2nd Quarter Philatelic Literature Review 2022

Using the American Philatelic Research Library

The APRL is the world’s largest — and most accessible — philatelic research library, with over 90,000 volumes and special collections housed in a state-of-the-art facility in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania.

The collection includes books, journals, auction catalogs, government documents, price lists, new issue announcements, show programs, copies of exhibits, and more. The collection’s coverage is worldwide and the library collects material in any language.

The library is open to the public and accessible around the world via reference, photocopying, and scanning services, and a growing online collection. Normal operating hours are Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern time. Visitors are welcome.

Subscriptions to the library’s quarterly journal, the Philatelic Literature Review, include associate membership in the APRL. Members of the American Philatelic Society are full members of the APRL.

Services & fees

Library fees help to offset the cost of providing services. There is no charge for the initial consultation and we will send you an itemized bill for fees when services are provided. Additional donations are welcome.

Book loans by mail

Full members (North American addresses only) may borrow books directly from the library.

Base fee: $10 per shipment (includes up to 15 minutes of staff time)

First book: $3

Additional books (up to 5 per shipment): $1

Photocopies or scans with a book loan: $.25 per page

Photocopies

$10 ($15 for non-members) includes up to 15 pages and 15 minutes of staff time; $.25 per page for additional pages.

Scans

$4 ($9 for non-members) for the first page; $.25 per page for additional pages.

Research assistance

After 15 minutes of staff time, research assistance is billed at $20 per hour in halfhour increments.

Robert A. Mason Digital Library

Members can access the APRL’s growing digital collection. Download, print and full-text search journal issues, books, exhibits, maps, and digitized archival material.

Contacting the library

Search the library’s catalog and explore our collections at stamplibrary.org. To request book loans, photocopies, scans, or research assistance: library@stamps.org • 814-933-3803 (press option 4)

IN THIS ISSUE FEATURES

89 IN REMEMBRANCE OF GINI HORN,

By

David Beech

David Beech memorializes his friend, former APS librarian Gini Horn.

94 EA RLY PHILATELIC SHOWDOWN IN INDIA,

By Abhishek Bhuwalka

In May 1894, an unlikely character from Bombay started a philatelic journal because the “philatelic brotherhood” was a “growing one.” But it wasn’t long before Ribeiro and his Indian Philatelist journal were embroiled in a fierce and bitter fight with cross-country rivals in Calcutta.

109 ESSENTIALS FOR THE U.S. REVENUE COLLECTOR, By

Ron Lesher

In a review of the “must-haves” for the bookshelves of U.S. revenue collectors are books and catalogs that cover the basics: documentary and proprietary, along with areas such as alcohol and narcotics, embossed stamps and revenue stamped paper.

119 TW ISTED TRAIL LINKED TO RARE JOURNAL,

By Brian J. Birch

One of the Royal Philatelic Society London’s many special collections is a full run of an early North American-produced journal – The Stamp Collector’s Record (1864-1876). The tale behind the RPSL’s acquisition of the collection focuses on American Joseph James Casey, a prominent philatelist in the late 19th century who was caught up in a feud and fraud.

129 TA KING THE NEXT STEP, By Curtis Gidding

Keep an open mind and you may find the resource to take your collecting area — in this case, Luxembourg — to a whole new level from unexpected quarters.

132 HI DDEN TREASURES IN NORTHERN EUROPE, By

A.M. LaVey

Northern Europe might seem a bit distant to seek some philatelic knowledge, but Åland, Finland and Sweden all have postal museums and libraries that offer insights that any collector of those areas would find educational and useful.

137 IN MEMORY OF FRANK WALTON, By Scott Tiffney

Frank Walton, of the U.K., is remembered as a dedicated, active and innovative proponent of philatelic literature.

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN

QUARTER 2022

100 Match Factory Place Bellefonte, PA 16823

Phone: 814-933-3803

Fax: 814-933-6128 plrarticle@stamps.org

ADMINISTRATOR & PUBLISHER

Scott D. English • scott@stamps.org

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Susanna Mills • smills@stamps.org

SENIOR EDITOR

Jeff Stage • jstage@stamps.org

GRAPHIC COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST

Chad Cowder • ccowder@stamps.org

ASSOCIATE EDITOR, LIBRARIAN & DIRECTOR OF INFORMATION SERVICES

Scott Tiffney • stiffney@stamps.org

ADVERTISING SALES

Steve Schwanz

Fox Associates, Inc. 800-345-8670 x 114 adinfo.theamericanphilatelist@foxrep.com

©American Philatelic Research Library, 2022

Philatelic Literature Review (USPS 928-660, ISSN0270-1707) is published quarterly by the American Philatelic Research Library, Inc. (APRL). Telephone: 814-933-3803; Fax: 814-933-6128; E-mail: plr@ stamps.org; Website: www.StampLibrary.org.

Postmaster: send address changes to the APRL, 100 Match Factory Place, Bellefonte, PA 16823. Periodicals postage paid at Bellefonte, PA 16823, and additional entry offices.

Annual subscription rates: $21, regular members; $30, sustaining members; and $50, contributing members. Libraries and institutions, $30. Single copy price, $5.

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

BY KEN GRANT President

On Volunteerism and Fulfillment

This is my final President’s Message as I am about to complete my term on the American Philatelic Research Library (APRL) Board in August. I thought I might reflect a bit on my experience on both the APRL and American Philatelic Society (APS) boards.

I ran for an open position on the APRL Board of Trustees in 1999, new to service in organized philately. At that time, Bob Lamb was the executive director of the APS, and he didn’t think that I had much of a chance to get a seat on the APRL board, as the other candidates had far more name recognition through prior service and a presence at the national level of philately. I remember his call to inform me that I had been selected. He was surprised by my election and I was delighted.

Three people comprised the APRL class of 1999: Hubert Skinner, a distinguished researcher; Bill Bauer, a former APS president; and me, the new guy from Wisconsin. I was fortunate enough to be taken under the wing of Charlie Peterson, a philatelic literature judge and longtime member of the APRL board. At our election of officers, I found myself volunteering to serve as secretary, a position that as an English professor I was well suited. I loved my four years as APRL secretary

as it required me to keep my mouth shut and my ears open. What better way to learn about our library and the relationship between the APRL and the APS than taking what I hoped would be careful minutes.

Figure 1. From the 2016 ribbon-cutting of the new American Philatelic Research Library.

In those early days, I traveled to State College, where I saw our cramped library and headquarters. Books and papers spilled into the hallway, and it was clear that a larger headquarters was a necessity. Both boards were invited to visit Bellefonte’s 19th century Match Factory, which APS stalwart Ken Lawrence and Bob Lamb felt might be a suitable new location for the society. Some months later, in my role as secretary, I signed the society’s offer to purchase the Match Factory.

In the years that followed, I had the privilege of being selected APRL board president. Over the years, I was a witness to the progress converting that Match Factory into the American Philatelic Center. Progress was not always smooth, but as you all know, we have a stunningly beautiful library and society headquarters (Figure 1). Together with the APS president, we worked to build strong relationships between the two boards and overcome some of the past friction. After my first term on the board ended, I was appointed for another six-year term as a representative of the Founders and Patrons.

After 12 years on the APRL board, I spent five years as APS secretary and then took on my third and final term on the APRL board. After the president was obliged to resign,

APRL BOARD OF TRUSTEES

PRESIDENT

Ken Grant

VICE-PRESIDENT

Greg Galletti

SECRETARY

Melanie Rogers

TREASURER

Ken Nilsestuen

PAST PRESIDENT

Roger Brody

TRUSTEES

Thomas Bieniosek

Hugh Lawrence

Hugh McMackin

Kristin Patterson

CONNECT ONLINE

Figure 2. President Ken Grant presides at the APRL’s 50th anniversary celebration.

I agreed to serve another term as board president. For me, the most significant event in this final term in office was the retirement of our mortgage on the APC. During my time on the boards, I witnessed the selection, acquisition, construction, completion and mortgage retirement of our headquarters (Figure 2).

Serving on the boards has been one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life. I urge you to consider volunteering your time to the APS and APRL, either informally or through elective positions on either board. It is rewarding to watch our organization develop and find new ways to meet its members’ needs.

Of all the people to whom I owe thanks, the most important person is

my wife, Mary. She is the most patient of non-collectors. August 14 is our wedding anniversary, and as you know, first StampShow and now The Great American Stamp Show, take place usually in mid-August. She has been wonderfully flexible in supporting me in meeting my APRL commitments for over two decades and so insightful in offering her advice. I could not have fulfilled my responsibilities without her.

Thank you for reading this reflection of my time on the APRL and APS boards. And thanks, too, to the APRL and APS staff and leadership for the care they take in supporting organized philately and their innumerable kindnesses to me.

EDITOR’S NOTE

BY SUSANNA MILLS Editor

Spring Has Sprung in Quarter 2

Bellefonte in May. This is my favorite season in Pennsylvania –a thick layer of pollen coats the parking lot from the flowering trees, afternoons go from thunderstorms to cloudless skies in minutes, and on our lunch breaks we go walking round and round the park.

May is also right on the cusp of my favorite season with the APS, where individual projects and pursuits are set aside in favor of coming together for Summer Seminar and Volunteer Work Week.

By the time you read this, APS Summer Seminar Online will be well underway (June 6-28). I want to congratulate my colleagues in the education department for pivoting so smoothly and quickly to the online format, which will actually dramatically increase the number of people who can learn from the experts and courses during the event. And if you can’t attend, the courses will be added to the APS website after the fact for on-demand viewing.

From July 18-22, Volunteer Work Week will be held at the American Philatelic Center. Many of the volunteers who attend are of great help specifically in the library. If you are interested in participating, learn more at www.stamps.org/ learn/volunteer-work-week.

‘A Philatelic Memorial of the Holocaust’ exhibit

This spring also heralds the completion of a very long-term project at the American Philatelic Center: “A Philatelic

Memorial of the Holocaust” exhibit. In 2020, volunteers from the APS staff began working on a permanent exhibit at the APC, building upon the Holocaust Stamps Project – 11 million stamps collected by Foxborough Regional Charter School students from 2009-2017. Now, over two years later, the final pieces have come together. The exhibit combines the 11 million stamps with postal history evidence connected to real events and locations of the Nazi regime. Much of the philatelic material is included thanks to research conducted by APS members Ken Lawrence, Justin Gordon and Keith Stupell. As I write this, finishing touches are going up in the exhibit space. I discuss the exhibit further in the June issue of The American Philatelist

Some vital additions to the exhibit are yet to come, including a digital element to preserve some of the parts of the Holocaust Stamps Project that did not fit into the exhibit space.

In this issue

Long gone, it appears, are the days when you could read some really juicy gossip in the pages of a philatelic magazine! If you’ve had the pleasure of flipping through old issues of early philatelic publications, you’ll find aspersions cast, name-calling, and lengthy spats between rivals that have made it to print. I’ll point to Abhishek Bhuwalka’s latest article as a first example. In “The Crusading Ribeiro of Indian Philatelist,” Ribeiro, editor of India’s earliest philatelic journal, calls

out the Bombay Philatelic Society, saying “It is painful to see members of the local Society parading themselves in the company of such dead beats!” (Zing!) The back-and-forth and infighting of India’s early philatelic community is an excellent read, especially for those who love soap operas, reality television, or boxing.

A second example comes in the form of Brian Birch’s “The Origin of the Royal Philatelic Society London’s Set of The Stamp Collector’s Record.” Birch introduces us to Joseph James Casey, a notorious American philatelist of the 1870s to 90s. Through RPSL archival correspondence, Birch finds a dramatic attempt by Casey’s enemies to expel him from the RPSL soon after he joined. (Again, zing!)

This unexpected theme aside, I’m happy to welcome Ron Lesher back to our pages as he explores the “musthaves” on his bookshelf for researching and understanding United States revenue collecting. Lesher ranges from the well-known, broad-ranging volumes like Introduction to United States Revenue Stamps by Richard Friedberg to more niche subjects, like The Black Proprietary

Stamps of 1914-1916.

Finally, we have some brief articles that allow us to take the “road less traveled” into specific resources that you may not have known about. Curtis Gidding, for example, takes us beyond the catalog to a 1941 book that improved his Luxembourg collection. And A.M. LaVey invites us to Northern Europe, to three museums/archives with a philatelic digital presence.

Your feedback appreciated

As always, I welcome your feedback, comments, and questions, in the form of letters to the editor or as a personal note or phone call. What do you enjoy about the PLR? What columns do you always read (and why)? Do you use “New Books Noted” to make your wish-list every holiday season? Is there a topic you’d like to know more about within these pages? I would love to hear from you – your suggestions help us enormously.

Contact me via email at editor@ stamps.org or by phone at (814) 933-3803 (ext. 207). In the meantime, stay safe and enjoy the spring and summer months.

A wall of stamp collage artworks by students of Foxborough Regional Charter School. Part of the new exhibit, “A Philatelic Memorial of the Holocaust.”

FROM THE LIBRARIAN’S DESK

BY SCOTT TIFFNEY Librarian / Director of Information Services

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”– Benjamin Franklin

APRL Digital Resources at Summer Seminar

Access education

One of the primary missions of the APRL is to ensure that the resources of the library meet and even exceed the research needs of our patrons, whether they be members, non-members, firsttime collectors or experienced philatelists. In conjunction to providing these resources, the library also endeavors to make these resources as accessible to our patrons as possible. Two of the principal means of access to the resources of the APRL are the David Straight Memorial Philatelic Union Catalog and the Robert A. Mason Digital Library.

The first resource provides access to bibliographic records identifying the holdings of the APRL, as well as twelve other philatelic libraries, while the latter resource is a searchable database comprised of full-text digitized philatelic literature. Sometimes these two resources can be a bit of a challenge for those not familiar with the distinctions between an online catalog and a digital collections database. In order to bring both of these resources more into focus, as part of Summer Seminar Online 2022 there will be two sessions presented by the library to educate patrons on these two important means of access essential for any level of philatelic researcher.

On June 6 a session titled “Getting the

Most out of the APRL's Online Catalog” will focus on the David Straight Memorial Philatelic Union Catalog, its use for research along with tips and tricks for finding the specific resources needed for your research. Later in the month on June 20 attendees will be instructed on the basics of the Robert A. Mason Digital Library in a session titled “Navigating the APRL Digital Library.” Both sessions will provide attendees with the tools to use both resources effectively and to gain a greater understanding of how best to fully access the resources of the APRL.

Plan to join us by registering on the APS website for these and other sessions of Summer Seminar Online 2022. If you cannot attend the sessions, they will be available following Summer Seminar on the Education Department’s C3a webpage.

Digitization update

In keeping with our reporting schedule regarding the progress of the Phase I Digitization Project, this second quarter of the project brought continued growth in the resources of the Digital Library as we work through the backlog of materials, specifically philatelic journals for which we have received publication permissions. Since March 1 when we began this phase of the digitization effort, there have been 654 journal issues added to the Digital Library.

The journals and the number of issues added are as follows: Tell (321), Philatelic Literature Review (21), Menelik's Journal (128), the Airpost Journal (95), Penny Post (90), Philateli-Graphics (84) and The Lion (4). In terms of the pace of this phase, our goal was to process and upload 25 journal issues per week. Currently we are at a rate of 55 issues per week. Newly added to the database are issues of the Airpost Journal and Philateli-Graphics, while soon to be added will be El Quetzal. In the upcoming weeks we will look to complete the former two journals.

Frank Walton

It was with deep sadness back in April that we learned of the passing of Frank Walton FRPSL. I did not have the good fortune of knowing Frank as the eminent and distinguished philatelist that he was, particularly in the area of Sierra Leone philately, but my connection with Frank was in our responsibilities to our libraries, for him the John Sacher Library of

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

the Royal Philatelic Society London and mine the APRL.

During the course of sharing our ideas and thoughts regarding our respective institutions usually as part of our regular discussions during philatelic librarians’ roundtables, I learned so much from him regarding his deep and abiding passion for the philatelic resources and research that inform this hobby and also about his love of the breadth and scope of the subject matter that in our positions we were fortunate to deal with every day.

In my duties with the APRL I have had the good fortune of meeting many engaging and interesting people who have patiently and unselfishly shared their philatelic knowledge with this librarian and mostly neophyte collector. Frank was one of those who shared richly and did so with personality and humility. The hobby was and is far richer for having Frank as part of it, and his passing will leave a space in the hobby not soon filled.

We encourage readers to send their comments, questions and feedback to the Philatelic Literature Review. Your feedback, questions, concerns and suggestions help us to improve the journal. Submission of a letter implies consent to publish, unless specifically prohibited by the sender. The decision of whether to publish is made by the editorial staff of the Philatelic Literature Review.

Generally, letters will be published unless determined to be offensive, disrespectful, libelous, or not chiefly related to the stamp hobby.

The opinions expressed in a Letter to the Editor are those of the author and not the Philatelic Literature Review or APRL. We do not publish or accept requests for the publication of anonymous letters.

To allow more Letters to the Editor, you are respectfully requested to limit submissions to 500 words or less. If your submission is longer, the editorial team will ask you to resubmit a shorter version, or provide you with a copy of an edited version to review prior to publication.

Submit your letters to plrarticle@stamps.org, subject line “Letter to the Editor” or mail a typewritten copy to Letter to the Editor, The Philatelic Literature Review, 100 Match Factory Place, Bellefonte PA 16823.

In Remembrance: Virginia L ‘Gini’ Horn (1951-2022)

By David Beech

Virginia “Gini” Horn who died earlier this year at age 70 was librarian and director of the American Philatelic Research Library from 1984 to 2010.

Gini was the daughter of the Rev. James G. Horn Sr. and Erma V. Horn (née Stough). She graduated from Juniata College in 1973 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History and Music. She then attended the University of Pittsburgh, earning a Master of Library Science degree.

Gini was a fast learner when she arrived in 1984 at the APRL. She quickly gained the essentials of philatelic literature and about the ARPL collection. As the years passed, her knowledge became world class.

Gini’s special and rare skill was not only a profound knowledge of philatelic literature, but how it can be used in research. Such uncommon understanding relies on the coordinated use of a number of printed books and texts (including manuscripts, bibliographies and indexes, etc.) together to give the answers required. In addition, she possessed a manner and style of helpfulness with a will to aid the inquirer. These aptitudes gave her a winning reputation with the users of the American Philatelic Research Library in person or remotely. She enjoyed being in the American Philatelic Society booth at stamp shows around the country and was warmly greeted there by her many philatelic friends.

Gini continued the good work of her

predecessors in understanding the importance of public relations, especially with APS members, with many important acquisitions as donations being received in her time as librarian; and as a result, after her retirement, too. Such was the levels of new materials received that an extension to the building at State College was necessary.

For my part, I was in regular contact with Gini, sometimes daily, where we would exchange ideas, discuss bibliographic and library issues and research questions posed in both APRL and the British Library in London. These collaborations were of much value to us both and to our users who as a result gained a lot. She was naturally positive and caring person who was much loved and admired. With her passing we have all lost a good friend devoted to APRL and philately.

Virginia L. Horn was born on March 21, 1951 and died on February 21, 2022.

Gini Horn was honored at the 50th anniversary of the APRL, pictured here with APRL president Ken Grant (left) and APS president Bob Zeigler.

BY SCOTT TIFFNEY

“No place in any community is so totally democratic as the library. The only entrance requirement is interest.” - Lady Bird Johnson

American Philatelic Research Library

Bellefonte, PA

Contact: Scott Tiffney

stiffney@stamps.org

The second quarter of 2022 brought with it some notable updates regarding backlogs that we have in the library. Regarding the Robert A. Mason Digital Library, digital assistants Betsy Gamble and Geoff Hobart have made significant progress on the backlog of digital journals. During this initial phase of the Digitization Project, 577 journal issues have been uploaded into the RMDL.

Our goal for this phase of the project was to upload 25 journal issues a week and we currently are uploading material at a pace of 52 journal issues a week.

Another backlog of material that we have recently been able to address is that of price lists. We receive on a regular basis a large number of price lists from auction houses, postal agencies, stamp dealers and independent sellers. In the past, because of the sheer volume of these price lists, we have not had the staff or time to properly process and catalog them into the library collection.

