THELIBRARYOFTHEPHILATELICSOCIETYOFVICTORIA

ABriefHistoryThePhilatelicSocietyofVictoria (PSV), laterthe Royal Philatelic Society of Victoria(RPSV), was established in Melbourne 125years back in July 1892 after two previousattempts, in 1887 and 1890, proved short-lived1. It was granted the prefix “Royal” byKingGeorgeVIin1946.ThehistoryoftheSociety2anditslibrary3hasbeen covered elsewhere and need not berepeated in detail again. Briefly, the librarystarted its birth almost immediately in May1893 when members and dealers donatedcertainjournalsandbookstotheSociety.Thefirstpurchasesweremadein1896whentheSociety decided to buy all books related toAustraliathatwereneededbythelibrary.On21November1897,the“GreatFlindersStreetFire” struckanddestroyed theentire librarycomprising of 80+ bound volumes andunbound periodicals. The library was builtagain including by donations from variouswell-wisherssuchasP.T.Berry(Presidentofthe Society, 1916) in 1930, Alan G. Brown(President,1961)in1970,PhilCollas(editorofTheAustralianStampMonthly from1931-45 and 1946-51; the five-year break beingdue towartime service) over a period of 50yearstill1989,andlastbutdefinitelynottheleast, J. R. W. (Bill) Purves. 4 The latter’sbequest, in 1979, of 80 large boxescomprising574books,200volumesofboundperiodicals, and numerous unboundperiodicals andauction catalogues increasedthelibrary’sholdingsbyathird.FurtherRonLloyd-Smith, who was the librarian from1951-75, acquired for the library, throughpurchases and donations, Australianphilatelic literature irrespective of itsephemeralityorobscurity.Till1946thelibrarymovedroomsoftenuntiltheBoyScoutAssociationofferedthePSVtheuse of the second floor of its building. TheSociety occupied this building until 1954when itwas soldby theAssociationand theRPSVhad tomake temporaryarrangements,a situation which lasted until March 1957

whenitmovedtoitsownbuildinglocatedinSouthYarra,Melbourne.5Itwasherethatthehappy coincidence of Lloyd-Smith’s tenureandapermanentbuildingallowedthelibrarytocomeonitsown.TheRPSVstayedhereforabout46yearsuntilitsrelocationinOctober2004 to “Purves House” at Ashburton, asuburbofMelbourne.6IwasvisitingMelbourneonaholidayinMay2017 and had contacted the RPSV’s currentlibrarian, Richard Breckon, ahead in time toinquireifIcouldvisitthelibrary.Richardwasmostcourteousandevenpickedmefrommyhotel!Itwasnota“meetingday”andhenceitwasverykindofhimtoopenthelibraryjust

foronevisitor.This article will not just take a ‘helicopter’view at the holdings of the library but willalsoattempttopointoutimportantpiecesofliterature either available ormissing from aviewpoint of the bibliophile. I mustacknowledge, at this point, that I havederived much assistance from Kellow andTurner’s 1996 catalogue and to a lesserextent from the record of the library’sholdingsasuploadedontheRPSL’swebsite.TheLibrary“Purves House” is a simple nondescriptbuildingwhichdoesnotlookasgrandastheAmerican Philatelic Research Library’s(APRL)matchboxfactorybuildingnordoesit

ThecurrentRPSVlibrarian,RichardBreckon

havetheheritageofTheCollector’sClub,NewYork (CCNY) orTheRoyal Philatelic Society,London(RPSL).Itisspreadovertwostories;thelibrary,asmallworkorconferenceroom,and the expertising room 7 occupying thegroundandalargemeetingroomandkitchenthe first. The whole area measures around400 squaremeters or 4,300 square feet andhence the library probably occupies a littleless than half this space or approximately2,000squarefeet.

The library is, as the Australians often say,“the largest in the Southern hemisphere”!Kellow and Turner mention the library’sholdings at some 10,000 individual items aswell as 2,000 or so bound volumes ofperiodicals. Over the last two decades, thelibrary’s holding of handbooks has likelyincreased by 50% or more while there hasbeen little change in the number of boundperiodicals; unbound periodicals probablynumber in the thousands. The library getscatalogues frommostmajor auction houses,either directly or through donations frommembers.Foralibrarywithonlyanhonorarylibrarian, it has been arranged in aprofessional manner and Richard seems tohave an uncanny awareness of where aparticulartitleisshelved.TheRPSV librarymay find aplace asoneofthetop-tenphilateliclibrariesintheworld.It,however, has no pretentions of being in thesame leagueas someof thegreatest suchasthe APRL, the library of RPSL and CCNY, orThe National Postal Museum Library,

