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CHATS ON
POSTAGE STAMPS

BOOKS FOR COLLECTORS

_With Frontispieces and many Illustrations
Large Crown 8vo, cloth._

    CHATS ON ENGLISH CHINA.
      By Arthur Hayden.

    CHATS ON OLD FURNITURE.
      By Arthur Hayden.

    CHATS ON OLD PRINTS.
      (How to collect and value Old Engravings.)
      By Arthur Hayden.

    CHATS ON COSTUME.
      By G. Woolliscroft Rhead.

    CHATS ON OLD LACE AND NEEDLEWORK.
      By E. L. Lowes.

    CHATS ON ORIENTAL CHINA.
      By J. F. Blacker.

    CHATS ON OLD MINIATURES.
      By J. J. Foster, F.S.A.

    CHATS ON ENGLISH EARTHENWARE.
      By Arthur Hayden.

    CHATS ON AUTOGRAPHS.
      By A. M. Broadley.

    CHATS ON PEWTER.
      By H. J. L. J. Massé, M.A.

    CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS.
      By Fred. J. Melville.

    CHATS ON OLD JEWELLERY AND TRINKETS.
      By MacIver Percival.

    CHATS ON COTTAGE AND FARMHOUSE FURNITURE.
      By Arthur Hayden.

    CHATS ON OLD COINS.
      By Fred. W. Burgess.

    CHATS ON OLD COPPER AND BRASS.
      By Fred. W. Burgess.

    CHATS ON HOUSEHOLD CURIOS.
      By Fred. W. Burgess.

    CHATS ON OLD SILVER.
      By Arthur Hayden.

    CHATS ON JAPANESE PRINTS.
      By Arthur Davison Ficke.

    CHATS ON MILITARY CURIOS.
      By Stanley C. Johnson.

    CHATS ON OLD CLOCKS AND WATCHES.
      By Arthur Hayden.

    CHATS ON ROYAL COPENHAGEN PORCELAIN.
      By Arthur Hayden.

LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN, LTD.
NEW YORK: F. A. STOKES COMPANY

[Illustration: SIR ROWLAND HILL.

(_From the painting by J. A. Vinter, R.A., in the National Portrait
Gallery._)

Frontispiece.]

CHATS ON
POSTAGE STAMPS

BY

FRED J. MELVILLE

PRESIDENT OF THE JUNIOR PHILATELIC SOCIETY

WITH SEVENTY-FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS

NEW YORK

FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
PUBLISHERS

(_All rights reserved._)

PREFACE

Come and chat in my stamp-den, that I may encircle you with fine-spun
webs of curious and rare interest, and bind you for ever to Philately,
by which name we designate the love of stamps. The "den" presents
no features which would at first sight differentiate it from a snug
well-filled library, but a close inspection will reveal that many of
the books are not the products of Paternoster Row or of Grub Street.
Yet in these stamp-albums we shall read, if you will have the kindness
to be patient, many things which are writ upon the postage-stamps of
all nations, as in a world of books.

It is not given to all collectors to know their postage-stamps. There
is the collector who merely accumulates specimens without studying
them. He has eyes, but he does not see more than that this stamp is
red and that one is blue. He has ears, but they only hear that this
stamp cost £1,000, and that this other can be purchased wholesale at
sixpence the dozen. What shall it profit him if he collect many stamps,
but never discover their significance as factors in the rapid spread
of civilisation in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries? The true
student of stamps will extract from them all that they have to teach;
he will read from them the development of arts and manufactures,
social, commercial and political progress, and the rise and fall of
nations.

To the young student our pleasant pastime of stamp-collecting has to
offer an encouragement to habits of method and order, for without these
collecting can be productive of but little pleasure or satisfaction.
It will train him to be ever observant of the _minutiæ_ that matter,
and it will broaden his outlook as he surveys his stamps "from China to
Peru."

The present volume is not intended as a complete guide to the
postage-stamps of the world; it is rather a companion volume to the
standard catalogues and numerous primers already available to the
collector. It has been my endeavour to indicate what counts in modern
collecting, and to emphasise those features of the higher Philately
of to-day which have not yet been fully comprehended by the average
collector. Some of my readers may consider that I have unduly appraised
the value in a stamp collection of pairs and blocks, proofs and essays,
of documental matter, and also that too much has been demanded in the
matter of condition. But all these things are of greater importance
than is realised by even the majority of members of the philatelic
societies. Condition in particular is a factor which, if disregarded,
will not only result in the formation of an unsatisfactory collection,
but will lessen, if not ruin, the collection as an investment. It
has been thought that as time passed on the exacting requirements of
condition would have to be relaxed through the gradual absorption
of fine copies of old stamps in great collections. The effect has,
however, been simply to raise the prices of old stamps in perfect
condition. It may be taken as a general precept that a stamp in fine
condition at a high price is a far better investment than a stamp in
poor condition at any price.

In preparing the illustrations for this volume I am indebted to several
collectors and dealers, chiefly to Mr. W. H. Peckitt, who has lent me
some of the fine items from the "Avery" collection, to Messrs. Stanley
Gibbons, Ltd., whose name is as a household word to stamp-collectors
all over the world, and to Messrs. Charles Nissen, D. Field, and
Herbert F. Johnson.

I should also be omitting a very important duty if I failed to
acknowledge the general readiness of collectors, and especially of my
colleagues the members of the Junior Philatelic Society both at home
and abroad, in keeping me constantly _au courant_ with new information
connected with the pursuit of Philately. Without such assistance in
the past, this work, and the score of others which have come from my
pen, could never have been undertaken; and perhaps the best token of
my appreciation of so many kindnesses will be to beg (as I now do) the
favour of their continuance in the future.

    FRED J. MELVILLE.

CONTENTS

                                                                    PAGE

PREFACE                                                                7

PHILATELIC TERMS                                                      21

CHAPTER I

THE GENESIS OF THE POST                                               55

    The earliest letter-carriers--The Roman _posita_--Princely
    Postmasters of Thurn and Taxis--Sir Brian Tuke--Hobson
    of "Hobson's Choice"--The General Letter Office of
    England--Dockwra's Penny Post of 1680--Povey's "Halfpenny
    Carriage"--The Edinburgh and other Penny Posts--Postal rates
    before 1840--Uniform Penny Postage--The Postage Stamp regarded
    as the royal _diplomata_--The growth of the postal business.

CHAPTER II

THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN IDEA                                            77

    Early instances of contrivances to denote prepayment
    of postage--The "Two-_Sous_" Post--_Billets de port
    payé_--A passage of wit between the French Sappho and M.
    Pellisson--Dockwra's letter-marks--Some fabulous stamped
    wrappers of the Dutch Indies--Letter-sheets used in
    Sardinia--Lieut. Treffenberg's proposals for "Postage Charts"
    in Sweden--The postage-stamp idea "in the air"--Early British
    reformers and their proposals--The Lords of the Treasury start
    a competition--Mr. Cheverton's prize plan--A find of papers
    relating to the contest--A square inch of gummed paper--The
    Sydney embossed envelopes--The Mulready envelope--The
    Parliamentary envelopes--The adhesive stamp popularly preferred
    to the Mulready envelope.

SOME EARLY PIONEERS OF PHILATELY                                     113

    "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.

CHAPTER IV

ON FORMING A COLLECTION                                              133

    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."

CHAPTER V

THE SCOPE OF A MODERN COLLECTION                                     151

    The historical collection: literary and philatelic--The quest
    for _rariora_--The "grangerising" of philatelic monographs: its
    advantages and possibilities--Historic documents--Proposals and
    essays--Original drawings--Sources of stamp-engravings--Proofs
    and trials--Comparative rarity of some stamps in pairs, &c., or
    on original envelopes--Coloured postmarks--Portraits, maps, and
    contemporary records--A lost opportunity.

CHAPTER VI

ON LIMITING A COLLECTION                                             197

    The difficulties of a general collection--The unconscious
    trend to specialism--Technical limitations: Modes of
    production; Printers--Geographical groupings: Europe and
    divisions--Suggested groupings of British Colonies--United
    States, Protectorates and Spheres of Influence--Islands of the
    Pacific--The financial side of the "great" philatelic countries.

CHAPTER VII

STAMP-COLLECTING AS AN INVESTMENT                                    209

    The collector, the dealer, and the combination--The factor
    of expense--Natural rise of cost--Past possibilities in
    British "Collector's Consols," in Barbados, in British
    Guiana, in Canada, in "Capes"--Modern speculations: Cayman
    Islands--Further investments: Ceylon, Cyprus, _Fiji Times_
    Express, Gambia, India, Labuan, West Indies--The "Post
    Office" Mauritius--The early Nevis, British North America,
    Sydney Views, New Zealand--Provisionals: _bonâ fide_ and
    speculative--Some notable appreciations--"Booms."

CHAPTER VIII

FORGERIES, FAKES, AND FANCIES                                        237

    Early counterfeits and their exposers--The "honest"
    facsimile--"Album Weeds"--Forgeries classified--Frauds on
    the British Post Office--Forgeries "paying" postage--The One
    Rupee, India--Fraudulent alteration of values--The British 10s.
    and £1 "Anchor"--A too-clever "fake"--Joined pairs--Drastic
    tests--New South Wales "Views" and "Registered"--The Swiss
    Cantonals--Government "imitations"--"Bogus" stamps.

CHAPTER IX

FAMOUS COLLECTIONS                                                   261

    The "mania" in the 'sixties--Some wonderful early
    collections--The first auction sale--Judge Philbrick and his
    collection--The Image collection--Lord Crawford's "United
    States" and "Great Britain"--Other great modern collections--M.
    la Rénotière's "legions of stamps"--Synopsis of sales of
    collections.

CHAPTER X

ROYAL AND NATIONAL COLLECTIONS                                       303

    The late Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha as a collector--King
    George's stamps: Great Britain, Mauritius, British Guiana,
    Barbados, Nevis--The "King of Spain Reprints"--The late Grand
    Duke Alexis Michaelovitch--Prince Doria Pamphilj--The "Tapling"
    Collection--The Berlin Postal Museum--The late Duke of
    Leinster's bequest to Ireland--Mr. Worthington's promised gift
    to the United States.

