Patron Her Majesty The Queen

The London Philatelist
The Journal of

The Royal Philatelic Society London
Honorary Editor: Steve Jarvis FRPSL
5 Redbridge Drive, Andover, Hampshire SP10 2LF, United Kingdom
Home Telephone: 01264 358065 Email: LPeditor@rpsl.org.uk
Assistant Editor: Frank Walton FRPSLISSN 0024-6131

Volume 125

March 2016

Supplement

The Crawford Library of Philatelic Literature
at the British Libraryand for the World in Digital FormDavid R. Beech MBE FRPSL
Curator the British Library Philatelic Collections 1983–2013

Copyright © 2016 by David Beech MBE FRPSLDavid Beech asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
ISSN 0024-6131

The London Philatelist
Honorary Editor: Steve Jarvis FRPSL
LPeditor@rpsl.org.uk

Design and typography by Steve Jarvis
Set in Minion Pro using Adobe InDesign CS6
Published by
The Royal Philatelic Society London
41 Devonshire Place. London W1G 6JYRegistered Charity No. 286804

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The Crawford Library of Philatelic Literature
at the British Library and for the World in Digital Form

Figure 1. The 26th Earl of Crawford, in Coronation robes in 1911.

Introduction
This text is intended to be an outline history of the Crawford Library in its printed and digital forms,
including its formation, management at the British Museum and the British Library, as well as to
the work undertaken by the Royal Philatelic Society London, the Global Philatelic Library (GPL)project, together with information about its prospects of future development and availability. Moredetail of the management and history of the Crawford Library at the British Museum and British
Library has been included as this information has not previously been published. While I haveattempted to illustrate and describe just a few of the items in the Crawford Library that are my small
selection of significance today in research terms, those interested in early rare works should see
the article by E D Bacon, The Philatelic Library of the Earl of Crawford K. T. which I list as Ref. 1 andis included in this supplement in Appendix A on pages 21 to 27. To those who may be interested
in further details they should refer to the works listed in the references or bibliography or contact
the Society, or the British Library Philatelic Collections who continue to hold the printed volumes.

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James Ludovic Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford
James Ludovic Lindsay was born on 28 July 1847 at St Germain-en-Laye, Ile-de-France, France.
He was the first child of Alexander William Crawford Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford and 8th Earlof Balcarres (1812–1880) and Margaret Lindsay (1824–1909), daughter of Lieutenant-General Sir
James Lindsay (1793–1855). James Ludovic had six sisters the last of whom died in 1948.
He was educated at Eton College between 1860 and 1862 and at Trinity College, Cambridge.
In 1868 he joined the Grenadier Guards of the British Army and attained the rank of Lieutenant,leaving the regiment in 1870. He was the Tory Member of Parliament for Wigan between 1874
and 1880 when he succeeded on the death of his father on 13 December to the family titles of thepeerage, these being: 26th Earl of Crawford, 9th Earl of Balcarres, 10th Lord Lindsay and Balneil,
3rd Baron Wigan of Haigh Hall, County Lancaster. He was a Trustee of the British Museum from1885 to 1913, and from 1885 was invested as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (FSA). He wasinvested as a Knight, Order of the Thistle (KT) in 1891. He was to hold office as Justice of the Peace(JP), decorated as a Commander, Legion of Honour, and invested as a Knight of Grace, Order of St
John of Jerusalem (KGStJ). He held the office of Deputy Lord High Steward [Scotland].
He married Emily Florence Bootle-Wilbraham (1848–1934), daughter of Colonel Hon. Edward
Bootle-Wilbraham (1807–1882) and Emily Ramsbottom (died 1899), on 22 July 1869 at St. George’s
Church, Hanover Square, London. They had seven children including David Alexander Edward
Lindsay, 27th Earl of Crawford and 10th Earl of Balcarres (1871–1940).
Lord Crawford was President of the Royal Astronomical Society from 1878 to 1879, President of the Royal
Photographic Society from 1896 to 1900, and of the Royal Philatelic Society London from 1910 to 1913.
In 1906 Lord Crawford was instrumental in the Philatelic Society London becoming the Royal
Philatelic Society London (Ref. 2).
As can be seen the Earl was a man of considerable stature, ability and energy and was interested inelectricity, yachting, engineering, zoology (being a member of the Council of the Zoological Societyof London from 1902), and especially astronomy which was an early passion. The Clan Lindsay
Society was formed in 1897 and Lord Crawford was its first President. The Earl was affectionately
known in his family as “red beard” (Ref. 3). For more information see the excellent text by Ron
Negus FRPSL (1933–2008) details are given at Ref. 4.
The 26th Earl died on 31 January 1913 at his London home and was buried on 4 February 1913
at Balcarres, Fife, Scotland.
Bibliotheca Lindesiana
While the Lindsay family had from the 16th century acquired manuscripts and printed books to form
a library of note, it was the 25th Earl of Crawford who had the passion to collect on a grand scale. The
passion was to be inherited by his son the 26th Earl and together the library, Bibliotheca Lindesiana,
was formed and developed. It comprised close to 200,000 volumes and has been described by Bernard
Quaritch the book dealers as “... probably the finest private library assembled in the nineteenth century”. It
was to some extent to reflected the interests of its owners with such special areas as astronomy, broadsides,
ballads, bibles, documents of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic period, proclamations of Britain,
Scottish printing, travel including voyages, and philately. A number of catalogues have appeared but ofspecial note is Bibliotheca Lindesiana…Catalogue of The Printed Books Preserved at Haigh Hall, Wigan
Co. Pal. Lancast, which was published by the Aberdeen University Press in four volumes in 1910.
The family fortunes were dependent on the iron and coal industries (the family owned a large partof Wigan Coal and Iron Company Limited) and in the 1880s these were in stress. This resulted in somemajor disposals by Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge especially in 1887–1889 when a Gutenberg Bibleand some early printed books were sold. In 1901 Enriqueta Rylands (1843–1908) acquired some 6,000
manuscripts (except those relating to the French Revolution) and these are now to be found in theJohn Rylands University Library of Manchester. Significant special collections are held at the National
Library of Scotland, Edinburgh. The 27th Earl disposed of a major part of the library in 1924 to thebook dealers Bernard Quaritch and the remainder was sold by auction in the years 1947 and 1948.
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The Earl as a Philatelist and the formation of his Philatelic Library
The 26th Earl had been interested in stamp collecting as a boy at Eton College but had abandoned
his interest for his many others, some years before. It was in either 1898 or 1899 that he purchased,
at Sotheby’s, some Arabic and Greek manuscripts and the collection of stamps formed by Colonel
John R M Chard VC (1847–1897) for £73. The Earl was struck by the development of stamp collecting
since his younger days and by the quantity of its literature (Refs 5 and 6). This almost casual act of thepurchase of the Chard Collection had ignited an interest that was to be a passion for the rest of his
life, with the formation of outstanding collections of both the stamps and its literature, Bibliotheca
Lindesiana Philatelic Section, the Crawford Library of Philatelic Literature as we know it today.

Figure 2. Bibliotheca Lindesiana book plate.

Lord Crawford was a man who seldom, if ever, did things by half and he embraced philately
in a way that would largely transform its nature and status. In addition to collecting the literature
he was to arrange his collections, which he did himself, by the “historical method”. He annotated
his collection with full details pertaining to production, reasons for issue and for the issue being
superseded. He included many items perhaps usually shunned or regarded as insignificant thenbut much prized today, such as essays, proofs, reprints and forgeries, and he included changes incolour, shades, printings, paper, perforation, etc., with blocks and sheets where these were available.
Thus later generations have described him as the father of “scientific philately”. Here he was to draw
much from his other interests including astronomy and photography, applying the principals of
categorisation and context. Such was the Earl’s reputation as a man of science that his interest inphilately did much to improve the perception of the subject in the minds of the public.
As a bibliophile of the first order he naturally embraced the literature and was most fortunate to purchasein 1901 the philatelic library formed by John Kerr Tiffany (1842–1897) of St Louis, United States. Tiffany
was a lawyer by profession and the founder and first President of the American Philatelic Association(now the American Philatelic Society) in 1886. He had been the leading, indeed pioneering, collector ofphilatelic literature, in the United States, having the field largely to himself from about 1870 to 1890. It
was in 1874 that he published his The Philatelical Library, A Catalogue of Stamp Publications, of some 110
pages. Lord Crawford’s agent for the purchase was Charles J Phillips RDP (1863–1940) of Stanley Gibbons(Refs 7 and 8) who in 1901 was in North America and arranged to visit Dexter Tiffany (brother of John)in St Louis. Following the visit Phillips made on 20 January 1901 he wrote to the Earl that Dexter Tiffany
had been advised by Hiram E Deats RDP FRPSL (1870–1963), another noted philatelic literature collector,
that the library was worth $8,000 to $9,000 if the items were available, which was in doubt. No offer under$10,000 (just over £2,000) would be accepted. The two parties to the transaction were the Earl and the lateJohn Tiffany’s wife who was in France at the time. Phillip’s letter was forwarded to Barbados where Lord
Crawford had arrived on his winter cruise at the end of February and from there Phillips was authorised
to offer £2,000. This price was agreed by Mrs Tiffany on her return home. The Tiffany library was of about
909 bound volumes (with Tiffany book plates) and 136 unbound and was contained in 39 boxes which
arrived with the new owner at 2 Cavendish Square on 28 June 1901 (Ref. 9).
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Figure 3. Edward Denny Bacon, circa 1891.