Washington D.C. One is unlikely to findincunabula items or obscure Europeanlanguage or Latin American handbooks orjournalsonitsshelves.Thereareanumberofgoodreasons for this.Firstly it isaboutsize.TheRPSVisavolunteerrunorganisationanddoes not have permanent or professionalstaff on its rolls to curate its collection.Secondly, its membership base is small atabout 260members ofwhich 90%are fromAustralia; the limited number of membersobviouslymeansalimitedlibrarybudgetandhence even publications are procured on aneed-tobasis.8Thirdly,beingwellawayfromtheimportantphilateliccentresofEuropeorAmerica, it has built itself, over a period oftime, through donations and small valuepurchases.9Unliketheothergreatlibraries,ithasnotbeenabeneficiaryofdonationsfromearly bibliophiles. 10 Finally it became aserious library quite late under thestewardship of Lloyd-Smith in the thirdquarter of the 20th century; hence itmissedaccumulatingmuchmaterial of the 19th andearly20thcentury.

However it must be emphasised that thelibrary can more than hold its own whenserving a great majority of its users,especially those interested inAustralian andNewZealand topics, inapractical andneed-basedway. It is a solidworking library thatalso possesses most of the important andvaluable pieces of literature published.Stephen Holder 11 once described the fivereallysignificantworksofphilatelicliteraturewithacurrentvalueof£1,000ormore:

TheRPSVLibrary:Viewfacingthestreet

TheRPSVLibrary:Viewfacingtheback

1. P.MirabaudandA.deReuterskiold.The

PostageStampsofSwitzerland.1899.2. A. M. Tracey Woodword. The Postage

StampsofJapanandDependencies.1928.3. SurveyofEgyptandGovernmentPress.

PostageStampIssuefortheHejaz.1918.4. Complete set of SpudPapers published

inThePhilatelist.1873-76.125. Philatelic Union of Geneva. Album Des

Facsimiles-AFournierAlbum.1928.Basedonrecentauctionrealisations,Iwouldaddthefollowing:136. L.L.R.Hausburg,C.Stewart-Wilson,and

C. S. F. Crofton. The Postage andTelegraph Stamps of British India.1907.14

7. Periodicals: Complete or long runs ofThe Journal of the Philatelic LiteratureSociety (JPLS) from 1908-1918, 15London Philatelist from 1892 onwards,Le Timbre-Post from 1863-1900, andperhapsCollector’sClubPhilatelist from1922 onwards, especially if they areuniformlybound.

8. Auction Catalogues: Complete set ofauction catalogues of the Ferrari orBurrussales.16

TheRPSVlibraryhasthemallsavefornos.3,5, and 8 and the JPLS and Le Timbre-Postfrom7.HoldingsoftheLibraryJournalsThe library has a collection of almost 700journals in various states of completion. Itsstrength lies, as may be expected, inAustralian ones. The earliest journal fromAustralia, the New South Wales StampCollectors’ Magazine, is present complete inboth the old (1879-81) and new series(1882); only three issues of the former andone of the latter were published.17A quicksearch on RPSL’s website reveals that theonlyotherlibrarywhichholdsthismagazine(and only the second series) is the APRL.Vindin’s Philatelic Monthly published by the

Sydneydealer,DawsonA.Vindin,from1887-94 is also complete. So is its successor,TheAustralian Philatelist, which ran from 1894-1924. Unfortunately other 19th centuryAustralian journals are either missing orincomplete. Missing is The Australian StampCollectors’ Journal, the first journal fromSouth Australia, four issues of which werepublished in 1879-80. The Australian StampCollector and Philatelic Advertiser (28 issuespublished1893-96)aswellasTheAustralianStamp News (the first journal fromQueensland 14 issues of which came out in1893-94)areincomplete.AnearliereffortofVindin from 1882-83, The New SouthWalesPhilatelist, only two copies of which wereissued,ismissingtheinauguralissue.From the 20th century, the library has thecomplete set of The Australian Journal ofPhilately from 1900-05 aswell its successorThe Australian Stamp Journal from 1910-51,both published by J. H. Smyth Ltd. Anothercomplete run is of The Australian PhilatelicRecord,publishedfrom1918-22.Thisjournalwas renamedTheVictorianPhilatelicRecordfrom 1922-29 and reverted back to itsoriginal name from 1929-30. The AustralianStamp Monthly is complete from 1930 to1991when itmerged into StampNews. Thelatter too is present in full from 1954onwardstilldate.Now on to journals published from otherparts of the world. The second philatelicperiodical ever published, The StampCollector’sMagazine, is complete from1863-74,allintheoriginalpublisher’sbinding.Thepublisher supplied these with acontemporarystampaffixedtoanicheinthecentre of the front coloured board; some ofthesestampsaremissingasmaybeexpected.Another influential magazine of theincunabula period, The Philatelist, publishedfrom1866-1876isalsocomplete.WhileIdidnot get the time to check if all the 134forgeries accompanying the “Spud Papers”areintactwithin,KellowandTurnerassertintheir catalogue that they are. Other journalsstarted in the 19th century such as ThePhilatelic Journal of Great Britain (1891- ),TheStampCollector’sFortnightly(1894-),the

