Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-06-30
STAMPSA3Az9||
M xa$EXa1k2SkSTG
BY JAMES WALDO FAWCETT.


Paris was the capital Of the world
of stamps for many years and still has
claims to be considered in that regard.
It was On the banks Of the Seine
that the science of philately was in
vented" and the very word by which
the collecting and study Of stamps Is
known everywhere on earth was the
creation Of a French connoiseur.
Also, it was in Paris that philately
attained its earliest approximation OF
maturity. The story Of its evolution
may be heard from any veteran en-
thusiast at the open-air bourse in the
Champs Elysees on q Sunday or
Thursday afternoon.
Two generations of collectors have
come and gone since groups of school,
boys originally gathered under the
chestnut trees of little park area near
the Palais of the president of the Re
public. To picture the scene, Wash
ington reader need only to imagine
half of Lafayette Square filled with a
throng of young people buying, selling
or trading stamps.
But the crowds Of the present epoch
in Paris are not swarms Of children
exclusively. On the contrary, adults
predominant; and the explanation is
obvious enough. The juvenile ANA
teurs of 1880 or 1900 have become the
grown-up professionals Of 1895.
Briefly. the habit of meeting twice
week in informal philatelic congress
has survived its sponsors and most Of
its secondary practitioners and now at
tracts third clientele. Aged devotees
with gray boards or snow-white mus
taches, returning with consistent regu-
larity to the spot. proudly tell how
they were introduced to it by their
fathers five or six decades ago.
No one-not even Maurice Langlois,
dean Of French collectors, or Louis
Francois, his colleague and friend
can be quite certain of the date at
which the bourse was founded. ':It
was not deliberately started. Instead,
it grew gradually from chance meet
ings of boys who were free from school
on Sundays and Thursdays"
To an American, the spectacle Of the
assembly is fascinating. The sales
stands are portable tables or plain
boards laid over rented chairs and
there are scores of them, arranged in
lengthy irregular lines along the paths.
Dealers bring their stocks in suitcases;
collectors carry their albums or ex-
change books under their arms. Each
individual sets up or lays out his
wares, then strolls about to inspect the
offerings of his neighbors. A wife, a
sister, daughter or a friend watches
the property in the owners absence
and takes care of business" The
initial question invariably is: I'm
what country are you interested,
please?' There are few specialists in
the throng; almost without exception
French philateliSts are concerned for
the whole field of stamps, not rigidly
for any single small fraction of it.
Prices seem fairly high to a stranger,
but the people who know the bourse
best say that they are too low" The
Yvert and Teller Catalogue de Tim
bres-Poste." 3eth edition, is the &C
cepted criterion and selected specimens
bring half or quarter of the listed
values But there likewise are numer-
Gus occasions" or bargains" for Gus
toners who are not excessively par
ticular-stamps of very common vari-
ties, off-center or damaged. Reprints.
it is worth mentioning, are plainly
labeled: Reissues.
Trade ordinarily Is brisk and the
total sales of a seven-hour period, from
luncheon to dinner time, surely must
run close to 100000 francs.
Sources of material include banks,
department stores. publishers, railroad
and steamship company Offices. insur-
ance offices, government bureaus,
schools, hospitals Qike those for vet
Grams of the Great War; and converts.
Each dealer has supply facilities of his
own discovery or cultivation.
One surprising, yet wholly logical
feature, Is the great number of French
Colonial stamps on cover or part
cover, Cancelled. The populations of
eAAS Vol ioec oCoOJN1Co SCCtlOilO Vi
Frances imperial domain, it seems, are
more abundantly literate than might
be supposed! A pile of several thou
sand assorted Colonial air mail en-
velopes at one stand and similar, If
smaller, piles at many others is con-
vincing evidence of the postal ties be-
tween the colonies and home" Proof
of the popularity of airport service also
is demonstrated by the circumstance.
Old covers. too, from the era of the
President-Emperor Napoleon, 3d-Na-
poleon the Little, as the poet Swim
burne called him-are on sale, in lots
Of 10 to 4 francs or separately at
prices various"
Collectors of government postcards
France, Italy, Austria and Switzer-
land, notably-find plentiful assert
ments for their inspection. But mis-
sion mixtures" are not to be had at any
price. "The day Of cheap miscellane-
GUS packets is gone forever" an Amer
lean wholesale buyer explains. IT
have been all over Europe, trying to
find bulk lots and am going back to
New York empty-handed."
Every boulevard, avenue, street and
even small courtyards out of the main
streams of traffic has stamp shops.
The entire city is stamp-minded.
Philately is side line" in nearly all
bookshops, railroad stations, banks
and hotels.
Collectors Of the republic are Or
ganized in fraternity known as the
Federation des Cercles Philateiiques
de France, Of which M. Langlois is
honorary president and Ernest Dole
executive president.
For especially eminent stamp schol-
ars there is L'Academie de Philatelie,
Henri Kastler, president.
Among the most important collec-
tons of the philatelic issues of France
is that Of Etienne Motto lipo. An
other is the property Of M. Ollie
mann.
The Marquis de Fayolle has a mag
niflcent collection of Mexico, 1856 to
1874; and Charles Favry is cele-
bratPd for his poloioy, Copoo