Category: General Philatelic Interest

Collector – Trade Relationship (and Responsibility)

THE PHILATELIC REGISTER is owned, published and edited by Ian Lasok-Smith

Contact Address: 6 Hough Green, Chester, CH4 8JG.  Email: [email protected]

ThePhilatelicRegister.com has replaced the montly issue of The Philatelic Register. The change in format has been dictated by the need to have a format that is more sustainable with regards the time required to keep it updated. As was The Philatelic Register, this evolving resource is FREE, users just need to register (only name and email address required) on the site to gain full access to article content.  All articles may be downloaded and printed or saved to PC. The site has been constructed on a WordPress platform and as such  has afforded much more versatility and new opportunites compared with original format.

I hope that as it evolves this new format will make it easier to fulfill the “Mission Statement” that encompasses the inspiration behind the original idea.

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The most important purpose of the site is to provide a varied and expanding repository of knowledge and in doing so also try to recognise and preserve the work of many dedicated philatelists over the years. There will be regular postings but not at any specified times. The most recent postings appearing in “Latest Postings” in the sidebar.

The content of the site will be fully searchable using the search engine on the site.

Ian Lasok-Smith.  Owner, Publisher and Editor “The Philatelic Register”

Philatelic Traders Society (Gold Membership)

What Colour is My Stamp?

Roger B West  is a well known philatelist and an acknowledged expert in the stamps of St Helena. In 1994 he edited the handbook “Madame Joseph Forged Postmarks” which has been widely acclaimed as one of the most important philatelic reference works.  He is also the owner of a long established stamp business Avion Stamps. Roger has generously provided a number of articles (Tag: RBW) for publication in The Philatelic Register.

As each these Musings and Observations are published I will leave the reader to make their own judgment as to where on the spectrum between humourous and thought provoking each article sits.

What Colour is My Stamp?

Further Observations on Colour

Frederick John Melville – Pioneer of Philately

            

 As a young boy of just 11 he took his father to an exhibition of stamps organised by the Philatelic Society, London, now The Royal Philatelic Society London. At that exhibition he met Edward Denny Bacon who handed him a copy of the Society’s journal, The London Philatelist.

In 1899 he applied for membership of the Society, but was rejected as he was under 18 years of age. As a result, he formed The Junior Philatelic Society (now The National Philatelic Society) that same year. The society was a huge success, capitalising on pent-up demand for a philatelic society that anyone could join and the new society soon had to seek a larger meeting place. In 1906 Melville formed a Manchester branch of the society. Melville was President of the society from the start until his death and also edited the society’s journal The Stamp Lover.

He was always known just as Fred.

The above is an extract from an article I wrote and published in an early issue of “The Philatelic Register” in 2021.  The full article can be downloaded from the link below.

Frederick Melville

Thomas Tapling – Pioneer of Philately

 

             

Thomas Keay Tapling (30 October 1855 – 11 April 1891) was an English businessman and politician. He played first-class cricket and was also an eminent philatelist who formed one of the greatest stamp collections of his era.

The article that can be downloaded from the attachments below was first published in an early issue of “The Philatelic Register” in May 2021. It outlines the life and times of Tapling and describes a few of the  famous rarities in the Tapling Collection, one of the collections in the Philatelic Collections of the British Museum.

Thomas Tapling and his legacy. Part 1

Thomas Tapling and his legacy. Part 2

 

All About Perforating

In the early years, from 1840 until 1850, all stamps were issued imperforate, and had to be cut from the sheet with scissors or knife. This was time-consuming and error-prone (as mangled stamps of the era attest). Once reliable separation equipment became available, nations switched rapidly.

For the stamp collector, perforations matter, not only as a way to distinguish different stamps (a perf 10 may be rarer and more valuable than a perf 11 of the same design), but also as part of the condition of stamps. Short or “nibbed” perfs are undesirable and reduce value, as are bent or creased perfs.

In this article  which can be downloaded from attachment below from  “Stamp Collecting Weekly” February 15th 1968, E.C. Ehrmann decribes in detail but with clarity the process of perforating.

All About Perforating

All About Colour

The table above from a well known reference work, lists 18 diferent shades  of green. With prices for a shade of colour ranging from  £3  to £13000 (although £4000 of this seems to relate to the quality of the gum, but that’s for another day).

When one considers, as O J Simpson notes in his article “This Colour Business” below from “Stamp Collecting Weekly” February 29th 1952, that “Colour is an intangible property of all substances but cannot exist in itself and is therefore subjective”, how comfortable do we feel when we view the tables above?

In addition to O J Simpson’s article, attached below are a further three articles by  P. L. Baldwin “Colour” and  A. Mackenzie “Colours in Stamps” &  “Colour Variations in Sheets”  that between them essentially cover the science and almost “philosophy” of colour. The articles although appearing in “Stamp Collecting Weekly” in 1949, 1950 and 1952 remain highly relevant today and as such are in my opinion “must read articles”

This Colour Business

Colour

Colours in Stamps

Colour Variation in Sheets