BOOKS FOR COLLECTORS With Frontispieces and many Illustrations Large Crown 8vo, cloth. CHATS ON ENGLISH CHINA. By Arthur Hayden . CHATS ON OLD FURNITURE. By Arthur Hayden . CHATS ON OLD PRINTS. (How to collect and value Old Engravings.) By Arthur Hayden . CHATS ON COSTUME. By G. Woolliscroft Rhead . CHATS ON OLD LACE AND NEEDLEWORK. By E. L. Lowes . CHATS ON ORIENTAL CHINA. By J. F. Blacker . CHATS ON OLD MINIATURES. By J. J. Foster , F.S.A. CHATS ON ENGLISH EARTHENWARE. By Arthur Hayden . CHATS

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

PHILATELIC TERMS Albino. —An impression made either from an uninked embossing die, or from a similar inked die, under which two pieces of paper have been simultaneously placed, only the upper one receiving the colour. Aniline. —A term strictly applicable to coal-tar colours, but commonly used for brilliant tones very soluble in water. Bâtonné. — See Paper . Bisect. —A term applied to a moiety of a stamp, used as of half the value of the entire label. Bleuté. —This word implies that the blueness

Postage is so cheap and so easy to-day that we are apt to forget how, not very many years ago, it was a privilege of the rich. To-day the Post Office is no respecter of persons, and the "all swallowing orifice of the pillar-box" receives without favour or distinction the correspondence of the humble with the messages of the mighty. The Post Office treats everything confided to its charge with the same organised routine. In the palatial new edifice, King Edward the Seventh Building, a few days be

The simplest inventions are usually apt adaptations. The postage-stamp, as we know it to-day, can scarcely be said to have been invented, though much wild controversy has raged about the identity of its "inventor." The historian must prefer to regard the postage-stamp of to-day as the development of an idea. It would not serve any purpose useful to the present subject to trace to its beginnings the use of stamped paper for the collection of Government revenues; but it is highly interesting to di

We have already seen something of the growth of the postage-stamp idea among the nations of the world. It will now be convenient for us to discuss the manner in which these postage-stamps first came to be regarded in the light of objets de curiosité . From the beginning of the postage-stamp system there is no doubt many people of advanced ideas took a very keen interest in the success of the new institution. The accumulating of the stamps by individuals began almost immediately after their issue

It may be reasonable to judge a philatelist by the stamps he has, rather than by the way in which he puts them together in his collection. Yet none can have justice in the process unless he has given due attention to order and method. Postage-stamps, more perhaps than any other objets de collectionner , are well suited to neat, orderly arrangement and effective display, with a minimum of house-room. This very suitability and convenience make some collectors careless of the arrangement of their s

The scope of the modern collector extends beyond the collection of actually issued stamps. He uses the stamps as a starting-point, but in the historical collection he works—as it is said the writers of detective stories used to do—backwards. He traces to its earliest inception the service which ultimately gave us the postage stamp. The collection is literary as well as philatelic: stamps are preceded by documents, prints and postal records of all kinds. The essays, as we term the suggestions for

It is well enough that the beginner should first flounder in a sea of stamps, to learn the first rudiments of the study. The specialist needs a general education as a groundwork in stamp-collecting, just as he does in any other pursuit. But it is almost unavoidable that the tendency must come to the advancing collector to reserve his strength in the direction which most attracts him, or for which he enjoys special advantages. It is in the defining of these limitations that many collectors are co

He represents one of the strongest influences in the collecting world, and is no doubt a tower of strength, imparting stability to the stamp-market. The term "amateur" is little used in connection with our pursuit, and the quibbles which seem inseparable in other pursuits, from the endeavour to draw an imaginary line round the amateur to separate him from the professional, are all but non-existent in philately. We use the terms "collector" and "dealer," but that one is not the negation of the ot

To satisfy (in some measure) the curiosity of his readers, our early authority gives some particulars of the forgers. The "first and foremost" in the nefarious practice was a Zurich forger, whose productions—Swiss Cantonals, Modena, Romagna, &c.—had the largest circulation in Mr. Pemberton's time. This gentleman (evidently well known to the author) had an agent for the sale of his wares at Basle, the prices of these latter being quoted at "for most of the Swiss 80 cts. each used, or unus

"'Some men, too,'" says Mr. Mount Brown in sending me the paragraph, "is very lovely." It would be idle to disguise the fact that the mantle of bare toleration of the "mania" has not been entirely discarded by the uninitiated, and it has been a very disconcerting privilege to have for chairmen at lectures on postage-stamps, at literary and scientific institutions, gentlemen who have introduced the subject by confessing that they had once been collectors themselves, but that was when they were at

King George V. probably owes some of his early enthusiasm for stamps to his uncle, the late Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. As Duke of Edinburgh, the latter had long been a collector before the fact was made publicly known by his cordial support of the London Philatelic Exhibition of 1890, which he formally opened. At the lunch which followed the ceremony he said:— "To-day Prince George of Wales starts—nay, probably has started—from Chatham in the Thrush , to the command of which he has been appointe

The A B C of Stamp Collecting: A Guide to the Instructive and Entertaining Study of the World's Postage Stamps. By Fred J. Melville. London , 1903. ⁂ Nineteen plates. A Colour Dictionary. By B. W. Warhurst. 2nd ed. London , 1908. Hints on Stamp Collecting. By T. H. Hinton. 3rd ed. London , 1908. How to Collect Postage Stamps. By B. T. K. Smith. London , 1907. ⁂ Forty-eight plates. How to Start a Philatelic Society. By Fred J. Melville. London , 1910. A Penny All the Way. The Story of Penny Posta

A Catalogue for Advanced Collectors of Postage Stamps, Stamped Envelopes, and Wrappers. Compiled from the most recent authorities and individual research. By H. C. Collin and H. L. Calman. New York , 1890-1901. ⁂ Two hundred and forty-six plates....

These are current, general, illustrated and priced lists of the world's postage-stamps, briefly indicated under the country of publication and under publisher's name. Great Britain. Stanley Gibbons, Ltd.; Bright & Son; Whitfield King & Co.; D. Field (Colonials). America. Scott Stamp and Coin Company; Stanley Gibbons, Inc. France. Catalogue Officiel de la Société Française de Timbrologie; Yvert et Tellier; Lemaire; Bernichon; Montader; &c. Germany. Gebrüder Senf; Paul Kohl

The Catalogues of Stamp Exhibitions held in London, the Provinces, and abroad are useful for succinct accounts of numerous Collections of interest and importance. I do not, however, include them here, nor do I list the catalogues of auction sales, which have a similar reference value. The Avery Collection of the Postage Stamps of the World. By W. H. Peckitt. London , 1909. ⁂ This collection was sold after the death of Sir William Avery, Bart., for £24,500. Concise Description of the Collection o

[For grouped Countries, see under comprehensive title, e.g. , Africa, Australasia.] Abyssinia. Abyssinia. By Fred J. Melville. London , 1909. Afghanistan. The Postage Stamps of Afghanistan. By [Sir] D. P. Masson and B. G. Jones. Madras and Birmingham , 1908. ⁂ Twenty-four plates. Africa. The Postage Stamps, Envelopes, Wrappers, Post Cards and Telegraph Stamps of the British Colonies, Possessions and Protectorates in Africa. [The Philatelic Society, London.] I. British Bechuanaland to Cape of Goo