Figure 4. Sons of Philatelia, Second Annual
Convention Chicago 1893. Crawford 2705..

Figure 5. John Kerr Tiffany.

Figure 6. John K Tiffany book plate.

The services of Edward Denny Bacon RDP FRPSL (1860–1938) were secured some time before theend of 1901 to arrange and catalogue the books a task that would take Bacon ten years to completewith the publication of Bibliotheca Lindesiana Vol. VII: A Bibliography of the Writings General,Special and Periodical forming the Literature of Philately in 1911. Bacon had formed important
holding of literature of his own. He was a founding member of the Royal’s Expert Committee in
1894, had completed the task of arranging the Tapling Collection for the Trustees of the British
Museum in 1900, and apart from a similar task for Henry Joseph Duveen FRPSL (1854–1919), wasfree to assist the Earl (Ref. 10). Later Bacon would become the Curator of HM the King’s PhilatelicCollection from 1913 until his death in 1938, President of the RPSL from 1917 to 1923 and,significantly following its formation in 1907, the first President of the Philatelic Literature Society
from 1909 to 1914. Bacon was to become a Member of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO) in 1917,
being elevated to Commander (CVO) in 1922, and in 1932 Knight Commander (KCVO) when hebecame Sir Edward (Ref. 11)
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In 1908 the Earl was able to purchase the philatelic library formed by the late Judge Heinrich Fraenkel

FRPSL (1853–1907) of Berlin, Germany. In many ways he was the European equivalent of Tiffany in the

United States for his collecting scope and style was not dissimilar. Herr Fraenkel started his collection inabout 1884 and some years after he was able to purchase the library formed by Sigmund Friedl (1851–1914) of Vienna, Austria, which contributed some of older items. Herr Fraenkel’s aim was of acquiring
all publications with any philatelic content. European publications, with German ones in particular,
represented the strength of his holding. Many of the German items that are believed to be unique. Herr
Fraenkel was librarian of the Berliner Philatelisten-Klub from 1890 to 1901. The extent of this mostimportant library may be judged by the fact that it was shipped to London in 39 large cases. While its
content was significant, much was duplicate to Lord Crawford’s needs. It was on the 2 April 1908 thatE D Bacon announced at a meeting of the Royal Philatelic Society London that the Earl intended that
duplicate material was to be presented to the Society. This was a generous gift and transformed the Royal’s
library (Refs. 10 and 11). Some duplicates were sold by the Society to H Cooke & Company.

Figure 7. Judge Heinrich Fraenkel.

Figure 8. E D Bacon book plate.

Stanley Gibbons Limited, overseen by E D Bacon, were charged with the task of acquiring
periodicals and Bacon sold some of his own library to the Earl to fill gaps, as well as acquiring
missing items otherwise. Various printed Lists of Wants were produced to aid the process and by
1908 the library took 270 feet of shelving. Thus the 26th Earl of Crawford had acquired in just a
few years the cream of philatelic literature holdings making the Crawford Library without rival; afact still true today for literature published from 1861 to 1913.

Figure 9. S Allan Taylor advertisement or card,
contained in one of seven Scrap Books.
Crawford 1685 [to 1691].
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The Crawford Catalogue
E D Bacon had completed the task of cataloguing the library and in 1911 it was published as
Bibliotheca Lindesiana Vol. VII: A Bibliography of the Writings General, Special and Periodical forming
the Literature of Philately, by The Aberdeen University Press for private circulation only. This edition
has a dedication to The King as follows: “With His Gracious permission this work is dedicated to
His Majesty The King who as Duke of York, and Prince of Wales, Honoured The Royal PhilatelicSociety, London by being their President from May, 1896, to May, 1910” (Ref. 12). It should be
noted that it is not only a catalogue but a bibliography of all known philatelic literature up to 1911
or a few years earlier, and so includes entries for items not in the Crawford Library estimated to
be about 5% only.
Lord Crawford generously allowed a further edition to be published by the Philatelic Literature
Society with the title, Catalogue of the Philatelic Library of the Earl of Crawford, K.T. (Ref. 13). Only
300 copies were printed, 100 were reserved for members of the Philatelic Literature Society and
200 were for sale at two guineas (Ref. 14). A Gold medal was awarded to the Philatelic Literature
Society for this edition by the philatelic exhibition, Internationalen Postwertzeichen-Ausstellung,
held in Vienna in 1911.
Bacon had continued the task of adding and correcting the Catalogue and in 1926 a supplement
was published as: Supplement to the Catalogue of the Philatelic Library of the Earl of Crawford, K.T.
Published 1911. This as Bacon says in the Preface was for corrections and additions to various dates.
(Ref. 15).
In 1938, in the final months of his life, Bacon contributed the eight page Addenda to the“Supplement to the Catalogue of the Philatelic Library of the Earl of Crawford, K.T.” as a supplement
to The London Philatelist, Volume 47, March 1938 (Ref. 16).
The 1991 Catalogue of the Crawford Library of Philatelic Literature at the British Library, waspublished and is described below and in the bibliography following (Ref. 17).
A few notes about the arrangements of these works will be useful. The 1911 works are divided
into two Parts, Part I is of Separate Works arranged alphabetically by the author’s name. The list is
mainly of monographs or handbooks, but does include auction catalogues. Part II is of Periodicals or
serials as they may be described today, arranged alphabetically by title. In simple terms everythingwhich is not a periodical is in Part I. Auction catalogues, which are listed down to the end of 1906,
are arranged under the heading “Auction Catalogues” in Part I and then alphabetically by the nameof the auction house. For the auctions held in Britain and where the sales have sale numbers these are
given, in some cases notional numbers are given in square brackets. For full details of a necessarily
complicated arrangement see The Preface to the Catalogue by Bacon in both 1911 editions. Serious
researchers are strongly urged to examine this Preface. After Part II, Appendix A lists philatelicjournals or periodicals arranged under the countries of publication in date order. Appendix B is of“The principal sources of information for philatelic literature collectors” arranged in two sections:
I separate works and articles, and II journals or periodicals. The 1926 “Supplement” follows the same
pattern except that it does not have an Appendix B. The 1938 “Addenda” also follows the pattern.
The term “In progress”, in Part II Periodicals and under the heading Auction Catalogues inPart I, means that these are continuing to be published. Mis. St. Pamph. is an abbreviation for
Miscellaneous Stamp Pamphlets which are small monographs bound in tract volumes and listed
in Part I. Mis. St. Jour. is an abbreviation for Miscellaneous Stamp Journals which are short runs ofjournals or periodicals bound in tract volumes and listed in Part II.
Sir Edward Denny Bacon’s work in cataloguing the Crawford Library is one of the major
contributions to philatelic literature and the subject of philately. The standard of the work isoutstanding. In all that he did he is renowned for his attention to detail and accuracy and all serious
philatelists have much for which to thank him.

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Bequest to the Nation
Lord Crawford, in 1913, had been in failing health for some time and in his last months he seldom
left his house in Cavendish Square. He had suffered from asthma but was especially keen to discharge
his duties as a Trustee of the British Museum. It was as he was departing from a meeting of theTrustees that he collapsed having suffered a major heart attack and was taken home where he diedthe following day 31 January 1913 (Ref. 18).
By the terms of the will of the 26th Earl of Crawford the philatelic section of his library wasbequeathed to the Trustees of the British Museum (Ref. 19). It was housed at the Earl’s London
home at 2 Cavendish Square. The library was moved to the British Museum on 14 and 17 March
1913. At the time of the transfer it was reported by A W K Miller (1849–1914), the Keeper of Printed
Books (Refs 20 and 24) to be nearly 4,000 volumes, plus 156 boxes’ and 35 parcels of unboundperiodicals and pamphlets. On arrival at the Museum the volumes were arranged or placed andshelfmarks assigned. It was housed on the gallery of the North Library in which reading room it
was then seen by researchers.
Shelfmarks (or pressmarks as they were known at the time) for the Crawford Library always startwith the word Crawford followed by a number e.g. Crawford 1234. All volumes were impressed witha yellow (indicating a donation) dated ownership stamp of April 1913 including the words ‘BRITISH
MUSEUM’ in an oil type based ink on the title verso page, at the end of the volume, on the reverseof any plate and at other places. In addition a special stamp with the wording ‘BEQUEATHED BY
JAMES EARL OF CRAWFORD K.T. 1913’ was placed at an appropriate place in the volumes, also
in yellow ink. This handstamp still exists, it and an impression from it are shown at Figs 10 and 11.

Figure 10. Handstamp‘BEQUEATHED BY JAMES EARL OF
CRAWFORD K.T. 1913’.

Figure 11. Impression from handstamp‘BEQUEATHED BY JAMES EARL OF
CRAWFORD K.T. 1913’ (at 200%).

