May, 19 2 0 
43 
MERCURY’S PRINT COLLECTION 
The Postage Stamp Has An Appeal To Those JTho Prefer To 
Ride Their Hobbies At Home 
GARDNER TEALL 
I N Romeo and Juliet, you will rememlier, 
Romeo says to Balthasar, “Get me ink and 
paper, and hire post-horses.” 
\\'hat cumbersome old times those were! 
Today we stick a little stamp on the comer 
of a letter, drop it in the post box, and that’s 
all there is to it! But in Romeo’s day the 
postage stamp had not been invented; it is an 
object of but recent devising. 
Robert Louis Stevenson, writing of his old 
home in Colington, and of those generations 
that had gone thence into the world, said “the 
face of the earth was peppered with the chil¬ 
dren of the manse and letters with outlandish 
stamps became familiar to the local postman.” 
Of course, Steven¬ 
son was quite forget¬ 
ting that this could 
not be, since postage 
stamps were not in¬ 
vented until the year 
1840, only ten years 
before he himself 
came into the world. 
1840 
Rare stamps approximate rare porcelains and, other 
antiques in market value. The ten cent stamp of the 
Baltimore postmaster—shown above—changed hands 
a number of years ago at a price running well into 
the thousands. Below this is pictured an envelope 
bearing the world’s first postage stamp—the “Penny 
Black” of Great Britain, issued in 1840 . It is more 
beautiful in design and execution than many of its 
successors of the present day. To left and right are 
issues commemorating the Jubilee of the Kingdom 
of Italy 
reproduction that the 
illustration does not 
indicate the loveliness 
of the original. 
S i multaneously 
with the sale of the 
“Penny Blacks” a 
special envelope and 
also a stamped cover 
were issued. \\’illiam 
Mulready, R. A., de¬ 
signed the envelo])e 
and John Thompson, 
(he eminent wood-en¬ 
graver, engraved it. 
What stamp collector 
does not recall with 
tenderness h i s first 
I'earning to possess 
one of these famous 
“iSIulready En¬ 
velopes”! 
The Collectors 
But it is not in¬ 
tended here to give a 
history of the post, 
nor yet to present an 
outline of the history 
of postage stamps. 
Instead, let us be like a David, ready to 
fling the rock of faith in stamp collecting 
straight at the temples of those philistines 
who roar their sarcasms at stamp col¬ 
lectors and challenge the intelligence of 
those who profess to find joy in the pur¬ 
suit of the love of these things. 
There are, I am quite willing to admit, 
those who collect stamps in an extraordi¬ 
nary manner—from my point of view, 
persons, who, preying on the frailties of 
the philatelist—for so the stamp collector 
nominates himself—collect merely as an 
investment, who can never disassociate the 
thought of dollars and cents from their 
philatelic acquisitions, and who are eager 
to offer them upon the altar of Mammon 
{Continued on page 112) 
Before 1840 a Pen¬ 
ny Post system had 
been inaugurated by 
William Dockwra as 
far back as 1680, and 
a mark was used on 
such letters as were 
carried by public post, 
but nothing at all in 
the order of adhesive 
label such as the 1840 
“Penny Black”. In 
the 18th Century a 
franking device repre¬ 
senting the arms of 
Castile and Leon was 
used on official cor¬ 
respondence in Spain. 
Letter sheets bear¬ 
ing the colorless em¬ 
bossed device of a 
postboy on a gallop¬ 
ing horse were used in 
Sardinia early in the 
18th Century and are 
known to collectors. 
However, the Sardi- 
nian government 
merely conveyed letters so marked, and 
neither collected nor made delivery of 
them after they reached their main office 
of destination. Thus the postboy device 
should be regarded as a tax-mark and not 
as a postage stamp. 
To Rowdand Hill (afterwards knighted) 
must fall the honor of inventing the ad¬ 
hesive label, which label—the engraved 
“penny black” postage stamp bearing the 
portrait of the young Queen Victoria— 
was the “grandmother” of all postage 
stamps. The design of this first postage 
stamp was after a medal by William 
Wyon, and Corbould and Heath were the 
engravers. This is one of the most beauti¬ 
ful of postage stamps, although so much 
must necessarily be lost in a photographic 
To the left, a 
Russian Bolshe¬ 
vik ; to the right, 
a Portuguese 
stamp which has 
a prayer on the 
back, and below, 
the Barbados 
c 0 m m emora- 
tive issue with 
the Olive Blossom 