In April, Katie Monsell started an internship in the library as part of her Library Science degree at Clarion University in Clarion, Pennsylvania. Katie started her internship working alongside Library Assistant Alicia Leathers and following that has been working with Technical Services Manager Marian Mills in cataloging the backlog of price lists we’ve received into the online catalog. To date, Katie has cataloged more than 400 unique price lists for the library.

National Postal Museum

Washington, D.C.

Contact: Baasil Wilder WilderB@si.edu

The NPM Library has digitized the (1906) Mendoza’s Catalog and Check List of Mexican Revenue Stamps (Figure 1): https://library.si.edu/digital-library/ book/mendozascatalogc00mend. This catalog and price list of Mexican fiscal stamps is 69 pages long, with no illustrations, and focuses on adhesive stamps.

The NPM library is excited to announce that it reopened (to Smithsonian employees only) on May 2. Due to the pandemic, it is still not open to the public, or shipping, or receiving interlibrary loans yet.

Figure 1. The cover of Mendoza’s Catalog and Check List of Mexican Revenue Stamps.

Postal History Foundation

Slusser Library

Tucson, AZ

Contact: Valerie Kittell library@phftucson.org

The new museum exhibit being created by the Slusser librarian, with input from the education director, is nearing completion. The exhibit teaches about postal concepts through a historical lens, particularly through the manner in which the postal service helped build the American West.

The four sections within the small exhibit room will explore technology and transportation of the mail or the cultural and economic impact of the mail.

One of these sections is “Operating a Post Office.” Visitors will see an array of stamp vending machines, some (hopefully) functional and selling postage stamps. Brief explanations of the history of stamp vending machines and the companies that made them appear both in signage and in more detail on a digital kiosk display. Another item on display is the Brandt Automatic Cashier (Figure 2), which was involved in an astonishingly widespread postal scandal at the turn of the last century. A short video explains the controversy.

The nature of Western post offices is also explored in this section. They were often run using an “agency model” that

took advantage of existing infrastructure and created a symbiotic relationship between postmasters (often highly regarded), their own business (often general stores), and the Post Office, which could not afford to build post office buildings and hire employees. The library’s Naco Post Office front, manufactured by Sadler and J.P. Paulson, is a tangible example of post offices operating inside other businesses, such as second Naco Postmaster Ben Goldman’s general store.

The other three sections in the exhibit will be discussed in future issues.

Rocky Mountain Philatelic Library

Denver, CO

Contact: Sherri Jennings rmpllibrarian1@gmail.com

The Rocky Mountain Philatelic Library continues its vibrant mission to educate people about philately. There have been many visitors to the library and some have become volunteers.

“We couldn’t run the library without the help of volunteers, who do everything from manning the cash register, to advising visitors on Grandpa’s stamp collection,” the library said. Volunteers also sort stamps for the sale of stamp books. “Their help is always very appreciated.”

The RMPL was looking forward to the Rocky Mountain Stamp Show (May 2729), the first show in three years due to COVID. The library planned to hold an auction, which featured worldwide material. The auction supports library books, programs, the library’s youth club and helps pay the electric bill! The auction was assembled by Paul Domenici and Gary Withrow, who worked tirelessly.

The librarian has been able to continue cataloging the stack of books (left by our wonderful Ellengail) that were in foreign languages. Sometimes the only way to find out an elusive fact about a stamp is to go to a book in the language of the

Figure 2. The Brandt Automatic Cashier, first patented in 1899, made it easier for clerks to dispense coins. This early model is shown at the Slusser Library as part of its “Operating a Post Office” exhibit.

country of that stamp. So, the recent acquisitions for the shelves are in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Polish, Hungarian, Greek, Czechoslovakian and a smattering of other languages. Hopefully, researchers will make good use of these books.

Thanks to the estate of Don Beuthel and the generosity of Web Stickney, the library has expanded its Western History section. The library has an entire room devoted to Western History. The room covers everything from railroads to mining to the governor’s mansion. From the most esoteric to the most general, it’s probably shelved in that special room. There also are books about all the other western states, from California to Montana. If you need to find some information about western history, you know which library it’s in.

The RMPL now owns more than 18,000 books and 5,000 periodicals. There are 34 vertical file drawers chock full of information. There is a large map room as well. Philatelic research is done at the RMPL!

Royal Philatelic Society London

The John Sacher Library London,

UK

Contact: Nicola Davies research@rpsl.org.uk

The Royal Philatelic Society London will present the inaugural Crawford Festival 2022 with the topic of, “How to write a book – A practical guide to producing a work of philatelic literature.”

The festival, set for June 28 and 29 – offers two days of presentations and discussions about the process of producing a work of philatelic literature. Events will take place at the RPSL, 15 Abchurch Lane, London.

Day 1 will focus on research and will include presentations on the resources held at leading philatelic institutions, including

the RPSL and The British Library.

Day 2 looks at the preparation for publishing, including an overview of the publishing process, and issues surrounding copyright. The afternoon will start with a panel session involving leading philatelic authors and will conclude with the announcement of this year’s Crawford Medal winner.

To book a free ticket, visit Eventbrite: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-crawfordfestival-2022-tickets-319519008957.

For more information, visit www.rpsl. org.uk/Home/Library/Events/CrawfordFestival or email events@rpsl.org.uk.

Scandinavian Collectors Club Library

Denver, CO

Contact: Roger Cichorz rcichorz@comcast.net

The Scandinavian Collectors Club Library (SCCL) is open to club members and presently operational at its location within the Rocky Mountain Philatelic Library in Denver, Colorado. Acting librarian Roger Cichorz, who primarily works from home, is at the SCCL several times a month to process donations and loan requests, as well as to index and shelve newly acquired books, catalogs, and periodicals.

Roger is the author of the “From the Stacks” column, a regular feature about library activities that appears in the SCC’s quarterly journal, The Posthorn. His latest column discussed the 12 Corinphila Auction “name sale” Nordic catalogs presently housed in SCCL’s Exhibits & Collections section that are available for loan to library members. These 12 catalogs comprise an apparent complete collection, according to a cumulative index of all Corinphila auction catalogs that was recently made available to the SCCL.

The SCCL continues to make its excess and superfluous items available to Scandi-

navian Collectors Club members through quarterly auctions conducted by Roger.

The SCCL’s 64th sale, which closed April 30, offered 58 literature lots and 20 lots of stamps, postal history (covers and postal stationery), Cinderella items and ephemera. This auction was a great success as 24 members participated, 22 of whom won one or more lots, with 74 of the 78 lots selling for $958.50, compared to their cumulative starting bids of $753. Realizations from these auctions are used by the library to acquire new literature and to cover its operating expenses.

For more information, contact Roger Cichorz, rcichorz@comcast.net.

Vincent Graves Greene Research Foundation

Harry Sutherland Philatelic Library

Toronto, ON

Contact: Willow Moonbeam library@greenefoundation.ca

The library is enjoying its reopening and patrons can set up appointments by contacting Lee Ann, at 416-921-2073, or writing to info@greenefoundation.ca for an appointment.

The library is attracting more visitors, who are pleased to be back doing research and reading journals and auction catalogs. Even while the library was closed, the Friends of the Harry Sutherland Philatelic Library newsletter was published monthly; back issues are available at http://www.greenefoundation. ca/library.htm#friends. To receive the newsletter, send an email to library@ greenefoundation.ca.

Scanning has continued unabated. The library is scanning older journals and other materials in the collection that are in danger of falling apart. This has the second advantage that they become searchable. Digital holdings continue to grow from both scanning and the issuing of materials in digital format.

Everyone is busy preparing for

CAPEX ’22, the first international oneframe stamp championship exhibition to be held in Toronto. Show dates are June 9 to 12. Information is available at https://capex22.org/.

Many societies and study groups will attend CAPEX and hold meetings. The library is expected to be open for visitors during the show. The most significant participation by the library is that more than 100 literature exhibits have been pouring in from around the world. All this material will be donated to the library at the conclusion of the exhibition.

Wineburgh Philatelic Research Library

Dallas, TX

Contact: Cassandra Galus-Zawojek

Cassandra.Zawojek@utdallas.edu

The Special Collections and Archives

Division of the University of Texas at Dallas has welcomed a new digital archivist. The division as a whole will be taking steps to digitize its collections and present them online. The Wineburgh Philatelic Research Library (WPRL) will be contributing some early philatelic journals as well as some archival materials from the collection.

The library hosted a Preservation Week event to encourage campus students to preserve their family and personal documents. The curator also spoke at the local Dallas Park Cities Philatelic Society to encourage the use of the Wineburgh library. Feel free to contact the curator if you have any questions or are interested in donating archival materials relevant to Texas or philatelic literature to the library.

The American First Day Cover Society Chapter 56 continues its monthly meetings on site and the archival records of the San Antonio Philatelic Association as well as the Texas Philatelic Association remain in the library archives.

The Crusading Ribeiro of Indian Philatelist

Rivals in Early Indian Philately Step Into the Ring

By Abhishek Bhuwalka

INthe Western world, philately took a pivotal turn in the early 1860s when it moved from being the pastime of schoolboys and eccentric adults to a hobby of a more serious nature. The equivalent inflationary period for Indian philately came about some three decades later, in the 1890s. In a short matter of time, the tribe of collectors saw a rapid increase and some of the pioneering philatelists came together to form the earliest philatelic societies. Dealers proliferated and showcased their wares in

the philatelic press; the more enterprising ones reached out to collectors directly through their regular price lists. The publishing and journalistic scene became vibrant and the earliest philatelic books and magazines were issued.

In its earliest decades, Indian philately was pretty much centered around the great cities of Bombay and Calcutta. While Calcutta was the capital of British India, Bombay was fast progressing to become its economic hub (a title it holds to this day). Located on the western and eastern coasts respectively and separated

Figure 1. Julio Ribeiro (1867-1897).

by 1,200 miles of land, the two cities jostled on a lot of issues; those philatelic would not be left behind!

The accolade of being the first journal falls on the Bombay-based Indian Philatelist (IP).1 Given that Indian philately was dominated by the Britishers, it is a matter of surprise that IP was conceived, managed, and edited by a Catholic of IndoPortuguese descent, Julio Ribeiro (Figure 1). Starting off in a small way, the journal peaked in its first year; unfortunately, it closed down before it could reach the age of two. This was in keeping with philatelic magazines the world over; hundreds of journals sprouted only to die within a year or two, or after an issue or two. However, before it fizzled, enough paper had been set to type to give future historians more than a glimpse of the prevailing Indian philatelic scene.

Julio Ribeiro, IP editor

Unfortunately, we don’t know as much about IP’s first editor as we should. Born

on February 16, 1867, Ribeiro received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1888 when he passed first class; he was awarded the Ellis Scholarship and the Duke of Edinburgh Fellowship.2 Subsequently, he became the first Catholic to receive a Master of Arts degree from the University of Mumbai; something he must have been proud of, given that it suffixed his name on IP's masthead. He was mainly a collector of and expert in the stamps of Portuguese India. He may have collected some other Indian states and British India as well.3 Apart from IP, he edited a Portuguese language magazine called Bulletim Indiano.

Was Ribeiro a dealer? It is quite likely that he was not. 4 However, his brother, Hector Ribeiro, ran Bombay Philatelic Company, 5 a stamp firm of some repute.

Initial Days of IP

The first number of IP (Figure 2) is dated May 1, 1894, and is an eight-page paper. The introductory editorial clarifies its raison d’etre:

“We make no apology for the present paper. It may be that the philatelic brotherhood is not large in India, but it is a growing one. If only opportunities are given them, Indian philatelists will make their importance felt…”

On what IP proposed to cover (Figure 3), it said:

“Our beginnings are necessarily small. We shall have usually an original article of philatelic interest, a chronicle of new issues, a brief review of important articles from the philatelic press of the world and short, scrappy notes and views.”

(In short, the format of IP was quite similar to that of leading British and American magazines of the time.)

Figure 2. Vol. 1 No. 1 of Indian Philatelist.

From a commercial perspective, it appealed to advertisers saying they now had a chance to buy space in a philatelic journal rather than take “recourse to lay papers, in search for a chance philatelist, among a crowd of readers who care not a jot for the wares one advertises.”6

Finally, the masthead of the paper read, “Philatelic Monthly published in the interest of Collectors and Dealers” and “Conducted by Julio Ribeiro, M.A.” However, there is no address mentioned, which is strange. In the second

issue, the address for communications is mentioned: “Dadar, Bombay, India.” Dadar is a fairly large area in Central Bombay and, at the time, was far (some seven miles) from the philatelic hub in the Fort area of South Bombay.

The adjoined Table 1 gives a short bibliography of IP. Note that advertisement pages are in parentheses. From Vol. 1 No. 6, ad pages began to be numbered with Roman numerals.

Figure 3. A typical IP issue would contain an editorial, an original article or reprints culled from other journals, news and notes, reviews of other journals, and society reports.

July

August 1, 1894

September

October

November

December

January 1, 1895

February 1, 1895

March 10, 1895

(10, unnumbered);

(xvi, numbered);

(xvi, numbered);

(xiv, numbered);

(pp 21-32)

(pp 33-42)

(pp 43-56)

(pp 57-72)

(pp 73-88)

(pp 89-100)

(pp 101-112)

(pp 113-126)

(pp 127-143) April

(pp

(pp 1-12)

(pp 1-12)

(pp 1-16)

Table 1. Bibliography of Indian Philatelist.

Figure 4. Some of the advertisements from the pages of IP.

Reception

The first issue of IP seems to have been well received. In its second issue, Ribeiro sounded excited:

“The eagerness with which the “Indian Philatelist” was received by the public and their generous support has proved a great source of encouragement to us. Improvements can still take place and will be introduced gradually. The present number has been increased to 16 pages.”

(Ribeiro’s “16 pages” was 12 pages of reading matter and four pages of advertisements).

The international press, from America to England to Australia, were generous as well. The Philatelic Record, perhaps the best journal of that time, reviewed IP in its August 1894 issue:

“We have now received the third number of the Indian Philatelist, and we cannot but congratulate the Editor and the contributors to its pages on the matter that has every month been provided for its readers.”

The Philatelic Review of Reviews (presented gratis to all readers of the Philatelic Journal of Great Britain) of June 11, 1894, was of the opinion:

“We cannot find a more exact address for our new and promising contemporary. The post mark on the wrapper is Dadar. The first number appeared in May, and contains eight pages of reading matter. The paper on which it is printed leaves some thing to be desired, but we cannot expect everything all at once…”

Advertisers in IP

One way to judge the quality and popularity of a magazine or newspaper

is to browse through its advertisements; sellers do not put in their money in dud publications. In that, IP seems to have done something right since it managed to attract advertisements from India and abroad (Figure 4).

Some of the names seen are, from England: Stanley Gibbons, Ltd., Theodor Buhl & Co., Butler Bros. of Oxford, Alfred Smith & Son of Bath, and Thos. Rodpath & Co. From America: C.H. Mekeel Stamp & Publishing Co., R. F. Albrecht & Co., and Scott Stamp & Coin Co., Ltd. And from Europe: A. Weisz of Budapest and Roland Meister from Germany. Apart from quarter to full page ads, there were classifieds as well. Of course, Ribeiro’s brother’s Bombay Philatelic Company and the editor’s own Bombay Stamp Exchange had a place in every issue.

As can be seen from the table, the number of pages of advertisements

Figure 5: Wenzel’s first column in the second issue of IP.

reached its peak toward the end of the first year before declining precipitously in the second, reflecting falling standards of the magazine itself.

Spat with Philatelic World

Depending on one’s perspective, Ribeiro comes across as either principled or rebellious. To a philatelic historian though, the fact that the pages of the country’s first magazine can be so interesting and entertaining is a matter of

delight.

The first evidence that Ribeiro wielded a sharp pen comes from a column that he publishes under the pseudonym “Wenzel” in the fourth issue, August 1894. We do not know who Wenzel was; perhaps the nom de plume of Ribeiro himself.

Wenzel made his first appearance in the second issue of June 1894 (Figure 5) wherein he congratulated the editor (!) for having the courage and fortitude in venturing upon such an undertaking. He went on to bemoan the state of Indian philately while pouring scorn on local dealers. In the fifth issue of September 1894, he cast a favorable light on the Bombay Philatelic Society (BPS) and its workings. He wrote a few more columns but none as scathing as the August one.

What ruffled Wenzel’s feathers was a not-so-flattering review of IP (Figure 6) in the July 1894 issue of India’s second journal The Philatelic World (PW). While the first 13 issues of PW were published by the young Calcutta dealer, B. Gordon Jones (Figure 7), he edited the first two only. Jones may seem harsh on a fledging contemporary but his comments on its language and grammar are spot on.

Figure 6. Review of IP in the first issue of Jones’ The Philatelic World.

Figure 7. B. Gordon Jones (1872-1857).

Obviously, the rebel was not going to take this affront lying down. Wenzel charged Jones of being upset that a Bombay upstart had beaten his endeavor by two months. He inquired:

“Surely there is room in the country for two such publications and if such be the case, it is but right to inquire why should the new born infant be gifted with such a short temper? What fairy god-mother presided at its birth?”

Raising the Bombay-Calcutta rivalry card, he railed against what he felt was Jones’ rabidity towards his city’s philatelic scene:

“There is no doubt that the Bengalee7 Philatelic Philosopher will find that he cannot enlist either the indulgence of an enlightened public or their support, if his publication is to be devoted to attacks on persons who are considerably known in philatelic circles on this side of India.”

He then personally attacked Jones, the dealer, saying:

“It does not require a very strong sight or a powerful magnifying glass to discern what this pretender is aiming at. Compare his offers for July, 1894, as given in the inside of the back cover and note the great rarities of India this well-stocked “Know-

Figure 8: Charles F. Larmour (1853?-1914).

Figure 9. Council of the Bombay Philatelic Society from 1895. (Photo courtesy of The Royal Philatelic Society’s Philatelic Collections.)

all, has for disposal.” (sic; the quotes are placed incorrectly). With one exception, there is hardly any rare stamp of India catalogued therein.”

Reacting to criticism about its language, Wenzel defended the editor and criticized Jones:

“Is he possessed of a certain amount of courtesy as due from one editor to another, when both elect to espouse the same cause and work for it. Is he so perfect in everything apportioning to philately and the English language thrown in, so as to pose as an infallible grammarian? Is he aware of the existence of such a person as represented by a printer’s devil?

(Unfortunately, the printer’s devil continued to plague IP in the future.)

Finally, against the insinuation that Bombay was the hub of forgers, Wenzel retorted:

“By the by, does it not strike you that the shoe has pinched? Let the world-wise authority take a ramble through Lall and Bow Bazaar, and the labyrinths of lanes off Bentinck Street and go and satisfy himself of the respectability, scrupulousness and knowledge of stamps of the many so called dealers and then speak of Bombay as the lurking place of such. Alas! that a man should live in a glass house and attempt to throw stones!”

Ribeiro/Wenzel obviously took one review too much to heart. We see this trait in him, again and again, that when he is pushed, he reacts with great hostility and does not mind making it personal.

The editorial of PW passed to C.F. Larmour (Figure 8) from the September 1894 issue. This seems to have placated

Ribeiro/Wenzel. In IP’s November 1894 issue, Wenzel praised Larmour as a person with “intimate knowledge of stamps” and waved the white flag:

“We are very pleased to note the change effected in the editorial chair of our Calcutta contemporary and regret that inadvertently we have been lead [sic] to do an injustice to a gentleman for whom we entertain a great respect and high esteem. Also that owing to circumstances, over which we have no control, the short comings of one person should have been visited upon another.”

N.H. Mama, dealer and forger

Ribeiro’s adversary was the Parsee8 dealer, N. H. Mama who, Ribeiro consistently claimed in IP, was a forger. There may have been other reasons for the unpleasantness between them.

BPS (Figure 9) was formed when seven gentleman (and one visitor) met at the Presidency Surgeon’s office at Bombay on August 29, 1892. One of the founding seven was Julio Ribeiro. He was appointed the vice president at this meeting. However, he objected to the office bearers being appointed permanently, and said that it would be better to have the office bearers as they now stood only as a temporary measure till the next ordinary meeting. His objections, very likely, came from Mr. N.H. Mama being appointed the treasurer.

In its first ordinary meeting on October 3, 1892, voting for office bearers for the ensuing year took place; neither Ribeiro nor Mama were elected for a post, though Ribeiro made it onto the committee. In retrospect, Ribeiro sacrificed the post of vice president but managed to keep Mama away from the important post of treasurer. Unfortunately, as he would soon learn, Ribeiro could not keep a check on Mama’s influence on the society.