The volumes are arranged in an order which is roughly:
Crawford 1–90 		Auction Catalogues
Crawford 91–700 		
Dealers Lists/Stamp Catalogues
Crawford 701–767 		
Official Publications/Postal Laws
Crawford 756–767 		
Periodicals (short runs)
Crawford 768–909 		
Tracts/Miscellaneous Pamphlets
Crawford 910–912 		
Dealers Lists
Crawford 913–926 		
Miscellaneous Tracts
Crawford 927–1465 		
Monographs, cuttings, notebooks
Crawford 1466–1477		
Philatelic Society Statutes
Crawford 1478–1694		
Monographs
Crawford 1695–1868		
Periodicals
Crawford 1869–1885
British Postal Reports
Crawford 1886–2718
Periodicals
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This arrangement at first sight might look a little confused as some classes of material are to befound in more than one place, dealers’ lists for example. This is explained by the practice of housing
the largest volumes on the lowest shelf with smaller volumes at the top of the stack with a graduationof sizes in between. Thus the dealers’ lists at Crawford 91–700 are of a smaller or standard size
compared with those at Crawford 910–912 which are large. The British Library (and the British
Museum Library before it) is a closed access library, which means that the reader finds a catalogue
entry of the required book and the book comes from the shelf to the reader. The reader never finds
the book for himself. Thus exactly where the book is to be found is of no importance to the reader.
Here a description of a tract and tract volume will be useful. A tract is a short treatise in pamphlet
form which may be of just a few pages. So that it may survive and be arranged in a library it may bebound with other tracts, of the same or similar size, in a single volume known as a tract volume. In
the Crawford Library and at the British Library in general, the tract is numbered within the boundvolume. Thus A Reference List of the Stamps of Panama by John Nicholas Luff RDP (1860–1938)
published in 1905 is tract number 10 in the volume of Miscellaneous Stamp Pamphlets (see above)with the Crawford Library shelfmark Crawford 916 and its shelfmark will be Crawford 916 (10).
Within the Crawford Library two sequences of tract volumes are to be found: Miscellaneous Stamp
Pamphlets, and Miscellaneous Stamp Journals.

Figure 12. China, Postal Circular No 1, 1897.
Crawford 1067.
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Figure 13. A descriptive price list and Catalogueof British Colonial and foreign postage stamps, thefirst Stanley Gibbons catalogue, November 1865.
Crawford 247(1).

Figure 14. Post Office Reform; its
importance and practicability, thePrivate and Confidential edition,[January] 1837. Crawford 1117.

Figure 15.
The title page of the first philatelic auction held in the United Kingdom,
Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge, 18 March 1872. Crawford 74(2).
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Conservation at the British Library
On 1 March 1983, aged 29, I joined the British Library Philatelic Collections as one of three philatelic
Curators. I had long known of the Crawford Library, its Catalogue and of the significance of both.
Once I had settled in to my new post, I was keen to see the Crawford Library. At the time almost
all rare books, including all of the Crawford Library, were known as ‘Case Books’ and accordingly
it was stored in a closed and restricted access secure area or Pen known as ‘Pen 5’. It had previously
been housed on the North Library gallery and was probably moved in to ‘Pen 5’ when the North
Library was rebuilt between 1934 and 1937. Most of the British Library in 1983 was still housed at
the British Museum building at Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury (before the Library moved to its
new building at St Pancras in 1997) and ‘Pen 5’ was to be found on the first floor of the North Eastbook stacks which then surrounded the Round Reading Room which had opened in 1857. All of
the book stacks surrounding the Reading Room were demolished after the departure of the British
Library and the space now forms part of the Great Court at the Museum.
It was a great shock to see the Crawford Library for the first time for it was generally in poorand neglected condition. Books produced in the mid-19th Century were often produced on poor
quality wood pulp paper with high levels of acidity resulting in the paper becoming brown andbrittle. This degraded paper results in it crumbling away and the Crawford Library was especiallysusceptible to this condition. The poor quality leather used by Tiffany for his Library was now in an
impoverished condition (see below). In addition poor cleaning of the Pen storage area resulted indust and with no or little leather dressing had given rise to detrition caused by lack of furbishing.
The books were packed too tightly on the shelves and some were still unbound, the result of
under-funding. I determined there and then despite being the new boy in my post that this mustchange. I took the view that my career at the Library was most likely to last, as indeed it did, until
retirement thirty years later and so the conservation and availability for research of the Crawford
Library became a career-long project.
A number of reasons can be given for the poor state of the volumes in 1983. Following the deathof the 26th Earl of Crawford in 1913 and the transfer and arrangement of the books, resources ofstaff and money had disappeared from 1914 diverted for the 1914–18 World War. After the closeof the War economic conditions continued to be under pressure for some years until the 1939–45
World War drained again resources of staff and money, after which War, recovery required first callon spare public funds for ten years plus. The Crawford Library was in the care of the Department ofPrinted Books and curatorial responsibility was unclear. I decided to take that responsibility. Poor
preservation in general in the British Library was a matter that had been the subject of a major
review and a new department, the Preservation Service, had recently been established in 1983 withgood funding.
It took some considerable time to start the major conservation project following quite a numberof meetings. The key event took place at 9.30 am on 25 June 1985 when a long awaited site meetingin ‘Pen 5’ was held to assess the action to be taken. Present was Robin ‘Bob’ Schoolley-West FRPSL(1937–2012) then Head of the Philatelic Collections 1973–1991, Jane Carr, of the British Library’s
National Preservation Office, Ed King of the Preservation Service and myself. The resulting plancontained in a memorandum of 26 June from Jane Carr to Dr Dave Clements, Director of the
Preservation Service, was:
1) The microfilming of the only copy of the Crawford Library catalogue completewith shelfmarks.
2) The identification of material in the poorest condition for conservation andmicrofilming.
3) The cleaning of the Pen and furbishment of the books and the easing of the tightly
packed volumes.

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A total of 3,000 volumes were identified as in need of urgent work, including 276 shelfmarks
unbound since 1913. Binding (in leather for early or rare works of importance, otherwise in buckram)with de-acidification and conservation, if required, started in July 1985. The unbound material was
worked on first at the rate of 100 to 150 volumes each month for a few months in 1985. By 1987
volumes were sent for binding with conservation at the rate of 50 to 60 volumes each month. All
book plates of any previous owner of the volumes (Bacon, Tiffany and others) have been retainedor reaffixed into new bindings (Refs 21, 22, 23). This work has continued to the present time withpriorities decided by the condition of paper and binding tempered by the availability of resources atabout £50,000 to £70,000 spent each year. Recent progress with reduced Government funding has
slowed, but continues. Over the years since 1985 the British Library has spent in the region of three
million pounds on binding and microfilming (as well as indirect costs) saving the Crawford Libraryfor future generations. This is one of the largest, if not the largest, contributions to international
philatelic scholarship infrastructure.
When books are rebound with conservation treatment, which often means lamination or lining,each volume expands by about 15%. In order to manage this process the Library was split into two
shelfmark order sequences being those conserved and those yet to be conserved. Eventually thesewere reunited with expansion space. Furbishing, that is cleaning and leather dressing, has been
carried out twice to date. For the record Kevin Fromings of the Binding Preparation section of the
Preservation Service managed the day to day sending of books to the conservation binders under
the direction of Ed King and his successors and Miss Marie Lewis of the Philatelic Collections
department managed the selection of volumes for work under my curatorial direction. In 2016 thiswork is managed by Paul Skinner FRPSL and Richard Morel. The binders involved in the work include
the British Library’s own bindery and conservation studios, and Chivers, Riley, Dunn & Wilson,
and Derry Paper & Book Conservation Limited. The volumes that had once formed Tiffany’s library
had been bound in an inferior dark blue leather and were poorly constructed resulting in boards
coming away and other faults. Lord Crawford bound his volumes in a dark blue morocco leather
similar in style to the Tiffany bindings. All of the Tiffany bound volumes had been rebound by 2016.
Crawford Catalogue – New Edition 1991
Clearly the purpose of conserving the Crawford Library was to improve its availability to researchers.
In the 1980s its condition was sufficiently poor to make its greater use undesirable on conservation
grounds. By 1990 its condition, while still giving much work to do, was greatly improved overall. It
was now time to publish the catalogue complete with shelfmarks and to this end the only copy of thecatalogue with the shelfmarks, was photographed in the United States where this could be done morecheaply than in the United Kingdom. David Way of the Library’s Publishing Office, Art Groten FRPSL
of The Printer’s Stone Limited and I met on 11 March 1991 to make publishing arrangements. The
resulting volume, including the 1911 Bibliography, the 1926 Supplement and the 1938 Addenda to
the Supplement, complete with the vital shelfmarks for ordering volumes in the Reading Rooms(not to mention essential item reference), was published in an edition of 500, by the Printer’s Stone
Limited of Fishkill, New York, in association with the British Library, as Catalogue of the Crawford
Library of Philatelic literature at the British Library, in 1991 (Ref. 25). This was in good time forthe celebrations for the Centenary of the Philatelic Collections for which a reception was held on
2 October 1991 in the Kings Library gallery at the British Museum. This marked the bequest of the
Tapling Collection, the Centenary of the Philatelic Collections and the 80th anniversary of firstpublication of the Crawford Catalogue in 1911. The Chairman of the British Library, Commander
Michael Saunders-Watson, presented Francis Kiddle RDP Hon FRPSL (1942–2015) Honorary Librarianof the Royal with a specially inscribed copy of the Crawford Catalogue (Ref. 26).