BIBLIOGRAPHY                                                         333

INDEX                                                                351

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT

                                                                    PAGE

Perforation Gauge                                                     43

The Commemorative Letter Balance designed by Mr. S. King, of Bath
  (1840). A monument "which may be possessed by every family in the
  United Kingdom"                                                     72

Mr. King's Letter Balance had a tripod base, as in the uppermost
  figure, thus affording three tablets on which the associations of
  J. Palmer, Rowland Hill, and Queen Victoria with postal reform
  are recorded                                                        73

A Facsimile of the Address Side of a Penny Post Letter in 1686,
  showing the "Peny Post Payd" mark instituted by Dockwra and
  continued by the Government authorities                             83

Facsimile of the Contents of the Penny Post Letter of 1686            84

The Official Notification of December 3, 1818, relating to the use
  of the Sardinian Letter Sheets. Described in the records of the
  Schroeder collection as "the oldest official notification of any
  country in the world relating to postage-stamps"                    86

(_Continuation from previous page._) The models show the
  devices for the three denominations: 15, 25, and 50 centesimi
  respectively                                                        87

Proof of the Mulready Envelope, signed by Rowland Hill. (From the
  "Peacock" Papers)                                                  111

Gauge for Arranging Stamps in a Blank Album                          144

Autograph Letter from Rowland Hill to John Dickinson, the
  paper-maker, asking for six or eight sheets of the silk-thread
  paper for trial impressions of the adhesive stamps                 164

Original Sketch for the "Canoe" Type of Fiji Stamps                  169

A Postal Memento of New Zealand's "Universal Penny Postage,"
  January 1, 1901                                                    190

The First Postage Stamp of the present reign, together with the
  Post Office notice concerning its issue on November 4, 1910        193

The Official Notice of the Issue of the New Stamps of Great Britain
  for the reign of King George V.                                    195

LIST OF PLATES

Sir Rowland Hill. (From the painting by J. A. Vinter, R.A., in the
  National Portrait Gallery)                              _Frontispiece_

Examples of some Philatelic Terms:--A _Pair_ of Great Britain
  embossed Sixpence.--A _Pair_ of Cape of Good Hope Triangular
  Shilling.--A _Block_ of four Great Britain Penny Red.--A _Strip_
  of three Grenada "4d." on Two Shillings                             25

Examples of some Philatelic Terms:--The figures "201" indicate
  the _Plate Number_, and "238" the _Current Number_. The
  _Plate Number_ is also on each of these stamps in microscopic
  numerals.--Corner pair showing _Current Number_ "575" in
  margin.--Corner pair showing _Plate Number_ "15" in margin. The
  _Plate Number_ is also seen in small figures on each stamp.--The
  above stamps are those of Great Britain _overprinted_ for use in
  Cyprus                                                              29

Examples of some Philatelic Terms:--A sheet of stamps of Gambia,
  composed of two _Panes_ of sixty stamps each.--The single "Crown
  and CA" watermark, as it appears looking from the back of the
  Gambia sheet illustrated above. The watermark is arranged in
  panes to coincide with the impressions from the plate               33

Examples of some Philatelic Terms:--A "Bisect," or "Bisected
  Provisional." The One Penny stamp of Jamaica was in 1861
  permitted to be cut in halves diagonally, and each half used as a
  halfpenny stamp                                                     37

Examples of some Philatelic Terms:--Photograph of a flat steel
  _die_ engraved in _taille douce_ (_i.e._, with the lines of
  the design cut into the plate). The stamp is the 50 lepta of
  Greece, issue of 1901, showing Hermes adapted from the Mercury of
  Giovanni da Bologna                                                 51

Scarce Pamphlet (first page) in which William Dockwra announces the
  Penny Post of 1680                                                  65

A Post Office in 1790                                                 69

Sardinian Letter Sheet of 1818: 15 centesimi.--The 25 centesimi
  Letter Sheet of Sardinia. Issued in Sardinia, 1818; the earliest
  use of Letter Sheets with embossed stamps                           89

The highest denomination, 50 centesimi, of the Sardinian Letter
  Sheets.--One of the temporary envelopes issued for the use of
  members of the House of Lords, prior to the issue of stamps and
  covers to the public, 1840                                          93

The "James Chalmers" Essay.--Rough sketches in water-colours
  submitted by Rowland Hill to the Chancellor of the Exchequer for
  the first postage stamps                                            99

Hitherto unpublished examples of the proposals submitted to the
  Lords of the Treasury in 1839 in competition for prizes offered
  in connection with the Penny Postage plan. (From the Author's
  Collection)                                                        103

The address side of the model letter which has the stamp (shown
  below) affixed to the back as a seal.--Another of the unpublished
  essays submitted in the competition of 1839 for the Penny Postage
  plan. (From the Author's Collection)                               107

A Postage Stamp "Chart"--one of the early forms of stamp-collecting  119

The small "experimental" plate from which impressions of the Two
  Pence, Great Britain, were made on "Dickinson" paper. Only two
  rows of four stamps were impressed on each piece of the paper.
  (_Cf._ next plate)                                                 157

The Two Pence, Great Britain, on "Dickinson" paper. The upper block
  is in red (24 stamps printed in all, of which nine copies are
  known), and the lower block in blue (16 stamps printed, of which
  twelve copies are known). The above blocks of six each are in the
  possession of Mr. Lewis Evans; the pairs cut from the left side
  of each block were in the collection of the late Mrs. John Evans   161

One of the rough pencil sketches by W. Mulready, R.A., for the
  envelope. The "flying" figures are not shown in this sketch        165

Engraver's proof of the Queen's head die for the first adhesive
  postage stamps, with note in the handwriting of Edward Henry
  Corbould attributing the engraving to Frederick Heath              173

An exceptional block of twenty unused One Penny black stamps,
  lettered "V R" in the upper corners for official use. (From the
  collection of the late Sir William Avery, Bart.)                   177

An envelope bearing the rare stamp issued in 1846 by the Postmaster
  of Millbury, Massachusetts.--One of the stamps issued by the
  Postmaster of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, during the Civil War, 1861   181

Another of the Confederate States rarities issued by the Postmaster
  of Goliad, Texas.--The stamp issued by the Postmaster of
  Livingston, Alabama. (From the "Avery" Collection)                 183

The One Penny "Post Office" Mauritius on the original letter-cover.
  (From the "Duveen" Collection)                                     187

A roughly printed card showing the designs and colours for the
  Unified "Postage and Revenue" stamps of Great Britain, 1884        191

The King's copy of the Two Pence "Post Office" Mauritius
  stamp.--The magnificent unused copies of the One Penny and Two
  Pence "Post Office" Mauritius stamps acquired by Henry J. Duveen,
  Esq., out of the collection formed by the late Sir William Avery,
  Bart.                                                              225

The famous "Stock Exchange" Forgery of the One Shilling green stamp
  of Great Britain.--A Genuine "Plate 6."--One specimen was used on
  October 31, 1872, and the other on June 13 of the next year. The
  enlargements betray trifling differences in the details of the
  design, as compared with the genuine stamp above                   245

The unique envelope of Annapolis (Maryland, U.S.A.) in Lord
  Crawford's collection of stamps of the United States               279

Part sheet (175 stamps) of the ordinary One Penny black stamp
  of Great Britain, 1840. (From the collection of the Earl of
  Crawford, K.T.)                                                    283

Nearly a complete sheet (219 stamps out of 240) of the highly
  valued One Penny black "V R" stamp, intended for official use.
  (From the collection of the Earl of Crawford, K.T.)                285

Part sheet (lacking but six horizontal rows) of the scarce Two
  Pence blue stamp "without white lines" issued in Great Britain,
  1840. (From the collection of the Earl of Crawford, K.T.)          287

The unique block of the "double Geneva" stamp, the rarest of the
  Swiss "Cantonals." (Formerly in the "Avery" Collection, now in
  the possession of Henry J. Duveen, Esq.)                           291

Part sheet of the scarce 5c. "Large Eagle" stamp of Geneva, showing
  the marginal inscription at the top. (From the collection of
  Henry J. Duveen, Esq.)                                             293

A Page of the 5 cents. and 13 cents. Hawaiian "Missionary" stamps.
  (From the "Crocker" Collection)                                    297

Hawaiian Islands, 1851. The 5 cents "Missionary" stamp on original
  envelope. (From the "Crocker" Collection)                          299

A Page from the King's historic collection of the stamps of Great
  Britain, showing the method of "writing up"                        307

The three copies of the unissued 2d. "Tyrian-plum" stamp of Great
  Britain, in the collection of H.M. the King. The one on the
  envelope is the only specimen known to have passed through the
  post                                                               309

Design for the King Edward One Penny stamp, approved and initialled
  by His late Majesty. (From the collection of H.M. King George V.)  313

The companion design to that on page 313, and showing the correct
  pose of the head, but in a different frame which was not adopted.
  (From the collection of H.M. the King)                             315

A Page of the One Penny "Post Paid" stamps of Mauritius. (In the
  collection of H.M. the King)                                       319

The Two Pence "Post Paid" stamp of Mauritius. Unique block showing
  the error (the first stamp in the illustration), lettered "PENOE"
  for "PENCE". (In the collection of H.M. the King)                  323

A specimen page from the "Tapling" Collection at the British
  Museum. Probably the most valuable page, showing the Hawaiian
  "Missionaries." The two stamps at the top have been removed from
  the cases and are now kept in a safe in the "Cracherode" Room      327

PHILATELIC
TERMS

PHILATELIC TERMS

ALBINO.--An impression made either from an uninked embossing die,
    or from a similar inked die, under which two pieces of paper
    have been simultaneously placed, only the upper one receiving
    the colour.

ANILINE.--A term strictly applicable to coal-tar colours, but
    commonly used for brilliant tones very soluble in water.

BÂTONNÉ.--_See_ PAPER.

BISECT.--A term applied to a moiety of a stamp, used as of half the
    value of the entire label.

BLEUTÉ.--This word implies that the blueness of the paper has been
    acquired since the stamp was printed, as the result of chemical
    action.

BLOCK.--An unsevered group of stamps, consisting of at least two
    horizontal rows of two each.

BOGUS.--An expression applied to any stamp not designed for use.

BURELÉ.--A fine network forming part of design of stamp, or
    covering the front or back of entire sheet.

CANCELLED TO ORDER.--Stamps which, though postmarked or otherwise
    obliterated, have not done postal or fiscal duty.

CENTIMETRE (CM.).--The one-hundredth part of a metre = .3937 inch.

CHALKY, OR CHALK-SURFACED.--Before being used for printing, paper
    sometimes has its surface coated with a preparation largely
    composed of chalk or similar substance: this renders the
    print liable to rub off if wetted; and, in combination with a
    doubly-fugitive ink, renders fraudulent cleaning practically
    impossible.

CLICHÉ.--The ultimate production from the DIE, and of a number of
    which the printing PLATE is composed.

COLOUR TRIALS.--Impressions taken in various colours from a plate,
    so that a selection may be made.

COMB MACHINE.--A variety of perforating machine, which produces, at
    each descent of the needles, a line of holes along a horizontal
    (or vertical) row of stamps, and a short line of holes down the
    two sides (or top and bottom) of each stamp in that horizontal
    (or vertical) row. And _see_ PERFORATION.

COMMEMORATIVES.--A term applied to labels issued chiefly for sale
    to collectors, and commemorating the contemporaneous happening,
    or the anniversary, centenary, &c, of some often unimportant or
    almost forgotten event.

COMPOUND.--_See_ PERFORATION.

CONTROL.--An arbitrary letter or number, or both, printed on the
    margin of a sheet of stamps, for facilitating a check on the
    supply. Also used to denote a design overprinted on a stamp
    (_e.g._ Persia, 1899) as a protection against forgery.

[Illustration: EXAMPLES OF SOME PHILATELIC TERMS.

A _Pair_ of Great Britain embossed Six Pence.

A _Pair_ of Cape of Good Hope Triangular Shilling.

A _Block_ of four Great Britain Penny Red.

A _Strip_ of three Grenada "4d." on Two Shillings.]

CURRENT NUMBER.--The consecutive number of a PLATE, irrespective of
    the denomination of the stamp.

CUT-OUTS.--A term used to denote the impressions, originally part
    of envelopes, postcards, &c., but cut off for use as ordinary
    stamps.

CUT-SQUARES.--Stamps cut from envelopes, &c., with a rectangular
    margin of paper attached, are known as "CUT-SQUARES."

DICKINSON PAPER.--_See_ PAPER.

DIE.--The original engraving from which the printing plates are
    produced; or, sometimes, from which the stamps are printed
    direct. _See_ PLATE and EMBOSSED.

DOUBLY-FUGITIVE.--_See_ FUGITIVE.

DOUBLE-PRINT.--Strictly applicable to two similar impressions,
    more or less coincident, on the same piece of paper; though
    often, but erroneously, applied to instances where the paper,
    not being firmly held, has touched the plate, so receiving a
    partial impression, and then, resuming its correct position,
    has been properly printed.

DUTY-PLATE.--Many modern stamps are printed from two plates, one
    being the same (KEY-PLATE, which see) for all the values, but
    the other differing for each denomination: this latter is the
    DUTY-PLATE.