In a special meeting of the committee

of BPS held a few days later on October 10, 1892, Ribeiro drew the committee’s attention to an article in The Philatelic Journal of America dated September 1892 about Afghan forgeries and Mama. Another meeting was quickly called nine days later, and Mama given a chance to respond. The sub-committee was convinced by Mama’s explanations that the forgeries were top grade and that he should not be blamed if he could not detect them before offering them for sale.

This must have surely disappointed Ribeiro.

Two years later, however, Ribeiro had the power of the pen. In the second issue of IP, in the column on forged Scinde Dawks,9 he said, “The primary source of these forgeries is one and one only…”

In his third issue, in a column aptly named “Black List,” Ribeiro came out in the open:

“It may be to the interest of uor (sic) readers to learn that Mr. N. H. Mama, who flooded the market with a special issue of Cabul stamps,10 has entered his schedule in the Insolvency Court. During the transition period, he is trading under the name and style of the Great Philatelic Co. Those who were promised a refund for the Cabul forgeries and other bogus stamps will probably get nothing, as the stock of stamps which he represented as his assets realized only about ten rupees at Auction.”

Stanley Gibbons Monthly Journal of August 31, 1894, reproduced this and confirmed Ribeiro’s assertion:

“We can fully bear out the statement that this man has been selling forgeries, as we quite recently examined a collection of nearly 9000 stamps, formed by a gentleman residing in Persia; we picked out several score of

Afghan, Jhind, Gwalior, and other stamps as bad, all of which had come from Mama.”

September 1894 saw the start of a new magazine from Bombay called Indian Postage Stamp News (IPSN). While the publisher/editor was shown to be one P. A. Sakloth, Ribeiro claimed in the November issue of IP that Mama was behind it. Apparently, Mama got into publishing to defend himself against attacks from the likes of Ribeiro and to promote himself.11 Ribeiro warned his readers, “We would like to know the genuiness [sic] of the advertisements and interviews, before advising intending subscribers to place their subscriptions.”

Over the years, Ribeiro seemed to get the impression that the BPS would not do anything to curb Mama, his activities, and his influence on the society and its members. Things came to a head in the first few months of 1895.

Spat with Bombay Philatelic Society

While Ribeiro surely had an allergy for Mama, his relationship with BPS in general seemed to be cordial until 1895. In the first issue of IP of May 1894, Ribeiro reproduced a paper on “Unpaid Postal Impressions of Mauritius,” read before BPS by its secretary, J. Seymour Summers. The following issue carried a report of the 17th ordinary meeting of BPS. The report is interesting in that Ribeiro mentions the start of IP and that he would be willing to give a copy of the journal free to each member of the society and also carry the reports of the society free, provided the society reduced the annual membership fees from12 rupees to 5 rupees.

One possible reason for Ribeiro’s request may have been his desire for more members to join the society but it was idiosyncratic to link the two. Nevertheless, the “question was postponed for final settlement to the next meeting, when it

was hoped Mr. Ribeiro would be present and would urge good reasons in support of his proposition.” In the next meeting Ribeiro seemed to have backtracked and proposed that as soon as the society’s membership reached 30, the fees should be cut in half to 6 rupees.

Following a successful philatelic exhibition of The Philatelic Society of Bengal, BPS decided to hold one as well. The first signs of a true rift were now visible as Ribeiro complained in the February 1, 1895, issue, “It is sure to be a failure, as few of the members of the Bombay Philatelic Society have been invited to in send their exhibits and only two days were allowed, in which to prepare them.”

In the April 1895 issue, reporting on the exhibition, the knives were truly out. “Our local society is a curious anomaly. Avowedly started for the benefit of philately, it has done nothing to develop the science in the course of its three years’ existence. First, dealers were admitted and Mr. N.H. Mama was the treasurer. Then they were excluded and some of the bad cargo had to go.12 An exchange branch was started, which converted every member into an authorized vendor of stamps – until that absurdity was also knocked on the head. Then came projects

innumerable – a reference list of Portuguese India, a philatelic exhibition of rarities, an auction sale, a Magazine and so on, until these perpetual projectors ware shamed into action and under the able direction of the Treasurer matured a hastily adopted scheme. Its practical results are transmitted to posterity in a pamphlet, which is destined to cover the Society with anything but glory. We had some difficulty in securing this monument of philatelic knowledge of the managing committee of the Bombay Philatelic Society. The Secretary seemed to know very little about it. At last a copy was got from the Treasurer and it was a revelation.

“Dr. C. F. Paco’s ‘unchronicled’ rarities of Portuguese India figure on the opening pages of this marvellous work. This ‘specialist’ seems to have a curious idea about the meaning of ‘unchronicled’ rarities. Mr. A. J. Agabeg has gone one better than his colleague, the Doctor. He exhibits a lot of stamps from a dealer’s stock and the selection has been made without any discernment. A member of the Committee might have

Figure 10: Letter from “Truth”’ published in Vol. II No. 2 (June 1895) criticizing BPS and lauding Ribeiro.

known better. Another exhibitor has followed in the steps of this gentleman, but not to that extent.

“As a whole, the show was very poor and though the noncollecting public may have concurred in the extraordinary ideas entertained by some of the exhibitors regarding the value of their exhibits, philatelists must have formed a juster (sic) estimate of the whole affair…. all the members of the Society who care for its good name and still hope to convert it into an instrument of usefulness must regret the hole-and-corner arrangement, which resulted in this exhibition of ignorance and incompetence. Aping is not imitating.”

In a column in the May 1895 issue titled, “The Bombay Society Again,” Ribeiro writes:

“How not to do it, will fairly characterize the actions of the local Philatelic Society. The latest move of the Committee is the resuscitation of the exchange rules and the exchange section. In this model exchange society, if a member wants to exchange his duplicates, he cannot do it. He must either buy or sell them. The restrictions on the pricing of stamps are simply childish.13 The whole manoeuvre [sic] will merely benefit the few shady dealers, who are in friendly terms with the Committee and who cannot sell their goods in a legitimate way. The so-called exchange rules were expunged for a good cause14…The philatelic experts will of course have an opportunity of sanctioning

the genuineness of spurious stamps, and the members will continue to sell their bad duplicates, under the thin guise of exchanging them.”

It is obvious that Ribeiro is throwing everything at Mama. In the June 1895 issue, Ribeiro sounds anguished, part of which betrays his helplessness.

“It is significant that the Bombay Philatelic Society has found a champion of its doings in the person of Mr. N.H. Mama, the gentleman whose connection with forged Scinde Daks and bogus Cubuls is well-known. It is well-known that Mr. Mama is the sole owner of the Great Philatelic Co., and it is painful to see members of the local Society parading themselves in the company of such dead beats.”

What (or Who) is “Truth”?

To needle BPS, the May 1895 issue (the first issue of Volume II), reproduces a report carried by PW in its April issue on the Bombay exhibition. Of course, PW did not have much good to say about the exhibition, hoping that “India’s premier (sarcasm!) Philatelic Society will do itself more justice in its next exhibition.”

Ribeiro must have felt vindicated by this review. Nothing else explains why extracts from a rival would find a place in his journal.

Ribeiro was not yet finished with his crusades. In the June 1895 issue, a letter from “Truth” was published (Figure 10); like “Wenzel,” this was probably another pseudonym used by Ribeiro to give the impression that there are others out there who shared his distaste of the way BPS was functioning.

“Truth” commended the editor for the stand taken against BPS. He then went on to criticize the society’s “Phila-

telic Golden Gang, whose objects are to give a name and a standing to people who would otherwise find no status in the philatelic world.” He regretted that BPS failed to respond to the criticism of the exhibition and laid the charge that most of its members are dealers. He claimed that “member after member has left the Society in sheer disgust at the pretense of work.” Finally, “Truth” alluded to the good name that BPS had in English philatelic circles (through the writings of Marcellus P. Castle15 and Stanley Gibbons16) when he concluded: “It is doing a public service after this to divulge these facts, that respectable members may choose better associates and that out siders may know exactly the credit that ought to be attached to the reports of great progress which are exported to Europe, simply because they find no credit here.”

The Court Martial BPS was quick to strike back. At its general meeting held on August 8, 1895, a resolution was unanimously passed requesting the council to take notice of the “Truth” article (BPS seemed to be aware that it was no letter but rather an article written by the editor) which made “some very injurious imputations” against BPS. Just two days later, the council met and decided that Ribeiro, as editor, must be held responsible for articles appearing in IP and that he be called up, as member of BPS, to explain. It further said that a meeting of the council would be held on August 19, at which the question of permitting Ribeiro to remain a member of the Society would be considered.

In a letter dated August 10, the Hon. Secretary Summers informed Ribeiro of the charges and asked him to either respond to them before the 19th or ap-

pear before the council on that day. On August 15, Ribeiro wrote back saying that as a member of the society, he was not in any way responsible to the society for anything that may appear in IP. Dripping in sarcasm, he said, “I cannot extend my congratulations to the form of notice that the Council of the Society have resolved to take of the matter.” He further asked,

“You speak of a charge, but you do not define it… Your Council evidently are going to constitute themselves into a tribunal for the purpose of judging me. It is very kind of them to do so, but I must decline to be a party to such a ridiculous assumption or to any travesty of justice.”

Interestingly, Ribeiro signed this letter as “Founding Member, Bombay Philatelic Society,” perhaps trying to remind the society of his long-standing relationship with it.

Perhaps wanting a compromise, the council gave Ribeiro another chance to answer the charge and postponed the matter to August 27. Ribeiro declined to play ball again. The whole sordid drama

Figure 11. William Wilmot Corfield (18591919).

came to an end when the council decided to strike his name off the roll of members with effect from August 28.

The whole saga of BPS, Ribeiro, Mama, and others make it apparent that no one party can claim to be the arbiter of truth. BPS comes out as bereft of good strong leadership; consider the numerous times its rules were changed in response to lobbying from one quarter or other. Further, in supporting Mama, a notorious forger, certain council members of BPS were certainly in the wrong.

And despite his protestation to the contrary, Ribeiro does not come out smelling good either. One can charge him for vitriolic personal attacks when criticized, for indulging in settling petty scores rather than trying to carry people along, for rebellion when not called for – in short for being quite immature and negative in his approach and for having a perennial chip on his shoulder.

Final Days of IP

Ribeiro does not mention the society in IP again. Meanwhile, its last few issues see a sharp fall in standards. Ribeiro seems to have expended his energies in his numerous quarrels and no longer seems to have the enthusiasm required to run the journal; it has been pretty much a solo effort.

Apart from reprints from contemporaries and advertisements, IP no longer had much to offer. The April 1896 issue was the last to come out; there is no indication in that issue that the journal was shutting down for good.

Larmour, then editor of PW, announced in the October 16, 1896, issue:

“We regret to learn that our Bombay Contemporary, the Indian Philatelist, has collapsed.”

Another reason for the journal shutting down may have to do with Ribeiro’s own life drawing to a close. He died on February 23, 1897, aged just a week over

30. In the February 16, 1897, issue of PW, 17 Wilmot Corfield (Figure 11), the editor, paid his tributes:

“I am deeply grieved to hear of the death, in Bombay, of Mr. Julio Ribeiro, who was the editor of the Indian Philatelist. He was a keen Philatelist, and a clever writer. This sad news came to me just as I was closing these notes.”

Postscript: Bombay’s philatelic decline

With Mama’s Indian Postage Stamp News having shut down with the last issue coming out in September 1895, BPS decided to start a magazine of its own titled The Quarterly Philatelic Circular (QC) under the editorship of its Hon. Secretary, Summers. The editorial of the first issue, January 1896, spoke of the need for an official organ of the Society and to “chronicle the excellet (sic; the editorial devils troubling IP hits the new magazine!) services which it has, during its brief but useful career, rendered to philatelic science.” It hits out against existing publications which were “too much under the conduct of persons who, either professedly or indirectly, deal in stamps.” Unfortunately, the pages of QC show that it had a pretty uneventful and unexciting 1896 and it folded after four issues.

The year 1896 saw the BPS in terminal decline. Bombay lost its status as the philatelic capital of Indian philately to Calcutta, its great rival, where exciting stuff was taking place. Early 1897 brought the birth of The Philatelic Society of India and its brilliant journal, The Philatelic Journal of India. The next quarter century belonged to Calcutta until a new breed of Bombay philatelists appeared in the 1920s who revived the city’s glory days.

Endnotes

1 Indian Philatelist became The Indian Philatelist from Vol. II No. 1 issue of May 25, 1895.

2 The Times of India. “University Intelligence: The Second B.A. Examination.” December 21, 1888: 5.

3 A report of the meeting of the Bombay Philatelic Society held on July 23, 1894, says that Ribeiro showed several forgeries of the small service India, surcharged Gwaliors, and a pair of unused India 1854 four anna stamp.

4 The pages of IP carry the regular advertisements of one Bombay Stamp Exchange. While the word ‘Exchange’ in the title of Bombay Stamp Exchange hits at a more innocuous activity, the entity’s advertisements in IP make it clear that it was indeed a dealer in stamps of India and its native states as well as that of the whole world. (The bibliophile may be happy to note that the Bombay Stamp Exchange sold philatelic books, catalogs, and albums as well!). Now this entity’s address is always shown as just ‘Dadar’. This area of Bombay, far from the philatelic scene, is the same one as that where IP is published from. It is hence reasonable to suspect that Riberio may, in fact, have been its owner. However, we need to consider two aspects: (a) dealers were not allowed to be members of the Bombay Philatelic Society and that some had resigned when this rule came about; Riberio did not (b) when Ribeiro’s relationship with the city’s philatelic establishment was nose-diving and he was under much scrutiny, no such charge was laid at his door by the other side.

5 The Bombay Philatelic Company was founded in 1889 and celebrated its centenary in 1989. The Indian operations looks to have now closed. In 1947, its proprietor, Mr. J. F. Droucette Dias, left India to go to the UK and shortly thereafter emigrated to the US; his brother took over the Bombay business. Dias’ son, Brian Dias, runs Bombay Philatelic, Inc. from New Jersey and deals in new issues. See bombaystamps.com.

6 As quoted in the IP. The first and the last two to four pages of each issue were advertisements. The cost of advertising was the following: For a single insertion, one page Rupees (Rs) 12, half a page Rs. 7, quarter page Rs. 5, and one-eight of a page Rs. 3-8. The currency was 16 annas = 1 Rupee. Rs. 3-8 was therefore 3 rupees and 8 annas.

7 Bengalee or Bengali i.e. someone of or from Bengal, the state in which Calcutta is located.

8 Parsee or Parsi is a member of a group of followers in India of the Iranian prophet Zoroaster (or Zarathustra). The Parsis, whose name means “Persians,” are descended from Persian Zoroastrians who emigrated to India in possibly the 8th century, to avoid religious persecution by Muslims. There are less than 60,000 Parsis in India today and most of them live in and

around Bombay. Notwithstanding their small numbers, the community has always wielded a disproportionate economic influence.

9 Issued in 1852, the white, blue, and white Scinde Dawks (SG nos. S1, S2, and S3) were used only in the Scinde province of India.

10 That is, the stamps of Afghanistan

11 Sample the editorial from the third issue of IPSN dated November 25, 1894. It lauds Mr. N.H. Mama “towards enlarging philately in India” and that “his disinterested devotion is sufficiently well known to call for any further eulogy and comment.” The previous issue cheekily asks who ‘Wenzel’ is. A few months later, during the Ribeiro-BPS spat, IPSN sides with the latter. Unfortunately for Indian philately, the magazine closes down with Vol. II No. 1 of September 25, 1895, being its last issue.

12 In its fourth ordinary meeting on December 19, 1892, the Society decides that dealers should not be admitted as members. N. H. Mama and N. D. Bottiwalla, a respected Bombay dealer, resign shortly thereafter.

13 The exchange rules passed in the April 6, 1895, committee meeting of the Society were: (a) Cash be paid for stamps at the time of their removal from sheets (b) 5 percent of the price be credited to the Society’s funds, (c) Basis of exchange shall be Stanley Gibbons’ latest catalog, and (d) Mr. Alex. J. Agabeg be appointed the Exchange Secretary.

14 Ribeiro had proposed the cancellation of the then-existing exchange rules of the society. The motion was passed in the October 24, 1894, regular monthly meeting (twenty-sixth) of BPS.

15 In the winter of 1892/93, Castle took a tour of the East. He visited Bombay and met members of BPS on December 8, 1892. He was mighty impressed and wrote in The London Philatelist of January 1893 that BPS was flourishing and judging by the interest taken therein by its members, he anticipated a promising future.

16 Gibbons visited Bombay in March 1893 and was, like M. P. Castle, highly taken in by a city “teeming with philatelists, stamp collectors, and stamp dealers.” Recording his experiences in the April 29, 1893, issue of Stanley Gibbons Stamp Monthly, he declared that Bombay took first rank in India as the chief (philatelic) city, although Calcutta was nominally the capital. He also attended a meeting of BPS on March 20 and wrote that BPS appeared be prospering exceedingly, and doing much good to the general body of collectors resident in the city.

17 While Ribeiro died on February 23, the news was carried in the February 16 issue of The Philatelic World. This may be because this issue, Vol. III No. 7 & 8 Whole No. 31, came out later then the 16th. It was already made into a double number and in the editorial, Corfield says, “We are late this month, but we trust, better late than never.”

The Essential Library of a Collector of Scott-listed

United States Revenues

This article will confine itself to the essential volumes that belong on the bookshelves of a collector of United States revenues that are listed in the Scott Specialized Catalogue of United States Stamps & Covers. Every one of these volumes grace the shelves of my philatelic library. Whenever I delve into one of these areas, these are among the first places that I go for background and basic information about these stamps. While the philatelic periodical literature contains much additional information about revenue stamps, the periodicals are an enormous field, too vast to explore in an article such as this.

Perhaps the best beginning is to look at a number of volumes that address the broad range of revenues listed by Scott. With one exception, these are anthologies of columns that were published in philatelic periodicals. That exception is the Historical Reference List of the Revenue Stamps of the United States Including Private Die Proprietary Stamps, frequently referred to as the Boston Rev-

enue Book, the earliest published volume (1899) that I recommend here (Figure 1). The authors of this foundational work were George Toppan, Hiram Deats, and Alexander Holland. Included in this volume is basic philatelic information about

Figure 1. Historical Reference List of the Revenue Stamps of the United States Including Private Die Proprietary Stamps, colloquially known as The Boston Revenue Book.

Ronald E. Lesher

all the Scott-listed revenues issued in the 19th century.

In addition, collectors of Scott-listed revenues need to have on their shelves the anthologies of published columns by three prominent dealer-writers, the first of which is George B. Sloane. His writings were collected in Sloane’s Column, published in 1961 by the Bureau Issues Association at the urging of one of the premier mid-20th century collectors of U.S. revenues, Morton Dean Joyce. Sloane’s writings range over the entire field of U.S. postage and revenue stamps and are contemporary with the issuance of many of the Scott-listed revenues. They are a valuable resource on the origins of 20th century revenues.

The second of the prominent dealerwriters is Elliott Perry, whose early writings were published beginning in 1918 in McKeel’s Weekly Stamp News under the pen name of Christopher West. These

were collected and published in a single volume by Castenholz & Sons under the title of The Revenue Stamps of the United States. Later, Perry wrote and self-published a series of articles under the ongoing title of Pat Paragraphs (Figure 2). These were collected under that title and published in 1981 by the Bureau Issues Association.

An excellent successor to Sloane and Perry, among the next generator of dealer-writers is Richard Friedberg. His columns were published in Linn’s Stamp News and eventually collected and published by Linn’s in 1994 as Introduction to United States Revenue Stamps.

All five of these broad-ranging volumes are essential reading for collectors of U.S. revenues. They provide a basic background of revenues and frequently delve quite deeply into the chosen subject. What follows are additional volumes, each of which is in a chosen area of the Scott-listed revenues.

Documentary Stamps (Scott-listed R)

The starting point of collecting U.S. revenues for most collectors are the socalled First Issue Revenues (Scott R1102), most of which were for use on documents. There are two volumes that are essential for these issues, both authored by Michael Mahler.

