The British Library Philatelic Collections 1998 to 2005
By David R Beech, FRPSL Head of the Philatelic Collections
Thursday 17th November, 2005
This Paper is the third in a series that has reported to the Society and the philatelic world on the activities of the British Library Philatelic Collections. The first was given on 1st December, 1988 by my predecessor R F "Bob" Schoolley-West FRPSL and the second I gave on 9th April, 1998. These as published in The London Philatelist (volume 98 pages 91-99, and volume 108 pages 17-21) represent a record of progress and achievement in the development and management of the largest; the most varied and complete philatelic collection. Essentially this Paper covers the period since the Library moved from the British Museum and other buildings and opened in its own new building at St. Pancras in 1998.
Collection Development
The period under review has been one of unprecedented growth in the number of fine philatelic collections given, bequeathed, transferred or on loan. These number thirteen new collections or archives. Dr Heinz Feldheim of Munich bequeathed his collection of German States in 2000. In Dr Feldheim's words "My bequest to the British Library Philatelic Collections is due to the fact and my gratitude that England saved my life from [going to] Auschwitz in June 1939".
The fabulous classic Mauritius collection formed by Vikram Chand FRPSL of Singapore is of the locally produced stamps used on entire, is on loan and is exhibited at the Library. Incidentally with the Mauritius in the Tapling and Mosely Collections the Library offers the best display of classic Mauritius anywhere in the world. A leaflet is available describing the background to the collection. Our good friend Gary Ryan RDP, FRPSL, presented us in 2001 with his seven volume collection of Hungarian municipal revenue stamps in proof and issued form, together with its associated literature.
A collection on loan from another public institution is that formed by the Imperial War Museum of 1914-18 First World War stamps. While it had been on public exhibition at the Museum, it had been unavailable in recent years and the transfer to the British Library in 2001 gave it specialist curators, improved access and promotion. In addition it is complimentary to other collections. A small but fascinating collection given also in 2001 is that by John Heys and is of stamps and cards issued by amateur radio operators in Europe.
In 2002 HM Customs and Excise transferred a collection in seven large volumes of Great Britain revenue stamps in proof form and these include Table Water Duty, Medicine Tax, Playing Card Tax stamps, Old Age Pension orders, and the original tender document entitled Particulars of Contract for the Supply of Paper for Post Office Covers for The Commissioners of Excise 1840 (in other words the Mulready postal stationery) from John Dickinson & Co. We are showing a photograph of one sheet of Old Age Pension orders in frame 12. Janusz Kaluski, FRPSL generously donated his collection of Poland postage stamps to 2002. The collection in 46 volumes includes Russian issues, German Occupation issues and Polish Government in Exile.
Still in the pipe line to be formally announced with press releases are a number of collections including a collection of League of Nations material and United Nations postage stamps and covers, formed by M Martin Smith and bequeathed to the Library in 2002; this is in course of arrangement. A small collection was given by De La Rue in 2002 mainly of Egypt 1921-22 issue and Palestine 1927-45 issue and this is known as the Harrison and Sons collection.
The Shelley Collection of the Spanish Civil War International Brigades was bequeathed by Ronald Shelley in 2003. This complements (without duplication) the Bailey Collection of Spanish Civil War material in some twenty-four albums, which was formed by the late Eric Bailey and has been on loan from the Spanish Study Circle since 2001. Our air mail holdings have been supplemented by the gift of the Comet mail collection formed by the late Kenneth Seymour. It was given in accordance with his wishes by his son and daughter in 2003. The most wonderful collection of world meter stamps in some 200 boxes has been given by Dr Ron McInroy of Bradford. About half of the collection is of Great Britain and with it comes a body of the associated literature. This represents some thirty-five years work and study.
The generosity of the philatelic world is not at an end for the Library has been approached by almost twenty persons or organisations wishing to give or bequeath collections in the future. This number is unprecedented in the departments 114 year history.
In addition to collections of philatelic material we regularly receive gifts of literature and research papers. The Rev Jeremy Howat gave a run of the uncommon periodical Revista de la Sociedad Filatelica, a further portion of the philatelic research archive of the late Norman Williams has been donated by Denise Williams, as have the research papers of Roger Booth FRPSL for his Catalogue of the Revenue Stamps of the UK, Isle of Man, Channel Islands and Eire published in 1990. Clive Smith FRPSL has presented his papers relating to the Great Britain 1971 postal strike issues. Alan Crawford BEM has given papers relating to the stamps and postal history of Tristan da Cunha in some fourteen volumes.
