THE POSTAGE-STAMP AND ITS STORY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2924, 30 March 1910, Page 80

THE POSTAGE-STAMP AND ITS STORY.

"Who invented the—postage-stamp?" is a question often asked, and to find its answer we must go back to the seventeenth century. In 1653 the Comte de Nogent and the Sieur de Villayer obtained Louis XIV the privilege of establishing post-boxes in various quarters of Paris. A printed " instruction was issued to the public, stating that their correspondence would be transmitted if they "put

with their letters a piece of paper which is to bear the words port paye, because no money will be accepted; the said piece of paper is to be attached to the said letter, or put round the letter, or slipped inside the letter, or in any way they may find convenient; in such wise, however, that the clerk may see it and remove it easily." If a specimen of this billet de port-paye or postage-paid lote were unearthed at the present day it would be worth many times its weight in gold, but no copies are known to exist; and this is not to be wondered at, since each billet was removed in transmission and presumably destroyed. We do not even know what ifc was like in shape, and can only guess that it may have been a narrow strip or band of paper somewhat like the stamped newspaper wrappers in use in our own time. It bore a certain inscription and a private mark of De Villager's, and there is little doubt that to De Villayer himself the credit of its invention is due, De Nogent's connection with the post being merely a nominal one. Indeed, we learn from Saint Simon that De Villayer was " a fellow full of singular inventions, and had plenty of cleverness," and was also the inventor of " those flying- chairs that move by means of counter-weiights up and down between two walls to the floor required " —in other words, of what we now call lifts.

But nowadays postage-stamps mean to most people the little gummed labels affixed to our letters : and so, if the question with which this article begins is asked, the inquirer most likely intends to say, " Who invented the adhesive postagestamp?" In February, 1837, Rowland Hill proposed the use of "a bit of paper just large enough to bear the stamp, and covered at the back with a glutinous wash, which the bringer miicrht, by the application of a little moisture, attach to the back of the letter." No evidence that will bear the slightest scrutiny has been produced to support the various prior claims to the invention of the adhesive postagestamp ; and even should such a- claim ever be established, it could not in the slightest degree lessen Rowland Hill's reputation, for it was only the adoption of his great plan of a uniform rate of postage, coupled with prepayment, that rendered the general use of stamps, impressed or adhesive, practical for postal purposes. In January, 1840, uniform penny-postage came into being; but it wn»>, not until May of that year that the postage-stamps themselves were read}''. There were four varieties in all: adhesive stamps of the value of one penny black and twopence blue, and envelopes of the same values. The stamps showed a profile of the youthful Queen, after a medal by Wyon, and in their severe elegance of design and superb engraver's work form miniature works of a.rj; that in their kind have neve? since been surpassed or °ven equalled. The envelopes (known familiarly to collectors as the ''Mulreadies") bore an elaborate allegorical design by William Mulready, R.A., in which Britannia was seen despatching winded ...messengers to -ill the quarters of the globe; or, to quote the author of the Ingoldsby Legends :

Those queer-looking envelope thing.*, Where Britannia (who seems to be crucified) flings To her right and her left funny people with ■wings, Among elephants, •Quakers, aad Calabar. kings.

As enormous values are sometimes attributed to these early stamps, it may be well to say that specimens of the penny stairip are still readily obtainable from the dealers at sixpence apiece, and of the penny envelopes at as many shillings. The original penny stamp (or " queen's head," as it was called for many years), though its colour was altered from black to red in 1841, remained in use until 1880, by which time the number of stamps of this denomination had "eached the enormous total of twenty thousand six hundred and ninety-nine millions eight hundred and fifty thousand and forty. On the other hand, the " Mulready" envelopes were hi use for a few months only; the public, contrary to expectat.i-y.i, showed, a very marked preference for the convenient little " queen's heads," and Mv.iready's des%n, while not devoid of merit, lent itself easily to unmerciful caricature, literary and gictoriai. Rowland Kill himself wrote reluctantly in his diary: "I fear we shall he obliged to substitute some other stamp for that designed by Mulready, which is abused and ridiculed on all sides. In departing so widely from the established " lion and unicoro " nonsense I fear that we have run counter to settled opinions and prejudices somewhat rashly. I now think it would have been wiser to have followed established custom in all the details of the measure where practicable."

At the -end of ten years after the introduction of Rowland Hill's stamp only 13 foreign countries had adopted the invention/ and it is curious to think that the exampje of Great Britain should first have been followed, in 1843,. not by other great European powers, but by Brazil and two Swiss cantons. But during the fifties the accessions came thick and fast, till by January 1860 there were 35 countries that had issued postage- stamps. These coloured labels, with their interesting and somewhat mystifying varieties of design and lettering, soon began to attract the notice of the curious, and early in the fifties a few individuals here and there were forming sta-np collections in ignorance of each other's existence. Still, it was not until 1861 that the hobby attracted public attention, developing in the following year into a veritable craze. An open-air stamp bourse established itself in the narrow passage of Birchin lane, Cornhill, where high and low, rich and pool, congregated for sale and exchange. " We were often raided by the police," writes a veteran philatelist. "I myself was taken to* the police office on, the charge of collecting a crowd and obstructing traffic. The scene was interesting and amusing—an assemblage of ladies and gentlemen, youths and small boys, each with a book or books full of stamps, as intent upon business as the regular stock-jobbers of the neighbour-

