Stamp Collecting as a Pastime

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Stamp Collecting as a Pastime

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Title: Stamp Collecting as a Pastime
Author: Edward J. Nankivell
Release Date: April 18, 2006 [EBook #18204]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE
Stanley Gibbons Philatelic Handbooks.

STAMP COLLECTING AS A PASTIME

BY
EDWARD J. NANKIVELL MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF JOURNALISTS MEMBER OF THE PHILATELIC SOCIETY OF LONDON

London STANLEY GIBBONS, LTD., 391, STRAND, W.C. New York 167, BROADWAY 1902

PREFACE
Many people are at a loss to understand the fascination that surrounds the pursuit of stamp collecting. They are surprised at the clannishness of stamp collectors, and their lifelong devotion to their hobby. They are thunderstruck at the enormous prices paid for rare stamps, and at the fortunes that are spent and made in stamp collecting.
The following pages will afford a peep behind the scenes, and explain how it is that, after nearly half a century of existence, stamp collecting has never been more popular than it is to-day.
And perchance many a tired worker in search of a hobby may be persuaded that of all the relaxations that are open to him none is more attractive or more satisfying than stamp collecting.
Its literature is more abundant than that devoted to any other hobby. Its votaries are to be found in every city and town of the civilised world. Governments and statesmen recognise, unsolicited, the claims of stamp collecting--the power, the influence, and the wealth that it commands. From a mere schoolboy pastime it has steadily developed into an engrossing hobby for the leisured and the busy of all classes and all ranks of life, from the monarch on his throne to the errand boy in the merchant's office.
In the competition of modern life it is recognised that those who must work must also play. The physician assures us that the man who allows himself no relaxation, no recreation, loses his energy, and ages earlier than the man who judiciously alternates work and play.
As stamp collecting may be indulged in by all ages, and at all seasons, it is becoming more and more the favourite indoor relaxation with brain-workers. It may be taken up or laid down at any time, and at any stage. Its cost may be limited to shillings or pounds, and it may be made a pleasant pursuit or an engrossing study, or it may even be diverted into money-making purposes.
So absorbing is the hobby that in stamp circles there is a saying, "Once a stamp collector, always a stamp collector."

CONTENTS
I. STAMP COLLECTING AS A PASTIME
II. THE CHARM OF STAMP COLLECTING
III. ITS PERMANENCE
IV. ITS INTERNATIONALITY
V. ITS GEOGRAPHICAL INTEREST
VI. ITS HISTORICAL FINGER POSTS
VII. STAMPS WITH A HISTORY
VIII. GREAT RARITIES
IX. THE ROMANCE OF STAMP COLLECTING
X. PHILATELIC SOCIETIES AND THEIR WORK
XI. THE LITERATURE OF STAMPS
XII. STAMPS AS WORKS OF ART
XIII. STAMP COLLECTING AS AN INVESTMENT
XIV. WHAT TO COLLECT AND HOW TO COLLECT
XV. GREAT COLLECTIONS

[Illustration:]
I.
As a Pastime.
According to the authorities, the central idea of a pastime is "that it is so positively agreeable that it lets time slip by unnoticed; as, to turn work into pastime." And recreation is described as "that sort of play or agreeable occupation which refreshes the tired person, making him as good as new."
Stamp collectors may fairly claim that their hobby serves the double purpose of a pastime and a recreation. As a pastime, it certainly makes time pass most agreeably; for the true student of the postal issues of the world, it turns work into a pastime. As a recreation, it is of such an engrossing character that it may be relied upon to afford the pleasant diversion from business worries that so many tired mental workers need nowadays.
For nearly half a century it has maintained unbroken its hold as one of the most popular of all forms of relaxation, and its popularity extends to all classes and to all countries.
But this very devotion of stamp collectors to their hobby has puzzled and excited the uninitiated. The ordinary individual, especially the man who has no soul for a hobby of any kind, regards it as a passing fancy, a harmless craze, a fashion that must have its day and disappear, sooner or later. But the passing fancy has endured for nearly half a century, the harmless craze still serves its useful purpose, and the fashion has acquired such a permanence as to convince most people that it has come to stay.
Of all pastimes, and of all the forms of recreation, not one