Mahler is perhaps best known as the person who pioneered the fiscal history of these documentary stamps, authoring many articles and showing both broad ranged and specialized exhibits of the documents with these stamps, both at the national and international levels. In recent years he has published many specialized articles about these Civil Warera stamps used in both the western part of the United States and in emancipated

Figure 2. Scan from Pat Paragraphs.

portions of the former Confederate States of America.

The first of Mahler’s books is United States Civil War Stamp Taxes (1988), which includes the tax rates and the various decisions of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue on how these stamps were to be used and interpretations on which section of the law applied to various documents.

Eleven years later, Mahler published A Catalog of United States Revenue Stamped Documents of the Civil War Era by Type and Tax Rate (1999), showing important examples of documents for each type and rate (Figure 3). Both of these volumes will remain the essential reference works for collectors of the First Issue documentary revenues for the foreseeable future.

Many revenue stamp collectors are attracted to, and have formed, significant collections of printed cancellations. One of the earlier works that explored this field for the documentary Battleship revenues of the Spanish-American War era (Scott R161-172) is R.D. Fullerton’s A Catalog of Railroad and Express Company Printed Cancellations on the 1898 U.S. Revenues (1952).

Proprietary Stamps (Scott-listed RB)

The category of the general proprietary stamps (Scott-listed RB) has long intrigued stamp collectors with the vast number of interesting printed cancellations. Two classic volumes stand out. The first one of these was authored by Clarence Chappel and Morton Dean Joyce and explores the vast number of printed cancels on the 1898 proprietary battleship stamps (Scott RB20-32), Proprietary Revenues of 1898: Precancelled Varieties (Figure 4). This volume was published by the American Revenue Association and continues to be a very active area of research. Nevertheless, this remains a very

Figure 3. Cover and sample entry from A Catalog of United States Revenue Stamped Documents of the Civil War Era by Type and Tax Rate.

good foundation and beginning for those interested in these printed cancels.

In a less travelled area, Scott Troutman authored a similar work, The Black Proprietary Stamps of 1914-1916, on the printed cancels for the later Series of

1914 proprietary stamps, which was also published by the American Revenue Association. In my experience this is a less explored area of printed cancels, but is a very welcome addition to the basic library of any collector interested in the printed cancels.

Wine (Scott RE) and Fermented Fruit Juice (Scott REF)

One of my first acquistions when I started to collect wine stamps was a small and very informative booklet by Ray Bidwell titled Series of 1941 Wine Stamps of the United States of America (Figure 5). I learned why some of the strange denominations were needed and why some were quite scarce. Bidwell described denominations that were not listed that seemingly only existed among the large stockpile of remainders that had been transferred to the Smithsonian. Today, these formerly unlisted stamps have

Figure 4. Scan from Proprietary Revenues of 1898: Precanceled Varieties.

Figure 5. Series of 1941 Wine Revenue Stamps of the United States of America.

received catalog recognition following the disgorgement of a large number of these stamps by the National Postal Museum (part of the Smithsonian).

The wine and fermented fruit juice stamps have long been popular and the work of David Nussmann and Donald Woodworth does an outstanding job of

exploring the stamps and the cancellations found on the wine stamps in their A Handbook of Cancels on United States Federal Wine Tax Stamps (Figure 6). This is an essential reference for anyone who collects these two categories of revenue stamps.

Beer (Scott REA)

Beer stamps was a category added to Scott listings because of the work of Thomas Priester. Prior to Priester’s published work, information about these popular stamps could be found principally in philatelic periodical literature. Priester’s 1979 edition is United States Beer Stamps: A Catalog of Federal Beer Stamp Issues with Supplementary Information (Figure 7). Priester updated much of the information in a second edition in 1990. Although the census data in the second edition updates the initial data in the first edition, I recommend the first edition for the background information, some of which was not included in the second edition. For the serious collector of beer, both editions deserve to be on the collector’s shelf.

Figure 6. A Handbook of Cancels on United States Federal Wine Tax Stamps.

Figure 7. Scan from United States Beer Stamps: A Catalogue of Federal Beer Stamp Issues.

Narcotic (Scott-listed RJA)

The narcotic tax stamp listings have an interesting history in the Scott catalogs. They were present in the Scott listings from their beginning through most of the 1920s and then were removed at the request of Internal Revenue. The reason for this was that collectors wanted to obtain mint copies of these stamps and Internal Revenue didn’t wish to have mint copies in public hands. So, until this tax was abolished in 1971, beginning in the early 1930s these listings did not appear in the Scott catalogs. James Drummond has done an outstanding job of exploring the nuances and identification of the many spurious philatelic imitations of the earliest handstamp provisional narcotic tax stamps (RJA9-RJA 25) in his self-published Narcotic Tax Stamps. In addition to his own research, Drummond has assembled in one volume the work of the previous researchers of the narcotic tax stamps that were published in periodicals.

Embossed (Scott RM)

The earliest United States revenues dating from the 1790s are embossed revenues and are exceptionally well explored in four volumes by M.V. Combs. The first of these volumes – First Federal Issue 1798 -1801. U. S. Embossed Revenue Stamped Paper – was published by the American Philatelic Society. This explores the embossed documentary stamps in use from 1798 until 1801.

The first issue embossed documentary stamps were replaced for a brief period in 1801 and 1802 until these internal revenue taxes were abolished under President Thomas Jefferson. This second issue is explored in Combs’ second volume, Second Federal Issue 1801-02. Documentary taxes were resurrected in 1814 and explored in Combs’ next volume, Third Federal Issue (Figure 8). This third volume also includes an excellent exploration of the licenses, still licenses, and the supervisor’s seals. Both of these volumes were published by the American Revenue Association.

Combs’ final volume is The Combs Catalog of Usages and Varieties of U.S.

Figure 8. Scan from Third Federal Issue, 1814-1817.

Embossed Revenue Stamped Paper, 17911817. It includes useful census data and scarcity information.

Revenue Stamped Paper (Scott RN)

The background information on the listings of revenue stamped paper can be found in Kimber Wald’s A Centennial Survey of the United States Civil War Revenue Stamped Paper Issues, 1865 - 1883, which can be found in the 1983 American Philatelic Congress Book. An excellent supplement to the general background provided by Wald can be found in a series of seven volumes – Field Guide to Revenue Stamped Paper – assembled and published by William Castenholz (Figure 9). The first six volumes are organized by regions of the country; the seventh part is devoted largely to stocks and bonds.

Private Die Proprietary (Scott RO,

RP, RS, RU)

The private die proprietary stamps, which encompass the proprietary tax on matches, medicines, canned goods, perfumes and playing cards, are a very popular and challenging area of revenue stamps. Internal Revenue permitted companies to propose a design for these tax stamps if they would pay for the development of the printing plate. This served a very useful function for companies that thought they might be the target of others who wished to counterfeit their products and market counterfeit products under the popular company’s name. Since the proprietary tax stamps contained the trademark of the company, the company could tell the public to look for the private die stamp on their product. Few counterfeiters would wish to also counterfeit the federal tax stamps.

Figure 9. Cover and sample entry from Field Guide to Revenue Stamped Paper.

die medicine stamps. These articles were collected and published in two volumes by Castenholz & Sons. These volumes are United States Match and Medicine Stamps and Private Die Match Stamps.

There are five important volumes that the collector of the private die proprietary stamps should own. Perry, again writing under the pseudonym of Christopher West, wrote extensively about both the private die match and private

During the 1930s, Henry Holcombe wrote more than 140 articles about the medicine companies that used the private die proprietary stamps that appeared in many philatelic publications. He included descriptions of their products. George Griffenhagen worked with Holcombe in editing these articles and readied them for publication in a single volume. Just after Holcombe’s death they were published by Quarterman Publications. Although Holcombe apparently looked forward to the publication of his writings in a single volume, just after his death his family objected and claimed that they were a violation of Holcombe’s copyright. The volume, Patent Medicine Tax Stamps, subsequently was withdrawn from sale. There are a fairly limited number of the volumes in circulation. Nevertheless, this volume is a very important source for information about the companies and their products.

Griffenhagen published a marvelous book on his own titled Private Die Pro-

Figure 11. Scan from Essays and Proofs of U. S. Internal Revenue Stamps.

Figure 10. The Case of Dr. Kilmer: An Analysis of the Dr. Kilmer & Co. Provisional Proprietary Revenue Stamps Overprinted on the 1895 Postage Stamps of the United States.

prietary Medicine Stamps [and Facsimile Labels] Handbook No. 66 with the American Topical Association. A special feature of this work is the inclusion of lists of the use of the general proprietary stamps with printed cancels of these same medicine companies. Generally, these were used before the arrival of the special private die proprietary stamps, but there are many examples of the Battleship proprietary stamps of 1898 that were later used when the companies ran out of the private die stamps and were awaiting their next shipment of their private die stamps.

The last of the recommended volumes on the private die proprietary stamps is a detailed analysis of the provisional tax stamps that were produced by overprinting contemporary postage stamps. This extraordinary measure took place in July 1898 when the local district collector of Internal Revenue was unable to supply the new Battleship proprietary stamps for a number of weeks at the beginning of the new tax. This fine work was authored by the previously mentioned Joyce and is titled The Case of Dr. Kilmer: An Analysis of the Dr. Kilmer & Co. Provisional Proprietary Revenue Stamps Overprinted on the 1895 postage Stamps of the United States (Figure 10).

Essays and Proofs

Finally we come to the last category, essays and proofs of United States revenues. This is a category of collecting that is usually not where revenue stamp collectors begin, but often arrive here as a final destination as they specialize in one or more areas of revenues. The foundational work, Essays and Proofs of U. S. Internal Revenue Stamps, was written by George Turner and published by the Bureau Issues Association (Figure 11).

In this entire selection of essential volumes for the library of the United States revenue stamp collector, one should note that many of these were written by a previous generation of collectors and that ongoing research has uncovered new information. That is certainly true for the essays and proofs. Nevertheless, one should consider these works the beginning point in the exploration of the background of these revenue stamps.

References

Bidwell, Ray W. Series of 1941 Wine Revenue Stamps of the United States of America (Andover, CT: Bidwell, 1965). Available at the APRL: G3701 .R451 B585s

Castenholz, Bill J. Field Guide to Revenue Stamped Paper (Pacific Palisades, CA: Castenholz and Sons, 1989-91). Issued in seven parts by region of the United States. Available at the APRL: G3701 .R451 C349f

Chappel, Clarence Henry and Morton D. Joyce. Proprietary Revenues of 1898: Precanceled Varieties (American Revenue Association, 1957). Available at the APRL: G3701 .R451 C467p Reprint 1957

Combs, W.V. First Federal Issue 1798 -1801: U. S. Embossed Revenue Stamped Paper (State College: American Philatelic Society, 1979). Available at the APRL: G3701 .R451 C731f 1979

Combs, W.V. Second Federal Issue 1801-2 (American Revenue Association, 1989). Available at the APRL: G3701 .R451 C731s 1988

Combs, W.V. The Combs catalog of usages and varieties of U.S. embossed stamped paper, 1791-1817 (Ashland, OH: W.V. Combs, 1992).

Available at the APRL: G3701 .R451 C731c

Combs, W.V. Third Federal Issue, 1814-1817 and other U.S. embossed revenue stamped paper 1791-1869 (Rockford, IA: American Revenue Association, 1993). This includes the licenses, still licenses, and supervisor’s seals. Available at the APRL: G3701 .R451 C731t 1993

Drummond, James N., Narcotic Tax Stamps. (Selfpublished, 2018).

Friedberg, Richard. Introduction to United States Revenue Stamps (Sidney, OH: Linn’s Stamp News, 1994). Available at the APRL: G3701 .R451 F899i 1994a

Fullerton, Richard D. A Catalog of Railroad Company, Street Railway Company & Express Company

Printed Cancellations on the 1898 U.S. Revenues (Dayton, OH: R.D. Fullerton, 1952). Available at

the APRL: VERT FILE

Griffenhagen, George B. Private Die Proprietary Medicine Stamps [and Facsimile Labels] Handbook No. 66 American Topical Association, 1969. Available at the APRL: HE6183 .A1 A512a no. 66 1991

Holcombe, Henry and George B. Griffenhagen. Patent Medicine Tax Stamps (Lawrence, MA: Quarterman Publications, 1979). Available at the APRL: G3701 .R451 H725p 1979

Joyce, Morton Dean. The Case of Dr. Kilmer: An Analysis of the Dr. Kilmer & Co. Provisional Proprietary Revenue Stamps Overprinted on the 1895 Postage Stamps of the United States (Selfpublished, 1954). Available at the APRL: G3701 .R451 J89ck

Mahler, Michael. A Catalog of United States Revenue Stamped Documents of the Civil War Era by Type and Tax Rate (Rockford, IA: American Revenue Association, 1999). Available at the APRL: G3701 .R451 M214u

Mahler, Michael. United States Civil War Revenue Stamp Taxes (Pacific Palisades, CA: Castenholz & Sons, 1988). Available at the APRL: G3701 .R451 M214u

Nussmann, David G. and Donald A. Woodworth, Jr. A Handbook of Cancels on United States Federal Wine Tax Stamps (Rockford, IA: American Revenue Association, 2011) Available at the APRL: G3701 .R451 N975h 2011

Perry, Elliott. Pat Paragraphs (Takoma Park, MD: Bureau Issues Association, 1981). Available at the APRL: G3701 .P856 P462p 1981.

Priester, Thomas W. United States Beer Stamps: A Catalogue of Federal Beer Stamp Issues (Selfpublished, 1979). Available at the APRL: G3701

.R451 P949u

Sloane, George B. Sloane’s Column (West Somerville, MA: Bureau Issues Association, 1961). Available at the APRL: HE6184 .R451 S634p 1961

Toppan, George L., Hiram E. Deats, and Alexander Holland. Historical Reference List of the Revenue Stamps of the United States Including Private Die Proprietary Stamps (Boston Philatelic Society, 1899). Available at the APRL: G3701 .R451 T675h [Reprint] 1980

Troutman, Scott M. The Black Proprietary Stamps of 1914-1916 (American Revenue Association, 2004). Available at the APRL: JOURNAL

American Revenuer

Turner, George T. Essays and Proofs of U. S. Internal Revenue Stamps (Arlington: MA: Bureau Issues Association, 1974). Available at the APRL:

G3701 .R451 T946e 1974

Wald, Kimber A. A Centennial Survey of the United States Civil War Revenue Stamped Paper Issues, 1865 - 1883 (Dover, DE: Dover Litho Printing Co., 1983). Reprinted in the American Philatelic Congress Book. Available at the APRL: G3701 .R451 W157c

West, Christopher [Elliott Perry]. Private Die Match Stamps (Pacific Palisades, CA: Castenholz & Sons, reprinted 1980). Available at the APRL: G3701 .R451 W516p 1980

West, Christopher [Elliott Perry]. The Revenue Stamps of the United States (Pacific Palisades, CA: Castenholz & Sons, 1979). Available at the APRL: G3701 .R451 W516r 1979

West, Christopher [Elliott Perry]. United States Match and Medicine Stamps (Pacific Palisades, CA: Castenholz & Sons, reprinted 1980). Available at the APRL: G3701 .R451 W516u 1980

Donate to the APRL

The APRL welcomes donations of philatelic literature and materials (please include an itemized list) as well as monetary contributions to secure the growth and maintenance of library services. Two specific APRL funds need your financial support. Contributions to the Building Fund are used to pay for the physical plant that houses both the APS and the library. Donations to the Acquisitions Funds are used to purchase additional resource material, whether new or used, for the library. Please send your inquiries to Scott Tiffney at stiffney@stamps.org.

The Origin of the Royal Philatelic Society London’s Set of The Stamp Collector’s Record

Brian J. Birch

[Editor's note: This is the second part of Brian Birch's exploration into The Stamp Collector's Record. Part one, "A Look at North America's First Philatelic Periodical" was published in the first quarter issue of 2022. In part one, we learned that the first philatelic magazine in North America was published in Montreal, Canada, by Samuel Allan Taylor, in 1864. Taylor is remembered today as a prolific early stamp dealer and producer of fakes and forgeries.]

One usually has to rely on the presence of a bookplate or an inscription in a book for an idea of its provenance. Neither of these are present in the Royal Philatelic Society London’s volume of The Stamp Collector’s Record (1864-1876). However, remarkably, in this case the correspondence involved in the society’s acquisition of SCR’s bound run has survived the intervening 133 years.

I identified the correspondence when I wrote up the Royal’s old correspondence files in its archives. Its survival is really quite unusual as the vast majority of the society’s old correspondence has been destroyed or discarded over the years, encouraged no doubt by two world wars and the need to recycle waste paper, not to mention the perennial problem of lack of space within the society’s building.

I joined the Royal Philatelic Society London in 1981 and even from the earliest days I was aware that the society had

an archive of old documents and other ephemera. From time to time I would come into possession of material that I would donate to the archives. For most of these early years the archivist was Ronald Negus, who I knew well owing to my philatelic dealings with his brother Jim –James William Negus (1927-2008).

Following Ron’s death in 2008, Bill Hedley took on the role of archivist and continued Ron’s work in formalizing and documenting the society’s holdings. It was in 2009 that Bill showed me around the archives and provided some background information regarding their uneven history. In particular, some of the earlier archivists had considered the archives to be of minimal use except as a source of autographs. Much had therefore disappeared over the years.

Nevertheless, previous society archivists had collected letters and photographs from notable members and produced a file called “Correspondence.”

Over the years, this material has been accessed on an ad hoc basis, notably for the two society histories of 1919 and 1969 and also by Ron Negus for his important biographies of Sir Edward Denny Bacon and the Earl of Crawford, published by the society in 1999 and 2002, respectively, and probably for the series of short biographies Ron produced for the British Philatelic Bulletin.

Apart from a list of names related to the envelopes in the Correspondence File, no information on the holdings was available for researchers. In 2009, upon my offer of help, Hedley tasked me with sorting out these files. Accordingly, I placed the material in each envelope in date order and produced a chronological listing of the documents, annotating each item with a brief descriptive note of the content relevant to philately. At the same time, I have provided the dates of birth and death as well as a photograph and brief details of the individuals and their relevance to the society and philately in general..

Naturally, I transcribed very important documents in full; such as correspondence with John K. Tiffany (already copied to the American Philatelic Society years earlier) and, of course, Casey’s correspondence given below.

As is my usual habit, I produced the outcome of writing up the correspondence files in a format that would print it out as a book. Although it still lacks a few biographies, it is already 451 pages in length.

The Casey correspondence

In early 1888, Joseph James Casey (Figure 1), of New York, was in communication with Edward Denny Bacon (then honorary secretary, 1886-1888, and honorary treasurer, 1885-1888, of the society) by whom he had had some Moldavia stamps expertized. On March 10 of that year, Casey wrote to Bacon enclosing some stamps to cover the postage paid by Bacon when returning the Moldavia stamps (Figure 2).

42 E. 112th St., New York

10 Mar 1888

E. D. Bacon, Esq. Dear Sir,

I send you stamps to pay the postage on letter covering Moldavia, sent you for opinion, and received this morning. I did not have them when the stamp was sent you, and I should not expect you to pay postage on matters of interest to me alone, or those I represent. I see in a French sheet, notice of a new publication by your Society. I wish a copy, and shall be pleased to pay for it in cash, or else give in exchange for your library, a file of the notorious S. Allan Taylor “S. C. Record”. It has

Figure 1. Joseph James Casey (1845/46?), from The Stamp Collectors’ Figaro, frontispiece to Volume 1 of 1887-88.

the Montreal No. 1 and then begins again Albany No. 1 and goes in an unbroken series to No. 42, the last few numbers being missing. A set such as this is extremely difficult to find – at this time, perhaps it cannot be duplicated.

Respectfully Yours

Joseph J. Casey I should like the book unbound, and a large paper copy.

Thank you very much for check received for stamps.

In spite of Casey’s assertion that The Stamp Collector’s Record “goes in an unbroken series to No. 42, the last few numbers being missing,” what he really meant was that the second series went to whole number 44, numbers 42 and 43 never

having been published. So, nothing is missing and it is a complete run of the periodical and its Montreal precursor. At that time, the transactions of the Philatelic Society, London, were published in the pages of The Philatelic Record. Among the proceedings of the society’s 12th meeting of the season on April 6, 1888,1 Bacon (Figure 3), as honorary secretary, reported the receipt of Casey’s letter in which he requested a copy of the society’s new publication, The Stamps of Oceania, and offered in exchange a complete run of Samuel Allan Taylor’s journal, The Stamp Collector’s Record. Interestingly, Bacon appears not to have mentioned at the meeting that Casey had also offered to pay in cash as an alternative to the exchange, whichever the society wished.