hood. One of her Majesty's Cabinet ?<linisters was seen there, and ladies with their albums carried by livery servants." Professional stamp-dealers sprang tip, printed catalogues were published by Dr Gray, of the British Museum, and others, and periodical journals treating of stamps began to appear. The stamp mania, like all manias, died; the Birchin lane gatherings dwindled away, and stamp collecting, soon to be dignified by the name of philately, settled down into an organised pursuit, worthy of a place as the younger sister of numisn;atics. In 1869 the Philatelic Society was founded in London under the presidency of the late Sir Daniel Cooper, Bart., succeeded in turn by Mr (now Judge) "Philbrick, K.C., the late Earl of Kingston, and in 1896 by the Duke of York, who as Prnce of Wales still holds that office. In 1906 his Majesty the King signified his pleasure that the society should be styled "The Royal Philatelic Societj, London,'-' which title it now bears.

Perhaps the most important event in the annals of philately was the munificent bequest in 1891 of the late Mr Tapling's collection to the British Museum, for its acceptance by the trustees of the national treasure-house effectually brought to an end the old days when stamp collecting could be dismissed with a contemptuous smile as. a pastime for children, or at best a method of instilling some notions of geography into the juvenile mind. The vast collection in question-—the second greatest in the world —was brought together by Thomas Keay Tapli%, M.P., who died at the early age of 36 years. He collected as a schoolboy, and when he was about 15 an old gentleman, a friend of his'family, gave him a Christmas oresent of one "hundred pounds on condition that he was not to bank it, but to spend it as he liked. He devoted the whole of the money ,to stamps. Through every period of* his lifer—at Harrow and Cambridge, as a student of medicine, and at the Inner Temple, and finally as head of the great city mercantile firm of Thomas Tapling and "Co., of Gresham street—he steadily continued his collection, studying both the stamps themselves and the literature whch treats of them. After his death the work of re-arranging and mounting the collection for the British Museum was entrusted to an expert, who was occupied for seven years in the task. For some years oni? a few sheets of the collection were on. view in glass cases in the King's Library, the contents being changed from, time to'time; but this unsatisfactory plan was superseded a few years ago by the use of three jgreat cabinets with vertical slides, which were constructed a cost, of three thousand six hundred pounds. These cabinots contain the whole of the adhesive stamps in the collection, with the exception of nine specimens of the greatest rarity, which are shown in a room apart. Among these rarities are the famous '* Post Office " stamps of Mauritius (1847), specimens of which have always- been keenly sought after by philatelists on account of their exceeding rarity. The stamps derive their name from the inscription on the left of the design, which, shows a primitively drawn profile of Queen Victoria crowned with a diadem. There are two values, a penny one printed in orange-red and a twopenny in dark blue. The stamps were engraved by a watchmaker of Port Louis, and only one thousand were printed, of which number only 26 copies are known to exist at the present day. The first specimens did not come to light till 1865, when two used etampK, one of each, denomination, from the album of a Bordeaux collector, were bought for eight pounds by a Brussels .dealer, and sold to Mr Philbrick for twenty pounds, then an enormous price to. pay for a couple of postage stamps. They now have their restinsr-piace in the largest collection in the world, the property of M. la Renotiere, of Paris, who bought the Philbrick collection in 1881 for eight thousand pounds. By 1875 the price of " Post Office Mauritius" stamps had risen a little; in that year a copy of. the twopenny stamp • was found in the collection of another Bordeaux amateur, who was anxious to raise the necessary funds for a visit of pleasure to the gay capital. Tt was' sold for twelve pounds, and passed into the hands of M. la Renotiere, who in his turn exchanged it with Mr Tapling for some other stamps. It was not until 1878 that another "Post Office" stamp, a penny one (used), turned up.. Major E. B. Evans, R.A., was then stationed at Port Louis, rind he boujght fiom a professor of music a small collection in which was the stamp in question. He estimated its value at about thirty pounds, and after keeping it for some years he sold it to Mr Tapling for seventy-five pounds. This specimen is now, with the companion twopenny stamp already mentioned, in the British Museum; it is on the original envelope, which was,addressed to a " Monsieur Alcide Marquay." and con tained an invitation to a ball given" by Lady Gomm, the wife of the Governor of the island.

The latest specimen of the "Post Office Mauritius" to be discovered was in a little collection made by a vendor, a Hampstead .resident, when a schoolboy in 1864. The collection itself contained nothing but trivial rubbish with the exception of fchis "Post Office" stamp, a twopenny blue, unused, and in faultless preservation, with the small original margins intact. It was put up at auction in January. 1904, amid a large assemb'ajge of stamp dealers and collectors. The bidding started at five hundred pounds, and went bv hundreds to seven hundred pounds, this latter price being l offered by a collector who already nossessed two conies of the penny red stamp. It was then jumped to one thousand pounds by a London dealer, who went as high as one thousand two hundred pounds. Two other dealers then bid up to one thousand four hundred pounds, at which point one dropped out, and it was knocked down to the other, acting l for the Prince of Wales, for one thousand four hundred and fifty pounds, the highest price on record for a postage stamp.