second series of The American Journal ofPhilately (1888- ), and The AmericanPhilatelist (1888- ) are present in long runs.So are important early to mid-20th centurymagazines likeStampLover (1908- ),StampCollecting(1913-),andStamps(1932-).Twoinfluentialandrespectedperiodicals i.e.TheLondonPhilatelistandtheCollector’sClubPhilatelistareeithercomplete(asinthecaseof the former) or present in a long run (thelatter).ThefirstfouryearsofRobsonLowe’speriodical (published alternatively as TheRaconteur,TheRaconteurandPhilatelist,ThePhilatelist and Raconteur, before settling onThe Philatelist from its fourth volume) iscompletefrom1934-37andmostlycompletetill 1980when itmergedwithThePhilatelicJournalofGreatBritaintoformThePhilatelistandPJGB.HandbooksAswehaveseenearlier,thelibraryhassomeofthevaluableandkeypiecesofliteratureonitsshelves.TheWoodwardissovaluablethattheRPSVkeeps it ina lockedsafeand Iwasnot able to see itwhen Iwas visiting!18TheMirabaudanddeReuterskiold is theEnglishlanguage edition of 150 copies. Othervaluable books include Emanuel Lee’s ThePostage Stamps of Uruguay (1931), BritishPhilatelic Association’s The Work of Jean deSperati (1955)19, Alan Robertson’sAHistoryof theShipLettersof theBritish Isles (1956),F.G.HoweandW.A.Townsend’sThePostageStamps and Postal History of British Guiana(1970), and Peter Ibbotson’s The PostalHistoryandStampsofMauritius(1991).Needless to say the pioneering Australianhandbooks published by The PhilatelicSociety, London (later the RPSL) in the late19th century and early 20th century arepresent.Fromthe1887publicationtitledThePostage Stamps, Envelopes and Post Cards ofAustralia and the British Colonies of Oceaniato one on Tasmania (1890) to New SouthWales (1911 and 1913) and finallyQueensland(1930).Purves’prolificoutputof28 handbooks, many of them published bytheSociety,alsogracetheshelves.

Oneof the strengthsof the library lies in itsholdings of publications of the state andfederal government relating to legislationrelated to the mails, postal treaties, postoffice guides and reports. For example theearliest work available is a title Post Office:Laid upon the Council Table, by the ColonialSecretary, by command of His Excellency theLieutenant-Governor and ordered by theCounciltobePrinted,21stNovember1851.Theimportance of such works for the postalhistoriancannotbeover-emphasised.AuctioncataloguesOnceagainthelibraryexcelsinitslongrunofauction catalogues from Australian and UKbased houses. Amongst the former we havesalesofP.J.DownieofMelbourne(1964-91),CharlesLeskiofMelbourne(1977-),MacrayStampSalesofMelbourne(1979-),RodneyA.Perry of Melbourne (1973- ), and StatusStamps of Sydney. Amongst the latter, longandfairlycompleterunsofH.R.Harmerandits successors (Australia, New York, andLondon; 1938- ), Robson Lowe (London,Australia, and New York; 1938-1986),Christie’s Robson Lowe (London, Australia,and New York; 1986- ) can be observed.Unfortunately the library is weak in the“name sales” department; missing, forexample,aretheauctioncataloguesofFerrarifromthe1920s,LouiseBoydDaleandAlfredF. Lichtenstein, Burrus, and Josiah K. Lillyfrom the 1960s, and John R. Boker’scollection of German States from the1980s/90s.FinalThoughtsThe libraryhasabout300meters (985 feet)ofshelfspace.Thesearepermanentracksonwhich the books are placed. Since they arealready almost full, the Society will have toinvest in compactuses in the near future orprobably switch its location to the morespaciousfirststorey.The RPSV library is part of the GlobalPhilatelicLibrary(GPL)project.HowevertheGPL website shows that only about 3,200