As a bibliophile, Bacon would have appreciated the rarity of the journal of-

Figure 2. Casey’s letter to Bacon (Courtesy of the Royal Philatelic Society London.)

fered. Indeed, Casey in his letter had noted that it included the Montreal No. 1 and that “a set such as this is extremely difficult to find.” The proceedings continued, that on the motion of Thomas Keay Tapling (Figure 4) the then-honorary vice president (1881-1891) of the society, Bacon was instructed to accept Casey’s offer of exchange and this exceptionally rare volume became part of the society’s library. At that time, Bacon was Tapling’s philatelic adviser so it would not have been difficult for him to enlist Tapling’s support for the exchange.

When Casey’s own library was sold at auction through J.W. Scott & Company on January 19, 1899, it would appear from the catalog that it lacked The Stamp Collector’s Record.2 It is amazing to me that Casey would give away his only copy of such an important and difficultto-replace periodical, but he did.

Who was Joseph James Casey?

Nowadays, Joseph James Casey is unknown to the great majority of philatelists. However, from the 1870s to the end of the 1890s he was one of the most prominent philatelists in America, although some might call him notorious rather than famous. In the September 2000 issue of The American Philatelist, Herb Trenchard, the American Philatelic Society’s archivist, wrote an exhaustive article about Casey and his philatelic vicissitudes.3 Since this article is readily available, I will confine myself to a brief overview of Casey’s philatelic life and travails to provide some context for the benefit of current readers.

Casey4 was born in New York City in 1845 or 1846, his father having emigrated from Ireland. He began to collect stamps at school, in common with so many of his peers. By the time he was about 20, he had already created two fantasy issues: the so-called 3-aspers Egyp-

Figure 3. Edward Denny Bacon (1860-1938), frontispiece, The Philatelic Record, Volume 13 of 1891.

Figure 4. Thomas Keay Tapling (1855-1891), frontispiece, The Philatelic Record, Volume 9 of 1887-88.

tian stamp, self-evidently a spoof, and Walker’s Penny Post. This was in 1866, the year after the Civil War had ended. The war had spawned a myriad of local issues in the Confederacy, many of which were unknown beyond their own locality. These, and the regular Confederate issues, all of which could be counterfeited or faked with impunity, provided a fertile ground for stamp dealers short of genuine stamps to sell.

Casey continued his education and gained employment as a teacher at Grammar School Number 2 in Manhattan, becoming the principal in the fullness of time. However, once the school day ended he became a leading figure in the philatelic world.

Having failed in his campaign to get a New York Philatelic Club and its proposed journal, The Stamp World, up and running, in 1873 Casey joined John Walter Scott as editor of his world-renowned periodical, The American Journal of Philately. In spite of his relative youth (he

was still in his 20s), the journal prospered under his hand and its fame grew.

Casey wrote numerous articles for the journal and used it to advocate once again the formation of a philatelic society in New York, modeled on the Philatelic Society London (later, Royal Philatelic Society London). In this undertaking he was soon successful, and in October 1874 the National Philatelical Society was founded in New York.

In the January 1874 issue of Scott’s journal, Casey had written about his discoveries relating to Berford’s California Express, giving additional details about the stamps it had used. The stamps were extremely rare and so Casey had sets printed, which he sold widely to dealers in America and even as far afield as the UK, where Frederick Adolphus Philbrick (Figure 5) – then honorary president of the Philatelic Society London (18781892) and owner of arguably the finest collection in the world at that time – was a notable purchaser.

It was well-known that the majority of American dealers of the day, including John Walter Scott (Figure 6), sold reprints and facsimiles of local and express company stamps. However, in or-

Figure 5. Judge Frederick Adolphus Philbrick (1835-1910), a portrait by Daniell Frank (1866-1932) in the Museum of Freemasonry.

Figure 6. John Walter Scott (1845-1919). (Courtesy of the Museum of Philatelic History at the Royal Philatelic Society London.)

or may not be accurate The red arrow is from a previous use of the sheet in a display. Courtesy of Hugh McMackin.

der to clean up the stamp trade it was considered essential that the items being sold were correctly described so that collectors knew exactly what they were purchasing. Reprints were by definition new printings from the original plates, whereas facsimiles were printed from newly manufactured plates and were far less desirable.

It would appear that the American dealers to whom Casey had sold quantities of his Berford Express stamps were either told by Casey or simply given the impression that they were reprints, and the dealers sold them to their customers as such. Accordingly, it came as something of a shock when it was revealed in an article in The Timbrophilist titled “The Berford Abominations,”5 presumably by Samuel Allan Taylor, that Casey had had new plates made and that the

stamps were actually facsimiles. It was doubly hurtful that this news was broken by Taylor, himself responsible for a flood of fakes, forgeries and fantasies. It counted for nothing that Casey had Berford’s permission to reproduce his stamps and that Judge Philbrick confirmed in a letter to Casey that he knew exactly the nature of the copies he had obtained. Casey was widely condemned in America and lost his position as editor of The American Journal of Philately.

Thus began a feud that would last for some 25 years until Casey finally severed his ties with philately around 1900. However, in the intervening decades following the breaking of the Berford scandal, Casey managed to re-establish himself within the philatelic fraternity, taking over the publication of an important philatelic paper when he purchased

Figure 7. This is an example of both sides of a typical undated and unnumbered advertising sheet issued latterly by Taylor in place of his regular numbers of The Stamp Collector’s Record. This copy is annotated in pencil: Front: Last – Boston – 1878; Back: Boston – 1878. Since the source of the annotation is unknown, it may

the Coin and Stamp Journal in 1876 and eventually renamed it The Stamp Journal (1877-1879).6 By 1886, he had established his own auction house and held his first sale in February of that year. For the next eight years he held a series of 34 successful and innovative sales, the last in October 1894.

At around the same time as Casey’s exchange of SCR for the Philatelic Society’s The Stamps of Oceania, Casey had applied for membership of the (Royal) Philatelic Society London. He was proposed by the vice president, Tapling, and seconded by the president, Philbrick. With such notable supporters it is hardly surprising that his application was accepted at the 13th meeting of the season on April 20, 1888.

The record of what happened next is not to be found in the published records but can be inferred by snippets from letters to the society’s new honorary secretary, Douglas Garth, by both Tapling and Philbrick, which were located in the society’s archives:

Evidently, once his admission to the society had been published, his enemies (presumably not members of the society) contacted the society and laid serious charges against him. This caused the society to establish a sub-committee to determine the facts. In order to avoid adverse publicity that would have followed had he been expelled from the society, Casey authorized Tapling to act on his behalf in the matter. Even though the subcommittee had not then reported, on February 10, 1889, Tapling wrote to Garth informing him of this authority he had been given and formally tendered Casey’s resignation.7 Three days later, Philbrick wrote to Garth advising him that unfortunately he was too ill to attend the forthcoming meeting of the society, especially as the Casey affair was due to come up. However, he noted that as Casey had done no

harm to the society or any member, it was a purely American squabble and he believed that the society should just accept Casey’s resignation.8

So, it was that at the ninth meeting of the season on February 15, 1889, Casey’s resignation was announced and accepted after some discussion, but no details about the discussion were given in the report.9

By the late 1890s, Casey’s interest in philately appears to have waned and in 1899 he sold his outstanding philatelic library at auction through his old adversary, John W. Scott. He then disappeared from the philatelic scene so completely that his death does not even appear to have been recorded within philately.

Collation of the issues of both series: The Stamp Collector’s Record (1864-1876)

Part one of this article, published in the first quarter 2022 Philatelic Literature Review, was dedicated to the first Montreal issue of The Stamp Collector’s Record, which is vanishingly rare. The later issues from Albany and thereafter are only extremely rare. Both are described here.

First Series

Published from 4 Cheneville Street, Montreal, Canada

Also Box 934, P.O. Montreal, Canada No. 1 February 15, 1864, 4 unnumbered pages. Price 5c No. 2 March 1864. A few copies were said to have been circulated by the printer but no copies are now known.

New Series

(For those readers who are interested in exactly what the Second series is comprised of, I offer the following details.)

All issues contain four numbered pages except where stated.

As Taylor moved address, he changed printers from time to time which resulted in changes to the heading on the title page and even to the title of the journal. These title changes are indicated below. In most cases, the titles on the inside pages are correct.

New printers often resulted in new paper sizes, mostly minor. However, the more substantial changes in page sizes are given below in inches followed by the equivalent size in millimeters. I have had to take these from Tiffany’s Philatelical Library10 as he would have obtained copies as published and the copies to which I have access had been bound and probably trimmed by the binder to a uniform size.

Montreal 5½ by 8½ inches (140 by 216mm)

Nos. 1-20 5¼ by 8¼ inches (133 by 210mm)

Nos. 21-24 5¾ by 8¼ inches (146 by 210mm)

Nos. 25-38 5¼ by 8¼ inches (133 by 210mm)

Nos. 39-41 7 by 9 inches (178 by 230mm)

Tiffany’s listing stops here as the final number was issued two years after his book was published. However, it is evident that the final issue was:

No.44 5¼ by 8¼ inches (133 by 210mm)

The Stamp Collector’s Record

Published from P.O. Box 179, Albany, New York, U.S.

No. 1 December 15, 1864

No. 2 January 15, 1865

No. 3 February 15, 1865

Extra March 1, 1865 1 page – reverse blank

No. 4 April 3, 1865

No. 5 May 1, 1865

No. 7 (actually 6) June 1, 1865 Number corrected in blue crayon

Published from Albany, N.Y., U.S.; The P.O. Box having been dropped

No. 7 July 1, 1865

No. 8 August 16, 1865 (Spelled “Augstt”)

No issue for September, presumably owing to the move to Boston.

The Stamp Collectors’ Record

Published from 3 Cornhill Court, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.

No. 9 October 1865

No. 10 November 1865

No. 11 December 1865

[No. 12] Not issued, presumably in error

“New Series” dropped and “Second Year” inserted in its place.

No. 13 January 1866

No. 14 February 1866

No. 15 March 1866

No. 16 April 1866

No. 17 May 1866

No. 18 June 1866

No. 19 July 1866

No. 20 August 1866

Incorrectly numbered 13 instead of 12

Page 4 not numbered

Page 4 not numbered, contents of

pages 1 and 4 are identical to those of No. 19

No. 21 September 1866

No. 22 October 1866

The Stamp Collector’s Record

No. 23 November 1866

The Stamp Collectors Record

No. 24 December 1866

Whole No. 25 January 1867

Whole No. 26 February 1867

Whole No. 27 March 1867

Whole No. 28 April 1867

Whole No. 29 May 1867

Whole No. 30 June 1867

Whole No. 31 July 1867

Whole No. 32 August 1867

Whole No. 33 September 1867

Page 4 not numbered

Page 4 not numbered

Vol. II on title page

[Volume] II on title page; Pages not numbered

Vol. III on title page

Vol. III on title page

Vol. III on title page

Vol. III on title page

Vol. III on title page

Vol. III on title page

Vol. III on title page

Vol. III on title page

Vol. III on title page

Published from 81 Washington Street, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.

Whole No. 34 May 1868

No. 35 May 1869

No. 36 September 1869

No page numbers hereafter

No. 37 (No date)

No. 38 (same as No. 37)

Vol. III on title page

Vol. III on title page

Vol. III on title page

No volume number; Number on inside page [p.2]

Identical except for number on inside page [p.2]

No. 38 After August* 1870 Except for the adverts on pages 1 and 4, it has different content to previous number 38. Printed on thin card

*Dated from the obituary of Edward Allison Craig.

The Stamp Collector’s Record

No. 39 February 1871

No. 40 December 1871

No. 41 July 1872

No. 42

Vol. IV. Uses a Mulready cut for the front cover like The Stamp Collector’s Magazine

Vol. IV

Vol. IV. New cover

Said to have been replaced by a single page, double-sided price list headed The Stamp Collectors Record with no date or number.

No. 43 Said to have been replaced by a single page, double-sided price list headed The Stamp Collectors Record with no date or number.

Published from 11 Ann Street, New York, NY, U.S.

The Stamp Collectors Record

No. 44 October 1876

Additional price lists headed The Stamp Collector’s Record, such as those which took the place of numbers 42 and 43 above, are thought to have been issued up to at least 1878. (See the Figure 7 caption for more information.)

Endnotes

1 Philatelic Society of London: Proceedings, The Philatelic Record, May 1888, Volume 10, Issue 5, pp.87-88.

This report contains the proceedings of both the 12th meeting of the season on the April 6 and the 13th meeting on the April 20, 1888.

2 J.W. Scott Company Ltd.: Catalogue of the Philatelic Library of Joseph J. Casey, Esq., Together with the Collection of Unused Modern Postage Stamps the Property of a President of one of the Central American Republics. January 19, 1899, 446 lots. Casey’s library comprised lots 1-261. This was the first auction sale of a major, named philatelic library.

3 Herbert A. Trenchard: “The Berford Abominations’ Joseph James Casey, A.M., and his times,” The American Philatelist, September 2000, Volume 114, Issue 9, pp.818-832 & 834.

4 [Joseph J. Casey]., The Stamp Collectors’ Figaro, March 1888, Volume 1, Issue 12, p.217.

A large portrait of Casey was issued with the number for March 1888, which included a brief biographical note about Casey on its title page

5 “The Berford Abominations,” The Timbrophilist, September 1874, Volume 3, Issue 3, Whole number 74, p.[3].

The Timbrophilist was published from September 1869 to September 1874. Although there were only five numbers published during this time, the final issue is shown as Whole number 74. The publisher, Charles A. Lyford, was a young accomplice of Samuel Allan Taylor, whose paper was used to attack and abuse those who were opposed to Taylor. The style of the article is along much the same lines as Taylor’s writings in his own paper, The Stamp Collector’s Record, hence its attribution to Taylor rather than the much younger Lyford.

6 E.D. Bacon: Bibliotheca Lindesiana Vol. VII: A

Bibliography of the Writings General, Special and Periodical Forming the Literature of Philately, Aberdeen University Press, Aberdeen, UK, 1911.

[Reprinted as: E. D. Bacon: Catalogue of the Philatelic Library of the Earl of Crawford, K.T., The Philatelic Literature Society, London, UK, 1911.]

A supplement was published as: E.D. BACON: Supplement to the Catalogue of the Philatelic Library of the Earl of Crawford, K.T. Published 1911., The Philatelic Literature Society, London, UK, 1926.

An addendum was published as: Sir Edward D. Bacon K.C.V.O.: Addenda to the “Supplement to the Catalogue of the Philatelic Library of the Earl of Crawford, K.T.,” The Royal Philatelic Society, London, UK, 1938. (Published as a supplement to The London Philatelist of March 1938.)

Volume VII, complete with the Supplement and Addenda, were reprinted as: Catalogue of the Crawford Library of Philatelic Literature at the British Library, The Printer’s Stone (in association with the British Library), Fishkill, NY, U.S., 1991.

The full details of the Coin and Stamp Journal and the renamed The Stamp Journal can be found in column 499.

A complete list of Casey’s auction sales with details of the auctioneers can be found in column 14.

7 Thomas K. Tapling: Letter to Douglas Garth regarding Joseph J. Casey, dated February 10, 1889.

8 Frederick A. Philbrick: Letter to Douglas Garth regarding Joseph J. Casey, dated February 13, 1889.

9 “Philatelic Society of London,” The Philatelic Record, March 1889, Volume 11, Issue 3, p. 55.

10 John K. Tiffany: The Philatelical Library. A Catalogue of Stamp Publications., Privately printed by John Kerr Tiffany, St. Louis, Missouri, U.S., 1874.

Learn about Luxembourg Through Philatelic Literature and More

Curtis Gidding

When collectors develop an interest in a specific country, they will basically rely on a stamp catalog to provide the knowledge necessary to build a nice collection. But you’ll soon see there is so much more.

Let’s start at the beginning, though, by looking at Luxembourg as an example. In this case, a collector would probably start with the Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, and that may be the only reference needed for several years. This is acceptable but will not allow the collector to get the utmost enjoyment in building the collection.

The next level, gaining more specific knowledge, will come from obtaining a catalog from the issuing country or a European-based catalog. In the case of Luxembourg this means that the catalog will

Luxembourg City, capital of Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, view of Old Town

Figure 1. The Postal History of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

be in either French or German. Unless the collector is fluent in either of these, this presents a barrier. However, these catalogs can quickly be used for finding out specific information – i.e. perforation varieties, color shades, quantities issued, first day covers and more – about each issue.

In the modern age of the internet and digital presentation, it is possible to research and find a large quantity of information that is not available within catalogs. By the use of your favorite search engine you can reveal a new package of

information. I found that there is a site for Luxembourg titled Luxembourg Philately by Gary Little (stamps.luxcentral. com). This site contains a plethora of philatelic information about the country.

I found in the reference section the following, The Postal History of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, by Francis Rhein (1941) from Chambers Publishing Company, Kalamazoo, Michigan. Though it’s now more than 70 years old, Rhein’s book remains the best Englishlanguage general reference on Luxembourg philately, according to Gary Little (Figure 1).

The book was available and listed in the American Philatelic Research Library for borrowing, but I got busy and searched all the sources that I have for a literature dealer instead. I found a dealer in Branson, Missouri, who has a very large inventory of literature. He had the book in stock and I had it within a few days.

Although the book only covers stamps and postal history until 1941, it covers a broad range of separate philatelic subjects, such as telegraph stamps, precancels and cancels (Figure 2). It will open the reader’s mind to more areas than most catalogs cover.

Figure 2. Table of contents.

Figure 3. 1852-59 issue watermark & shades scarcity chart

The book contains a lengthy amount of information on the first issue of 18521859, which I have not found in any other English-language catalog. The coverage consists of 10 pages of detailed information. It provides a guide to evaluate a stamp based upon margins, shades, paper, watermarks and cancellations (Figure 3). It provides a coefficient for pricing. It also provides information on reprints of the issues.

The Luxembourg issue of 1882 – whose design, “Industry and Commerce,” is like a design used by France, “Peace and Commerce,” – is covered in detail regarding perforations, shades and minor varieties (Figure 4).

In addition to information on stamp issues, the book contains a lot of informa-

tion on cancels and precancels. It reviews postal cancellations, railroad cancels and others. Here is sample of the illustrations for railroad cancels (Figure 5). Luxembourg may not be your collecting interest, but hopefully this article will provide you with some direction to find and use additional philatelic literature to expand your area of collecting. Collectors are very fortunate to have the internet and digital technology as well as the tremendous resource of the APRL.

The Author

Curtis Gidding has been a member of APS since 1978 and a stamp dealer for 10-20 years. He is now retired. His collecting interests today are U.S. Bureau Precancels, Austria, and Luxembourg.

Figure 5. Railroad postmark examples.

Figure 4. The 1882 issue with perforations.

Philatelic Resources Abound in Northern Europe

(If You Know Where to Look)

By A.M. LaVey

There are numerous places to conduct philatelic research, such as public libraries and museums, in Northern Europe. Many postal museums have associated archives and libraries and work to make their collections accessible to researchers. Here are a few information resources that might be helpful for philatelic research.

Mariehamn City Library, Åland

Åland is an autonomous Swedishspeaking province of Finland that has

been self-governing for 100 years. Since 1993 the Åland Post has been independent of Finland’s and issued its first stamp in 1994, quickly becoming a favorite of philatelists.

The Mariehamn City Library in the archipelago’s capital has two sections devoted to philately and postal history. The first section can be found in the Ålandica special collection reading room under the Swedish library classification system’s class Qj: Post och televäsen (Post and telecommunications). Relevant sub-classes

Figure 1. From the Messengers exhibitexhibit in the Finnish Postal Museum, courtesy of Juha Valkeajoki.

Old Town (Gamla Stan) pier architecture in Stockholm, Sweden

The Finnish Postal Museum

The Finnish Postal Museum is in Tampere, Finland, about two hours north of the capital of Helsinki. The museum, originally located in Helsinki, moved to its present location in 2013.

are Qjf: Postväsen (Postal Service); and Qjfb: Frimärken (Stamps).

