As soon as the first stamps were issued stamp collecting began.

I’m always delighted and surprised by the foresightedness of those first collectors.

And today’s hobbyists are so in their debt. Their cataloging and classifying is usually the foundation on which later documentation stands.

Without their work, and the sometimes meticulous recording of the postal authorities, would we know how to link a Penny Black to the plate it came from?

Maybe, but I think it would be a lot harder.

Today, as stamp collectors in 2024 I think it’s the perfect time to pay tribute to some of those who went before us.

Here are 5 of history’s most famous stamp collectors and collections.

1 - Georges Herpin and Frederick Philbrick
 

Frederick Philbrick, who bought the Herpin collection.

You are a philatelist only because Georges Herpin says you are.

France was home to a very vibrant stamp collecting scene, and Georges was one of the pioneers.

His most consequential legacy though is probably that word, which he coined in 1864. That’s very good news, as when he did, the preferred term for what we do was “timbromanie”, meaning a stamp obsession.

Georges used a Greek root to put together a liking - phil[o] - with a rather roundabout description of stamps as being exempt from duty and tax, that’s the atelie on the end. However clumsy the construction might seem the word sounds good and it stuck.

While he’s named as one of the founding fathers of the hobby, Herpin didn’t mind selling off his collection.

The whole lot went to Frederick Philbrick in 1866 and helped him become a founder of the Philatelic Society, London, (now the esteemed Royal Philatelic Society London) and one of its earliest officers. We'll see later in this list where that collection subsequently went. 

2 - John Edward Gray’s collection

Dr John Edward Gray is considered the first stamp collector because he purchased a block of four Penny Blacks on issue day in 1840 not for use but to preserve.

Gray worked at the British Museum and is a renowned figure in biological history too. Classification was his great scientific skill and that's very apt for the way he approached postage systems. 

His over 1,100 scientific papers cover a huge range of topics including postal reform. He was deeply interested in the process that Rowland Hill eventually implemented and has a good claim to be a father not just of stamp collecting but of modern adhesive stamps themselves.

Gray went on to write a series of catalogues on global stamps from 1862-1875. Their publication and the completist collecting they enabled, helped to make philately popular.

After a stroke, he died in 1875. His well-organized catalogues, published commercially, were widely circulated, long after his death and are important sources for today’s stamp collectors too.

3 - King George V and the Royal Collection

The roots of today’s royal stamp collection were planted by King George V, though he was just the Duke of York when he first got stuck into stamps.

He was encouraged by his uncle, who was Duke of Edinburgh at the time, and unkind observers suggest that it was an enthusiasm to which he was better suited than running the British Empire.

George also took full advantage of his position to purloin stamps, sheets and proofs during the production process. No-one else could really have created this collection.

His aim?

“I wish to have the best collection and not one of the best collections in England,” he wrote to his philatelic adviser J A Tilleard.

He probably founded the best collection in the world, which lives on today, and is valued at at least £100 million.

George V’s own collection filled 328 albums. George VI added 30 more. And Queen Elizabeth II also added significantly to the royal collection, which some suggest should now be handed to the nation.

4 - Philipp von Ferrary’s lost collection

I always say that the strongest attraction of stamp collecting is that it is a way of understanding history. Phillip von Ferrary’s collection shines a very direct light on history.

Sadly, it no longer exists. Von Ferrary was a citizen of Austria, and at the end of World War I, the French government confiscated his collection and sold it to help pay the war reparations of his home country. What a shame that they didn’t at least keep it together for the nation.

What was blown to the winds is probably the most complete global stamp collection ever assembled.

Among its many gems were the 1c Magenta from British Guiana, which he bought for £150, and was sold for $8,307,000 in 2021. He also had a unique Treskilling Yellow from Sweden, and the only mint copy of a US Two Cent Hawaii Missionary of 1851 - the subject of a murder.

From an exceedingly rich family, Ferrary was properly obsessed, and used his immense wealth to snap up other collections, including Frederick Philbrick’s.

Stanley Gibbons reported that he spent up to £4,000 a year with them - a huge sum at that time - and he was responsible for a good deal of the European stamp market. Because he often bought on instinct and could let his heart rule his head, Ferrary was also responsible for a boom in forgeries aimed specifically at his prolific spending and which still float around, named Ferrarities in his honour.

5 - The Franklin D Roosevelt collection

Image by Leon Perskie.

Among the most important collections culturally is that of the President of the United States who ended the Great Depression and took the United States into World War II.

Photographs of the nation’s leader sitting in the White House, magnifying glass in hand, organising his collection helped project an image of calm control when the world felt like it was falling apart.

It wasn’t just propaganda though, FDR was a genuine and highly involved philatelist whose collections made an important contribution to America’s National Postal Museum.

Like most of us, his interest stemmed back to childhood. As serious illness put him in a wheelchair, Roosevelt found great personal solace - and a window on the world - in his hobby.

On his death his collection - including die proofs and technical documents - was sold, but his collection of stamp sketches was later donated to the National Postal Museum, which has built on this legacy ever since.

Your own historic collection

Anyone can build a stamp collection of interest and stature.

Pick the right niche and put in the work and you can make your own mark in philatelic history.

Take a look through our stamp store now.

Or email me on info@paulfrasercollectibles.com to tell me what you’d like to buy - or sell.

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