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The British Library and the move to St Pancras
Archival Libraries are always in need of storage space. By the late 1950s moves were being made toprovide for a new building. In 1961 a special meeting of the Trustees of the British Museum, withthe 28th Earl of Crawford (1900–1975), the grandson of the 26th Earl, in the chair decided that amonumental building was needed and a site south of Great Russell Street was favoured for which
designs were produced by the architect Colin St John Wilson (1922–2007) (Ref. 27). Political andother considerations including the separation of the British Museum library departments into a neworganisation by the British Library Act 1972 hastened the consideration of new site for the Librarynext to St Pancras railway station. It was to this new building at 96 Euston Road, where the architect
was Colin St John Wilson, that the Crawford Library moved in 1997. The volumes are housed inthe ‘Rare Book’ storage areas in Basement 2 (second basement down) with a separate storage areafor large volumes on their sides also in Basement 2, giving a total shelf run of 170 metres.

Figure 16. A general view of the Crawford Libraryin the St Pancras book stacks.

The Crawford Library Digitisation ProjectAs a large body of the volumes had been microfilmed at British Standard quality it is possible toproduce digital images from the microfilm at a reduced cost compared with doing so from theoriginal volumes and with less risk of damage to those volumes. Such a process had been undertakenwith the British Library’s collection of Newspapers and the idea of repeating this for the Crawford
Library was clear. It was with this idea in mind that I invited Christopher King RDP FRPSL, thenthe Chairman of the British Philatelic Trust, in the company of Frank Walton RDP FRPSL and Mike
Roberts FRPSL to see the Crawford Library on 13 September 2012. During the visit we informally
discussed the possibility of digitisation estimating that 800,000 images might result. An initialbriefing paper was produced shortly after this visit for the Trust to facilitate some initial discussion.
A formal proposal from the British Library to the British Philatelic Trust entitled Crawford Library
Digitisation Project by David Beech MBE FRPSL and Paul Skinner FRPSL and dated 31 December 2012
was submitted. The proposal found favour with the Trustees and the sum of £85,000 was madeavailable in the form of a grant.
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Figure 17. The microfilm used for the digitisation.

I retired from the British Library at the end of March 2013 and the project is now managed by
my curatorial successor Paul Skinner FRPSL, assisted by Richard Morel and other staff at the Library.
As the British Library has yet to be able to mount the images on a website an agreement with theRoyal to do so was reached and for the Society the project is managed by Frank Walton RDP FRPSL
and Steve Jarvis FRPSL.
One early and successful step in the project was the addition of the Crawford Library catalogue
entries to the Global Philatelic Library website, thus providing a gateway for access to the digitised
images. Brenda Young, the metadata systems manager of the British Library, did much to achieve
this in a smooth and efficient manner. The production of digital images from the microfilm was
not without its problems which were often especially difficult to solve. Just as difficult is the matterof copyright. Only material that is out of copyright is being made available in digital form. As theyears pass more material will become available as copyright ends. As the question of copyrightdepends on the laws in various countries progress in establishing its existence is far from straightforward; establishing the date of death of authors, which is often key and can be far from easy.
Various members of the Society have been most helpful in this regard. On the 9 June 2014 theSociety and the British Library put out an announcement that the Crawford Library was in theprocess of being digitised and would be available in due course via the Global Philatelic Librarywith a generous grant from the British Philatelic Trust. The British Library invited rights holders
in works that may be included in the Crawford Library Digitisation to support the project. If rights
holders prefer content not to appear, they were requested to communicate with the Library [PaulSkinner FRPSL, Curator, Philatelic Collections] as early as possible, so that any such works can be
restricted to traditional access (Ref. 28).

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Epilogue
The Crawford Library Digitisation Project has only been possible with the co-operation of the
British Library, the British Philatelic Trust and the Royal Philatelic Society London with the Global
Philatelic Library and the many people mentioned in this text. This is a project that could only havebeen accomplished in the United Kingdom.
The complete text of the 1991 Catalogue of the Crawford Library of Philatelic Literature at the
British Library has been digitised and contains much information which does not appear in the
Global Philatelic Library catalogue entries. This includes detailed listings of auction sales, notes on
edition, numbers of pages, for periodicals the volumes or years, the dates of publication and thenumbers of parts in each volume, together with other useful information including some manuscript
notes. It is suggested that the catalogue entry for a volume is inspected where additional data may
be found. It has not been possible to OCR this text but this is likely to be possible at a later date.
The digitisation of the texts in the volumes of the Crawford Library will be of the greatest value
to the philatelic community for it will not be necessary for any other philatelic library to digitise
anything already covered by this project.
The significance of the Crawford Library Digitisation Project is that in time about 1,200,000
pages of text will become available to anyone anywhere and for all time. Thus with the passage oftime researchers will be able to see the printed words that form the basis of our knowledge today.
Scholars will be able to see and check statements, check on reports of issues of postage stamps andpostal stationery, etc. The rather neglected area of the history of the subject will be made mucheasier to study especially as the advertisements in periodicals have been retained.
In his will, Lord Crawford, referring to his bequest of the philatelic section of his library, said
“I am anxious that…it shall be of the greatest use for reference”. With the availability of much andeventually all of its text via the internet the Earl’s wishes will have been fulfilled in a way that hecould not have imagined in the early years of the 20th century.

Figure 18. A poster from the papers of Mercantile Committee on Postage. Crawford 1192.

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Using the Crawford Library in digital form
The Catalogue entries and most of the contents of the Crawford Library will be freely accessible on
the internet. The website will be formally unveiled during the New York 2016 World Stamp Show
international stamp exhibition. A presentation will be made at 2 pm on Monday 30 May 2016. Data is
being hosted by The Global Philatelic Library (GPL) on their website www.globalphilateliclibrary.org.

Figure 19. The GPL home page. Clicking on the British Library icon will display the search panel.

Search Screens
The search screens to access the information in the Crawford Philatelic Library are to be foundon the Global Philatelic Library’s website www.globalphilateliclibrary.org. The GPL home page(Fig. 19) has a red British Library logo button on it which will route through to the search panel(Fig. 20) and a link to the 1991 edition of the Catalogue.

Figure 20. The search panel for the Crawford Philatelic Library.
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The search panel allows two terms to be entered, with simple Boolean logic of AND, NOT and OR
being available. The results can be further refined by filtering on the type of resource being sought.
These are the standard librarian phrases: a monograph is simply a handbook with periodicals andAuction catalogues being defined as serials.
In Figure 20 above, the search for items in the Library with ‘Sierra Leone’ mentioned in the title
or in other fields yields two hits on the data, as shown in Figure 21.

Figure 21. The results panel showing two matches on ‘Sierra Leone’.

For many source books in the Library, pdfs are available for research. There are two reasons forimages not being available: either the book itself wasn’t filmed during the conservation phase, or
the text hasn’t been proven to be free of copyright constraints. If images of the source document areavailable, then a button will appear in the extreme right-hand column, as with the example shownin Figure 22 which is the result of a search on the title ‘Krumbs’.

Figure 22. The results panel showing one match on ‘Krumbs’.

An image of the original item will be displayed after the ‘PDF’ button is clicked. The text inthis box does provide the file size, and users must be cautious to only request downloads that areappropriate for their internet connection speed.

Figure 23. The first three pages of the magazine Krumbs, published in Aarwood, USA in 1890.

There are no restrictions on the use of the images as they are completely free of copyright.

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Technical Matters
Numerous challenges were encountered and overcome during the IT development of this milestone
project. There are approximately 7,500 different bound volumes in the Crawford Library, but that
total increases by over a thousand when the tract volumes are expanded into their individual titles.
The final master catalogue has 8,830 individual titles.
The technical staff at the British Library extracted technical data from the BL’s catalogue. This
had to be normalised into a format that could be used on the web. This detailed analysis andtransformation work was undertaken by three members of the Society: Frank Walton RDP FRPSL,
Steve Jarvis FRPSL and Mark Wilson. This task took over a year to complete due the complexity ofcodifications, diacritics and the format used.
The concept was simple: take the list of the titles held and correlate this with a series of images
which were created from the microfilm made since 1985. Unfortunately, there was not a common
key across the two sets of data, so matching them together was far from straightforward.
Another very significant problem is that the conservation project from 1985 onwards
unfortunately only made microfilms from about a year into the project. This means that only 78%
of the titles have images available currently. In excess of 250 rolls of microfilm were used in the
project. The completion of this digitisation would be highly desirable, but unfortunately this cannot
be achieved in the immediate future without significant additional funding.
A further challenge that has had to be faced is the sheer volume of data involved. There are
1.2 million pages of pdfs. Placing this volume of data onto a webserver is beyond the capacity ofthe present GPL, which is hosted by the Royal Philatelic Society London. Steps have been taken
to move this to an independent service, but due to some cost considerations this has not yet been
finalised at the time of writing.
Each page of each volume has been subjected to Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and so
will be word searchable on the website. As with other considerations, the sheer volume of images
to be processed means that this work is still in progress. One major concern is the quality of theresultant text files: the font used by early publishers, and the degree of ‘see through’ from the backof a printed page, has meant that the searchable text is far from ideal. This OCRing was undertaken
by Mark Copley, the Curator at the Society, using the latest version of the professional software
ABBYY Finereader.
Some of the image files are enormous and although some of the largest ones have split into
smaller files, the download times for users may be significant. Any users must bear that in mind
before viewing original pages.
Others who have taken part in the project and are not mentioned in the text above are: Rossitza
Atanassova of the British Library, Mark Bailey FRPSL, Greg Spring FRPSL and Brian Trotter RDP FRPSL
References