It is often a surprise that we hold the Library's largest collection object as well as the smallest. The largest is the 1819 Perkins D Cylinder printing press, the "1d black printing press", and this is now on exhibition at St. Pancras. We have recently acquired from the Stamp Office of HM Revenue and Customs two embossing presses for Great Britain embossed revenue stamps. One of these a "recording press" is shortly to go on public exhibition.
Exhibition
All of these and existing collections and archives etc are made available by exhibition at the Library and by appointment in our researcher's room. The Philatelic Exhibition is housed in some 1,000 frames and is of some 80,000 items mainly of classic material. It is open almost all days of the year and is free. Significant among the current display is the Tapling Collection countries M to Z.
As the British Library Philatelic Collections are a world resource of world material, our approach is at the same level and since 1998 we have taken portions overseas to exhibit at Israel 1998, Philexfrance 99, Monaco 2000 and to Belgica 2001 jointly with members of this Society in an organised display of world issues before the first issue of Belgium in 1849. This year we exhibited at the Pacific Explorer 2005 exhibition in Sydney Australia with Australian States, New Zealand and Pacific Rim material from the Tapling Collection.
At home we exhibited Newfoundland air mails from the Fitz Gerald Collection in 1999 at Rare Stamps of the World exhibition at Claridge's Hotel, at The Stamp Show 2000 the "1d black printing press" was used to print reproductions of the 1d black and in an feature called The British Library Rarities which turned out, after the Royal Philatelic Collection, to be the second most visited area at the exhibition. At Stampex in 2000 we showed part of the Spanish section of the Tapling Collection. Looking to the future, in 2006 we will be lending stamp artwork from the Crown Agents Philatelic and Security Printing Archive to an exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge.
Outreach and Promotion
Perhaps the most difficult and demanding aspect of the departments work is to inform philatelists and others about the collections. This is a constant process with many strands including: the publication of The British Library Philatelic Collections Newsletter to be continued after a break in publication following number 8, Autumn, 2001, with number 9, Spring, 2006. Talks and lectures have been given to many local philatelic societies in the United Kingdom and in addition in Sydney in connection with the Pacific Explorer 2005 exhibition, and in Helsinki to the leading society Helsingfors Frimarkssamlare Furening.
To the 2005 87th Philatelic Congress of Great Britain I presented a Paper How to look after your Collection, while to the 2006 Congress in Scotland I am to give a Paper The Philately of the Edwardian Era as shown in its Literature. We are grateful to Richard Sirot who in Stamp Magazine and Otto Hornung RDP in chiefly European magazines, have written articles describing the Collections. Sotheby's has kindly given the Library a page advertisement in each of its Sir Gawaine Baillie, Bt auction catalogues.
A major rewrite and expansion of the web site (www.bl.uk/collections/philatelic) is underway which will result in improved information and listings of collections together with useful background material. Another web site Philatelic Rarities (www.collectbritain.co.uk/collections/philatelic/) features in digital form with descriptions many major items. This site will be expanded over the years to come.
Staff scholarship and organisational involvement
A listing of the published work of the philatelic curators since 2000 is given on the BL web pages (www.bl.uk/collections/researchregister/search). This listing includes subjects such as New Zealand philatelic bibliography, stamp albums in the BL collections, conservation, details of exhibitions arranged, and research work involving Raman microscopy.
Conservation
We have two major conservation programmes. Work on the unique Crawford Library of philatelic literature 1861-1913, which started in 1985 continues. All of the 4,500 volumes have now been microfilmed and about two-thirds have been rebound with or without conservation work such as deacidification and lamination.
