VALUABLE STAMP COLLEGTIONS.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 964, 3 February 1915, Page 7

VALUABLE STAMP COLLEGTIONS.

Huge though the sum of;r'v £20,000, which has been paid ,' . for part of the late Earl of Craw- ; j ford's collection of stamps, j may seem, it is by no means a.' \- I record, says the "Daily Colonist" ,of Vancouver. As much as £45,j 000 has been realised for. indivi- - ; j dual collection, and £24,500 was. paid in 1909 for the late Sir j William Avery's stamps. One of . the enormous specialised collecj tions brought together by Mr. H. : Castle, the doyen of British philatelists, fetched nearly £30,000, and its value if disposed of today, would be very much higher. As a matter of fact, the £20,000 paid for pajt of the Earl of Craw- . ford's collection only represents about half the total value, for the late Earl gathered together a mass of rare and valuable stamps which is unique in the history of • . philatelic enterprise, and must have cost him at feast £40,000. The most valuable collection _in the world, however, is that which > belongs to a Frenchman, M. Philip La Renotiere, who starte i collecting stamps in the middle if the sixties, and who has probably < spent nearly upon his collection of 120,000 stamps. And as an illustration of how stamps increase in value with . time, it might be mentioned that M. Renotiere purchased outright the collection of two presidents of the Royal Philitelic SocietySir Samuel Cooper, Bart., whose collection in 1878 he bought for £3OOO, and Judge Philbnck, for whose collection in 1882, he gave £BOOO. To-day those two col lections would probably fetch £20,000 and £50,000 respectively. Several well-known philatelists- in the United States each own stamps worth considerably over £20,000, and the collection of Mr. F. W. Ayer, an American, was disposed of piecemeal fifteen years ago for more than £60,000 which it cost him. Mr. S. Worthington, of Cleveland, Ohio, has a,collection valued at £IOO,OOO. The Tapling collection in the British Museum was estimated to be worth a similar sum when it was transferred to Bloomsbury some years ago, but is now of far higher value.

PEARLS OF GREAT PRICE. There has lately been exhibited at a Court jeweller's in Bond Street, London, a striking collection of pearls. One magnifies ent rope is valued at no less than £60,000; while for a single pearshaped drop pearl, perfectly symmetrical, £14,000 is asked. But probably the most exquisite article in the collection is a single necklet of gems of extraordinary hue, the matching and gradation being superb. The cost of this article is £34,000. But the owners warn a wouldbe purchaser that if one of the stones were lost it would be impossible to replace it with an exact duplicate. Black and pink pearls also found a place in the exhibition; whilst a passing reference must be made to a pair of button-shaped ear-rings valued at £BOOO. One of the representatives of the firm gives a word of advice upon the preservation and treatment of pearls. Upon no account he said,, should they be locked up in a safe or other darkplace for lengthy periods, since such treatment soon causes them to lose their "life" and become dull. If their fair owners find that for some reason or bther . they ; - cannot wear them outside their garments they should make a point of wearing them underneath their dress, next to the skin. Constant contact with the human skin gives to the stones hght, lustre, gloss, and sheen. The best possible way to keep pearls in a perfect state of preservawell as to prolong their life, is to wear them always both by night and by day. i DUST CHARGED WITH ELECTRICITY. The curious experimental elec trical machine described by W. A. Douglas Rudge to the Cambridge Philosophical Society depends on dust. When clouds of dust are raised—either by the wind or by artificial means—:. they are always strongly charged with electricity, which is positive or negative according to the .;*? nature of the material; and it is *"; possible to obtain a continuous supply of;, electricity by using to drive a . dust-laden stream of air through * r an insulated tube. /While the dust-is passing the tube wilt, yield a steady stream of sparks,'>'" sometimes more than two inches " long. The air escaping also carries a charge, which in a room may be retained half an hour or more. The charge is probably due both to the actual raising qf, the cloud and to friction of the / dust against the . tube. Such dust may be used as flour sulphur, road dust, or fine iron filings. '