ELECTRO.--A reproduction of the original die, made by means of a
    galvanic battery from a secondary die. _See_ MATRIX.

EMBOSSED.--Stamps produced from a die, or reproductions thereof, on
    which the design is cut to varying depths, are necessarily in
    relief, _i.e._, embossed. And _see_ PRINTING.

ENGRAVED.--The term is often used to denote stamps printed direct
    from a plate, on which the lines of the design are cut _into_
    the metal. And _see_ PRINTING.

ENTIRES.--This expression includes not only POSTAL STATIONERY
    (which see), but when used in describing an adhesive stamp, as
    being "on entire," implies that the stamp is on the envelope or
    letter as when posted.

ENVELOPE STAMP.--A stamp belonging to, and printed on, an envelope.

ERROR.--An incorrect stamp--either in design, colour, paper,
    &c.--which has been issued for use.

ESSAY.--A rejected design for a stamp; in the French sense also
    applied to proofs of accepted designs.

FACSIMILE.--A euphemism for a forgery.

FAKE.--A genuine stamp, which has been manipulated in order to
    increase its philatelic or postal value.

FISCAL.--A stamp intended for payment of a duty or tax, as
    distinguished from postage.

FLAP ORNAMENT.--This refers to the ornament (usually) embossed on
    the tip of the upper flap of envelopes, and variously termed
    ROSACE or TRESSE, or (incorrectly) PATTE, which see.

FUGITIVE.--Colours printed in "singly-fugitive" ink suffer on an
    attempt to remove an ordinary ink cancellation; but if in
    "doubly-fugitive" ink it _was_ thought that the removal of
    _writing_-ink would injure the appearance of the stamp. And
    _see_ CHALKY.

[Illustration: EXAMPLES OF SOME PHILATELIC TERMS.

The figures "201" indicate the _Plate Number_, and "238" the _Current
Number_. The _Plate Number_ is also on each of these stamps in
microscopic numerals.

Corner pair showing _Current Number_ "575" in margin.

Corner pair showing _Plate Number_ "15" in margin. The _Plate Number_
is also seen in small figures on each stamp.

The above stamps are those of Great Britain _overprinted_ for use in
Cyprus.]

GENERALISING.--The collecting of all the postage-stamps of the
    world.

GOVERNMENT IMITATION.--Sometimes, when it is desired to reprint
    an obsolete issue, the original dies or plates are not
    forthcoming. New dies have, in these circumstances, been
    officially made, and the resulting labels are euphemistically
    called "Government imitations." "Forgeries" would be more
    candid.

GRANITE.--_See_ PAPER.

GRILLE.--Small plain dots, generally arranged in a small rectangle,
    but sometimes covering the entire stamp, embossed on certain
    issues of Peru and the United States. The idea of this was to
    so break up the fibre of the paper, as to allow the ink of the
    postmark to penetrate it and render cleaning impossible.

GUILLOTINE.--The term used to define a perforating-machine which
    punches a single straight line of holes at each descent of the
    needles.

GUMPAP.--A fancy term of opprobrium applied to a stamp issued
    purely for sale to collectors and not to meet a postal
    requirement.

HAIR-LINE.--Originally used to indicate the fine line crossing
    the outer angles of the corner blocks of some British stamps,
    inserted to distinguish impressions from certain plates, this
    term is now often employed to denote any fine line, in white or
    in colour, and whether intentional or accidental, which may be
    found on a stamp.

HAND-MADE.--_See_ PAPER.

HARROW.--The form of perforating-machine which is capable of
    operating on an entire sheet of stamps at each descent of the
    needles. And _see_ PERFORATION.

HEAD-PLATE.--_See_ KEY-PLATE.

IMPERFORATE.--Stamps which have not been PERFORATED or ROULETTED
    (both of which see) are thus described.

IMPRIMATUR.--A word usually found in conjunction with "sheet," when
    it indicates the first impression from a plate endorsed with an
    official certificate to that effect, and a direction that the
    plate be used for printing stamps.

IMPRINT.--The name of the printer, whether below each stamp, or
    only on the margin of the sheet, is called the "imprint."

INVERTED.--Simply upside-down. And _see_ REVERSED.

IRREGULAR.--_See_ PERFORATION.

"JUBILEE" LINE.--Since 1887, the year of Queen Victoria's first
    Jubilee--whence the name--a line of "printer's rule" has been
    added round each pane, or plate, of most surface-printed
    British and British Colonial stamps, in order to protect the
    edges of the outer rows of CLICHÉS from undue wear and tear.
    The "rule" shows as a coloured line on the sheets of stamps.

KEY-PLATE.--Stamps of the same design, when printed in two
    colours, require two plates for each value; that which prints
    the design (apart from the value, and sometimes the name of the
    country), and is common to and used for two or more stamps, is
    termed the HEAD-PLATE or KEY-PLATE. And _see_ DUTY-PLATE.

[Illustration: EXAMPLES OF SOME PHILATELIC TERMS.

A sheet of stamps of Gambia, composed of two _Panes_ of sixty stamps
each.

The single "Crown and CA" watermark as it appears looking from the
back of the Gambia sheet illustrated above. The watermark is arranged
in panes to coincide with the impressions from the plate.]

KNIFE.--This is a technical term for the cutter of the machine
    which cuts out the (unfolded) envelope blank, and is
    principally used in connection with the numerous varieties of
    _shape_ in the United States envelopes, amongst which the same
    size may show several variations in the flap.

LAID.--_See_ PAPER.

LAID BÂTONNÉ.--_See_ PAPER.

LINE-ENGRAVED.--Is properly applied to a print from a plate
    engraved in TAILLE DOUCE (which see) but is often applied to
    the plate itself.

LITHOGRAPHED.--Stamps printed from a design laid down on a stone
    and neither raised nor depressed in the printing lines are
    denoted by this term. And _see_ PRINTING.

LOCALS.--Stamps having a franking power within a definitely
    restricted area.

MANILA.--_See_ PAPER.

MATRIX.--A counterpart impression in metal or other material from
    an original die, and which in its turn is used to produce
    copies exactly similar to the original die.

MILLIMETRE (MM.).--The one-thousandth part of a metre = .03937 inch.

MILL-SHEET.--_See_ SHEET.

MINT.--A term used to denote that a stamp or envelope, &c.,
    is in exactly the same condition as when issued by the
    post-office--unused, clean, unmutilated in the slightest degree
    and with all the original gum undisturbed.

MIXED (PERFORATIONS).--In some of the 1901-7 stamps of New Zealand,
    the original perforation was to some extent defective: such
    portions of the sheet were patched with strips of paper on the
    back and re-perforated, usually in a different gauge.

MOUNTED.--Usually applied to indicate that a stamp, which has been
    trimmed close to the design, has had new margins added. And
    _see_ FAKE.

NATIVE-MADE PAPER.--_See_ PAPER.

OBLITERATION.--A general term used for any mark employed to cancel
    a stamp and so render it incapable of further use.

OBSOLETE.--Strictly, an obsolete stamp is one which has been
    withdrawn from circulation and is no longer available for
    postal use; but the term is often applied simply to old issues,
    no longer on sale at the post-office.

ORIGINAL DIE.--The first engraved piece of metal, from which the
    printing plates are directly or indirectly produced.

ORIGINAL GUM.--Practically all stamps were, before issue, gummed on
    the back, and the actual gum so applied is known as "original":
    the usual abbreviation is "o.g.": it is also implied in the
    expression "MINT", which see.

OVERPRINT.--An inscription or device printed upon a stamp
    additional to its original design. _Cf._ SURCHARGE.

PAIR.--Two stamps joined together as when originally printed.
    Without qualification, a PAIR is generally accepted as being of
    two stamps side by side: if a pair of two stamps joined top to
    bottom is intended, it is spoken of as a _vertical_ pair.

[Illustration: EXAMPLES OF SOME PHILATELIC TERMS.

A "Bisect," or "Bisected Provisional." The One Penny stamp of Jamaica
was in 1861 permitted to be cut in halves diagonally, and each half
used as a halfpenny stamp.]

PANE.--Entire sheets of stamps are frequently divided into sections
    by means of one or more spaces running horizontally or (and)
    vertically between similarly sized groups of stamps: each of
    these sections or groups is termed a PANE.

PAPER.--The two main divisions of PAPER are HAND-MADE and
    MACHINE-MADE: the former is manufactured, as its name
    indicates, by hand, sheet by sheet, by means of a special
    apparatus; the latter is made entirely by the aid of machinery
    and generally in long continuous rolls, which are afterwards
    cut up as required.

Each of these, apart from its substance, which may vary from the
    thinnest of tissue papers to almost thin card, is divisible
    according to its texture, distinguishable on being held up to
    the light, into--

    WOVE, of perfectly plain even texture, such as is generally
        used for books.

    LAID: this shows lines close together, usually with other
        lines, an inch or so apart, crossing them--"cream laid"
        notepaper is an example.

    BÂTONNÉ is wove paper, with very distinct lines as wide apart
        as those on ordinary ruled paper.

    LAID BÂTONNÉ: similar to BÂTONNÉ, but the spaces between the
        distinct lines are filled in with laid lines close together.

    QUADRILLÉ paper is marked with small squares or oblongs.

    REP is the term applied to WOVE paper which has been passed
        between ridged rollers, so that it becomes, to use a
        somewhat exaggerated description, corrugated: the small
        elevation or ridge on one side of the paper coincides with
        a depression or furrow on the other side--the thickness of
        the paper is the same throughout.

    RIBBED paper, on the other hand, is different from REP, in that
        one side is smooth and the other is in alternate furrows
        and ridges--the paper is thinner in the furrows than it is
        on the ridges.

    NATIVE paper, so called, is yellowish or greyish, often with
        the feel and appearance of parchment; generally laid
        somewhat irregularly, but often wove. The early issues of
        Cashmere and some of the stamps and cards of Nepal are
        printed on native paper: it is always hand-made.

    PELURE is a very thin, hard, tough paper, usually greyish in
        colour.

    MANILA is a strong, light, but coarse paper, and is used for
        wrappers, large envelopes, &c.; usually it is smooth on one
        side and rough on the other.

    SAFETY paper contains ingredients which would make it very
        difficult, if not impossible, to remove an obliteration
        in writing-ink without at the same time destroying the
        impression of the stamp: usually this paper is more or less
        blued, owing to the use of prussiate of potash, and its
        combination with impurities arising in the manufacture.

    GRANITE paper is almost white, with short coloured fibres in
        it, sometimes very visible, but at others necessitating the
        use of a magnifying glass.

    DICKINSON paper, so called from its inventor, has a continuous
        thread, or parallel threads, of silk in the centre of its
        substance, embedded there in the pulp at an early stage of
        the manufacture.

PARAPHE is the flourish which is sometimes added at the end of a
    signature: examples on stamps are found in the 1873-6 issues of
    Porto Rico.

PATTE.--French for the loose flap of an envelope; it is sometimes
    (but incorrectly) used for ROSACE or TRESSE, the ornament on
    the flap.

PELURE.--_See_ PAPER.

PEN-CANCELLED denotes cancellation by pen-and-ink, as opposed to
    the more customary postmark; it usually implies fiscal use.

PERCÉ is a French term denoting slits or pricks, no part of the
    paper being removed, in contradistinction to PERFORATED, in
    which small discs of paper are punched out. There are several
    kinds of PERÇAGE, or, in English, ROULETTING:--

    PERCÉ EN ARC, the cuts being curved, so that, on severing a
        pair of stamps, the edge of one shows small arches, whilst
        the other has a series of small scallops, something like,
        but more curved than, the perforations on the edges of an
        ordinary perforated stamp.