1. Bacon, ED, “The Philatelic Library of the Earl of Crawford, KT”, The Journal of the Philatelic Literature
Society, Volume 1, pages 25–30, 1908. Reproduced in Appendix A.
2. The Royal Philatelic Society London 1869–1969, London: The Royal Philatelic Society London, 1969, page 46.
3. In conversation between the author and Christopher James Folke Arnande, grandson of the 27th Earl of
Crawford on 9 July 2014.
4. Negus, Ron, “The Earl of Crawford K.T. (1847–1913): A Short Biographical Sketch”, The London Philatelist,
Volume 111, supplement, December 2002.
5. Barker, Nicholas, Bibliotheca Lindesiana: The Lives and Collections of Alexander William, 25th Earl of
Crawford and 8th Earl of Balcarres and James Ludovic, 26th Earl of Crawford and 9th Earl of Balcarres,
London: Quaritch for the Roxburghe Club, 1977, page 342.
6. Negus, Ron, “The Earl of Crawford K.T. (1847–1913): A Short Biographical Sketch”, The London Philatelist,
Volume 111, supplement, December 2002, page 9.
7. Negus, Ron, “The Earl of Crawford K.T. (1847–1913): A Short Biographical Sketch”, The London Philatelist,
Volume 111, supplement, December 2002, pages 11–12.

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8. Negus, Ron, “Our National Philatelist: Sir Edward Denny Bacon, KCVO (1860–1938) A short biographicalsketch”, The London Philatelist, Volume 108, supplement, December 1999, page 13.
9. Negus, Ron, “Our National Philatelist: Sir Edward Denny Bacon, KCVO (1860–1938) A short biographicalsketch”, The London Philatelist, Volume 108, supplement, December 1999, page 11.
10. Negus, Ron, “Our National Philatelist: Sir Edward Denny Bacon, KCVO (1860–1938) A short biographicalsketch”, The London Philatelist, Volume 108, supplement, December 1999, page 13.
11. Negus, Ron, “Our National Philatelist: Sir Edward Denny Bacon, KCVO (1860–1938) A short biographicalsketch”, The London Philatelist, Volume 108, supplement, December 1999, page 14.
12. [Bacon, Edward Denny], Bibliotheca Lindesiana Vol. VII: A Bibliography of the Writings General, Special
and Periodical forming the Literature of Philately, Aberdeen: The Aberdeen University Press, 1911
13. [Bacon, Edward Denny], Catalogue of the Philatelic Library of the Earl of Crawford, K.T., London: The
Philatelic Literature Society, 1911.
14. “The Catalogue of the Philatelic Library of the Earl of Crawford, K T”, The London Philatelist, Volume 20,
pages 18–19, 1911.
15. Bacon, Edward Denny, Supplement to the Catalogue of the Philatelic Library of the Earl of Crawford, K.T.
Published 1911, London: The Philatelic Literature Society, 1926.
16. Bacon, Sir Edward D, Addenda to the “Supplement to the Catalogue of the Philatelic Library of the Earl of
Crawford, K.T.”, The London Philatelist, Volume 47, supplement, March 1938.
17. [ B a c o n , E d w a r d D e n n y ] , C a t a l o g u e o f t h e C r a w f o r d L i b r a r y o f P h i l a t e l i c
Li t e rat u re at t h e B r i t i s h Li b ra r y , F i s h k i l l : T h e P r i nt e r ’s S t o n e L i m i t e d , 1 9 9 1 .
This Volume in part is taken from a copy of the 1911 and 1926 works with manuscript annotations mainlyof shelfmarks, at BL shelfmark Cup. 402 h 2. A copy in microfilm is at shelfmark PB Mic C 12500.
18. Barker, Nicholas, Bibliotheca Lindesiana: The Lives and Collections of Alexander William, 25th Earl of
Crawford and 8th Earl of Balcarres and James Ludovic, 26th Earl of Crawford and 9th Earl of Balcarres,
London: Quaritch for the Roxburghe Club, 1977, pages 371–372.
19. “The Will of the Earl of Crawford”, The London Philatelist, Volume 22, page 116, 1913.
20. As reported by Arthur William Kaye Miller (1849–1914), Keeper of Printed Books 1912–1914 Ref. BL
Archives DH 2/77, IV 141 (7th April 1913).
21. Beech, David R, “Preserving the Crawford Library”, Philatelic Literature Review, Volume 46, pages 190–191,
1997.
22. Beech, David R, “The British Library Philatelic Collections”. A Paper given to The Royal Philatelic Society
London on 9th April 1998.
23. Beech, David R, “The British Library Philatelic Collections 1998 to 2005. A Paper given to The Royal
Philatelic Society London on Thursday17th November 2005”.
24. Harris, PR, A History of The British Museum Library 1753–1973, London: The British Library, 1998, pages
416–417.
25. [Bacon, Edward Denny], Catalogue of the Crawford Library of Philatelic Literature at the British Library,
Fishkill: The Printer’s Stone Limited, 1991.
26. “The British Library. The Centenary of the Philatelic Collections. Presentation to the Royal PhilatelicSociety, London”, The London Philatelist, Volume 100, pages 306–308, 1991.
27. Harris, PR, A History of The British Museum Library 1753–1973, London: The British Library, 1998, page 674.
28 Philatelic Literature announcement from the Royal Philatelic Society London. The Crawford Library
Digitisation Project, With a note from the British Library headed The Crawford Library Digitisation
Project mainly about copyright and the interests of copyright owners, dated 9 June 2014.

Acknowledgements
Christopher J F Arnande (grandson of the 27th Earl of Crawford), Brian Birch FRPSL, the British
Library, Chris King RDP FRPSL, Steve Jarvis FRPSL, Ed King MBE, Richard Morel, Paul Skinner FRPSL
and Frank Walton RDP FRPSL.
Copyright © David R Beech 2016

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Appendix A

The Philatelic Library of the Earl of Crawford, K.T.
By E. D. Bacon
The Journal of the Philatelic Literature Society, Volume 1, pages 25–30, 1908.