This collection of about 50 titles covers Åland’s postal history, the development of local and international postal routes, post office and postal marking handbooks, and catalogs. Much of the collection is in Swedish, though there are some multilingual resources. The second section is located within the main part of the library, also found under Qj, and includes general reference materials, Nordic and worldwide catalogs, and Luppa, the journal of the Åland Philatelic Association.

The library is located just two blocks northwest from the Mariehamn post office, which is located at Nygatan 6.

Mariehamns stadsbibliotek: Strandgatan 29, Mariehamn, Åland. bibliotek@ mariehamn.ax or visit https://www.bibliotek.ax/-/mariehamns-stadsbibliotek. (This main library page easily translates to English on the web.)

The museum, part of the Museum Centre Vapriikki, has a permanent exhibition titled “Messengers” on the ground floor, a highly interactive history of the postal service in Finland from 1638 to the present, with audiovisual presentations and digital labeling offered in Finnish, Swedish, English and Russian (Figure 1). The first floor hosts temporary exhibits, currently on the quotidian pleasure of newspaper delivery and its role in our lives. Past exhibitions include postcards, military mail and mail art. The website also offers online exhibits on the topics of personalized stamps, postal uniforms, postmasters general and the correspondence of artist Tom, of Finland.

The museum’s collections are divided into four sections: physical artifacts, photographs and printed matter, stamps, and the library and archive, all of which are available to philatelic researchers.

The physical collection tells the story of the Finnish post through items as small as stamps and as large as postal delivery vehicles. The printed matter collection contains a variety of audiovisual materials, photographs, advertisements and postcards. The stamp collection includes a mounted national collection, a domestic reference collection, philatelic exhibits, as well as donations from philatelists. Many of the philatelic exhibits have been digitized and are available online, part of the museum’s special collections (Figure 2).

The library of the Postal Museum is Finland’s only specialized philatelic li-

Figure 2. Digitized information on postal routes is available from the Finnish Postal Museum, among many other collections.

brary and has a collection of more than 30,000 resources on the topics of philately and postal history. While the collection is generally international in nature, there is a distinct focus on Finland and Europe.

The library is organized using the Universal Decimal Classification, with most of the collection falling under class 656: Transport and Postal Service, but also makes use of local-level organization. The main divisions are general philatelic catalogs and reference material, general historic material, philately subdivided geographically, postcards, topical collecting, forgeries, cinderella material, periodicals and postal corporation publications such as all the Finnish Post circulars from the period that the government ran postal operations, which they have made available online.

The library has its own online catalog available in Finnish, Swedish and English, but is in the process of transferring the catalog to the Finland-wide union catalog, Finna.fi, administered by the National Library of Finland. This new arrangement will also allow for the viewing of certain digital objects directly via the catalog.

The archival collection includes rare documents such as royal correspondence, foundational materials from the establishment of postal routes, corporate

material from Posti, the Finnish postal corporation, as well as deposits from some philatelic societies. An interesting resource is a card file of postal routes handstamps used by rural carriers and the accompanying handbook that decodes these markings.

Digitalization projects at the library are ongoing, said Mikko Nykänen, head of information services and the museum’s deputy director. Like most libraries, the library at the Postal Museum saw an increase in demand for digital resources during COVID-19 pandemic. “We need to be more present in the digital world, especially now,” said Nykänen. He is currently creating a digital database of postal markings from the archive’s collection of about 50,000 handstamps.

The library welcomes visitors and research inquiries related to Finnish philately. The library is not located within the museum, but is a five-minute walk away. It is advisable to contact the collections department or the librarian for an appointment prior to visiting as most of the collection is warehoused at a third location.

Posti Museo: Alaverstaanraitti 5, Tampere, Finland, https://www.postimuseo.fi.

Postal Museum library: Lapintie 1, Tampere, Finland, kirjasto@postimuseo. fi. (The museum and library main pages easily translate to English on the web.)

Figure 3. Three bullets preserved from a 1907 robbery of a railway mail compartment, from the Swedish museum archives.

Swedish Postal Museum

The Swedish Postal Museum opened in 1906 and is in the Stockholm neighborhood of Gamla Stan or old town. The building has four levels of exhibition space: A little post office children’s center in the basement; “Your Post”, a history of the Swedish Post on the ground floor; temporary exhibitions on the first floor; and the library and the Treasure Chambers containing Swedish and rare international stamps on the second floor.

The museum has three main collections: objects and photographs, stamps and the library.

The museum has about 18,000 objects and about 100,000 photographs in its collection. Many of these items are on display in the museum and some can be viewed online at the DigitaltMuseum: https://digitaltmuseum.se/ owners/S-PM, available in Swedish, English and Norwegian.

The Little Post Office, located in the basement, is a play and learning center for children, part of the extensive museum and educational programming for children. The museum has a staff that is very engaged with young visitors and throughout the museum, various exhibits have been designed with children in mind.

“Your Post” tells the history of the Swedish Post from its founding in 1636 to the present, including its corporatization in the 1990s and merger with the Danish Post as PostNord in 2009. One of the larger exhibits covers postal transportation, explaining that the mail is currently delivered by not only planes, trains and automobiles, but also by boats and even electric vehicles. While delivery is multimodal, the exhibit also mentions that rail transportation plays a key role in the delivery of mail in Sweden, noting that 70 percent of the mail travels by

rail and most postal terminals are located on the railway.

Besides logistics, “Your Post” asks existential questions about personal connections and artifacts like letters and postcards that were often left behind after we die, but in the present day of email and text messages are now lost to time. One featured interview with a scientist says that his research will be remembered and known forever, but admits that likely he will not be, nor will his emails, so at least a couple times a year he sends cards and letters to those he cares for.

There are currently two temporary exhibits: “Hello!” (Hej!) and “Missing You!” (Laknar dig!). “Hello!” looks at human communication in all its forms, including handwriting, coding, non-verbal communication, Swedish Sign Language and even modern tools like typewriters and magic whiteboards. It also contains a hands-on exhibit on stamp production and design, including methods of engraving and tools used for printing. “Missing you!” explores emotional aspects of handwriting and hand-written messages. There is a postcard design center filled with art supplies and ideas to spark creativity and creative writing.

The museum’s stamp collection numbers about 4 million, not including about 90,000 postal stationery objects. Many are available to view online via the DigitaltMuseum portal. Others, including the national collection, are in the Treasure Chamber on the second floor. The Treasure Chamber is made up of two rooms: the first contains noteworthy foreign stamps such as those from Mauritius, pre-philatelic Swedish covers from 1636 to 1855 and early examples from Sweden from 1855 to 1936. The second room contains a mounted Swedish national collec-

tion that also contains several proofs, engraving plates and related materials.

The Postal Museum’s library, founded in 1944, is Sweden’s largest and only public philatelic research library. The collection has more than 60,000 monographs and journals that focus not only on Swedish philately and postal history, but also support worldwide research. The library catalog is online and functions in the Swedish, English and Norwegian languages.

The library uses the Swedish library classification system and collects resources in both Swedish and foreign languages. The collection is divided into general reference items, philatelic journals, philately subdivided geographically and postal history.

The postal history reading room contains an exhibition space, as well as maps and charts – important pieces of postal history, according to Hanna Nydahl, the museum’s archivist, who notes that the post office was the second government agency, after the military, approved to design and publish cartographic records in Sweden. These maps are also accessible online via the DigitaltMuseum portal. The collection is rich in information on early Swedish and regional postal history. There are postal bulletins and yearbooks, as well as the history of the museum and its collections. Another important resource within that room are annual bibliographies for the museum library as well as other philatelic libraries and collections.

In addition to the open stack philatelic library, the museum also maintains

The Author

closed stack museological and postal corporation collections, such as employee publications and even railway timetables. These collections, however, are integrated into the main library catalog and are accessible through the librarian.

The museum is temporarily closed for renovations and is scheduled to reopen November 1. In the time of renovations, the library will focus on cataloging the collections with a focus on exhibition catalogs.

Postmuseum: Lilla Nygatan 6, Gamla Stan, Stockholm, Sweden. https://www. postmuseum.se/.

Library: biblioteket@postnord.com. (Both listed websites translate easily to English.)

A.M. LaVey is a New York-based archivist interested in philatelic information, postal semiotics, and philatelic objects in archives, libraries and museums. LaVey received a grant from the Association of Slavic, East European Studies to spend the summer of 2021 at the American Philatelic Research Library increasing the accessibility and discovery of Belarusian, Russian, Soviet and Ukrainian resources.

Figure 4. City map of Vänersborg, Västergötland, from 1745, drawn and colored by hand. Courtesy of Swedish Postmuseum.

In Memory of Frank Leslie Walton RDP FRPSL (1955-2022)

By Scott Tiffney

Frank Walton passed away April 1 after a short illness, and just five weeks after the closing of the London 2022 show that he had so successfully organized.

A philatelic obituary appeared in The London Philatelist (May 2022) and many other tributes have been written, so this short piece is to recognize some of Frank’s achievements in philatelic literature and to reflect on his lasting contribution to philatelic libraries and research.

Frank was a prolific philatelic writer, producing more than 200 journal articles and over 30 books and monographs. His first publication was The Postmarks of Sierra Leone, 1854 to 1961 for the West Africa Study Circle in 1990. The mammoth six-volume De La Rue Collection (RPSL, 2014) was meticulously edited by Frank and this work epitomizes much of his approach; collaboration (more than 100 specialists contributed to the project) and the dissemination of information (the collection was also made available online on the RPSL website). For his work on this project, he deservedly received the Medal for Exceptional Philatelic Study and Research from the Federation of European Philatelic Associations (FEPA).

Frank was a driving force in making the Perkins Bacon archives freely available for researchers. He produced the Perkins Bacon Facsimile, Editions 1-4, and had been planning to produce further volumes, as well as continuing in a goal to make all of the Perkins Bacon Archive available online. He was passionate about the information still to be uncovered in this collection and even requested scans to enable him to continue with his research from his hospital bed.

In 2018, Frank’s work on The Sub-Of-

fice Postmarks of Sheffield was published by the Stuart Rossiter Trust as a free PDF download, again demonstrating his generosity as an author and his belief that knowledge and information should be shared. This action also sparked interesting discussion about e-publishing vs. the traditional print publishing of philatelic literature.

Frank was instrumental in the success of many other publications, not only because of his role on the RPSL Publications Committee but because he was known for being approachable, a reliable critical friend and an imaginative thinker. This was combined with extensive technical skill and a generosity to share his knowledge and to give so freely of his time and expertise. A quick glance through many philatelic literature shelves will reveal mentions of Frank in the acknowledgements.

After 15 years as honorary editor of

Frank Walton shows Her Royal Majesty Queen Elizabeth II around the new library of Royal Philatelic Society London.

Cameo (the journal of the West Africa Study Circle), Frank became editor of The London Philatelist from 2001 to 2014, stepping down to become president of the RPSL. As president, Frank would spend his spare time between meetings and official functions volunteering in the library. This would be anything from using his vast contact list to suggest potential book reviewers to adding security tags to the books in preparation for a move to new premises.

Frank was an FIP literature judge and delegate to the FIP Literature Commission. He also was a member of the committee that awards the RPSL’s Crawford Medal for philatelic literature. Indeed, the idea of the upcoming Crawford Festival began as a conversation with Frank about how we could further promote excellence in philatelic research and celebrate its achievements.

Many of the philatelic librarians reading this will have worked with Frank on the Global Philatelic Library (GPL).

Frank was one of the co-founders of the library and was its global chairman. Its success is largely due to his leadership and drive, in partnership with the technical help and tenacity of Steve Jarvis. On hearing of Frank’s passing, one librarian commented how exciting it had been to have someone who asked librarians what they needed and then found a way to make that happen. Frank always showed great respect to the library professionals he worked with, from his own career as a senior IT manager he understood the importance of the integrity of data and was always enthusiastic to learn about bibliographic cataloging practices.

Frank will be greatly missed by philatelic librarians for his talents as a writer, an editor, a literature judge and for his immense technical knowledge, but equally he will be missed as a mentor, supporter and friend who always greeted us and our problems with enthusiasm and a beaming smile.

Call for Writers

The Philatelic Literature Review depends on APRL and APS members, who provide much of the content of this journal. We would like to encourage more people to join our roster of philatelic writers for the Philatelic Literature Review. The journal publishes a wide range of articles, on topics that include the following: how to conduct philatelic research; old and new philatelic literature; archives and library collections; book reviews; writing and research advice; profiles of philatelic figures; the future of philatelic research, and more. If you have an idea for an article or are interested in becoming a regular contributor, please send an email to plrarticle@stamps. org. For information about APS writing guidelines, visit aps.buzz/writeap.

BOOK REVIEWS

ANTARCTICA

Jean-Baptiste Charcot in the Antarctic by Serge Kahn. 272 pages, hardcover, 9½ by 12¾ inches, bilingual French and English. Self-published, printed in France, 2020. ISBN 979-10-6994802-2. Price €45 plus postage from the author, kahnserge@aol.com.

Having previously written about the French explorer Charcot’s exploits in the Arctic, the author now brings attention to Charcot’s adventures in the Antarctic. This handsome tome, profusely illustrated, documents two expeditions: the 1903-05 aboard the Français, and the 1908-10 in the Pourquoi-Pas?

The book’s subtitle, “Whose Mail Documents Its History,” reveals that this is a postal history resource and reflects the author’s quest for more than 30 years to document events using logbooks, letters, picture postcards, trade cards, maps and photographs. The first expedition is detailed with preparation and departure arrangements, followed by documentation of the route, including stops for repairs and supplies. Some of the stops are Le Havre, Madeira, St. Vincent, Pernambuco (Brazil), Buenos Aires, Ushuaia, the wintering over, Buenos Aires again, Canary Islands, Morocco, and finally, France.

The second expedition begins with preparations again as well as an extensive section recording the launching of the vessel Pourquoi-Pas? From Le Havre the ship stopped in Cherbourg, Guernsey, Madeira and St. Vincent again, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires,

Punta Arenas, Deception Island, and after wintering, Montevideo, Rio again, Pernambuco, the Azores, Guernsey and the arrival in Rouen.

One appendix illustrates varieties of the official stationery letterheads, and another extensive one lists the geographical features, discovered or charted, and named by Charcot. The book concludes with a bibliography and table of contents.

One of the distinguishing features of this wonderful treatise is the very high quality of the illustrations. These include letters, picture postcards, and photographs. In the book are side discussions of view cards by Théo Fumière and Raphaël Tuck that add another dimension to the study and appreciation of these documents.

In sum, this magnificent book is a monument to the extraordinary accom-

plishments and memory of Jean-Baptiste Charcot and his place in the history of Antarctic exploration.

Reviewed by Alan Warren.

BERMUDA

1,324 Days in Bermuda: Victor Haag and the Secrets of Room 287 by Horst Augustinovic. 184 pages, 7¼ by 10¼ inches, hardbound. Published by Print Link, Hamilton, Bermuda, 2021.

ISBN 978-0-947482-14-5, $30 USD in Bermuda, $40 postpaid worldwide. Ordering details from horstaugustinovic1@gmail.com or the author at PO Box HM 937, Hamilton HM DX, Bermuda.

Author Augustinovic has written previously about the censorship of mail during the World War II period in Bermuda as it was a key transit station for transatlantic mail. Censorship operations were established in 1939-40. With the influx of staff, the hotels in Bermuda were taken over for house workers. Both mail and passengers arriving in Bermuda by ship and plane were examined, for contraband in the former and possible foreign agents among the latter.

As the war progressed, ship traffic declined due to the threat of German submarines. Items seized included currency, stocks and bonds, diamonds and even stamp collections. Room 287 in the Princess Hotel became a laboratory with equipment and chemicals to detect secret writing and micro-dots and microphotography. Following suspicious mail and mail in the same handwriting eventually led to the capture of agents and spies in the United States. Sometimes censors were brought from Bermuda to testify at these trials.

Several incidents involving censorship personnel are revealed by Augustinovic

including alleged assaults, a missing woman censor and even a murder. Such incidents were reported in the press. However, the author then turns his attention to one of the censorship staff due to a coincidental find of a box of letters and photographs. The key figure is Victor Charles Haag, who was on active service in France during WWI.

At the beginning of WWII, Haag worked in the British Postal Censorship office in London and then Liverpool. At this time he was corresponding with his fiancée, Dorothy, when in 1940 he was suddenly transferred with a group of 100 censors from England to Bermuda. His hobby of photography helped establish him in the Scientific and Testing Department of the Imperial Censorship Detachment.

Haag’s service on the island lasted 1,324 days during which time he engaged in extensive correspondence with Dorothy and took many photographs

around Bermuda in his leisure time. Augustinovic was fortunate to come onto the box of Victor Haag’s letters and photos. He traces the couple’s growing romance, reproducing many of the letters sent by the censor. He also reproduces many of Haag’s photos of scenes around the island.

The letters are one way, from Haag to his fiancée. He describes cooking hot dogs on the beach, deep sea fishing, his concerns about the bombing of England, billiard competitions (Victor was quite a snooker player), giving up his cottage as he could not afford the rent increase, eating cassava pie, playing his guitar at social gatherings and mail delays. One of his Christmas letters did not reach Dorothy until February. Some of his mail never reached her due to enemy actions.

The last letter shown was sent from New York City in May 1944, on his way home. The letter reproductions are nicely laid out and interspersed with clippings from local newspapers, the occasional telegram of birthday or holiday greetings and copies of the original envelope showing censorship resealing tape.

More than 80 pages of Haag’s photographs of the Princess Hotel where the censor offices were located, as well as scenes around Bermuda, are displayed. Some of his black and white photos are accompanied by color photos of the same locations taken in 2021 by Augustinovic and his friends. The book concludes with a history of the Bermuda censor station, established in 1940 and closed May 1, 1944, followed by an index. The book combines thrilling moments of intrigue, a wonderful love story and some history of Bermuda in the 1940s.

Reviewed by Alan Warren.

ERITREA

Postal History and Philately in Eritrea, by Hans-Ulrich Stauffer. 100 pages, numerous illustrations. Available in English and German. 1st edition 2020. Published by Africa Committee. ISBN 978-3-033-07705-8. Price €/CHF 20 (incl. postage and shipping) from nfo@afrikakomitee.ch; prepayment on postal account IBAN CH26 0900 0000 4001 7754 3, POFICHBEXXX, Postfinance, Berne, or with banknote in envelope enclosed: Africa Committee Basel, P.O. Box 1072, CH 4001 Basel, Switzerland. Price may not be up to date.

This is a lively and informative philatelic history of a country that has been variously used by Egypt, Italy, Britain and Ethiopia until gaining independence following a 30-year debilitating war of attrition with its neighbor, Ethiopia. Eritrea gained sovereign status as a member state to the United Nations in 1993.

Using items from his collection, the

author has clearly categorized, described, and illustrated the various periods through which this postal history takes us. The years from the establishment of the Egyptian Post Office in the coastal port of Massawa until when Eritrea was a part of Ethiopia are generally and universally documented and Stauffer follows suit.

The treatment is most instructive, especially on the early days, for those who are new to this subject. Egypt stamps are cancelled Massawah [variously spelled]. Developments with postal implications include: the gradual adoption by the Italian state of the coaling stations of Assab and Massawa originally purchased by the Italian shipping company Rubattino; the opening of post offices there, respectively in 1883 and 1885. The gradual transition from using Italian stamps overprinted “Colonia Eritrea” in 1893 to its stamp issues imprinted “Eritrea” – all classified into areas such as ship mail, zeppelin mail, parcel post and military post.

With the conquest of Ethiopia in 1936 and the amalgamation of Ethiopia, Eritrea and Italian Somaliland into Italian East Africa specific issues imprinted “Africa Orientale Italiana” until 1941 when Allied Forces overcame the Italian forces, and so began the period of Eritrea under British administration; stamp use was Great Britain’s George VI issues overprinted “M.E.F.” (Middle East Forces) “B.M.A.” (British Military Administration) and eventually “B.A.” (British Administration).

From 1952 begins the use of Ethiopian stamps underpinning their annexation of Eritrea. All of this history is outlined clearly and in discrete sections well illustrated with examples from the author’s own collection.

However, where this postal history really scores is the sections describing the postal administration during and after the War of Independence and onto the establishment of the State of Eritrea. Drawing on information gained from the Eritrean postal authorities, with whom the author has established a good rapport and his researches.