A major project to conserve The Board of Inland Revenue Stamping Department Archive has been underway for some years. This started with the 33 bound volumes of registration impressions of embossed revenue (and some postal stationery) stamps from 1710 to 1955, being 3,274 pages; this part of the archive is known as List 1. The project continues with List 5, which comprises of 23 volumes containing 6,357 black proofs of postage, postage and revenue and revenue stamps, all in complete sheets. These are mainly for the De La Rue surface printed issues for Great Britain and India during the period 1855 to 1928, (during the early period there are a few Perkins, Bacon line engraved issues, and the later period includes some work by other printers including the Great Britain 1913-19 "Seahorses" issues). This work is expected to be completed by March 2006. From next year work continues with List 3, which comprises of eleven volumes for the period from 1920 to 1940, being mainly complete or partly complete perforated or registration sheets overprinted "SPECIMEN" or "CANCELLED". In total this comprises of some 2,052 sheets or items. The work on List 5 and List 3 being to remove the proofs or sheets, etc from guard volumes, clean, repair, place in polyester protectors and store in archival boxes.
Hawaii: The 1851-52 Missionary issues and the Grinnells
The Library took a leading role in making its copies of the first issue of Hawaii available to the study of the genuineness or otherwise of the so called "Grinnell" copies. This was first carried out in conjunction with Robin Clarke, FRS, the Sir William Ramsay Professor, at the Department of Chemistry, University College London, where comparison was made using the Raman machine with the copies in the Tapling collection. Later work was to include making the Tapling copies available to the Expert Committee. I gave a lecture, The Hawaiian Missionaries and the Grinnells at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum on the 18th October, 2003 as the Second Annual Maynard Sundman Lecture. The Expert Committee is to publish a monograph in 2006 on its expertisation of the stamps and an article will be published in due course based on my lecture. This whole involvement has been an excellent example of collection material being made available for the benefit of philatelic research.
The Chand Fund
This Fund has been established through the generosity of Mr Vikram Chand FRPSL in order to make grants of money to aid research and scholarship, leading to publication (in any form) in classic philately (defined as to about 1900). The fund will cover research in all countries and in the disciplines of traditional philately, revenue philately and postal history.
Grants from The Chand A and Z Research Fund for Classic Philately will be awarded for the expenses of research (including travel and accommodation) photography or other copying, printing or publication of a book or monograph or a contribution towards such expenses.
Tapling Exhibition Centenary
To mark the Centenary of the exhibition of the Tapling Collection in 2003 a reception was held in the Entrance Hall of the Library adjacent to the Philatelic Exhibition. This memorable event, a joint event with this Society was attended by many members of the Tapling Family including its head Lord Cottesloe.
Staff
Curatorial staffing of the Philatelic Collections has changed in recent
years, with the retirement of Rod Vousden FRPSL in 2003 (where he is now
Assistant to the Keeper of the Royal Philatelic Collection), and the arrival
of Paul Skinner in 2004.
St Helena
I am now able to give a world exclusive announcement that the St Helena Post Office, by arrangement with the Crown Agents Stamp Bureau, is to issue a set of stamps in January 2006 marking the 150th Anniversary of the issue of its first stamp in 1856. The set of six values and a miniature sheet also feature philatelic treasures in the British Library.
Conclusion
One of the most satisfying aspects of our work is to see a book, monograph or article appear that has to some extent been aided by the collections at the British Library. A measure of our success in this regard is that the Library is probably the most acknowledged of all organisations in newly published literature.I am grateful to Dr Alan Huggins, MBE, RDP, Hon. FRPSL Curator of the Philatelic Collections at the Society for providing outstanding material in six of the frames.
My fellow curator, Paul Skinner, offered many helpful comments on this Paper while being drafted and prepared the PowerPoint presentation which accompanies it.
The British Library,
Philatelic Collections,
96, Euston Road,
London, NW1 2DB
Telephone: 020 7412 7635
Fax: 020 7412 7780
E-mail: philatelic@bl.uk
Web site general: www.bl.uk
Web site Philatelic Collections: www.bl.uk/collections/philatelic
Web site: Philatelic Rarities: www.collectbritain.co.uk/collections/philatelic
The Philatelic Exhibition is open:
Monday, Wednesday to Friday 09.30-18.00
Tuesday 09.30-20.00
Saturday 09.30-17.00
Sunday/English Public Holidays 11.00-17.00
Closed: 23rd to 27th December, 2005. 1st and 2nd January, 2006
The Philatelic Researcher's Room is available:
Monday 10.00-16.00
Tuesday to Friday 09.30-16.00
Appointments to research material should be made with the Philatelic Collections curatorial staff. In addition a British Library Reader Pass is required see: www.bl.uk/services/reading/admissions for details.
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