The Ichang Post-Office (1895)

The following article comes from The Stamp News (February and March, 1895) and should be of interest to collectors of China.

For the following cutting we are indebted to the Chairman of the “Ichang Public Improvements Committee,” who has, however, omitted to furnish us with the name of the paper from which it is taken. It may be of interest to mention that the wrapper enclosing the cutting was franked with one of the new ½ candarin stamps, that being apparently the rate for a book packet from Ichang to Shanghai, a 2 cent Hong Kong stamp representing the postage from Shanghai to London.

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Messrs. Harmer, Rooke & Co: Stamps in the Sale Room (1910)

The following is an account of the philatelic auctioneering of Messrs. Harmer, Rooke & Co as published in The Postage Stamp (December, 1910).

The Romance of Philatelic Auctioneering
It is nearly forty years since the first stamp auction was held in London. That was in 1872 at Sotheby’s. The enterprise then was a little in advance of the progress of philately, for there was a long interval before the experiment was again tried.

The principal, Mr E.G. Harmer, in his private office.

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Edwin Cradock Nowell: An Extraordinary Tasmanian Clerk

Maurice Mishkel.

Edwin Cradock Nowell

A series of 7 covers addressed to Edwin Nowell in Hobart from January 1850 to February 1860, from South Australia, New South Wales and Tasmania appeared in a Tasmanian stamp auction in April 2005. The covers were well described and many were of more than passing notice, but no details were given concerning the addressee, who was an early Tasmanian of considerable importance. The covers are presented here in chronological order, with descriptions largely following those provided by the vendor. All were addressed to Nowell, except for the first which was sent to his wife.

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Great Scott!

Richard A. Turton.

Mr John Walter Scott

This entertaining account was first published in The Postage Stamp (October, 1913). It ran as first in a series under the title “Postage Stamp Romances: The True Stories of the Stamp World, Collected by Cornelius Wrinkle from Authentic Sources. No 1 - Great Scott!”

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Perfins of New Zealand and Australia

John Mathews.

In 1858, Joseph Sloper of London was granted Letters Patent for the process of perforating holes in the pattern of letters or insignia, and for the perforating apparatus to produce them, as a means of marking cheques and other documents so that they could not be altered, or otherwise fraudulently dealt with.

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Madagascar: Definitive series (1930-1944)

The definitive series of 1930-1944 was unusual, as French colonial sets went, in that four of its designs were typographed, while the fifth was recess-printed.

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Blatter and the Bahamas

Russell W. Stern.

Lot 142 in the Postal History Auction run by Yorkshire Cover Auctions, which closed 5 June 2004, appeared to have a familiar address (see for example NSW Philatelist, Article 449, November 1996). And yes, it was another Blatter cover, this time from Bahamas.

It was described as “1919 regd cvr. to Switz., 1d Red X (SG90) + 5d Sp. Delivery (S2). Address part erased.” Regretably the illustration was too small to reproduce well. (Figure 1 above)

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The First Hawaiian Philatelic Exhibition: A £14,000 Display in Honolulu (1913)

The following account was first published in The Postage Stamp (June 1913).

As we have noted on several occasions there is an active philatelic life in the Territory of Hawaii. The latest development in the activities of the Hawaiian Philatelic Society is the inauguration of an annual philatelic show or exhibition, the first of which was opened on Thursday, May 8th. For accounts of this show we are indebted to Mr. John Gribble, J.P.S. From the newspaper and other newspaper reports and other details sent by Mr. Gribble we take the following interesting account. :-

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War-time Reporter Meets General MacArthur

Maurice Mishkel.

The newspaper wrapper that prompted this research is postmarked PAID AT SYDNEY/-14 MY 43/ N.S.W. and is addressed to Lewis Sebring, Tribune Herald Newspaper, USA Army Hdqrs., (General Douglas MacArthur), AUSTRALIA. This was sent by “Reveille”, Official Organ, R.S.L (N.S.W. Branch), Anzac Memorial, Hyde Park, SYDNEY. “Reveille” is the journal published for the Returned Soldiers’ League in Australia. Read the rest of this article »

Stamps of Thailand (Siam): The First Issues (1883)

Thailand’s first postage stamps appeared in August 1883, Waterlow and Sons recess-printing printing different designs and using different colours to denote the values: solot (½ att), att, sio (2 atts), sik (4 atts) and salung (6 atts).

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SS Columbus Postcard

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