Stauffer can offer an unrivalled view of activities and output from the 1960s to 1991, during the War of Independence, from 1991-1993, the interim period and from 1993, descriptions and analyses of the year-by-year issues and their background. Good news also for those beguiled by the colorful mini sheets sold on internet sales sites, a clear depiction in a section called cinderellas and fake issues of what is spurious and what are genuine.

Added to the contents I have outlined above are separate and no less important sections on aerogrammes, post offices, postmarks, first day, postal taxes, international reply coupons, postal administration, philatelic equipment and bibliography or literature.

This is a must-have volume on postal history. For those already well versed in the philatelic history of Eritrea from the outset to the Ethiopian administration, we have the secundus nulli sections, from 1991 up to the modern times, essential for anyone engaged in this area. For those new to the subject the combination of the history of the early days through the various iterations of administrative changes topped off by the well-researched and most informative section on what might be termed “modern times” will stand you in good stead as you establish and develop your collection.

Reviewed by David Lee.

EXHIBITS

Creating the Philatelic Exhibit Synopsis – A Master Class by Andrew McFarlane. 120 pages, 8½ by 11 inches, card covers, perfect binding, Exhibitors Press, Silver Spring, Maryland, 2021.

ISBN 9798731447959, $35 from Amazon.

Author Andrew McFarlane is an accomplished exhibitor, especially of first day covers. His exhibits have won not only gold medals but several show grand awards as well. He quickly learned that one of the most important keys to successful exhibiting is preparation of the synopsis.

The exhibit synopsis does not appear in the frames and is not judged. However, it is required by exhibitors and is usually submitted along with the application to exhibit. The overall purpose of the synopsis is to inform the jury of what the exhibit is all about and to educate them on aspects of the difficulty in obtaining and assembling the display.

McFarlane describes the major components of the synopsis. A brief description and goal of the exhibit are essential. Mention some of the important or key items to reinforce the difficulty of acquisition, and state how these are set off with special borders or descriptive text. An exhibit plan or list of chapters reveals how it is organized. A select bibliography will help the judges prepare to evaluate your exhibit. The reference list should be short and not encumbered with foreign language or scarcity of availability. Make the job of the jury as easy as possible to prepare to evaluate your exhibit.

Original research helps achieve more points. Highlight any discoveries. A good outline of what to include in the synopsis is to use the Exhibitor Evaluation Form

as subject headings in the synopsis. The form is found in the judging discussion on the American Philatelic Society website.

Much of McFarlane’s book is devoted to actual synopsis pages of his exhibits. He describes the evolution of the synopsis for one of his exhibits and how it was improved and expanded as he added material over the years. His exhibit pages are not the common 8½-by-11 inches but are typically double pages measuring 11-by17. His synopses include not only text but graphic material as well. He recommends software and fonts that he prefers.

In an appendix he shows the title pages of some of the exhibits, which demonstrates that they are two different documents. Both are important and are seen by the judges before the show so they can prepare to evaluate the exhibit fairly. The importance of the synopsis is stressed in this “how to” book and demonstrates one way for exhibitors to improve their chances of success.

Reviewed by Alan Warren.

FIRST DAY COVERS

Carol Gordon: Unconventional Cachetmaker by Susan B. Jones. 276 pages, 8½ by 11 inches, card covers, perfect binding. Published by Claude C. Ries Chapter, American First Day Cover Society, Los Angeles, California, 2021. Price $45 postpaid in U.S., checks payable to Claude C. Ries Chapter 48 AFDCS, sent to Michael J. Luzzi, 3976 Olmsted Avenue, Los Angeles CA 90008-2626.

This definitive handbook on cachetmaker Carol Gordon (1938-2014), written and edited by two advanced collectors of her work, is not only a tribute to the late artist but is the key resource for collectors seeking her unusual first day covers. Fittingly, the book is published by the Claude C. Ries Chapter of the American First Day Cover Society that Carol Gordon helped establish in 1984. Carol served as the chapter’s first president.

Author Susan Jones provides a brief profile of the artist and points out the characteristics that identify these unusual FDCs. Gordon did not use the normal 6¾-inch envelope but made her own 5¼ by 7¼ inch covers to better display her bold artwork. In some cases she even moved to larger pieces – 7-by-9 –or more, to accommodate plate blocks and booklet panes. Jones highlights the changes in Gordon’s style and format in the 1980s, 1990s and the early 2000s, ending in 2004 with her last cachet.

Another Ries chapter member and copyeditor of the book, Bob Lewin, describes how he became captivated by Gordon’s covers. Not only were they unusual in terms of size and use of color, but many also incorporated pointed political and social comments that make

her covers stand out with their powerful messages. Examples include comments about the environment, war, immigration, technology development, workers’ protests and women’s causes, among others.

The bulk of the book is essentially a catalog in chronological order with the year date at the top of the page and full images of the covers. Each entry has its own assigned catalog number and the Scott catalog numbers of the stamps. Brief comments are made concerning the design elements, and in some cases indicating if the covers were signed or numbered. This is not a priced catalog with values. In the early years, Gordon produced editions of 200 covers, later reduced to 100 or fewer.

At the end of the catalog listings is a bibliography of articles and advertisements used as sources for the book. The catalog ends with a checklist of about 90 pages that collectors can use. Each entry has the Carol Gordon number, Scott numbers, titles of the stamps as given

in Scott, census figures based on Carol’s own records or estimates, and a column of notes about the cachets. It is believed that Gordon made 675 different cachets over her 25 years of activity.

The cover scans are excellent quality, with three to six covers illustrated per page, and are nicely placed without crowding. This catalog is not only a wonderful tribute to an important and unconventional cachetmaker – it is a beauty to behold.

Reviewed by Alan Warren.

ITALY

Democratica, l’ordinaria del risveglio [Democratica, the definitive series of the awakening] by Gianni Vitale. In Italian, 352 A4 pages, color throughout. Published by the author, November 2020, Cutrofiano (Le). Price €49 + postage & handling, available from dr.giannivitale@gmail.com and from Vaccari, info@vaccari.it.

We may have thought that all that there was to write about the most popular post-WW2 definitive, the “Democratica,” had been written. Instead, here comes Gianni Vitale’s new book that takes the collector of this definitive to a new level and perspective.

It sounds rather ironic that the “Democratica” series made its early debut during the lieutenancy of King Umberto II; in October 1945 some 14 definitive values, plus seven denominations to be used for express and airmail were issued, these were followed in May 1946 by the 4 lire denomination. Some readers may be astonished by the fact that a substantial part of the first republican definitive series was issued during this lieutenancy; Italian scholars are still debating about it.

After flexing his muscles as a philatelic writer on the popular philatelic

and postal history internet platform “Il Postalista,” the author was rewarded and motivated by collectors like never before (in his own words): “to illustrate the uses, postal and otherwise, of these stamps in the two lieutenancy and seven republican tariff periods for the interior, even going beyond the postal validity of 31 December 1952 and without neglecting the details.”

Since 2012, Vitale answered hundreds of questions from those who visited his regular column on “Il Postalista,” which led to further research and access to new philatelic horizons. What impressed his readers was his generosity in sharing information as well as his innate indifference to quantifying the word “rare” into dollars and cents.

The genesis of the designs of this “new day” of democracy shows the pains the artists had to endure to produce something that exemplified at a glance “the new reality” and the true values that made Italy a reborn and proud nation.

Indeed, art historian Federico Zeri was not impressed at all by the choice of designs, but his point of view was somewhat biased, especially from someone who admired D’Annunzio and all the rest that came with him.

The advent of the republic brought with it an additional eight definitive stamps (including the “expensive” 100 lire top value, not to mention the nine stamps for special services. Vitale believes that this definitive series allows us to narrate the life of an unexplored and sometimes overlooked past so rich on the day-to-day life and from a postal history perspective. A veritable trump card of this monograph is the generous use of high-quality illustrations.

The book starts with the frankings generated during the lieutenancy and the early Republican era: they often included a colorful potpourri of stamps issued during the twilight of the fascist era. This chapter is amply illustrated and highly educational.

The second chapter zooms on covers, postcards, no value samples mail, printed matter, etc. Special and supplementary services are also examined: registration, express, insured mail, COD mail, pneumatic mail, poste restante, domestic and international airmail and cash services such as money orders, saving bonds, col-

lection of receivables (IOUs) and other special services that contributed in no small form to the recovery of the national economy. Mention must also be made of secondary services such as the legalization of documents, notification of judicial documents etc. Delegated services are outlined; these are services where the post office acts as an intermediary for carrying out transactions not falling within its institutional duties. Also explored is mail for the blind, soldiers, and reduced tariffs for publishers and booksellers,

It would be naive to think that the Democratica would not attract wellequipped forgers to defraud the post office, including the notorious Milanese forgery of the 10-lire slate as well as the 100 lire. These forgeries have been widely explored by other authors and Vitale suggests the reader consult the related bibliography. The author provides detailed information and useful illustrations of these forgeries. The book ends with a detailed Table of Contents and bibliography.

In his preface, Roberto Monticini points out that the book abundantly benefits from the “wealth,” or rather the seductive force, of Vitale’s collection and its many and varied facets, which do not consist merely of covers with one or more stamps. What really stuns is the magnetism emanating from attractive and intriguing pieces of mail whose sight arouses not only curiosity but lively historical interest, appreciation for the selective strategy, as well as the detailed analysis offered by the author. Monticini goes on to say that “without diminishing the size and importance of the many outstanding scholars who wrote about the Democratica definitive series, I believe today that due to the enormous

Scan from Democratica.

amount of research and commitment to it, the Democratica definitive series cannot be separated from the name of Gianni Vitale.”

Reviewed by Giorgio Migliavacca. TUSCANY

1851-1862 La Storia Postale della Toscana [The Postal History of Tuscany], by Mario Mentaschi and Vittorio Morani. In Italian and English, hardbound, dust jacket, 444 pages (A4 size) illustrated throughout in color (including maps). Published by Post Horn Publishing, Milan 2021. ISBN 978-88-945287-2-5. Price €100, plus shipping (Italy €7; Europe  €30; Africa, Asia, Americas €40; Oceania incl. Australia €50). For orders: board@ posthornmagazine.com; additionally claudio.manzati@lean-instituteitalia.com (this address can be used to send PayPal payments which require an extra 5 percent; wire transfer is possible). Also available from Vaccari (info@vaccari.it).

Once upon a time, postal history was regarded as an eccentric branch of philately, even though philately is — of course — a branch of postal history. Then, unexpectedly, postal history rescued the philatelic market at a critical juncture; nowadays, every cover is examined using postal history parameters: franking, rate, route, destination, postmarks and accessory marks. Even those collecting modern stamp issues have adopted the postal history approach, which allows them to widen the scope of their collections and widen their horizon. Rare covers of the 1800s franked with stamps with minor flaws were regarded as “below par”; as postal history scholars and collectors had a closer look, in due course, availability of such items decreased while prices in-

creased. One remembers a time when collectors never looked at the back of a cover or envelope, the focus was on the address side, and the quality of the stamps and postmarks; most astonishingly, the content was often overlooked. “What a difference postal history makes!”

This new book on the postal history of the Grand-Duchy of Tuscany is indispensable because of the teaming up of two outstanding scholars, both extremely knowledgeable, experienced, and conversant with all facets of their specialties. Mario Mentaschi is well-known for two acclaimed books on the postal history of Italian states that have won top awards in Italy and internationally. The same can be said of their jaw-dropping collections. Vittorio Morani has formed a magnificent collection on the postal history of Tuscany, which has regularly won large gold medals at international exhibitions as well as an International Grand Prix.   Morani’s collection deals with the postal history of the Grand-Duchy from April 1, 1851, when the first stamps featuring the Marzocco were issued, to

December 31, 1862. On January 1, 1863, a new postal law of the Kingdom of Italy came into force to harmonize the postal service in the territories and states annexed as a result of the Second War of Italian Independence and Garibaldi’s liberation of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

By the mid-1840s a rail network that would connect all important cities and even remote areas became a reality; these developments impacted the movement of people and goods and impacted positively on the delivery of mail. Specific handstamps were used on mail delivered by trains; for example, an oval “S^.F^” (Strada Ferrata; Rail Road), a circle datestamp inscribed “FIRENZE STRADA FERRATA” and similar ones for Leghorn, Lucca and Pisa. Procaccini (countryside postmen), estafettes, mail coaches, and private postal entrepreneurs ensured that the postal service would connect every hamlet and small town to the rest of the state and beyond. No less than 30 mailcoach companies used their handstamps to mark the mail they handled.

Until December 1862, the Post Office of Tuscany did not impose a monopoly on the postal service; as a result, there

were private postal operators. As railways became operational, the postal administration of the Grand-Duchy signed an agreement with the privately owned railways, including the Leopolda, the Strada Ferrata Centrale Toscana, and other companies like the Strade Ferrate Lucchesi and the Livornesi and Maria Antonia.

The postal rapports with neighboring states may lead the reader to believe that mail exchange was an easy task. In some instances, the prepayment of postage at the point of origin was mandatory. In late 1849 and early 1850, as Vienna gradually recovered from the shocking developments in Italy, Austria flexed its postal muscle and launched an AustroGerman Postal League, which included the whole empire, as well as Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Schleswig-Holstein. By spring 1850, the southern counterpart, the AustroItalian Postal League, was offered to rather unenthusiastic Italian states. The postal strategy was underpinning a more ambitious, truly imperialistic plan to unify economically and politically north and south under Austrian leadership.

To activate the postal alliance, the participating states had to introduce the use of adhesive postage stamps, among other things. The prepayment of postage by using postage stamps was mandatory for mail to addressees in states belonging to the Union. Letters mailed without or with insufficient stamps resulted in the addressee having to pay full postage or the missing amount to cover the postage due, as well as a proportional surcharge. Tuscany was to keep the proceeds from the sale of the stamps, as well as the earnings derived from delivery of non-prepaid mail, addressed to places within the Grand Duchy. In exchange, the incoming franked mail from member states to des-

Scan from 1851-1862 La Storia Postale della Toscana

tinations within Tuscany was to be delivered free of charge; additionally, Tuscany was expected to expeditiously convey transit mail to other member states of the Union at no cost.

Concurrently with the issue of its stamps on April 1, 1851, Tuscany had become a member state of the AustroItalian Postal League, which included Austria, Modena, Parma, Tuscany, and the reluctant Papal States. Vienna’s wily move was aimed at substantially reducing mail from Italian states transiting through the Sardinian Kingdom and by extension, France. Even at this early stage we see that the Second War of Italian Independence was being rehearsed as a postal war.

This aggressive, monopolistic, micro managerial, pre-packaged model replaced the old bi-lateral postal conventions. The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies did not join the Union as it felt railroaded in exchange for no tangible advantage. To make things worse, Vienna had an authoritarian stance in all negotiations. Nevertheless the cogent points were the uniformity of postal rates and the discontinuation of transit tariffs. The real aim, however, was to torpedo the competition from France and the Kingdom of Sardinia while benefitting the coffers of the Austrian treasury.

This book shares all the research carried out by the co-authors in the most comprehensive manner ever devised regarding the stamps and postal history of any Italian state before and during the unification process — which includes mail exchanges to and from former states under the 1859-1860 provisional governments. What was greatly admired at international stamp events is now shared in this book with the added advantage that every detail that could not cram the dis-

play pages is made available here, thereby shedding more light on the various postal aspects — thus augmenting the knowledge of the readers.

Moreover, your covers and letters are not just conversation pieces; they tell the story and details regarding the mode of delivery, the transit points, the costs involved and in many instances the date of delivery at destination. The evolutions of postal rates and routings are presented chronologically. Amazingly enough, the routes and rates of foreign mail bound for Tuscany are also examined. To make the readers’ research easier, no less than four analytic indexes enrich this volume; they help a lot when it comes to currencies, ships contracted to convey mail, postal agreements and conventions with foreign postal administrations, and postal markings.

Part One deals with postal tariffs, including those for mail conveyed by Tuscany railways; Part Two examines mail exchanged with other Italian States; Part Three focuses on mail exchanged with foreign countries overland and by sea, including distant places like St. Thomas (Danish West Indies), Mauritius, Ascension, Nova Scotia, the United States and Indonesia — to name a few.

The production is truly lavish, the firstclass mastery in postal history shared by this book is impressive, the covers are mesmerizing, and the illustrations of old paintings are cherries on a big cake. If you do not want to have regrets later, buy this book now.

Reviewed by Giorgio

Migliavacca.

UNITED STATES

The Pharmacy Postage Stamp of 1972 by Chris Steenerson. 8½ by 11¼ inches, 516 pages, hardbound, illustrations in black & white. Self-published,

Westminster, Colorado, 2022. Approximately $50 in this format from Amazon. Also available in color, paperback versions, etc.

The 1972 U.S. Pharmacy stamp has attracted many collectors, including at least two prominent philatelists. The stamp was especially important to the late George Griffenhagen, past president of the American Topical Association and a retired pharmaceutical industry executive. Another was the late Ann Triggle, who collected and exhibited first day covers of this stamp. Ann was a former vice president of the APS and chaired its Committee on the Accreditation of National Exhibitions and Judges (CANEJ). Ann was also the former director of the University of Buffalo Pharmacy Museum.

For current collectors of this stamp and its first day covers, Steenerson’s book is a must-have. Here one will find everything one needs to know about the issue and then some. Following brief discussions of the history of the pharmacy profession, the author points out that the idea for a stamp was suggested but not acted upon despite a number of major events or anniversaries in the field. Even the 100th anniversary of the American Pharmaceutical Association in 1952 did not result in a stamp, although the author shows a model and an essay designed for this purpose.

The Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee rejected the idea in 1967. One of the persistent proponents for a pharmacy stamp was Irving Rubin, editor of the American Professional Pharmacist (later renamed Pharmacy Times). Letters to the postmaster general, the support of several industry organizations, and even support from members of Congress helped with

the CSAC’s approval of the idea in 1971, and finally the USPS announcement in 1972. Ken Davies was selected as the artist for the stamp. Steenerson shows early sketches for the stamp design and the final approved artwork.

The stamp design unveiling ceremony was held in August in Detroit. Cacheted covers are seen for the unveiling ceremony as well as its program. Steenerson reproduces internal correspondence of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing concerning pre-production details and die proof approval. The first day of issue ceremony was held at the Netherland Hilton Hotel in Cincinnati on November 10, 1972 during the 120th American Pharmaceutical Association convention. Production errors are shown such as color shifts and omitted colors and misperforations. Plate number assignments and quantities issued are tabulated.

The cachet section begins with extensive artwork, essays, and varieties of ArtCraft. Artmaster designs receive

similar treatment. The FDC cachets are shown alphabetically by maker in large format with two examples per page. Inserts found in first day covers are itemized. A great many cachets and varieties can be seen. Unfortunately, the seemingly perpetual misspelling of House of Farnam (as “Farnum”) is seen once again. Also, the cachets shown on page 452 are described as “USPS Cachet” whereas they are likely the design of William R. Bush.

Add-on cachets are shown. There are a few pharmacy stamp FDCs sent to foreign destinations, and some covers showing later usage for pharmacy-related events. Many more cachets are known to author Steenerson for which he needs illustrations. He gives descriptions of what the designs look like.

There is no index to the book and one is not really needed as the table of contents is detailed, and the cachetmakers are shown alphabetically. A list of references concludes the book. This handbook serves as an example of what single-stamp studies with their first day covers should look like. It also reflects that this is an edition of a work-in-progress as more FDC details are needed.

Reviewed by Alan Warren.

U.S. Zeppelin and Airship Mail Flights by Cheryl R. Ganz. 280 pages, hardbound, smyth sewn, 8¾ by 11¼ inches. Self-published, U.S., 2021. ISBN 978-0-578-90937-0, www.stamps.org, $80, plus shipping ($75, plus shipping to APS members).

Author Cheryl Ganz is a recognized authority on zeppelins and other airships. In her newest book she focuses only on United States’ airships, including zeppelins, and not on foreign-owned zeppelins and similar aircraft. Those selected carried mail on some flights, either officially

or unofficially. The vessels are discussed chronologically.

Using rare archival documents and photographs as well as examples of mail, she tells the story of each airship.

The first is the ZR-1, the Navy’s first rigid airship built in Philadelphia and based on the design of Germany’s zeppelin L-49. The ZR-1 was named Shenandoah and flew from September 1923 to September 1925 when it crashed. Photographs and text tell the story of the airship, its various flights, and examples of mail that it carried.