Unlike the history of several of the great libraries of the present day, the origin of which is shrouded
in mystery, it is fortunately still possible to write a fairly complete account of the principal collections
that have been formed of the literature pertaining to stamp-collecting. The earliest attempt to get
together a philatelic library, at least in this country, was that made by Mr. W. Dudley Atlee, the editor
and publisher of a stamp circular issued from September, 1865, to May, 1866, and the first Secretaryof the Philatelic Society, London, founded in April, 1869. Mr. Atlee had been collecting philatelic
works some years before the last mentioned date, and was one of the first writers to compile listsof philatelic publications. These lists, which appeared in the Stamp Collector’s Monthly Gazette, of
New Brunswick, in 1867, and in the Philatelist, of London and Brighton, for 1867, 1869 and 1872,
have proved of the greatest service to subsequent writers. Mr. Atlee appears to have abandoned
philately in 1872, and although I have made many enquiries with the view of tracing what becameof his library I have never been able to learn any authentic details of its ultimate fate. It is quitepossible that his books are still lying hidden away on dusty shelves in some forgotten corner.
In the United States the late Mr. J.K. Tiffany was one of the first to make a study of philatelic literatureand to form a library. In his case his efforts were prolonged long after Mr. Atlee had given up the pursuitand he remained an indefatigable collector until his death in March, 1897. For two decades – from 1870
to 1890 – he was to all intents and purposes the only collector of the entire literature of stamp-collecting
in either the United States or Great Britain, other philatelists of that period being content if they possesseda few of the more important journals and works. It was owing largely to this fact that Mr. Tiffany wasenabled to make his library so complete, as there was little or no demand for any except the standard
publications, and he was enabled to acquire copies of the scarcest works at a few pence each, which would
now, owing to the greatly increased competition probably be appraised at pounds apiece.
Mr. Tiffany included in his collection all separate works, journals, retail and wholesale price-lists
from the smallest to the largest, notices of dealers and societies, articles in non-philatelic magazines,
works on postal history, postage stamp music, etc. In fact, he made it his object to obtain every scrapof paper from a single leaf to the largest volume, which had any bearing whatever on philately or
the Post Office, in all languages and from every quarter of the globe. The strongest portions of his
library consisted of the philatelic literature of the United States and Great Britain, both of which hehad succeeded in making surprisingly complete. In the publications of the continent of Europe, as
it is only natural to expect, he lacked a good many works, more particularly of those of Germany.
The collection was discontinued after Mr. Tiffany’s death, and in June, 1901, the entire libraryjust as he had left it was purchased by the Earl of Crawford, and is now housed in his London
residence in Cavendish Square. On the arrival of the library in England, Lord Crawford determined
to continue it from the end of 1896, the period when it stopped, and to keep it up to date. His efforts
in this direction have been most successful, and he has added an immense number of volumes toevery branch, since it passed into his hands. Mr. Tiffany had adopted a uniform binding of half
calf and the colour black for the journals and such of the separate works as required to be bound,and Lord Crawford decided to continue using the same colour, but has substituted half moroccoin place of calf. Unfortunately the binding done in the United States is work of poor quality, andseveral of the books have had to be re-bound. Many of the early catalogues and works were also
terribly mutilated and cut down and some had the wrappers omitted, but in many instances thesehave since been replaced by more perfect copies with the original wrappers intact.
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Shortly after Lord Crawford acquired the Tiffany library he purchased from the writer all theworks of which I had copies that were not represented in the Tiffany collection. My own library
was fairly strong in works published from 1897 to 1901 and by this means the literature of theseyears was filled in to a large extent. I was also able to add a few of the earliest publications that were
missing and in other instances to replace poor copies with others in choicer condition. During theyears that have elapsed since 1901: a large quantity of the missing numbers of journals, have also
been obtained from a variety of other sources by the circulation of “lists of wants.” Finally, towards
the end of last year Lord Crawford, as recently announced, purchased the famous Fraenkel library.
From this he has been able to fill in a very large number of gaps in the literature of all countries,
but more especially amongst the German publications.
In order to give some idea of the room required to store the Crawford philatelic library, I may
mention that if the volumes were arranged on nine rows of shelves, one above the other, they would
cover a wall space of thirty feet in length, or a total run of two hundred and seventy feet would be
required if the books were placed in a continuous line. The rapid growth that has taken place since
Lord Crawford bought the Tiffany collection is best demonstrated in this way: Mr. Tiffany had
started two series of volumes, one lettered “Miscellaneous Stamp Journals,” the other “Miscellaneous
Stamp Pamphlets,” in which were bound up, respectively, journals of which only one or at the mosta few numbers were issued and small pamphlets. Many of the volumes of the former contain as
many or more than twenty different journals and there are often ten or more pamphlets to one
volume of the latter. When the Tiffany library arrived in London the two sets numbered fifty-one
and twenty-one volumes respectively; now they contain as many as one hundred and thirty-fiveand eighty-seven volumes.
Amongst such a wealth of philatelic treasures it is difficult to select works deserving of special
notice, but mention may be made of some of the earliest publications of each country, as a list ofthese will doubtless be found of considerable interest to other literature collectors. In giving this list
it is only right I should add that the selections are entirely arbitrary on my part, for there are many
works of later years which are in fact just as scarce and several even of greater rarity than many of
those I have placed on the roll. In the description of the works my readers will please note that the
copies described are to be understood to be perfect and to retain the wrappers in which they wereoriginally issued, except special mention is made to the contrary. In the same way all the journals
have their advertisement pages and wrappers intact without it is expressly stated otherwise.
GREAT BRITAIN
The earliest works, consisting of unpriced manuals, include: Frederick Booty’s “Aids to Stamp
Collectors,” Brighton and London, (1862); the first, second, and third editions, the first two of
which are without the author’s name, the title-pages only bearing the words “By a Stamp Collector.”
The copy of the first edition in the library has “W. Thomson, 22–4–62,” written on the title-page, amost important piece of information as it shews that the catalogue was issued in April, 1862, andwas consequently the earliest work of the kind published in Great Britain, the preface to the firstedition of Mount Brown’s “Catalogue,” being dated ‘‘May, 1862.” Booty’s “Stamp Collectors Guide,”
Brighton and London, 1862; the two varieties, one with the introduction printed only on one
side of the paper, the other with it impressed on both sides. Mount Brown’s “Catalogue,” London,
1862–64; all five editions in their coloured paper wrappers, the title-page of the last edition bearing
in manuscript “Dr. Viner with the author’s kind respects. 16 Ap. 1864”; second and fourth editionsin the publisher’s binding, the latter interleaved; fifth edition, large paper – “Author’s Copy” –with autograph inscription on the fly-leaf “C.W. Viner, Esq., Ph.D., M.A., etc. With the compiler’s
compliments,” and a manuscript slip inserted signed “F” (Miss Fenton) giving some particulars of
Mr. Mount Brown and his catalogue. Dr. J. E. Gray’s “Catalogue,” London, 1862–75; all six editions.
A copy of that rare “Catalogue” by “A Collector,” published at Gloucester in 1863, (vide illustrationon the front page of the paper wrapper). The “Collector” in question was a Mr. W.H. Wright, and the

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sale of the work was stopped on account of its being an almost verbatim copy of the third editionof Mount Brown’s “Catalogue.” The title-page of the volume in the library bears in manuscript“E.L. Pemberton with the author’s compliments. 8–3–69.” and in a different hand-writing, “andby him to J.K. Tiffany.” E.A. Oppen’s “ Catalogue,” London; a long series of editions ranging fromthe first published in 1863 to the thirtieth, issued in 1891. The set is complete with the exceptionof copies of the second, fifth, seventh, and twenty-fifth editions, and nearly all are in the clothbindings as issued by the publisher. Of the thirty editions numbers one and two were compiled by
E.A. Oppen, numbers three to seven by Henry Whymper, while all the subsequent issues were thework of Dr. C.W. Viner. Bellars and Davie’s “Standard Guide to Postage Stamp Collecting,” London,
1864–65, the three editions with their paper covers and the first edition interleaved and in the
publisher’s binding, and Dr. C.W. Viner’s translation of Moens’ work “Postage Stamps Illustrated,”
1864; the two varieties with different title-pages, one published by Grumel & Michel, of London,
and the other jointly by Hall & Co., London, and Stafford Smith & Co., Brighton.
The library also contains copies of all the early works on forgeries, consisting of E. Doble’s
translation of Moens’ work “On the Falsification of Postage Stamps,” Falmouth, 1862; Lewes andPemberton’s “Forged Stamps,” Edinburgh, 1863; T. Dalston’s “How to Detect Forged Stamps,”
Gateshead, 1865; and J. M. Stourton’s “Postage Stamp Forgeries,” London and Birmingham, 1865.
Of the early priced catalogues there are examples of Stafford Smith & Smith, Bath (1863)–1865;
T. Creber & Co., Devonport, 1864; Moore & Eden, Liverpool, June, 1864; Stockall & Co., later
Young & Stockall, Liverpool, 1864–74, numerous editions; Wm. Lincoln, jun., later Wm. Lincoln,
London (1864–98) many editions, the first a small pamphlet of 34 + (2) pages, with a reddish
brown paper wrapper, size 3½in. x 5½in.; Steinau, Jones & Co., later C. K. Jones & Co., Manchester,
1864–69; Henry R. Victor, Belfast, 1864, sixth edition only, a price-list of twelve pages, without awrapper, size 4½in. x 7in.; the other editions probably consisted of manuscript or printed sheets;
E. Stanley Gibbons, later Stanley Gibbons & Co., Plymouth and London, 1865–90, a very large
number of editions; C. & H. Gloyn, Manchester, 1866–69; Alfred Smith & Co., Bath, 1866–81,
a numerous lot; Stafford Smith & Co., Brighton, 1866–74; J. & G. Yates, Liverpool, 1866, a price-listof twenty pages in a blue paper wrapper, size 5½in. x 8½in.; and J.J. Woods’ “Catalogue of the fineand very complete collection of postage stamps, selected with great care by E.L. Pemberton, Esq.,
of Birmingham, comprising all the rarest varieties of perforation. watermarks, etc., known, including
full series of the stamps of the various countries upon which Mr. Pemberton has been writing during
the year,” Hartlepool (1867), a very interesting list, also five other “Catalogues” of J.J. Woods, issued
from March, 1867, to September, 1870.
The early journals of Great Britain include entire files of the Monthly Intelligencer, Birmingham,
1862–63, ten numbers, the only complete set known (vide illustration, reduced in size, of the front
page of No. 1), this journal is only partly philatelic, but the form and style of the make-up was
copied and adopted by the proprietors of the Stamp Collectors’ Monthly Advertiser, Liverpool,
1862–64, the first journal published that was entirely devoted to philatelic objects; the Liverpool
Stamp Advertiser, after No. 3, the Liverpool and Newport Stamp Advertiser, Liverpool and Newport,
Monmouth, 1863–64, fourteen numbers; the International Postage Stamp Review, London, 1863,
both series, nine numbers; Once a Month, Manchester, 1863–64, both series, fourteen numbers; theWeymouth Stamp and Crest Advertiser, new series, and Stamp Collectors’ Miscellany, Weymouth,
1864–65, fifteen numbers; the North of England Stamp Review and Advertiser, Barnard Castle, 1864,
both series, five numbers; the Stamp Collector’s Pocket Companion, Manchester, 1865, an odd little
paper of 4in. x 5¼in., with a buff paper wrapper, of which only one number was issued; W. D. Atlee’s
Stamp Circular, London, 1865–66, eight numbers, each consisting of two sheets of blue paper, thefirst only of which is printed on one side; and the Stamp Collector’s Budget, Glasgow, 1868, twonumbers. With very few exceptions some of which are only wanting one number to complete thefile, all the other philatelic journals of Great Britain published from 1862 to the present day are
represented by full sets.

