³/₄ c ³/₄ 2 6 2⁵/₁₆ 1³/₁₆ ¹/₁₆ . ¹/₁₆ 1³/₁₆ 2⁵/₁₆ ¹⁵/₁₆" 4 1¹¹/₁₆ ¹/₄ . ¹/₄ 1¹¹/₁₆ 5 1²⁹/₃₂ ²³/₃₂ c ²³/₃₂ 1²⁹/₃₂ 6 2¹¹/₃₂ 1⁷/₃₂ ³/₃₂ . ³/₃₂ 1⁷/₃₂ 2¹¹/₃₂ ⁷/₈" 4 1⁵/₈ ¹/₄ . ¹/₄ 1⁵/₈ 5 1¹³/₁₆ ¹¹/₁₆ c ¹¹/₁₆ 1¹³/₁₆ 6 2⁷/₃₂ 1⁵/₃₂ ³/₃₂ . ³/₃₂ 1¹⁵/₃₂ 2⁷/₃₂ 7 2⁹/₁₆ 1⁹/₁₆ ⁹/₁₆ c ⁹/₁₆ 1⁹/₁₆ 2⁹/₁₆ ¹³/₁₆" 4 1⁹/₁₆ ¹/₄ . ¹/₄ 1⁹/₁₆ 5 1²³/₃₂ ²¹/₃₂ c ²¹/₃₂ 1²³/₃₂ 6 2³/₃₂ 1³/₃₂ ³/₃₂ . ³/₃₂ 1³/₃₂ 2³/₃₂ 7 2¹³/₃₂ 1¹⁵/₃₂ ¹⁷/₃₂ c ¹⁷/₃₂ 1¹⁵/₃₂ 2¹³/₃₂ ³/₄" 4 1¹/₂ ¹/₄ . ¹/₄ 1¹/₂ 5 2⁵/₈ 1⁵/₈ ⁵/₈ c ⁵/₈ 1⁵/₈ 2⁵/₈ 6 2¹/₈ 1¹/₈ ¹/₈ . ¹/₈ 1¹/₈ 2¹/₈ 7 2¹/₄ 1³/₈ ¹/₂ c ¹/₂ 1³/₈ 2¹/₄ 8 2¹¹/₁₆ 1¹³/₁₆ ⁵/₁₆ ¹/₁₆ . ¹/₁₆ ¹⁵/₁₆ 1¹³/₁₆ 2¹¹/₁₆ ¹¹/₁₆" 4 1⁷/₁₆ ¹/₄ . ¹/₄ 1⁷/₁₆ 5 1²¹/₃₂ ²¹/₃₂ c ²¹/₃₂ 1²¹/₃₂ 6 2⁵/₁₆ 1¹/₄ ³/₁₆ . ³/₁₆ 1¹/₄ 2⁵/₁₆ 7 2¹⁵/₃₂ 1¹⁷/₃₂ ¹⁹/₃₂ c ¹⁹/₃₂ 1¹⁷/₃₂ 2¹⁵/₃₂ 8 2¹/₂ 1¹¹/₁₆ ⁷/₈ ¹/₁₆ . ¹/₁₆ ⁷/₈ 1¹¹/₁₆ 2¹/₂ ⁵/₈" 4 1³/₈ ¹/₄ . ¹/₄ 1³/₈ 5 1¹¹/₁₆ ¹¹/₁₆ c ¹¹/₁₆ 1¹¹/₁₆ 6 2³/₁₆ 1³/₁₆ ³/₁₆ . ³/₁₆ 1³/₁₆ 2³/₁₆ 7 2⁵/₁₆ 1⁷/₁₆ ⁹/₁₆ c ⁹/₁₆ 1⁷/₁₆ 2⁵/₁₆ 8 2³/₄ 1⁷/₈ 1 ¹/₈ . ¹/₈ 1 1⁷/₈ 2³/₄ 9 2¹¹/₁₆ 1¹⁵/₁₆ 1³/₁₆ ⁷/₁₆ c ⁷/₁₆ 1³/₁₆ 1¹⁵/₁₆ 2¹¹/₁₆ ⁹/₁₆" 4 1⁵/₁₆ ¹/₄ . ¹/₄ 1⁵/₁₆ 5 1¹⁹/₃₂ 2¹/₃₂ c 2¹/₃₂ 1¹⁹/₃₂ 6 2¹/₁₆ 1¹/₈ ³/₁₆ . ³/₁₆ 1¹/₈ 2¹/₁₆ 7 2⁵/₃₂ 1¹¹/₃₂ ¹⁷/₃₂ c ¹⁷/₃₂ 1¹¹/₃₂ 2⁵/₃₂ 8 2⁹/₁₆ 1³/₄ ¹⁵/₁₆ ¹/₈ . ¹/₈ ¹⁵/₁₆ 1³/₄ 2⁹/₁₆ 9 2²³/₃₂ 1³¹/₃₂ 1⁷/₃₂ ¹⁵/₃₂ c ¹⁵/₃₂ 1⁷/₃₂ 1³¹/₃₂ 2²³/₃₂ ¹/₂" 4 1¹/₄ ¹/₄ . ¹/₄ 1¹/₄ 5 1¹/₂ ⁵/₈ c ⁵/₈ 1¹/₂ 6 1¹⁵/₁₆ 1¹/₁₆ ³/₁₆ . ³/₁₆ 1¹/₁₆ 1¹⁵/₁₆ 7 2³/₈ 1¹/₂ ⁵/₈ c ⁵/₈ 1¹/₂ 2³/₈ 8 2³/₈ 1⁵/₈ ⁷/₈ ¹/₈ . ¹/₈ ⁷/₈ 1⁵/₈ 2³/₈ 9 2³/₄ 2 1¹/₄ ¹/₂ c ¹/₂ 1¹/₄ 2 2³/₄ 10 2²⁷/₃₂ 2⁵/₃₂ 1¹⁵/₃₂ ²⁵/₃₂ ³/₃₂ . ³/₃₂ ²⁵/₃₂ 1¹⁵/₃₂ 2⁵/₃₂ 2²⁷/₃₂

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.

V

THE SCOPE OF A MODERN COLLECTION