The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-11-05
MIR. MANpEL,s ALBUM.
It Contains the Most Wonderful Stamp
 Collection in the World.
From the Philadelphia North American

From the Philadelphia North American.
 A stamp album worth s40O00, owned until a few months ago by H. c. Man i del, forms the finest collection of stamps that has ever been made in this coun- try. It was formed strictly as a picto- rial history of the United States post office.
 It Is only ffty-five years ago that the first United States stamp was printed and ten years later there were many people saving specimens of Uncle sam's postal pictures until the gathering of them became a fad that at one time equaled the bicycle craze. the camera craze or the automobile craze
 Many valuable collections of stamps were made and passed down to history, but few of the collectors looked upon their albums as representing anything like his- tory.
 That which was neglected by all oth- CTS was made the Ilfework of Mr Man del and his wife. Mir. Mandel, during President Johnson's administration. had influence which obtained for him the plates used in making tile proof of all
 
 mitted to the United States bureau of engraving and printing. He had MT. Johnson obtain permission so he could get these plates for years afterward. Ev- erything that illustrated even the begin ming of stamp was carefully collected and preserved. When a new issue of stamps was put out first proofs were ob- tained from the artists. and in many cases the designers or engravers were induced to place their autographs on the papers Thousands of dollars were spent in securing these historical details.
 The different proofs which are made during the process of transforming or transferring the rough designs to the beautiful print are usually destroyed as of no value, but some careful workmen have taken sufficient interest in their labor to preserve every detail, and these are the priceless gems that have been used to form Mir. Mandel.s album.
 When the first issue of stamps was made in 1s47 economy was the ruling motive, and, instead of engraving new portrait, some that already been used were cut down to answer the purpose Of course, this fact was not generally known, but the indefaugable authors of MT. Mandels matchless collection hunted up thousands of old bank notes, and other engravings. until the original source of the design was discovered, and a spec imen of the note annexed to the album Of course, all of these altered proofs are unique, and no amount of money could duplicate them. There is only one or each, and they were secured by these life-worllers in the philatic field
 There are many interesting historical incidents connected with a collection of stamps. In 1869, when it was determined to issue a series of stamps bearing na- tional historic pictures, three paintings were selected to grace the high values On the 15-cent stamp was a copy of the painting representing the landing of Co., lumbus, reduced to microscopic dimen- sions. On the 24-cent a copy of the cele- brated painting representing. t~s signing of the Declaration of Independence, and on the 30-cent a similar reduction of the historical painting, the surrender of Gen. eral Burgoyne
 
 to the making of complete plates, but at the last moment it was suppressed, be- cause 1t was considered rather in bad taste to depict the discontinue of the English people on a stamp whose chief use was to carry letters to that country Another historical event is illustrated in the beautiful set of Omaha or trans- Mississippi stamps, which were originally made to be printed in two colors as shown by the proofs, but the war with Spain interfered and the facilities of the bureau of engraving and printing had to be used to print war revenues with the result that the stamps as issued to the public were each in It's single appropriate color, instead of bicolored, as previously de- cided upon.
 This collection of stamp engravings is now in the possession of J. c. Morgen- thau, of New York. The collection event. ually will be broken up. or, following in the path of the celebrated philatelic IT. brary of the late John K. Tiffany, may be acquired by the Earl of Crawford, or some other wealthy European.