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Of non-philatelic magazines containing notices on stamp-collecting and the adoption of stamps
by the Post Office the most important are:– Household Words, London, February 21, 1852, containing
an article, “The Queen’s Head,” giving a description of the production of the first stamps of GreatBritain, printed by Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Petch; All the Year Round, London, July, 19, 1862,with an article, “My Nephew’s Collection”; Cassell’s Illustrated Family Paper, London, 1862–67,
a complete set of the two series of thirty-six and thirty-nine articles, which were founded upon thepapers published in the Magasin Pittoresque of Paris; Young England, London, 1862, containing fivearticles by Dr. J. E. Gray; The Leisure Hour, London, 1863, two articles; The London and Westminster
Review for March, 1840, in which are reviews of several pamphlets, etc., on the introduction of
Penny Postage, with illustrations of various essays for postage stamps.
In connection with the last subject mention must also be made of a volume containing a veryrare collection of the “Papers issued under the direction of the Mercantile Committee on Postage
in 1838 and 1839.” The collection of these “Papers” is, unfortunately, not quite complete, but it
contains a set of the Post Circular, published in London during 1838–39, some of the numbers ofwhich illustrate essays for postage stamps and envelopes and specimens of similar essays are also
to be found in some of the other “Papers.” Besides this volume the library possesses copies of all
the three published editions of Rowland Hill’s “Post Office Reform,” London, 1837, as well as an
example of the earliest edition of January, 1837, with the title-page headed “Private and Confidential.”
Of the last only a small number were printed and privately circulated, and it is now excessively
rare. There are also copies of both the editions of W. H. Ashurst’s “Facts and Reasons in support of
Mr. Rowland Hill’s plan for a Universal Penny Postage,” London, 1838, the latter edition containing
an essay for a letter-sheet; S. Taylor’s “The Penny Postage question examined,” London and Liverpool,
1839; Punch, July 13, 1844, with illustrations of “Punch’s Anti-Graham wafers and envelopes” on
the paper wrapper; and the Art Journal, London, June, 1848, containing an article, “Compound
Plate Printing,” with illustrations of essays of postage stamps, printed by Charles Whiting. Thereis also a very large collection of pamphlets and papers connected with the Chalmers versus Hill
controversy of later years.
BRITISH NORTH AMERICAOf the early literature of British North America the library possesses copies of Craig & Melvin’s“Price List,” St. John, New Brunswick (1864), this consists of two large sheets 8¼in. x 10¾in. withthe prices filled in with pen and ink. A. D. Robertson’s “Price List,” St. John (1865), two large sheets
9in. x 11½in., also with the prices filled in with pen and ink; second edition, 1866, in pamphlet form
fifteen pages + (1) page, 6¼in x 9in., with a coloured paper wrapper. The latter was also issued in
1866 by the Excelsior Stamp Association, a trading name adopted by Edward A. Craig, of St. John,
the only difference consisting in the substitution of a new title-page and coloured paper wrapper.
A third edition was subsequently issued in the name of the Association in 1869. This is of smallersize, 4¾in. x 7¼in., and contains thirty-one pages + (1) page within a coloured paper wrapper. There
are also copies of R. McLachlan & Co.’s “Descriptive Catalogue and Price List,” Montreal, 1865,
twelve pages, 5¼in. x 8in., with a bright blue paper wrapper imprinted in gold, and D. Cameron &Co’s “Price List of Postage Stamps,” Quebec, 1868, twenty-two pages, the same size as the last, witha canary-yellow wrapper.
The early journals include the Stamp Collector’s Record, Montreal, 1864, one number; a second
number of this is said to have been printed but not circulated, but no copy of a No. 2 in any form
is known to exist to-day; the Stamp Collector’s Monthly Gazette, St. John, 1865–67, twenty-four
numbers and supplement and the title page and index printed by J. W. Scott in 1870; the Stamp
Argus, St. John, 1865, five numbers, and the Postman’s Knock, St. John, 1866–70, twenty-one
numbers, and the title-page and index to the first eighteen numbers printed by J.W. Scott in 1870.