    PERCÉ EN LIGNE: the cuts or slits are straight, as if a
        continuous line had been broken up into small sections.
        This variety usually goes by the English term ROULETTED.

    PERCÉ EN POINTE denotes that the slits are comparatively large
        and cut evenly in zigzag, so that the edges of a stamp show
        a series of equal-sided triangular projections.

    PERCÉ EN POINTS, usually expressed as PIN-PERFORATED, implies a
        pricking of holes with a sharp point, but without removal
        of paper, which is merely pushed aside.

    PERCÉ EN SCIE is somewhat similar to PERCÉ EN POINTE, except
        that the slits are smaller and are cut in uneven zigzag
        (alternately long and short), so that the edge of a severed
        stamp is like that of a fine saw.

    PERCÉ EN SERPENTIN occurs when the paper is cut in
        comparatively large wavy curves of varying depth, with
        little breaks in the cutting which serve to hold the stamps
        together.

    And _see_ PERFORATED and PERFORATION.

PERFORATED--in French PIQUÉ. This word implies removal of small
    discs of paper, not simply slits or cuts. And _see_ PERCÉ.

PERFORATION is either "regular," where the number of holes within
    a similar space is constant along the entire row; or, where
    the number varies more or less, "irregular." The gauge of
    the perforations (or roulettes) of a stamp is measured by a
    PERFORATION-GAUGE, a piece of metal, card, or celluloid, on
    which is engraved or printed a long series of rows of dots,
    each row being two centimetres in length and containing a
    varying number of dots from, say, 6 to 17 or 18.

    A stamp, the edge of which shows holes (perforated)
    corresponding in spacing and number to the row on the gauge
    marked, say "12," is said to be "perforated 12." If the stamp
    gauges the same on all four sides, it is simply "perforated
    ..."; if the top and bottom are of one gauge, say 12, and
    the sides, say, 14, the stamp would be perforated "12 × 14."
    If the gauge varies on each of the four sides--an unlikely
    combination--then the order of noting same is, top (say 12),
    right (say 11), bottom (say 13), and left (say 15)--"perforated
    12 × 11 × 13 × 15." In the above the gauges are supposed to be
    regular.

[Illustration: PERFORATION GAUGE.]

    Should, however, the gauge be irregular, the extremes are noted
    even if not showing on the stamp: for instance, a stamp may
    be perforated with a machine, which, in its entire length,
    gradually varies from 12 to 16 holes in the two centimetres,
    though the stamp itself does not show all those gauges. Such a
    stamp would be "perforated 12 to 16."

    On the other hand, a row of perforations, instead of gradually
    altering in gauge, may do so abruptly; for instance, along a
    row of holes, part may gauge 14, the next part 16, and then
    16½, all quite distinct over a particular space. This would
    be termed "perforated 14, 16, 16½," implying that the
    intermediate gauges did not exist.

    The use of a regular machine, in conjunction with one
    of irregular gauge, might produce, say, "perforated 14"
    (horizontally) "× 12 to 15" (vertically); and so on.

    Stamps perforated, horizontally and vertically, by differently
    gauged machines are sometimes said to be "perforated, compound
    of ... and ...". There are many difficulties in the way of
    obtaining a full knowledge of the combinations and vagaries of
    perforating-machines.

PERFORATION-GAUGE.--A means of measuring PERFORATION or ROULETTE,
    which see.

PHILATELIC.--The adjective of PHILATELY.

PHILATELIST.--One who studies stamps.

PHILATELY--from two Greek words, "φίλος" (= fond of) and "ἀτέλεια"
    (= exemption from tax)--signifies a fondness for things (_viz._,
    stamps) which denote an exemption from tax, _i.e._, that the tax,
    or postage, has been paid. The word is a little far-fetched to
    imply the _study_ of stamps, but as "Philately" has been the
    accepted term for over forty years, "Philately" it will doubtless
    remain, even if some one succeeds in finding a word which more
    accurately expresses the popular and scientific hobby.

PIN-PERFORATED.--_See_ PERCÉ.

PLATE is the term used, not always quite correctly, to describe
    the ultimate reproductions from the die which constitute the
    printing surface in the manufacture of stamps: the word covers
    not only a sheet of metal with stamps engraved on it, but also
    a group of CLICHÉS or a _forme_ of _printer's type_ and even a
    _lithographic_ stone.

PLATE NUMBER is the consecutive number of each plate of a
    particular value, appearing on the margin of the plates and (in
    some of the British series) on the stamps themselves.

POSTAL-FISCAL is a fiscal stamp the use of which for postal
    purposes has been duly authorised, in contradistinction to a
    "fiscal postally used," a use which has been tacitly permitted
    in many countries.

POSTAL STATIONERY, _i.e._, envelopes, postcards, letter-cards,
    wrappers, telegram forms, &c.: frequently termed ENTIRES.

POSTMARK.--The official obliteration applied to a stamp to prevent
    its further postal use.

PRE-CANCELLED.--Two or three countries have adopted the system, to
    save time in the post-office, of supplying sheets of stamps
    cancelled prior to use. This may be a convenience, but the
    practice undoubtedly opens the door to possible fraud.

PRINT is an impression taken from any die, plate, forme, or stone.

PRINTING, in its fullest sense, is reproducing from a DIE, PLATE,
    STEREOTYPE, &c. (all of which see). There are, on this
    definition, four kinds of production: "Embossing," where
    the paper is impressed with a raised design, by pressure
    from a cut-out die (_see_ EMBOSSED); "Surface-printing" or
    "typography," where the portions of the plate which receive
    the ink and print the design are raised: this process causes
    a slight indentation on the surface of the paper and a
    corresponding elevation at the back; "Printing direct from
    plate" (so-called LINE-ENGRAVED, which see), in which the
    portions to be inked are recessed: in this process, the printed
    design on the stamps is in very slight relief, due to the ink
    being taken from the recessed engraving. "Lithography" is
    printing from a stone, on which the design has been drawn or
    otherwise laid down: impressions from a stone are flat.

PROOF.--An impression, properly in black, from the die, plate,
    or stone, taken in order to see if the design, &c., has been
    properly engraved or reproduced.

PROVISIONAL.--A make-shift intended to supply a temporary want of
    the proper stamp, which may have been unexpectedly sold out, or
    may not have been supplied owing to lack of time.

QUADRILLÉ.--_See_ PAPER.

RE-ISSUE denotes the bringing again into use of a stamp which has
    become obsolete, or at any rate has been long out of use at the
    post-office; it sometimes implies a new printing.

REMAINDERS.--Stamps printed during the period of issue and left on
    hand when that issue has gone out of use.

REPRINT.--Strictly a REPRINT is an impression taken from the
    identical original die, plate, stone, or block, after the
    stamps printed therefrom have gone out of use. The term is used
    to include printings from new plates or stones, made from the
    original die. And _see_ GOVERNMENT IMITATIONS.

REP.--_See_ PAPER.

RETOUCH, RE-SET, RE-ENGRAVED, RE-DRAWN, RE-CUT.--All these terms
    have a somewhat similar meaning, and imply repairs to, or
    alterations of, the die, plates, stones, or blocks: instances
    of most drastic re-engraving are known, _e.g._, that of the
    1848 Two Pence ("Post Paid") of Mauritius, the plate of which
    was so altered as to produce a practically new stamp, the Two
    Pence, "large fillet," of 1859; and the Half Tornese "Arms"
    of Naples, which had the entire centre removed from each of
    the two hundred impressions on the plate and replaced by the
    Cross of Savoy. To differentiate--_retouching_ is generally
    undertaken to remedy minor defects caused by wear and tear:
    _re-setting_ suggests slight re-arrangement of stamps made
    up, wholly or partly, of printer's type; _re-engraving_, the
    replacing of parts of a design worn away by use or intention:
    _re-drawing_ rather leads one to infer that the original design
    has been reproduced in an improved form; and _re-cutting_
    implies going over the original die, &c., and strengthening the
    engraving, with, perhaps, slight accidental variations of the
    design.

REVENUE.--This word indicates availability for fiscal use, as
    distinguished from postal use. A stamp may be available for
    either purpose, or for one only; the use is almost invariably
    indicated by the inscription.

REVERSED.--Backwards-way; "as in a looking-glass." The term
    is often, but quite erroneously, used for INVERTED--which
    see--implying upside-down.

RIBBED.--_See_ PAPER.

ROSACE.--The small ornament frequently found on the upper flap of
    old envelopes; known also as TRESSE.

ROUGH PERFORATION.--When the holes in the lower plate of the
    perforating-machine get damaged or partly clogged up, or the
    punches are very worn, the perforation becomes very defective,
    the little discs of paper not being punched out, but (though
    generally distinct) left only partly cut through: this state is
    termed "rough," but must not be confused with PERCÉ EN POINTS
    (pin-perforated), which see.

ROULETTED.--_See_ PERCÉ.

ROULETTED IN COLOURED LINES is a variety of rouletting, and always
    so termed, in which the slits or cuts are made by means of type
    ("printer's rule") a little higher than the CLICHÉS or STEREOS
    composing the plate, and which cut into the paper under the
    pressure of the printing-press.

SAFETY PAPER.--_See_ PAPER.

"SEEBECKS."--The late Mr. N. F. Seebeck, the contractor to various
    South American Republics had an arrangement under which there
    was a new issue of stamps every year, he to retain for his
    own benefit any demonetised remainders of the previous set:
    stamps provided under such conditions are called after their
    originator.

SE TENANT.--A French expression signifying that the stamps
    referred to have not been separated: usually employed in
    reference to an error, or variety, when still forming a pair
    with a normal stamp.

SERPENTINE ROULETTE.--_See_ PERCÉ EN SERPENTIN.

SHEET (OF PAPER).--There are three "sheets": a mill-sheet, as
    manufactured; a sheet as printed, which may be, and often is,
    less than a mill-sheet; and a "post-office" sheet, either the
    whole or an arbitrary part of a printed sheet, so divided for
    convenience of reckoning.

SILK-THREAD PAPER.--_See_ PAPER (DICKINSON).

SINGLE-LINE PERFORATION.--_See_ GUILLOTINE.

SPANDREL is the term for the triangular space between a circle,
    oval, or curve, and the rectangular frame enclosing it.

SPECIALISING.--To develop in a collection a complete record of
    the inception, history, and use of the stamps of a particular
    country, or group of countries, in the fullest and most
    detailed manner. In contradistinction to GENERALISING (which
    see).

STATIONERY.--_See_ ENTIRES.

STEREOTYPE OR STEREO.--A reproduction of the original design, made
    by means of a _papier-maché_ or other mould, in type-metal. And
    see MATRIX.

STRIP is the philatelic term for three or more stamps unsevered and
    in the same row, horizontal or vertical.

SURCHARGE.--An overprint (which see) which alters the face value
    of a stamp, or confirms it in the same or a new currency. The
    term is loosely used to mean any overprint, but it is desirable
    that its application be confined to inscriptions affecting the
    denomination of face-value.

SURFACE-PRINTED, that is, printed by a process in which the parts
    of the plate, &c., which produce the coloured portions of the
    stamp are raised up. _See_ PRINTING.

TAILLE DOUCE.--When a design is cut into the substance of the plate
    it is said to be engraved in TAILLE DOUCE. A familiar example
    is a visiting-card plate.

TÊTE-BÊCHE is a French expression signifying the inversion of one
    stamp of a pair (or more) in relation to the other stamp (or
    stamps): naturally, the peculiarity disappears on severance,
    and such varieties must necessarily be in a pair or more.

TONED, as applied to paper, implies a very slight buff tint.