Another if the British Museum rarities is the British Guiana two cents rose, of 1851, a primitive-looking stamp set up m that rear from ordinary printers' type at the Royal Gazette office in Georgetown. This stamp is even rarer than the " Post Office Mauritius," and remained ununown till 1877-1878, when four copies were discovered. One was Sold to M. la Renotiere; one, after passing through many hands, went into the collection of the late Sir W. B. Avery, Bart.; another was sold for twenty pounds to Mr Philbrick, and sixteen years later fetched two hundred and ten pounds at the Hunter sale in Nev York; the remaining one was sold to the late Mr W. E. Image, and is the specimen now in the Tapling collection. No more copies came to light until 1889, when a pair was found and sold for one hundred and seventy-five pounds. In 1896 another pair -was discovered, and has an interesting history, which Canon F. P. Luigi Josa, of Christ Church. Demerara, teJJs as follows : " One Easter Church was financially in a bad way. We were overdrawn? at our banker's to the tune cf one hundred pounds odd. We hadr an instalment cf the mortgage on our chief school due, and other claim., and wa were making efforts to raise some money,, and our comparatively poor people gavef an East-er offering of a little over seventyfive pounds. Ail old coloured lady, Misfi Preston by name, sent me two blue stamps of 1852, and these I sold for thirty-three dollars sixty cents, and on Easter Monday, I wended my way to Miss, Preston to thank her for the" gift. Whilst there I inquired) whether she had ans more of these valuable stamps, especially ac buyers were in search, of the circular stamps of 1851, and l foi the two rents rose they were offeringover one hundred pounds. Miss Preston sad she had given all her stamps away, but she brought out an old basket fiiled with eld receipts, and bills. I searched, when, lo and behold! there tumbled out of the basket an envelope addressed "Mips Rose Blankenbiirg," this being the name of one of our plantations on t:i« west oast of Demerara. This envelope contained two stamps, an unsevered paiv, and they were the very stamps that buyets had been in search of,- and for which thero were standing advertisements. The lady,. Mist Rose, to whom it was addressed, was present in the room, also_ member of my church. On hearnig that the two stamps were worth a lot of money, she literally danced with joy, and said, "Thank" God! I am at last able to give something worth while.' Both the old ladies, although they owned their house an-i land, were comparatively poor, and so I took my churchwarden to thank , them again, and to persuade them to receive a portion of whatever they might fetch.; ' Not a penny, sir; not a penny. These stamps were reserved for my dear old , church.'" The stamps were' sold by ; Canon Josa for two hundred and nine I pounds, and passed through various hands j at increasing prices, being finally sold to J Mr H. J. Duveen for six hundred pounds.- f A greater stamp "find" occurred in t 1895, wher a Kentucky coon, Blaek Bob,- ! i employed as porter at the Louisville (Ken- j } tucky) court-house, was commissioned to |' clear up some boxes of old correspondence.- j In the act of shovelling a large batch off old letters into the furnace, several that', were loose fell at the negro's feet. To one • of them Bob noticed a stamp attached.- ' He picked it up for examination, and a search through other bundles brought more stamps to his view, till altogether he founi one hundred and forty-seven of the raie St. Louis postmaster's stamps- of 184 S. The stamps were on the mail of a St. Louii banking-house addressed to their Louis* ville. correspondent. The janitors of th«i building discovered the darky curiously,' examining his find, and one of them, know- j ing of an adult friend who " liked such things," as he said, offered a "quarter" and a- drink for the lot, and Bob was too thirsty to resist. The janitors in their turn sold the first lot of nine stamps for five dollars; but on discovering their true value they obtained a more satisfactory, price for tJie rest, and, indeed, got fifteen hundred dollars for their last eighteem, The whole lot was resold for nearly twenty-i three thousand dollars, it is said, the reputed retail value being sixty thousand dollars. . The knowledge of trouvailles like these serves to inspire every collector with the hope that he too may meet one day with" some such good fortune; but the tale of high prices realised for rarities must not be read as meaning that stamp collecting is necessarily associated with a colossal outlay. At the, present day a collection numbering many hundreds mav be obtained for a few pounds, or ?ven shillings; many substantial collections indeed, have been formed simply by gifts and the wise exchange of duplicates. This being said, we may fitly conclude with the following testimony written by a venerable French savant: " What was originally in my case nothing more than a mere amusemen' or relaxation became in time the subject of extended researches, studies, and works of all kinds, foreign. I confess, to my profession, but supplying my mind with neverfailing enjoyment, and so offering a delightful diversion to the cares and preoccups -" tions of daily life." —Chambers' Journal.