The treatment of the Shenandoah sets the scheme for the entire book. After the story of its construction and highlights of its flights, the flown mail is listed by flight number with date and route and a current market value based on a scale of “$ = $1-$50” up to “$$$$$ = more than $4,000.” The chapter concludes with a flight log from the maiden flight No. 1 until No. 57 when it crashed at Ava, Ohio. The logs show flight number, origin and destination, departure and arrival date

and time, and a comment on the type of flight: trial, training, repair, emergency, transcontinental, etc.

Following the Shenandoah are the other Navy vessels. The short-lived ZR-2 was purchased from Great Britain and underwent four trial flights in that country, the last one ending in a crash in the Humber River. Forty-four of the 49 crew members, both English and American, were lost. No official mail was carried but there were a couple of pieces of private letters dropped to family and friends.

The Navy’s ZR-3 was built by the Zeppelin Company in Germany as LZ126. The Navy named it Los Angeles, and it served from 1924 to 1932. It was the only Navy rigid airship that did not crash. It flew 331 flights and was decommissioned in 1932. It carried both official and unofficial mail. More than 40 covers are shown.

The ZRS-4 was built by the GoodyearZeppelin Company in Akron, Ohio, and was in fact named Akron. It flew 73 flights between September 1931 and April 3, 1933 when it crashed in a storm off Barnegat, N.J. Many covers are illustrated, including some event related airplane mail, and some ship mail marking the crash.

The Akron’s sister airship, Macon (ZRS5), achieved 54 flights from April 1933 until it also crashed during a storm in February 1935 near Pont Sur, California. Akron did not carry any official mail but there were private pieces including drop mail. One of the key events in 1934 was dropping mail and newspapers from the airship and its scouting planes to the USS Houston that was sailing from the Panama Canal to Hawaii with President Franklin Roosevelt aboard. One of the author’s value-added attractions to the cover descriptions are brief notes about

the cachetmakers.

One chapter is devoted collectively to the Navy’s many pressure airships plus semi-rigid and non-rigid vessels. An extensive listing identifies mail flown on many of these airships, as well as pieces related to airship bases and squadrons.

The U.S. Army also had a lighter-thanair program. Although the airships were intended for observation purposes along borders and coastlines, they were used largely for training purposes, public relations at airshows, and mail pickup and delivery. Covers are scarce since many pieces were unofficially flown and, in some cases, not even marked as flown. Some examples that can be identified are shown.

Private and commercial airships have a chapter of their own. These include the America, used by William Wellman in an attempt to reach the North Pole, the private air yacht designed by Anton Heinen that was short-lived due to accidents, and the popular Goodyear and other advertising blimps, many of which carried mail. Some identified mail is listed but details are slim since the flight logs are not available. However, flights and related mail continue to this day.

References are listed at the end of the book for each chapter, and an index of proper names concludes the work. The two-column format works well and provides nicely laid out pages. Many photographs bring added interest to readers by illustrating pilots and other crew members, hangars, insignia, factory interiors and picture postcards in addition to the airships themselves. The history and postal history of this field of aerophilately are well documented and thus provide collectors with an important resource in identifying their acquisitions.

Reviewed by Alan Warren.

PHILATELIC LITERATURE CLEARINGHOUSE

The Clearinghouse lists philatelic literature for sale or wanted by PLR readers. The number at the beginning of each item 'identifies the prospective seller or buyer. The names and contact information for the sellers and buyers appear at the end of the Clearinghouse. Please write directly to the buyer or seller, not to the APRL, unless the APRL itself is the seller/buyer.

Pricing: The cost for each item is $3 per listing with a maximum of 10 listings per submission. Items selling for greater than $100 are $7 per listing. Please list only one book or periodical title per item; however, several issues of one journal or auction catalog may be listed as one item. PLR reserves the right to reject or edit any listings submitted.

ABBREVIATIONS: HB - hardbound, SB - softbound, PB - paperback, PC - photocopy, LL - loose-leaf, CB - comb bound, CC - card cover, DJ - dust jacket, w/PR- with prices realized, MO - make offer, OBO - or best offer, POR - price on request.

Send Clearinghouse listings to Scott Tiffney, 100 Match Factory Place, Bellefonte, PA 16823; or email Clearinghouse@stamps.org. The deadline for each quarter’s issue is the 15th day of the first month of the quarter: January 15, April IS, July 15, and October 15.

Philatelic Literature for Sale

1. Scott 2023 Catalogue, Volumes 1A and 1B, SB, new. $69

1. Sloane's Column by George B. Sloane (1961), HB, nice used book. $19

1. The Buyers Guide by Stephen R. Datz (second edition 2000), SB, new. $15

1. United States Postage Stamps 1902-1936 by Max G. Johl (1976 Quarterman), the non-commemorative sections of the original four volume work, 566 pp, HB, DJ protected in Mylar, new. $19

1.

1. History of the First United States Mint by Frank H. Stewart, 1974 Quarterman reprint, HB, DJ protected in Mylar, Ex-Libris. $15

1. The Expert’s Guide to Collecting and Investing in Rare Coins by Q. David Bowers, 648 pp, HB, DJ protected in Mylar, new. $15

2. The Forwarding of Mail by the U.S. Post Office Department 1792-2001 by Anthony S. Wawrukiewicz, 2001. Terrific reference for mail that was forwarded for a variety of reasons. Great illustrations and explanations. Like new. HB, 230 pages. $75

2. Sanitary Fairs, A Philatelic and Historical Study of Civil War Benevolences by Alvin and Marjorie Kantor, 1992. For serious collectors & postal historians of the Civil War. Details of stamps and covers of these charitable organizations. Like new, HB. 304 pages. $75

2. Simpson’s U.S. Postal Markings 1851-61 by Thomas J. Alexander. Copyright 1979. Well-illustrated with in-depth detail of thousands of postal markings for the period. A must have book for the U.S. classic collector and postal historian. DJ, HB, 434 pages. $75

2. PMCs: A Guide to Purple Machine Cancels by Robert M. Washburn, 2000. PMCs were used from 1972 through 1998 at roughly 146 postal facilities. More than 2,000 listings covers cities, EKUs & LKUs, types of cancels, discontinuance reasons. Spiral bound, 81 pages. $45

2. Collector’s Guide to Confederate Philately by John L. Kimbrough & Conrad L. Bush, 2002. Thorough coverage of Confederate stamps and covers with detailed explanations of the uses. Like new, spiral bound, Plastic Cover, 366 pages. $125

2. Michigan Place Names by Walter Romig, 1977. Outstanding reference for study of Michigan postal history. Covers history of founding and naming of more than 5,000 past and present Michigan communities. Cross referencing HB, DJ, 673 pages. $40

2. The United States One Cent Stamp of 1851 to 1861 by Mortimer L. Neinken. The definitive study on this stamp. Detail of each plate position and includes the original identification chart in the back-cover pocket. HB, 552 pages. $125

2. The United States 1 cent Franklin 1861-1867 and an Introduction to the Postal History of the Period by Don L. Lewis, 1997. Covers manufacturing and varieties of the stamp and detail on postal uses during the 1861-1867. SB, 418 pages. $50

2. United States Beer Stamps by Thomas W. Priester, 1979 & 1990. Set of two books. Definitive works on beer revenue stamps. Hard to find references for revenue collectors. HB, 95 & 57 pages. $125

2. The Serrane Guide Stamp Forgeries of the World to 1926 by Frenand Serrane, 1998. Very thorough reference of worldwide forgeries up to 1926 covering countries A to Z. Well documented and illustrated. HB, DJ, 390 pages. $225

3. Postal History of the United Nations by Norris Robinson. SB, 1985, 106 pp. w/ b&w illustr., new. Covers in detail the U.N. from its inception up to its recognition by the U.P.U. $10

3. From Hinrichsen to Krag: The Experimental and Early Machine Postmarks of Germany (1866 until 1906) by Jerry Miller. HB w/ dj, 2008, 142 pp. w/ color illustr., signed by author, German & English text. New. Revised and reworked edition covering the experimental and early machine postmarks. Includes errata sheet. $30

3. The Pioneer Airplane Mails of the United States by Thomas O'Sullivan. HB w/dj, 1985, 338 pp. w/ b&w illustr. New. Thorough study of U.S. airmail carried between 1910-1916. Profusely illustrated. $20

3. The Handstamps of Wells, Fargo & Co.1852 to 1895 by John Leutzinger. HB, 1993, 2nd edition, 371 pp. w/ b&w illustr. New. Lists and details the handstamps used by Wells, Fargo & Co. on letter mail from 1852 to 1895 including the earliest handstamps. $15

3. Canal Zone Stamps by Gilbert Plass. HB, 1986, 345 pp. w/ b&w illustr. Like new. Includes either in the text, plating tables, or checklist every recorded stamp, error and variety as well as manufacturing data. $55

3. The Postal History of Northern Rhodesia by Edward Proud. HB w/ dj, 1997, 176 pp. w/ b&w illustr., maps & tables. New. Another comprehensive resource in the definitive Proud Postal History Series. Includes many primary source materials.$40

3. The United States Five Cent Stamp of 1856: the Frederick R. Mayer Collection by Richard Frajola & Frederick Mayer. HB, 2005, 165 pp. w/ color illustr. New. Covers the most complete collection dealing exclusively with the imperforate variety used from 1856 to 1857. $75

3. Air Mails of Canada 1925-1939 by George Arfken. SB, 2000, 230 pp. w/ b&w illustr., tables & maps. New. Describes he history of Canadian government airmail. $20

3. Jamaica: The Postal History 1662-1860 by Thomas Foster. HB w/ dj, 1968, 180 pp. w/ b&w illustr & tables. Like new. Examines history from 1662 to 1860 as well as the earliest handstamps and the British stamps used in Jamaica. $15

3. The Industrielle Kriegs-wirtschaft Issue of Switzerland 1918-1919 by Michael Peter & Ralph Soderberg. HB w/ dj, 2011, 170 pp., #14 of 100 printed, color illustr., w/ CD of overprints & plating. New. Comprehensive analysis of the first official stamps of Switzerland. Includes plating and forgery information. $75

Members Using the Clearinghouse

1. Peter Mosiondz, Jr., 26 Cameron Circle, Laurel Springs, NJ 08021-4861. Phone: 856-627-6865. Email: choochoopete@comcast.net. Add $5.00 Media Mail postage. Payment by check or money order. We ship to U.S. addresses only.

2. Gerry Robbins, P.O. Box 89, Bellefonte, PA 16823-0089 – E-mail: gerry.robbins@ cox.net. Phone: 703-628-4858. Shipping and handling extra at current rates. Expect mail delays due to USPS issues resulting from COVID-19 issues and their revised delivery policies.

3. American Philatelic Research Library, 100 Match Factory Place, Bellefonte, PA 16823. Phone: 814-933-3803 ext. 240. Email: library@stamps.org. Shipping extra.

blog.stamplibrary.org

PHILATELIC LITERATURE CONTRIBUTORS

As a specialized library with a collection that is comprised of roughly 90% donated materials, your charitable and thoughtful contributions of literature help the APRL to grow the size and scope of the collection for members and library patrons. This continued growth enables us to maintain the APRL as the world’s largest and most complete worldwide collection of philatelic literature. If interested in donating literature to the library, please contact us at library@stamps.org.

The following individuals and institutions made donations of philatelic literature to the American Philatelic Research Library in the first quarter of 2022 (January – March).

Jack Andersen, Ruth Benfield, Donald Chafetz, Richard Clever, Scott Cornwall, David Crawford, Lori Dipalo, Dutchess Philatelic Society, Anthony Gallagher, Gerald Gettel, Curtis Gidding, Robert Glass, Larry Haller, Terence Hines, Robert Hohertz, Jon Hussey, Robert Lamb, Jo Lievsay, Allen McClain, Keith Moh, Barry Newton, Kenji Nakano, Elaine Nyberg and Ellen Peachey.

Also, Philatelische Bibliotethek Munich Philatelic Library, David Reitsma, Melanie Rogers, Royal Philatelic Society London, Robert Rudine, Thomas Salopek, William Schultz, Vincent Sgier, Thomas Siemans, David Spivack, Harlan Stone, Stephen Suffet, Michael Thompson, Mark Winnegard, Kathleen Wunderly, Richard Young, and Thomas Youngblood.

NEW BOOKS NOTED

The PLR publishes information received about new philatelic books. Send information about recent or upcoming publications for inclusion to Scott Tiffney at stiffney@ stamps.org or to 100 Match Factory Place, Bellefonte, PA 16823. The descriptions given herein are compiled from source material and often are directly taken from source descriptions.

Barbados

Early BWI Covers Perkins Bacon Adhesives – Barbados. By Peter Ford, FRPSL. Softcover, 236 pages, 8½ by 11½ inches (22 by 30cm). Published by British West Indies Study Circle, 2022. Price £26 for BWISC members (approx. $32 U.S.), plus shipping; £28 for non-members (approx. $35 U.S.), plus shipping, at https://bwisc.org/ publications.

Very comprehensive and well-illustrated listing of the known covers bearing Perkins Bacon adhesives from the island of Barbados. The list is compiled from the collections of Michaelk Hamilton; the late Charles Freeland, FRPSL; Peter Longmuir; Graham Booth, FRPSL;

Jonathan Guy; Joseph Hackmey, RDP FRPSL; Christopher Harman, RDP Hon. FRPSL; Stefan Heijtz, FRPSL; Michael Medlicott, FRPSL; Michael Rego; Simon Richards, FRPSL; Ray Stanton; Richard Stupples; and Takashi Yoshida, FRPSL.

Cape of Good Hope

Postal Officials of the Cape of Good Hope: Postal Histor y and Philately of Southern Africa. By Franco Frescura. Softcover, 302 pages, 8½ by 11 inches. Published by Phansi Museum Press, May 2022. ISBN: 978-062095924-7. Price $20, plus shipping at amazon.com.

Very comprehensive listing of all recorded postmasters and other officials of the Cape of Good Hope postal services from its beginnings up to 1910.

Jersey

Delivered by The Hotel’s Care: The Private Postal Services of French Hotels in Jersey. By Roger Harris. Softcover, 93 pages, 8½ by 11½ inches (22 by 30cm). Published by Channel Islands Specialists’ Society, 2022. Price for C.I.S.S. members £5 (approx. $6 U.S.), with free shipping; non-members £18 (approx. $23 U.S.), plus shipping at books@ciss.uk or Books, 64 Falconers Green, Burbage, Hinckley, Leicestershire, LE10 2SX, UK.

This new work is a study into the significance of the French hotels’ private stationery and private cachets. Specifically, the book examines the recognition of these philatelic items by the Jersey Post Office mail sorters as instructional marks, ensuring that mail was routed straight to France, either via the Boite Mobile or in mail bags routed by French mail boats.

Malaya

Malayan Meter Marks, 1927-1945. By Henry Ong, FRPSL. Hardcover, 100plus pages, 8½ by 11½ inches (22 by 30cm). Published by the Malaya Study Group, February 2022. Price £28 (approx. $35 U.S.), plus shipping at High Garth Stockcroft Road, Balcombe RH17 6LG, United Kingdom or pfcockburn@aol.com.

The result of many years of careful collecting and diligent research, this work explains the importance of meter marks, their origin and development from single value machines to multiple value ones and the early inclusion of advertising which made them popular in the commercial world. This book aims to record the prewar postage franker and meter of the period 1927 to 1942 by the classification of the postage frankers, along with the relevant information concerning

them such as licensees as well as earliest and latest recorded usages. This work is lavishly illustrated for use as a guide and reference work, not just for specialist collectors, but also for those who have at least some meter marks among a wider collection.

Malta

Cousis Cigarette Cards – H.M. Ships at Malta (MSC Study Paper No. 59).

By

Richard Ellis. Softcover, 62 pages, 8½ inches by 11½ inches (22cm by 30cm). Published by the Malta Study Circle, 2022. Price for MSC members £12 (approx. $15 U.S.), plus shipping or non-members £15 (approx. $19 U.S.), plus shipping at maltastudycircle.net/community or kneespadwa@ gmail.com

This new resource describes and illustrates the Royal Navy ships photographed by Richard Ellis, perhaps Malta’s best early photographer. An alphabetical list analyzes cards by the type of inscription and the type of frame. More than 450 different ships are referenced. The photographs have been taken between

1890 and 1910. The book is considered to be the most comprehensive illustrated catalog of these cards ever produced. The illustrations provide a fascinating insight into the history of the Royal Navy in Malta. They show the changing designs and the transition between wooden hull sailing ships to ironclad vessels.

Postal Art

Postal and Philatelic Art of Arthur Szyk. By Ken Lawrence. Softcover, 100 pages, 8½ inches by 11 inches. Published by Exhibitors Press, March 2022.

ISBN: 979-8440487-65-9. Price $30 plus shipping at amazon.com.

The artist Arthur Szyk is widely regarded as the greatest miniaturist of modern times. Szyk was born in a Jewish family in 1894 in Łódź in Russian Poland. He studied art at Kraków and Paris in the early 20th century. With the rise of fascism in Europe, he emigrated to England and then to the United States.

From youth to maturity Szyk dedicated his talents to political causes. He became best known for his anti-Nazi caricatures during World War II. His

art promoted human rights, civil liberties and the liberal outlook of the New Deal: democracy, racial and religious tolerance, individual dignity, and relief from injustice, hunger and privation. He became a leading champion of a national homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine.

To carry these political messages, Szyk’s art was reproduced in formats designed to be mailed: first post cards, then charity and poster stamps, and finally actual postage stamps. From this foundation, his work embraced an explicitly philatelic direction, including a series of stamp album title pages.

United States

First Class: America's Marvelous Midcentury Stamps. By David Cobb Craig and David Hamsley. Hardcover, 208 pages, 8½ by 11 inches. Published by Schiffer, 2022. ISBN: 978-0-764364-71-6. Price $40 plus shipping at amazon.com.

Presented significantly enlarged, the 144 stamps presented in this book chronicle a stylish era of design in mid20th-century America. Spanning the

late 1950s to the early 1970s, the issues depicted were created when the U.S. Post Office Department started to expand its roster of modern stamp designers. The roster includes Japanese American children’s book illustrator Gyo Fujikawa, graphic artist Georg Olden, industrial designer Raymond Loewy, and psychedelia artist Peter Max. Photographed at up 15 times actual size, each stamp is presented with a brief background and history of the stamp and its design.

The American Stamp: Postal Iconography, Democratic Citizenship, and Consumerism in the United States. By Laura Goldblatt and Richard Handler. Hardcover, 336 pages, 8½ by 11 inches. Published by Columbia University Press, 2023. ISBN: 978-0231208-24-6. Price $35 plus shipping pre-order at cup.columbia.edu or amazon.com.

More than 3,000 different images appeared on United States postage stamps from the middle of the 19th century to the end of the 20th. Limited at first to the depiction of a small cast of characters and patriotic images, postal iconography gradually expanded as the Postal Service sought to depict the country and its history in all

its diversity. This vast breadth has helped make stamp collecting a widespread hobby and led many people to see stamps as consumer goods in their own right.

Examining the canon of 19th- and 20th-century American stamps, the authors show how postal iconography and material culture offer a window into the contested meanings and responsibilities of U.S. citizenship. The changing images and uses of stamps reveal how governmental authorities have attempted to navigate between public service and businesslike efficiency, belonging and exclusion, citizenship and consumerism.

The work combines historical, sociological and iconographic analysis of a vast quantity of stamps with anthropological exploration of how postal customers and stamp collectors behave.

Philatelic Royalty of the 20th Century: Stories behind Modern-era U.S. Treasures. By John M. Hotchner. Softcover, 107 pages, 8½ by 11 inches. Published by Exhibitors Press, May 2022. ISBN: 979-8467007-29-8. Price $30 plus shipping at amazon.com.

Using his considerable expertise with stamp production as well as errors and varieties, the author examines these stamp “mis-productions” with discussions of compound perforations, repairs, paper folds, color variation, splices, perforation varieties and plate varieties on 20th century U.S. issues. In addition, the book addresses other aspects of U.S. philately that are little known but important in the context of American U.S. postal history.

This book is a reprint of a series of columns by the author in Kelleher's Stamp Collector Quarterly and also includes two mini-studies: “Rejections and Repairs in the Bureau of Engraving and Printing” and “Folds and Creases Affecting U.S. Stamps.”

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