TRESSE.--_See_ ROSACE.

TRIALS.--These are impressions from die, plate, stone, &c., taken
    to ascertain if the design be correct, or to assist in the
    selection of a suitable colour.

[Illustration: EXAMPLES OF SOME PHILATELIC TERMS.

Photograph of a flat steel _die_ engraved in _taille douce_ (_i.e._,
with the lines of the design cut into the plate). The stamp is the 50
lepta of Greece, issue of 1901, showing Hermes adapted from the Mercury
of Giovanni da Bologna.]

TYPE.--A representative common design, as distinguished from
    "VARIETY," which indicates slight deviations therefrom.

TYPE-SET.--Stamps--_e.g._, the 1862 issue of British Guiana--have
    sometimes been set up with ordinary _printer's type_, as used
    for books, and the ornamental type-metal designs to be found in
    a printing establishment.

TYPOGRAPHED.--_See_ SURFACE-PRINTED.

USED ABROAD.--Prior to certain countries and colonies having their
    own stamps, British post-offices were established in them,
    at which British stamps were to be purchased; such stamps,
    identified by their postmarks as having been so used, are
    termed "British _used abroad_." The stamps of other countries
    have been similarly "used abroad."

VARIETY.--A slight variation from the normal design, or TYPE, which
    see.

WATERMARKS.--A thinning of the substance of the paper, in the form
    of letters, words, or designs, &c., during the manufacture.
    On the paper being held up to the light, or placed on a dark
    surface, the designs become more or less visible.

    So-called "watermarks" are sometimes produced by impressing a
    design on the paper _after_ manufacture; this has a somewhat
    similar effect, though the paper is only pressed, not thinned.

WOVE.--_See_ PAPER.

WOVE BÂTONNÉ.--_See_ PAPER.

THE
GENESIS
OF THE
POST

CHAPTER I

THE GENESIS OF THE POST

    The earliest letter carriers--The Roman _posita_--Princely
    Postmasters of Thurn and Taxis--Sir Brian Tuke--Hobson
    of "Hobson's Choice"--The General Letter Office of
    England--Dockwra's Penny Post of 1680--Povey's "Halfpenny
    Carriage"--The Edinburgh and other Penny Posts--Postal Rates
    before 1840--Uniform Penny Postage--The Postage Stamp regarded
    as the royal _diplomata_--The growth of the postal business.

Postage is so cheap and so easy to-day that we are apt to forget
how, not very many years ago, it was a privilege of the rich. To-day
the Post Office is no respecter of persons, and the "all swallowing
orifice of the pillar-box" receives without favour or distinction the
correspondence of the humble with the messages of the mighty. The Post
Office treats everything confided to its charge with the same organised
routine. In the palatial new edifice, King Edward the Seventh Building,
a few days before Christmas, a letter was handed to me for inspection
in the "Blind Division," where they deal with insufficiently addressed
letters. The missive bore in the handwriting of a little child, "To
Santa Claus, No. 1, Aerial Building, London." That letter, I was
informed, had to be passed through the Blind Division, thence to the
Returned Letter Office, where it would be opened to discover if the
enclosure contained any indication of the identity and whereabouts of
the writer. If not returnable, the letter would be preserved for a
period lest it should be claimed. The Department is as careful of the
precocious petitions of a child as it is of the papers of State which
it carries throughout the length and breadth of the land.

By all who would know the true love of stamps it must needs be
understood how postal matters were before the birth of the Penny Black.
Else we shall not fitly appreciate all the benefices that the "label
with the glutinous wash" has brought to our present civilisation.
Without this comparison of the old order with the new, we should be in
peril of passing over the true significance of the postage-stamp in the
surfeit of blessings it confers upon the world to-day. Postage to-day
is as fecund of bounties as a fruitful garden, yet do we accept all as
our rightful heritage, without giving much consideration to the little
postage-stamp which was the seed which, planted in every civilised
country of the earth, has yielded blessings in abundance.

So in our first chat, we would open up the book in which is told
the history of things that are written from one to another. The
first letter of which we have any particular knowledge was that by
which David achieved his evil purpose of sending Uriah the Hittite
to the forefront of the battle, that he might be smitten and die.
The unfortunate Uriah was himself the messenger, bearing the fatal
letter to Joab with his own hand. The brazen-faced Jezebel forged her
royal husband's name to letters, so our first meeting with letters in
scriptural history shows that they could be used to evil as well as to
good purpose.

As the Scythians made contracts one with another by mingling the warm
blood of their bodies in a cup and drinking thereof, so the Persians
used living letters in their early correspondence. Herodotus tells us
how they shaved the heads of their messengers and impressed or branded
the "writing" upon their scalps. Then they were shut up until the hair
had grown again and concealed the message, when the runners were sent
off upon their divers journeys. A messenger on reaching his destination
was again shaved and the epistle was made plain to the eyes of the
beholder.

This was a primitive method, one of many which had vogue amongst the
ancients. Under Darius I. the Persians had a service of Government
couriers, for whom were provided horses ready saddled at specified
distances on their route, so that the Government could send and receive
communications with the provinces. "Nothing in the world is borne so
swiftly as messages by the Persian couriers," says Herodotus.

The word "post" descends to us from the Roman _posita_ (_positus_ =
placed), and is a link between our posts of to-day and the _cursus
publicus_ of the time of Augustus. In those days of arms the
roads were laid for armies to traverse, not for traffic, and the
organisation of the _posita_ was military. Stations were established
at intervals on the chief routes, where couriers and magistrates could
be furnished with changes of horses (_mutationes_.) For the benefit of
the travellers _mansiones_ or night quarters were erected. These State
posts were only for the use of the Government, and they were ridden by
couriers who had, besides their own mount, a spare horse for carrying
the letters. Individuals were at times permitted to use the posts, for
which privilege they had to have the permits or _diplomata_ of the
Emperor. The Romans also had what may be compared with sea-posts, from
Ostia and other ports.

Foot-runners and messengers on horseback have been organised for
Government communications in most lands where civilisation has dawned,
even in remote times. In the West the Incas and the Aztecs had runners
from earliest times, and in the Orient carrier-pigeons provided an
additional means of communication.

It is not until the fifteenth century that we find posts in operation
on a more public scale, the first being a horse-post plying between
the Tyrol and Italy, set up by Roger of Thurn and Taxis in 1460.
From that modest beginning sprang the vast monopoly of the Counts of
Thurn and Taxis, which dominated the posts of the Continent during
five centuries, remaining into the early period of the postage-stamp
system. By 1500, Franz von Taxis was Postmaster-General of Austria,
the Low Countries, Spain, Burgundy, and Italy. In 1516 he connected
up Brussels and Vienna, and his successor Leonard provided a link
between Vienna and Nuremberg. In 1595, Leonard von Taxis was the
Grand Postmaster of the Holy Roman Empire, and he established a post
from the Netherlands to Italy by way of Trèves, Spire, Wurtemburg,
Augsburg, and Tyrol. In the next century, Eugenius Alexander subscribes
himself in a postal document as "Count of Thurn, Valsassina, Tassis
and the Holy Empire, Chamberlain of His Majesty the Roman Emperor,
_Hereditary Postmaster-General of the Realm_." The postal dominion
of this princely house flourished until the wars of the French
Revolution, from which period the power of the Counts began to
dwindle. Some of the German States withdrew from their arrangements
with the house of Thurn and Taxis, and others purchased their freedom
and set up postal establishments of their own. By the middle of
the nineteenth century Austria, Prussia, Bavaria, Hanover, Baden,
Brunswick, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Holstein, Oldenburg, Lauenburg,
Luxemburg and Saxony had independent posts, but the Thurn and Taxis
administration still controlled an area of 25,000 square miles (with
3,750,000 inhabitants), under the direction of a head office at
Frankfort-on-the-Maine. In 1851, however, Wurtemburg, at a cost of
over £100,000, bought its freedom from the monopolists; and sixteen
years later (1867) Prussia paved the way for the completion of the
consolidation of the German Empire by purchasing for three million
thalers (approximately £450,000) the last remaining rights of the
house of Thurn and Taxis in the postal affairs of Germany.

In England the royal _Nuncii et Cursores_ were the forerunners of the
King's Messengers of to-day, and were exclusively employed upon State
affairs and for the correspondence of the Sovereign and of the Court.
At what period the people were admitted to the privilege of the posts
is obscure. The first Master of the Posts of whom we know was one
Brian Tuke, Esq., afterwards Sir Brian Tuke, who is best remembered in
Holbein's several portraits of him, and as the author of the preface to
Thynne's "Chaucer." He was at one period secretary to Cardinal Wolsey,
and it is in a letter (1533) to his successor in that office, Thomas
Cromwell, that we find the one clue to the state of the posts at that
time:

"By your letters of the twelfth of this moneth, I perceyve that
there is grete defaulte in conveyance of letters, and of special men
ordeyned to be sent in post; and that the Kinges pleasure is, that
postes be better appointed, and laide in al places most expedient; with
commaundement to al townshippes in al places, on payn of lyfe, to be in
suche redynes, and to make suche provision of horses, at al tymes, as
no tract or losse of tyme be had in that behalf."

In the sixteenth century, there were regular carriers licensed to
take passengers, goods, and letters, and of these the most remarkable
was Tobias Hobson, who was an innkeeper at Cambridge. His memory
is perpetuated in the common expression of "Hobson's choice." The
innkeeper kept a stable of forty good cattle, but made it a rule that
any who came to hire a horse was obliged to take the one nearest the
stable door, "so that every customer was alike well served, according
to his chance, and every horse ridden with the same justice." Milton,
in one of his two punning epitaphs on Hobson, refers to his position as
letter-carrier:--

    "His letters are deliver'd all and gone;
    Only remains this superscription."

From 1609, the Posts of Great Britain have been under the monopoly
of the Crown, and at that time they were carried on at a loss. As
the posts did not carry the correspondence of the public, there
was no likelihood of their being made self-supporting until the
facilities they offered were of utility to the people. The general
admission of the public to these facilities dates from 1635, under the
Postmastership of Thomas Witherings, and two years later was set up
the "Letter Office of England." The cheapest rate under Withering's
management was 2d. for a "single letter" (that is, one sheet of paper)
conveyed a distance not exceeding 80 miles. If the letter weighed an
ounce, the charge was 6d. A single letter to Scotland cost 8d. and to
Ireland 9d.

For a number of years prior to 1667, the posts were farmed to various
individuals, and during the Commonwealth, Parliament passed an Act
settling the postage of the three kingdoms, which "pretended Act" was
practically re-enacted at the Restoration. The profits on the Post
Office were settled by Charles II. upon his son, the Duke of York,
afterwards James II., and the latter took care upon his accession to
the throne to secure the continuance of his enjoyment of its revenues.

Private enterprise was responsible for putting a good deal of pressure
on the Post Office in the early days. In 1659, a penny post was first
proposed by one John Hill and certain other "Undertakers," but the most
notable instance was the success that attended the efforts of William
Dockwra in establishing the London Penny Post in 1680. By this penny
post, Londoners had for three years an excellent and frequent service
of postal collections and deliveries of their letters and parcels
within the City and suburbs. The Government post had one office in
London--the General Letter Office--up to 1680. Consequently, persons
who had letters to send by post had either to take them, or procure
messengers to take them, to the office in Lombard Street. Dockwra
established between four and five hundred receiving offices for
letters, and a good part of the business he did was in transmitting
letters to and from the General Letter Office in Lombard Street.