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UNITED STATES
Amongst the early manuals are examples of A.C. Kline’s “Stamp Collector’s Manual,” Philadelphia,
1862–65, first, second, and third editions, the first being a copy of Mount Brown’s “Catalogue,” firstedition, excepting for a new list of the issues of the United States; Sever & Francis’ “Catalogue,”
Cambridge, 1863, of which H. Dexter was the author, although his name does not appear in the work,
and C.M. Seltz, a pseudonym for F.H. King, “The Postage-stamp Collectors’ Hand-book,” Boston,
1867, a small pamphlet of (4) + 20 pages, size 4¼in. x 6½in. This hand-book was also published by
S. Allan Taylor, of Boston, and A.H. Wheeler, of Lowell, and is found with no less than four different
coloured wrappers, all of which are in the library.
In price lists there are copies of A.C. Kline’s “Price Catalogue,” Philadelphia (1864–68), three
editions; G. W. Winterburn & Co.’s “Descriptive Catalogue and Price List,” Cincinnati, 1865; F. Trifet’s
later F. Trifet & Co.’s, “Price List” or “Catalogue” of which five editions were published at Boston,from 1866 to 1869; the first consists of a single sheet 7¾in. x 9in., with three columns of prices, andthe remaining four are in pamphlet form of various sizes, and contain from sixteen to twenty-fourpages. Many further editions were published by the same firm from 1870 onwards; A. Fountain’s“New and Revised Descriptive Price Catalogue,” Middletown, 1867; J.W. Scott & Co.’s “Monthly Price
List of Adhesive Stamps,” New York, June, 1867– August, 1868, each of these consists of a single
sheet 7¼in. x 17¼in., of which several numbers are wanting. The fifteen issues comprising the set
constitute the first fifteen editions of J.W. Scott & Co.’s “Catalogue,” the sixteenth and seventeenth
editions of which were published in pamphlet form in New York in 1868 and 1869, followed bynumerous subsequent editions; W. P. Brown’s “Catalogue,” New York, 1868–87, several editions;and C.E. Wilbur’s “Descriptive Catalogue,” Chicago, 1868, a pamphlet of eleven pages + (1) pages,
size 4¼in. x 7¼in.
Included in the early journals are full sets of the Stamp Collector’s Record, Albany, Boston,and New York, 1864–76, forty-four, really forty-two numbers, as no numbers 42 and 43 were everpublished; Coin and Stamp Journal, Chicago, 1865–66, twelve numbers; Curiosity Shop, Chicago,
1865, six numbers; G. W. Winterburn & Co.’s Stamp Circular, Cincinnati, 1865–66, two numbers, ofwhich the last bears no number; Collector’s Guide, Newport and Cambridge, 1866, eight numbers;
Stamp Collector’s Review, Boston, 1866, two numbers, an “Introductory” No. 1, dated July, 1866,
consisting of a single sheet (size 8¼in. x 9½in.), printed on one side only and a second No. 1, in
octavo size, 5½in. x 8½in., dated October, 1866; Mason’s Coin and Stamp Collectors’ Magazine,
Philadelphia, 1867–71, sixty numbers; Postage Stamp Collectors’ Monitor, Boston, 1867, one number,published by C. M. Seltz (i.e., F.H. King), size 4in. x 6in., the contents of which consist of “A list of
the lately issued stamps,” which occupies the reverse page of the title and “Chas. M. Seltz’s Price
Catalogue of Postage Stamps,” which, with a list of packets, fills the other fourteen pages; Stamp
Journal, Middletown, 1867, three numbers; Kelsey’s Postage Stamp Reporter, Meriden, 1867, one
number; Coin and Stamp Journal, Meriden, 1868, three numbers; and the American Journal ofPhilately (first series) New York, 1868–78, one hundred and fifty-six numbers, with two copies
of Vol. V., one the edition published at New York, the other the edition published in London. In
addition to those mentioned all the other early journals are represented complete, in fact down
to quite recent years very few numbers are wanting of the purely philatelic journals. Besides these
there also exist a large number of semi-philatelic journals and, as in the case of every other library,a good many numbers of these less important publications are wanting, more particularly amongst
those which have appeared since the year 1900.
FRANCE AND BELGIUM
The early manuals in French in the library include: F.G. Oscar Berger-Levrault’s privately circulated
lists of stamps, of which there are ten editions and three supplements. The first two editions
have no heading and were printed by autographic lithography. They were issued, respectively, in
September and December, 1861. The subsequent editions issued from 1862–64 all bear the simple
title “Timbres-Poste” and were printed in the ordinary way. Then there followed “Beschreibung
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der bis jetzt bekannten Briefmarken,” Strasburg, 1864, a catalogue in German, next an interleaved
copy, apparently printed in 1865, in two parts without a title-page or index, having “TimbresPoste” as the heading of Part 1, which has ii. + 110 pages, and “Deuxième partie. Essais et timbres
proposés,” pages 111–153 + (1) page; and finally a copy of “Les Timbres Poste” Paris, 1867, of
which there are three varieties;’ one has the “Avant-propos” dated “Mai, 1867,” the second has thedate “Juin, 1867,” and the third is like the last, but has the wrapper dated “1869.” Alfred Potiquet’s“Catalogue,” Paris, 1862, both editions, the first unfortunately wanting pages 35–38. J.B. Moens’“Manuei du Collectionneur,” Brussels, 1862–63, three editions of which the second dated, like thefirst, 1862, is found with three different title-pages; one has the publisher’s name given as “Bruxelles,
Moens, . . . . ,” another has “Bruxelles, Misonne et Bonnet, . . . . J.B. Moens . . .” and the third bears“Bruxelles, Misonne et Bonnet, . . . . Paris, Ch. Reinwald . . . .” The third edition of the “Manuel”
consists of the second with the “Supplément de la 2e édition,” issued together in a green wrapper
bearing “Troisième édition and the date “1863.” Of Moens’ “Illustrations du Manuel” there are two
editions; the first published at Brussels in 1862–63 in seventeen parts in twelve yellow-green paper
wrappers, and the second at Paris in 1864 in seventeen parts in nine blue-green wrappers. Thereis a copy of Moens’ “Les Timbres-poste Illustrés,” Brussels, and also one of the large paper editionof this work with a different title-page and the plates of illustrations printed on India paper. E. de
Laplante’s “Timbre-poste,” Paris (1862) containing one of the small white and gold envelopes with
the name of the publisher, used by him for enclosing stamps sold or sent to his customers; and Fois.
V. * * * (François Vallète’s) “Petit Manuel de l’amateur des timbres-poste,” Paris (1862), one of themost curious philatelic works ever published.
In the early priced catalogues there are examples of A. Beillieu’s “Guide de l’amateur de timbresposte”, Paris, 1863–65, three editions; Pierre Mahé et Cie, later Pierre Mahé’s, “Guide Manuel duCollectionneur,” Paris (1863)–1870. Four editions and supplements to the third and fourth. There isalso a copy of the specia1 edition of the third printed on coloured paper and one of a similar editionof the fourth printed on thick laid paper. It should be noted that the second edition was published in
the form of supplements to Nos. 3–9 of Le Timbrophile; Arthur Maury’s “Catalogue”, Paris, 1865, etc.
The first edition, which was published in 1863, is printed on pale rose paper, and is interleaved, thesecond and third editions appeared, respectively, in (1866) and (1868) and the publication has been
continued down until the present day; Madame E. Nicolas’ “Catalogue,” Paris, 1865, the author ofwhich was Monsieur Ernest Régnard; J.B. Moens’ “Catalogue prix-courant,” Brussels, first edition 1868,
second edition 1869, followed “by five other editions in later years. Amongst other early French works
there are J.B. Moens’ “De la falsification des timbres-poste” Brussels, 1862, with two varieties of thetitle-page one with the names of the publishers given as “Bruxelles, Moens, . . . . Bruxelles, Misonne et
Bonnet, . . . .” the other with “Bruxelles, Moens . . . . Paris, Baillieu . . . .”; J.B. Moens’ “Timbres d’Offices
Américains,” Brussels, 1868; H. Boyer’s “Histoire du timbres-postes et en particulier du timbre-postes
francais,” Marénnes, 1862, and Dr. Magnus (pseudonym for Dr. J.A. Legrand), “Essai sur les filigranes
et les papiers . . . . des timbres-postes,” Paris, 1867, of which only 550 copies were printed.
In the French journals of the sixties I find: Le Timbre Poste, Brussels, 1863–1900, 456 numbers;
the file includes the original edition of the first year in folio size and copies of the reprints of 1 and 2,
in the same form, made in 1863, the whole twelve numbers re-arranged and reprinted in 1867 in
the size of the subsequent issues, reprints of Nos. 13–16, the two first of which were made in 1869
and those of the two last in 1875. There is also a set of the special edition of the journal printed
on variously coloured paper. Le Collectionneur de Timbres-Poste, Paris, 1864, etc., No. 1 of thisappeared on July 15, 1864, and, as the paper is still published it is the oldest existing philatelicjournal of the present day. Nos. 1–3 were first issued in folio form, but were afterwards reprinted in
one number in the same size as Nos. 4–47. Of this journal Nos. 48–50 only exist as price-lists, thepublication after No. 31 became irregular and the journal was entirely suspended between October,
1874, and January, 1885. Le Timbrephile, Paris, 1864–71, 84 numbers: and the reprint of No. 3.
In non-philatelic magazines there is a complete set of the fifty-three articles by Monsiéur Natalis
Rondot, which appeared in the Magasin Pittoresque, Paris, during the years 1862–66.
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GERMANY AND AUSTRIAOf the early manuals of Germany there are examples of C. Beyfuss’ “Neuestes Verzeichniss aller bis jetzt
ausgegebenen in- und ausländischen Briefmarken,” Hanover, 1863, a little hand-book of v. + (3) + 67 pages+ (1) page, size 4 in. x 5¼in. (vide illustration of the title-page); Dürr’sche Buchhandlung “Handbuch fürBriefmarken-Sammler,” Leipzig, 1863, second edition; M. Ruhl’s “ Der Briefmarken-Freund,” Leipzig,
1864–65, (4) pages and (96) plates of coloured illustrations, published in twelve parts, each with a coloured
paper wrapper; A. F. Storch’s “Der Briefmarken-Freund,” Vienna, 1866, unfortunately wanting several pages.
Amongst the oldest priced catalogues are: L. Priebatsch’s “ Uebersicht aller bekannten von 1840 bis
August, 1863, ausgegebenen Franco-Marken,” Breslau, September, 1863, 30 pages, printed on pelure
paper, size 3¾in. x 5in.; Zschiesche & Köder’s “Katalog,” Leipzig (1863)– 1879, editions two to eleven;
R. Zschiesche’s “ Briefmarken-Preiscourant,” Leipzig, 1867, printed on light buff and also on lilac-rose
paper; A. Zschiesche’s “ Katalog,” Leipzig, the second and third editions of 1868 and 1869, with many
subsequent issues; F. Elb’s “ Katalog,” Dresden (1864), with Supplements II and III., published in (1866–67);
Literarisches Museum in Leipzig, “Katalog,” Leipzig, 1864, 23 pages + (1) page, size 3¾in. x 5in., and thetenth edition, which made its appearance in 1868; several of the other editions of this firm bear the nameof G. Bauschke or J. Kiimmel, of these the library contains, with the former’s name, an edition dated“1865,” a copy similar, but with the words “Zweiter Abdruck” on the title-page and the eighth edition
dated “1867,” with the latter’s name there are examples of the thirteenth and fourteenth editions dated,
respectively, “1869” and “1870”; C. Mann Junior. later C. Mann’s “Katalog,” Leipzig, 1864–76, the firstedition is precisely the same as the 1864 edition of the Literarisches Museum in Leipzig, except for thesubstitution of the former’s name on the coloured paper wrapper and on page 1, the other editions in thelibrary are dated “1868,” “1871,” and “1876”; A. Thiele & Co., “Vollständiger Katalog,” Mannheim, 1865,
and A. Lauber’s “Katalog,” Stuttgart, 1866, second edition, containing iv + 83 pages + (1) page.
Of the journals there are entire files of the Magazin für Briefmarken-Sammler, Leipzig, 1863–67,
48 numbers, the form and make-up of the paper was evidently copied from the Stamp Collector’s
Magazine; the Borsenblatt für den Briefmarken-Handel, Kaufbeuren (1864), 12 numbers; theAllgemeine deutsche Briefmarken-Zeitung, Coburg, 1864, 12 numbers; the Deutsche BriefmarkenSammler, Hamburg, 1864–65, three numbers, a very scarce paper; the Briefmarken-Sammler, Leipzig,
1866–71, 52 numbers, of which the three last are particularly rare; the Deutsche Briefmarken-Sammler,
Aussig, 1869, three numbers, the only complete set known; and the Bazar für Briefmarkensammler,
Heidelberg, 1869–70, 11 numbers. The journals from 1870 to the present day are also very complete
and contain several unique pieces, and there are but few wants, even amongst the journals issued by
the German philatelic societies. Many of these latter are excessively difficult to obtain as, frequently,
only sufficient numbers were printed for the members, and they were often produced by autographic
lithography or by some hectographic process.
OTHER COUNTRIES
Philatelic publications during the sixties of countries outside those I have spoken of, are notnumerous. Of these the library possesses two manuals: G. Brecker’s “Guida di tutti i Francobolli,”
Florence, 1864, 36 pages, size 3¾in. x 5¾in. and (U. Franchi’s) “Guida-manuale,” Florence, 1864,
26 pages, size 4¼in. x 6¼in., the name of the author of the latter does not appear in the work, but is
as given; there are two copies of this in the collection, one with and one without the coloured paper
wrapper, both contain prices inserted by the author in pen and ink, the prices differing in many
instances in the two copies. There is also an example of the priced “Katalog” of W. Georg, publishedat Basic and Geneva in 1864, a small pamphlet of iv + 99 pages + (1) page, size 3¾in. x 5½in.
In journals I find Nordisk Frimaerketidende, Copenhagen, 1867–68, 12 numbers, but wanting the
double number 11–12; the Continental Philatelic Magazine, Amsterdam, 1869–70, eight numbers,a journal containing some of the quaintest English ever printed, and lastly De Timbrophilist,
Amsterdam, [1869–70], nine numbers, (vide illustration, reduced in size, of the front page of No. 1).
Of this journal Lord Crawford possesses No. 1, dated July 1 (1869), and No. 9, of March 1, (1870).
Both these are believed to be unique and no copies are known to exist of Nos. 2–8.
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Figure 24. Adolph Reinheimer. A water-coloured sketch of a frame of postage stamps exhibited at the
Vandermaelen Museum in Brussels in 1852. Drawn from memory some years later.
Crawford 1202.
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