The penny post made many friends, but also a few enemies. Of the few
there was one of powerful influence, the Duke of York, who envied
the prospective income to be derived from a popular post; there were
others who were unscrupulous in their attacks, led by the notorious
Titus Oates, who pretended to expose the whole of Dockwra's plan as "a
farther branch of the Popish plot," and the porters of London, who,
fearing to lose many of their chances of employment, vented their
spleen in the manner of vulgar rioters.

[Illustration: SCARCE PAMPHLET (FIRST PAGE) IN WHICH WILLIAM DOCKWRA
ANNOUNCES THE PENNY POST OF 1680.]

Proceedings were taken against Dockwra for infringement of the Crown's
monopoly, and the case being carried, the London Penny Post was shortly
afterwards re-established and carried on under authority for nearly a
hundred and twenty years, until 1801, when the penny rate was doubled
and the Penny Post became the Twopenny Post.

Charles Povey's "halfpenny carriage" (1708) was a poor copy of
Dockwra's post, covering a smaller area at the lower fee of one
halfpenny. Its originator was fined £100 in 1760, and the incident
of this post is only remarkable in postal history for its having
originated the use of the "bellman" for collecting letters in the
streets.

The Edinburgh Penny Post, set up by the keeper of a coffee-shop in the
hall of Parliament House, Peter Williamson, in 1768, was also stopped
by the authorities as a private enterprise; but its promoter was given
a pension of £25 a year and the post was carried on by the General
Post Office. Just three years previously, local Penny Posts had been
legalised by the Act of 5 George III., c. 25, provided they were set up
where adjudged to be necessary by the Postmaster-General. Such penny
posts increased rapidly towards the end of the eighteenth century, and
just before Uniform Penny Postage was introduced there were more than
two thousand of them in operation in different parts of the country.
In spite of the increase in these local posts, however, the general
postage was high, the tendency of the later changes in the rates being
to increase rather than to lessen them.

In the early part of the nineteenth century, the rates were such that
few but the rich could make frequent use of the luxury of postage, and
these rates, coming close up to the period of the new _régime_ of 1840,
form an extraordinary series of contrasts. Here is an old post-office
rate-book kept by the postmaster (or mistress) at Southampton in the
'thirties, which I like to show my friends when they sigh for the good
old times. It is a printed list of the chief places to which letters
could be sent, with columns to be filled in by the postal official
after calculating distances and exercising simple arithmetic. In Great
Britain the rates were for single letters:--

  From any post office in England or Wales to any place
  not exceeding 15 miles from such office                           4d.

  Between 15 and 20 miles                                           5d.
     "    20  "  30   "                                             6d.
     "    30  "  50   "                                             7d.
     "    50  "  80   "                                             8d.
     "    80  " 120   "                                             9d.
     "   120  " 170   "                                            10d.
     "   170  " 230   "                                            11d.
     "   230  " 300   "                                            12d.

and one penny in addition on each single letter for every 100 miles
beyond 300. These rates did not include "1d. in addition to be taken
for penny postage" and in certain cases toll-fees.

[Illustration: A POST-OFFICE IN 1790.

By permission of the Proprietors of the _City Press_.]

Under these rates, a single letter to Kirkwall from Southampton cost
1s. 7d.; to London 9d., plus the penny postage; Cork 1s. 3d., &c.
These rates were for a single-sheet letter, the charge being multiplied
by two for a double letter, by four for an ounce, which is one-quarter
of the weight at present allowed on a letter which costs us a modest
penny.

Letters for overseas were correspondingly high as the following
comparisons will show:--

                      Single-sheet Letter.      1 oz. Letter.
                            1830.                  1911.

  Austria                  2s. 3d.                  2½d.
  Brazil          }
  Buenos Aires    }        3s. 5d.                  2½d.
  Chili, Peru, &c.}
  Canary Islands           2s. 6d.                  2½d.
  Germany                  1s. 9d.                  2½d.
  Hayti                    2s. 11d.                 2½d.
  Honduras                 2s. 11d.                 2½d.
  Portugal                 2s. 2d.                  2½d.
  Russia                   2s. 3d.                  2½d.
  Spain                    2s. 2d.                  2½d.
  Sweden                   1s. 8d.                  2½d.
  Turkey                   2s. 2d.                  2½d.
  United States            2s. 1d.                  1d.
  British West Indies and}
  British North America  } 2s. 1d.                  1d.
  Malta, Gibraltar         2s. 2d.                  1d.
  St. Helena               1s. 8½d.                 1d.

The registration fee on foreign letters was, in the early nineteenth
century, one guinea per letter; to-day it is twopence.

[Illustration: THE COMMEMORATIVE LETTER BALANCE DESIGNED BY MR. S.
KING, OF BATH (1840).

A monument "which may be possessed by every family in the United
Kingdom."]

These are but a few examples showing what a mighty change was wrought
with the introduction of the Uniform Penny Postage plan of Rowland
Hill. The circumstances under which the new plan was introduced
included several factors to which may be attributed a share in the
success of Hill's plan. First, the uniform and low minimum rate of
one penny on inland letters, dispensing with tedious calculations of
distance. By some it was feared that the necessity for calculating the
weight would be more troublesome than examining the letter against a
lighted candle to see if it were "single" or "double," and scores of
"penny post letter balances" were placed upon the market at the outset.
Next was the increased facility of transit provided by the then growing
system of railways, and the subsequent development of steam-power at
sea.

[Illustration: MR. KING'S LETTER BALANCE HAD A TRIPOD BASE, AS IN
THE UPPERMOST FIGURE, THUS AFFORDING THREE TABLETS, ON WHICH THE
ASSOCIATIONS OF J. PALMER, ROWLAND HILL, AND QUEEN VICTORIA WITH POSTAL
REFORM ARE RECORDED.]

But the one factor which to us is the most notable contribution to the
success of the Penny Postage plan, was the square inch of paper with
its backing of glutinous wash. This enabled the authorities to effect
the introduction of prepayment, and save the long delays formerly
occasioned by the postman having to await payment for each letter on
delivery. It saved the complicated system by which the Post Office had
to ensure that the postman did get paid, and in his turn accounted for
the money to his office. It was to this simple contrivance of a small
label, issued by authority, to indicate the prepayment of postage that
the practical success of Hill's plan was greatly due. The little stamps
are the royal _diplomata_ which enable us all, at a modest fee, to use
His Majesty's mails, a privilege enjoyed by great and small, by rich
and poor. So stamp-collectors deem the objects of their interest to
have achieved a vast reform in internal and universal communications,
giving a powerful impetus to social progress, international commerce,
and the world's peace.

The year before the introduction of Uniform Penny Postage there were
75,907,572 letters dealt with by the Post Office. The number was more
than doubled in the first year of the new system, and the subsequent
growth of correspondence is outlined in the figures (letters only) for
the following years:--

  1840          168,768,344
  1850          347,069,071
  1860          564,002,000
  1870          862,722,000
  1880        1,176,423,600
  1890        1,705,800,000
  1900        2,323,600,000
  1910        2,947,100,000

II

THE
DEVELOPMENT
OF AN
IDEA

CHAPTER II

THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN IDEA

    Early instances of contrivances to denote prepayment
    of postage--The "Two _Sous_" Post--_Billets de port
    payé_--A passage of wit between the French Sappho and M.
    Pellisson--Dockwra's letter-marks--Some fabulous stamped
    wrappers of the Dutch Indies--Letter-sheets used in
    Sardinia--Lieut. Treffenberg's proposals for "Postage Charts"
    in Sweden--The postage-stamp idea "in the air"--Early British
    reformers and their proposals--The Lords of the Treasury start
    a competition--Mr. Cheverton's prize plan--A find of papers
    relating to the contest--A square inch of gummed paper--The
    Sydney embossed envelopes--The Mulready envelope--The
    Parliamentary envelopes--The adhesive stamp popularly preferred
    to the Mulready envelope.

The simplest inventions are usually apt adaptations. The postage-stamp,
as we know it to-day, can scarcely be said to have been invented,
though much wild controversy has raged about the identity of its
"inventor." The historian must prefer to regard the postage-stamp of
to-day as the development of an idea.

It would not serve any purpose useful to the present subject to trace
to its beginnings the use of stamped paper for the collection of
Government revenues; but it is highly interesting to disentangle
from the web of history the facts which show this system to have
been recognised as applicable to the collection of postages by the
prototypes of the reformers of 1840.

The first known instance of special printed wrappers being sold for
the convenience of users of a postal organisation occurred in Paris
in 1653. At this time France had its General Post, just as England
about the same time had set up a General Letter Office in the City of
London; but in neither case did the General Post handle local letters.
To despatch a letter to the country from Paris, or from London, there
was no choice but to deliver it personally, or send it by private
messenger, to the one solitary repository in either city for the
conveyance of correspondence by the Government post.

The porters of London found no small part of the exercise of their
trade in carrying letters to the General Letter Office, and in Paris,
no doubt, a similar class of men enjoyed the benefit of catering at
individual rates for what is now done on the vast co-operative plan of
the State monopoly.

In 1653, a Frenchman, M. de Villayer, afterwards Comte de Villayer,
set up as a private enterprise (but with royal authority) the _petite
poste_ in Paris, which had for its _raison d'être_ the carrying of
letters to the General Post, and also the delivery of local letters
within the city. He distributed letter-boxes at prominent positions
in the chief thoroughfares in Paris, into which his customers could
drop their letters and from whence his _laquais_ could collect them at
regular intervals. At certain appointed places M. de Villayer placed
on sale letter-covers, or wrappers, which bore a _marque particulier_,
and which, being sold at the rate of a penny each (two _sous_), were
permitted to frank any letter deposited in the numerous letter-boxes
of the Villayer post to any point within the city. The post is the one
afterwards referred to by Voltaire as the "two-_sous_ post."

These wrappers, then, were the first printed franks for the collection
of postage from the public. The exact nature of the matter imprinted
upon them is uncertain; but it probably included M. de Villayer's
coat of arms, and it was on this hypothesis that the late M. Maury,
the French philatelist, reconstructed an approximate imitation of the
original form of cover. The covers, it should be stated, were wrapped
around the letters by the senders, and were then dropped in the boxes.
In the process of sorting for delivery, the servants of M. de Villayer
removed the special cover, which removal was practically the equivalent
of the cancellation of the stamps of to-day.

These covers undoubtedly represent the first known form of printed
postage-stamps, being the forerunners of the impressed non-adhesive
stamps of to-day. The Maury reconstruction is fanciful, but the
inscriptions thereon are literally correct. Owing to the removal of the
covers (which were probably broken in the process) during the postal
operations no originals of these covers are now known to exist. Indeed,
the only true relics of the _billets de port payé_ of M. de Villayer
are in the two fragments of correspondence between M. Pellisson and
the French Sappho, Mlle. Scudéri. Pellisson, who was not noted for
his good looks, addressed "Mademoiselle SAPHO, demeurant en la rue,
au pays des _Nouveaux Sansomates_, à Paris, par billet de port payé."
Signing himself "Pisandre," he inquired if the lady could give him
a remedy for love. Her reply, sent by the same means, was, "My dear
Pisandre, you have only to look at yourself in a mirror." It was of
this correspondent that the lady once declared, "It is permissible to
be ugly, but Pellisson has really abused the permission."

The London Penny Post of 1680, while it did not use special covers
for the prepayment of letters, introduced the system of marking on
letters, by means of hand-stamps, the time and place of posting and
the intimation "Penny Post Payd." Dockwra, instead of setting up boxes
in the public streets, organised a great circle of receiving houses to
which the senders took their letters and paid their pennies over the
counter. So the principle of the postage-stamp, as we know it to-day,
was not represented in the triangular hand-stamps of Dockwra, or of his
successors in the official Penny Post.

A device representing the arms of Castile and Leon was used in the
eighteenth century as a kind of frank or stamp which passed official
correspondence through the posts, and in the last quarter of that
century the Chevalier Paris de l'Epinard proposed in Brussels the
erection of a local post with a mark or stamp of some kind to denote
postage prepaid--a plan which, however, was not adopted.

[Illustration: A FACSIMILE OF THE ADDRESS SIDE OF A PENNY POST LETTER
IN 1686, SHOWING THE "PENY POST PAYD" MARK INSTITUTED BY DOCKWRA AND
CONTINUED BY THE GOVERNMENT AUTHORITIES.]

[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF THE CONTENTS OF THE PENNY POST LETTER OF
1686.]

There is a curious account given by a correspondent in _The Philatelic
Record_ [xii. 138] of some so-called stamps said to have been used
in the Dutch Indies. The writer, whose account has never so far as I am
aware received any definite confirmation, says:--

"At the beginning of this year [1890] were discovered amongst some old
Government documents at Batavia some curious and hitherto--whether here
or in Europe--unknown postally used envelopes, with value indicated....
In the time of Louis XIV. it is believed that postage-stamps existed;
but nobody has been able to bring them to light, consequently we have
in these hand-stamped envelopes of the Dutch East Indian Company
absolutely the oldest documents of philatelic lore.

"The letter-sheets are all made from the same paper, and are all of the
same size--namely, about 23 × 19 centimetres; whilst the side which is
most interesting to us--the 'address' or 'stamp' side--is folded to a
size of 103 × 88 mm. Up to the present the following values have been
found:--

  3 stivers             black
  5    "                  "
  5    "                red
  6    "                black
  6    "                  "  {_double_; that is to say, two stamps
                             {of 6 stivers side by side.
  10   "                  "
  10   "                red
  15   "                  "

"On the address-side is no date stamp, and no indication of the office
of departure; also the figures denoting the year are only discernible
on the seal of each letter. On the specimens hitherto found are the
dates from 1794 to 1809; but it is quite possible that other values
may be unearthed. So far, of all the above values together, only about
thirty specimens are known.... These envelopes came from various places
in the Dutch Indian Archipelago."

[Illustration: THE OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION OF DECEMBER 3, 1818, RELATING
TO THE USE OF THE SARDINIAN LETTER SHEETS.

Described in the records of the Schroeder collection as "the oldest
official notification of any country in the world relating to postage
stamps."

MANIFESTO CAMERALE

  Portante notificanza che la Carta Postale-bollata, stabilita
    colle Regie Patenti delli 7 dello scorso novembre, sarà
    provvisionalmente posta in corso non filagranata; della
    dimensione ordinaria della Carta cosi detta da Lettere, e
    munita dei bolli relativi alle tre qualità della medesima
    pienamente conformi agli impronti lvi delineati.

_In data delli 3 dicembre 1818._

TORINO,

DALLA STAMPERIA REALE.]

[Illustration: (_Continuation from previous page._)

THE MODELS SHOW THE DEVICES FOR THE THREE DENOMINATIONS: 15, 25, AND 50
_CENTESIMI_ RESPECTIVELY.

  3. Che all'epoca in cui comincierà la distribuzione della nuova
    carta filagranata cesserà l'uso della carta bollata non
    filagranata; e che i foglj rimanenti della medesima potranno
    essere cangiati contro altrettanti della nuova con filagrana.

  I diversi bolli che verranno apposti sovra la carta provvisionale
    non filagranata, saranno pienamente conformi agl'impronti
    infra delineati, i quali unitamente ai loro modelli, ed agli
    esemplari della carta suddetta sono stati depositati negli
    Archivj nostri giusta il disposto dall'articolo 2' delle
    mentovate Regie Patenti delli 7 dello scorso novembre.

_Modelli de' Bolli._

  Mandiamo il presente pubblicarsi ai luoghi, e modi soliti, ed
    alle copie che ne verranno stampate nella Stamperia Reale
    prestarsi la stessa fede che all'originale.

  Dat. in Torino li tre dicembre mille ottocento diciotto.

  _Per detta Eccellentissima Regia_
      _CAMERA_

                              FAVA.]

The foregoing statement is open to much question, in view of the lapse
of twenty years since the matter was first aired in _The Philatelic
Record_. If authentic, these would be the earliest denominated
stamps for the prepayment of postage, the Dutch _stuiver_ in use in
the colonies being a copper coin equal to about one penny. Perhaps
the introduction of the matter in these Chats will, in the light of
increased modern facilities for research, bring the subject before the
notice of our Dutch philatelic _confrères_.

The Sardinian letter sheets of the early nineteenth century are now
tolerably well known to stamp-collectors. They, however, represented
a Government tax on the privilege of letter-carrying, rather than a
direct prepayment of postage. These were the product of a curious
anomaly in the exercise of the postal monopoly by the Government of
Sardinia. It was forbidden to send letters and packets otherwise than
through the Government post; but as this latter was very inefficient,
and in many parts of the country was practically non-existent, the
authorities established by decree, in 1818, a system whereby the people
for whom the Government post was inconvenient, if not absolutely
useless, could send their letters by other means. To effect this the
senders had to supply themselves from a post-office with a stock of
special letter sheets, stamped with a device of a mounted post-boy,
within a circular, oval, or octagonal frame, at a cost of 15, 25, or
50 _centesimi_ apiece. The use of these stamped letter sheets, bought
from the post-office, was an authority for their conveyance by private
means, but not through the ordinary channels of the Sardinian postal
organisation. Thus, while the Post Office took its full charges for the
conveyance of such letters, it did not perform the work of collecting,
transmitting, and delivering them. The three denominations, 15, 25,
and 50 _centesimi_ were used for letters conveyed varying distances
according to the Government postal tariff, from which, however, the
actual messenger derived no benefit, his remuneration being over and
above these official charges.

[Illustration: SARDINIAN LETTER SHEET OF 1818: 15 CENTESIMI.

THE 25 CENTESIMI LETTER SHEET OF SARDINIA.

Issued in Sardinia, 1818: the earliest use of Letter Sheets with
embossed stamps.]

The next proposal of stamped covers the historian has to note, is that
embodied in a Bill introduced in the Swedish Riksdag, March 3, 1823, by
Lieutenant Curry Gabriel Treffenberg. His proposals included: "Stamped
paper of varying values, to be used as wrappers for letters, should
be introduced and kept for sale in the cities by the Chartæ Sigillatæ
deputies, or by other persons appointed for that purpose by the General
Chartæ Sigillatæ Office at Stockholm, and in the rural districts, by
the sheriffs and other private persons." Private persons were to be
granted the privilege of selling these "Postage Charts" by the local
officials representing the Crown authorities on obtaining proper
security.

The actual proposals for the distinguishing character of the stamped
covers were:--

"The Postage Charts should be made of the size of an ordinary letter
sheet, but without being folded lengthwise as these are. The paper
should be strong but not coarse, and in order to make forgery more
difficult, should contain a circular design, easy to discover. It
should also be of some light colour.

"In the centre of the paper two stamps should be impressed side by
side, occupying together a space of six square inches. One of the
stamps should be impressed into the paper and the other should be
printed with black ink. Both should contain, besides the value of the
Chart, some suitable emblem which would be difficult to imitate. The
assortment of values should be made to meet all requirements."

The letters were to be folded so that the stamps would be outside, and
so easily cancelled or otherwise marked if required; and in the case of
the despatch of packets too large to enclose within a chart, the latter
could be cut down, preserving the stamped portion, which was to be sent
along with the packet, both packet and chart bearing marks by which the
two could be identified and associated in the course of the post.

The Bill did not pass the Riksdag, and so Sweden was deprived of the
national credit of giving a lead to the nations of the world in a
postage-stamp system, not very different in principle from that of
Great Britain in 1840.

[Illustration: THE HIGHEST DENOMINATION, 50 CENTESIMI, OF THE SARDINIAN
LETTER SHEETS.]

[Illustration: ONE OF THE TEMPORARY ENVELOPES ISSUED FOR THE USE OF
MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS, PRIOR TO THE ISSUE OF STAMPS AND COVERS
TO THE PUBLIC, 1840.]

I now come to the period of the active development of the idea,
and so far from the stamp being a particular invention of the fourth
decade of the nineteenth century, we must recognise that, beyond all
controversy, the notion--whether for an impressed or an adhesive
stamp is of little matter--was "in the air." It was stated before the
Select Committee on Postage, on February 23, 1838, by a Mr. Louis,
formerly Superintendent of Mails, that a plan for stamped covers was
communicated to him "by Mr. Stead of Yarmouth, a gentleman who has
interested himself a good deal about the Post Office."[1] The sheets
of paper were to be stamped and sold to persons who would then be at
liberty "to send their letters by conveyances not suitable to Post
Office hours."

The scheme had been proposed to the Post Office according to Mr. Louis
in his evidence "many years ago," and it is attributed by some writers
to 1829, though I can trace no source for their information as to this
date.

The plan, from the rather vague remembrance of the witness before the
Committee, may have been simply one to introduce the Sardinian method
of 1818 into this country, and in any case there are no concrete relics
of Mr. Stead's ideas in the shape of essays. Mr. Charles Whiting, of
the Beaufort House Press, entered the arena of postal reform some
time prior to March, 1830, but we have no definite knowledge of his
proposals previous to that date. In that year Mr. Whiting suggested
the use of stamped bands for the prepayment of postage on printed
matter.[2]

Mr. Whiting called his stamped wrappers "Go frees," and he is
understood to have intended the plan to extend to written matter, if
it proved successful in an experimental trial with printed matter. The
plan did not get a trial, and no greater success attended the efforts
of Mr. Charles Knight, the celebrated publisher, who suggested stamped
wrappers as a means of collecting postage on newspapers, subject to
the abolition of the "Taxes on Knowledge," which were the occasion
of a vigorous campaign set on foot in 1834. According to _Hansard_,
a resolution was moved by Mr. Edward Lytton Bulwer, May 22, 1834,
"that it is expedient to repeal the Stamp Duty on newspapers at the
earliest possible period," and in the course of the debate the member
for Hull, Mr. Matthew Davenport Hill, advocating the payment of a penny
upon an unstamped newspaper sent by post, said: "To put an end to any
objections that might be made as to the difficulty of collecting the
money, he would adopt the suggestion of a person well qualified to give
an opinion on the subject--he alluded to Mr. Knight, the publisher.
That gentleman recommended that a stamped wrapper should be prepared
for such newspapers as it was desired to send by post; and that each
wrapper should be sold at the rate of a penny by the distributors of
stamps in the same way as receipt stamps."[3]

Mr. Knight had made the proposal referred to in a private letter to
Lord Althorp, Chancellor of the Exchequer.[4]

The ultimate result of the campaign was the reduction, not the
abolition, of the Newspaper Tax, and, as the reduced tax of one penny
for an ordinary newspaper included free transmission in the post, there
was no need for the adoption of Mr. Knight's proposal at that time.
It is to be noted, however, that Mr. Knight was an active supporter
of Rowland Hill's plan a few years later, and that Hill was not
unaware of the suggestion, for he wrote of it in his pamphlet that:
"Availing myself of this excellent suggestion, I propose the following
arrangement:--Let stamped covers and sheets of paper be supplied to the
public from the Stamp Office or Post Office, as may be most convenient,
and sold at such a price as to include the postage: letters so stamped
might be put into the letter-box, as at present."

Dr. Gray, the eminent zoologist of the British Museum and one of the
earliest scientific collectors of postage-stamps, made a somewhat
ambiguous claim to the authorship of the proposal for the prepayment
of postage by means of stamps. When challenged by Rowland Hill in _The
Athenæum_,[5] he stated in that journal that "I have simply said I
believe I was the first who proposed the system of a small uniform
rate of postage to be prepaid by stamps." When Mr. Knight entered upon
the _Athenæum_ correspondence, Dr. Gray reminded him of an incident:

"In the spring of 1834 we [Knight and Gray] were fellow-passengers
in the basket of a Blackheath coach, when the subject was
discussed. I then stated, as I had frequently done before to other
fellow-travellers, my views in relation to the prepayment of postage
by stamps. These views Mr. Knight combated, and so little was he then
prepared to adopt them that he exclaimed, as he quitted the coach at
the corner of Fleet Street, 'Gray, you are more fit for Bedlam than for
the British Museum.'" Knight, whose case has the advantage of attaining
substantial record in _Hansard_ and _The Mirror of Parliament_,
disclaimed any connection with the incident, and left his friends to
decide "whether the language, stated to have been used by me to a
gentleman of scientific eminence, would not have been better suited to
a costermonger returning from Greenwich fair than to mine."

[Illustration: THE "JAMES CHALMERS" ESSAY.]

Mr. Wallace, the member for Greenock, was perhaps the first to turn
Rowland Hill's attention in the direction of a serious campaign for
postal reform, and Wallace succeeded in 1837 in getting a Committee
"to inquire into the present rates and modes of charging postage,
with a view to such a reduction thereof as may be made without injury
to the revenue; and for this purpose, to examine especially into the
mode recommended for charging and collecting postage in a pamphlet
published by Mr. Rowland Hill." The Committee started its sessions
in February, 1838, and it had the advantage of the reports of the
Commissioners of Post Office Inquiry, and the collection of much
valuable material by a Mercantile Committee, of which Mr. (afterwards
Sir) Henry Cole was secretary.

[Illustration: ROUGH SKETCHES IN WATER-COLOURS SUBMITTED BY ROWLAND
HILL TO THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER FOR THE FIRST POSTAGE STAMPS.]

The proposals from this time on, till the issue of the stamps, were
numerous. The Commissioners of Post Office Inquiry had printed samples
of several suggested letter-sheets for use by the London District post,
in their "Ninth Report, 1837." Mr. J. W. Parker, of the Cambridge
Bible Warehouse, West Strand, London, printed a somewhat similar
letter-sheet, with advertisement on the reverse, which was circulated
with W. H. Ashurst's "Facts and Reasons in support of Mr. Rowland
Hill's plan for a Universal Penny Postage,"[6] and Mr. James Chalmers
of Dundee first communicated to the Mercantile Committee a proposal
that stamped slips should be printed at the Stamp Office on prepared
paper, furnished with adhesive matter on the back. These slips were to
be sold to the public, and affixed by senders to their letters; and
postmasters were to deface the stamps in the course of the post. He
included two specimens; similar specimens were submitted by Chalmers to
the Treasury in the same year.

In 1839, the first uniform postage Act (2 and 3 Vict. c. 52) was
passed, and the Lords of the Treasury, in preparing to give effect to
the plan of Rowland Hill, extended an invitation to "artists, men of
science and the public in general" to submit proposals in competition
for prizes of £200 and £100, for the best and next best proposals. My
Lords stated that in the course of the inquiries and discussions on the
subject, several plans were suggested, _viz._, stamped covers, stamped
paper, and stamps to be used separately, and "the points which the
Board consider of the greatest importance are:--

  "1. The convenience as regards the public use.

  "2. The security against forgery.

  "3. The facility of being checked and distinguished at the Post
    Office, which must of necessity be rapid.

  "4. The expense of the production and circulation of the stamps."

The contest brought in about 2,700 suggestions, and although none was
actually adopted, the suggestions contained in some were deemed of
value. The Treasury increased the amount of prizes to £400, dividing
that sum equally between Mr. Benjamin Cheverton, Mr. Charles Whiting,
Mr. Henry Cole, and Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co. Mr. Stead of Norwich,
Mr. John Dickinson, the paper-maker, Mr. R. W. Sievier, the sculptor,
Mr. S. Henderson of Dalkeith and others were included amongst the
competitors. Until recently, however, little or nothing has been known
as to the nature of these suggestions, except that the majority were
impracticable; but it is on record that Mr. Charles Whiting sent in
at least one hundred samples, embodying his ideas or illustrative of
designs and methods of duplication in use at his printing establishment.

[Illustration: HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED EXAMPLES OF THE PROPOSALS SUBMITTED
TO THE LORDS OF THE TREASURY IN 1839 IN COMPETITION FOR PRIZES OFFERED
IN CONNECTION WITH THE PENNY POSTAGE PLAN.

(_From the Author's Collection._)]

However, in May, 1910, an article which I contributed to _The Daily
Mail_ brought from the daughter of Mr. Cheverton a letter in which she
made the interesting statement that her late father's papers relating
to the proposals made by him in 1839 were still in her possession. She
very kindly promised me a sight of them.

Enthusiasts know how difficult it is, when on the verge of an
anticipated discovery, to possess their souls in patience, hoping
for at least a sight of the find; but my patience in this case was
unavailing, for the next I heard of the treasured papers and the dies
was--and this is some consolation--that they were in the capable hands
of the Earl of Crawford, who prepared and subsequently read before the
Royal Philatelic Society a scholarly reconstruction of Cheverton's plan.

Fortune, however, made me some compensation shortly afterwards. The
upheaval and dispersal of an old store of rubbish and unconsidered
trifles brought into my possession a considerable parcel of papers
accumulated by the Lords of the Treasury in response to their
invitation of 1839, and which, after lying hidden for nearly
three-quarters of a century, have fortunately escaped total destruction
in the year of grace 1911.

The suggestions are mostly crude designs in the form of pencil or
crayon work on envelopes, pen and ink drawings for adhesive labels,
and in one case the latter were made up in such form as to suggest how
the labels would be printed in sheets. The unravelling of the plans
for which these various suggestions were made is not yet complete,
but they will, I trust, yield to further investigation and admit of
extensive description in a forthcoming work in which Mr. Charles Nissen
is collaborating with me on the subject of British essays and proofs
for postage-stamps.

It was towards the end of 1839 that Mr. Henry Cole visited Messrs.
Perkins, Bacon & Co., then at Fleet Street, and told them that the idea
of the authorities was that the adhesive labels should be about one
square inch in size, and on December 3, 1839, that firm submitted their
first estimate of not exceeding eightpence per thousand, nor less than
sixpence per thousand, the price being exclusive of paper. The process
by which they were to be produced is the now well-known system known as
the "Perkins mill and die" process, a method of production which was
adopted in due course, and has never been superseded for the production
of artistic stamps.

The history of the making of the stamp, the combination of the art of
Wyon, Corbould, and Heath, I have dealt with elsewhere, so I turn to
the envelope plan. Stamped covers, as we have seen, had been used in
Sardinia in 1818 and, in a different fashion, in Paris as early as
1653. In 1838, while Britain was in the throes of the postal agitation,
New South Wales actually issued and used embossed envelopes, which
were sold in Sydney at 1s. 3d. per dozen sheets. The embossed design
consisted of the royal coat of arms of William IV. enclosed in a
circular frame, bearing the words "General Post Office--New South
Wales."

[Illustration: THE ADDRESS SIDE OF THE MODEL LETTER WHICH HAS THE STAMP
(SHOWN BELOW) AFFIXED TO THE BACK AS A SEAL.]

[Illustration: ANOTHER OF THE UNPUBLISHED ESSAYS SUBMITTED IN THE
COMPETITION OF 1839 FOR THE PENNY POSTAGE PLAN.

(_From the Author's Collection._)]

The envelope proposals that were before the Treasury in 1839 consisted
mainly of rough sketches, but in a few cases of elaborate printed
designs (_e.g._, Harwood's envelope), and the patterns made up of
intricate geometrical work like the specimens in Ashurst's "Facts
and Reasons" and the "Ninth Report." Cole called upon Mr. William
Mulready and invited him to draw a design for the envelope, and it was
decided that this design should be printed on the paper with the silk
threads embedded in its substance, a paper which has since been known
to philatelists as "Dickinson" paper, after the name of its inventor.
Mr. Dickinson had all along been keenly interested in the proposals
for postage reform, and was a witness before the Select Committee in
1837, providing paper with threads in it for the essays in the Report.
Many of the chief officials and the agitators were convinced of the
protection that this paper offered against forgery, and it is not
generally known--I mention it as specimens of the paper are by no means
commonly met with--that Mr. Dilke was so convinced of the importance
of the use of this paper that he printed the entire issue of _The
Athenæum_ for April 28, 1838, on the thread paper.[7] Mr. Dickinson's
firm was at that time supplying the regular _Athenæum_ paper.

Among the rarities for which collectors, even general collectors, will
pay high prices are the temporary letter-covers prepared in January,
1840, to give members of Parliament the first privilege of using the
penny "post-frees." There are several kinds with inscriptions reading
"Houses of Parliament," "House of Lords," and "House of Commons." These
were in use from January 16th, but their great rarity suggests that the
use of them was not extensive. That, no doubt, was attributable to the
injunction, "To be posted at the House of ... only."

The public in London first saw the stamps on May 1, 1840, when Sir
Rowland Hill reports, "Great bustle at the Stamp Office"--£2,500 worth
were sold on the first day. They did not come into use, however, until
May 6th, when Sir Henry Cole went to the Post Office and reported that
"about half the letters were stamped."

The envelopes, covers and labels were issued simultaneously. Within
six days the "labels" won the race for popular favour. "I fear,"
wrote Hill on May 12th, "we shall be obliged to substitute some other
stamp for that designed by Mulready, which is abused and ridiculed on
all sides.... I am already turning my attention to the substitution
of another stamp, combining with it, as the public have shown their
disregard and even distaste for beauty, some further economy in the
production."

[Illustration: PROOF OF THE MULREADY ENVELOPE ON INDIA PAPER, SIGNED BY
ROWLAND HILL.

(_From the Peacock Papers._)]

Sir Rowland Hill was perhaps pardonably piqued at the success which
the label won from the start, at the expense of the elaborate envelope
design on which the artistic ideals of both Cole and Hill had set
their hopes.[8] It was not the public lack of appreciation of
beauty or art, but their ready selection of the convenient and the
practical, instead of the imaginative and sentimental, and, it must
be admitted, very impracticable, design for the envelopes and covers.
More than two decades later--May, 1863--Sir Rowland Hill, writing to
Signor Perazzi, who was making inquiries on behalf of the Italian
authorities, said, "I do consider them [stamped envelopes] as of real
use to the public, although the small proportion used (not more than 1
per cent., I believe), shows that the demand for them is comparatively
insignificant."

FOOTNOTES:

[1] "Select Committee on Postage, First Report, 1838," p. 122,
questions 1829, 1830.

[2] It should be remembered that newspapers had for many years (since
1712) been the subject of a tax, and until 1855, when the newspaper tax
was abolished, such papers passed through the post free.

[3] _Hansard_, xxxiii., p. 1214.

[4] _Athenæum_, No. 1836, January 3, 1863, p. 18.

[5] Nos. 1834 (December 20, 1862) and 1835 (December 27, 1862).

[6] Second edition 1838.

[7] Mr. John Collins Francis refers to this issue in his two volumes,
"John Francis and _The Athenæum_," published by Bentley in 1888.

[8] It is said to have cost £1,000; the art of the label cost, to Mr.
Corbould £12 12s., to Mr. Heath £52 10s.

SOME
EARLY
PIONEERS
OF
PHILATELY

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."

[Illustration: A POSTAGE STAMP "CHART"--ONE OF THE EARLY FORMS OF
STAMP-COLLECTING.]

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

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.