database records of the library have beencontributedtotheproject.Thepressingneedis hence for the list of all of the library’sholdingstobeupdatedonlineaswellasinitsownlibrarycataloguingsystem.Furtherifthelibrarycouldpublishanupdatedcatalogueofholdings on the lines of its superb printedcatalogueof1996,definitelyonthewebandpreferably as a hardcopy as well, it wouldserve as a valuable source of bibliographicinformation.20In conclusion, I will request readers of thisarticle, especially if they are writers,publishers or auction houses, to donate onecopy of each of their available past andcurrent aswell as all future publications fortheshelvesofthisfinelibrary.Iwould like to thankMr.RichardBreckon forgoing through the article and providing mewith certain factual data such as the numberofRPSVmembersorshelfspaceetc.Commentsandfeedbackarewelcomeandmaybesenttomyemailid:abbh@hotmail.com.1 See Breckon, Richard. “A Short History of thePhilatelic Society ofVictoria, 1892 to 1946”,Philatelyfrom Australia, Vol. LXIX No. 1, March 2017 and “AShortHistoryofthePhilatelicSocietyofVictoria,1947to 1979”, Philately from Australia, Vol. LXIX No. 1,March2017.2See Derrick A. J. The Philatelic Society of Victoria1892-1926: A History written at the request of theSociety, Melbourne: The Philatelic Society of Victoria,1926 and Chisholm, H. L. Century of Happiness: TheCentennial History of the Royal Philatelic Society ofVictoria, Melbourne: The Royal Philatelic Society ofVictoria,19923See Kellow, Geoffrey and Russell Turner. The RoyalPhilatelic Society of Victoria Library: A History andCatalogue. Melbourne: The Royal Philatelic Society ofVictoria, 1996. Six earlier listings of the library’sholdingswereproduced,thefirstinJune1906.4 Argued to be the “world’s greatest philatelicresearcher”. See Kellow Geoff. J. R. W. Purves, R.D.P.,F.R.P.S.L.: A Philatelic Bibliography. Melbourne: TheRoyal Philatelic Society of Victoria, 1982. Purves’bequests include theWoodward Japanaswell asTheStampCollector’sMagazineandThePhilatelist.5Thebuildingwaspurchased in1956.TheRPSVwasthen the third society in the world, after The RoyalPhilatelicSociety,LondonandtheCollector’sClub,NewYork,tohaveitsownbuilding.

6The Society’s current premises at 303, High Street,Ashburtonwaspurchasedatauction inOctober2003andpassedintoitspossessioninApril2004.7 The RPSV provides Certificates of Opinion onAustralasianandPacificIslandsphilatelicitems.Seeitswebsiteatwww.rpsv.org.au.8KellowandTurnertellthestoryoftheacquisitionofSir John Wilson’s The Royal Philatelic Collection in1951. Priced at a steep 60 guineas (£63), the Societycould not afford the expense and Purves urged 40members to contribute for its cost. Another titlepurchased with donated funds was the six-volumeFrank Walton edited and RPSL published The De LaRueCollectionin2014.9 A noteworthy recent donation of around 320worldwide handbooks was made by the Rev. JohnTollan. Comprising mainly European and NorthAmerican works published in the 1980s and 1990s,mostofthemarenewtothelibrary.Anotherdonationin the last yearwas fromAustralia Post of themulti-language Union Postale (earlier L’ Union Postale)published by the Union Postal Union (UPU)continuouslysince1875.Theruncommencesin1877and continues,with gaps, till 1983. On the latter, seeBreckon,Richard.“UnionPostale:themagazineoftheUPU”, Philately from Australia, Vol. LXIX No. 4, June2017.10It is well known that, for example, the library ofCCNYhasbeenthebeneficiaryofvastdonationsfromnotedbibliophileslikeVictorSuppantschitsch,JohnK.Tiffany, E. B. Sterling, Theodore E. Steinway, andJoseph S. Rich. Similarly the RPSL has had bequestsfrom stalwarts such as the Earl of Crawford, M. P.Castle,andRobertB.Yardley.11Stephen Holder is the ex-owner of the philatelicliterature dealer and auctioneer, HH Sales Ltd., thesuccessortoHarryHayes.Quoted inthe ‘2000’PostalAuctionSalecatalogue;theauctionwasheldon4June2000.12 While 63 Spud Papers were published in ThePhilatelist,another3werepublishedinalaterStaffordSmith journal,ThePhilatelicQuarterly in 1879, and 1in The Stamp-Collector's Annual for 1881. Since thelattertwopublicationsarerare,acompletesetofThePhilatelist is synonymous with the Spud Papers. SeeRagatz, Lowell (ed). The Spud Papers: An IllustratedDescriptive Catalog of Early Philatelic Forgeries,Lucerne:EmileBertrand,n.d.(but1952).13I would like to clarify that many items from theincunabulaperiod (i.e. 1862 –1879) aswell as somespecialized literature including in languages otherthan English may and do indeed command pricesexceeding £1,000. The idea behind my classification(andIsuspectHolder’saswell)istoidentityandnameonly the well known and dare I say, widely useful,itemsof(mainlyEnglishlanguage)literature.14 Provided Plates III and IV, which were printeddirectly from the copper plates, some of which wereusedintheproductionoftheIndian1854-55classics,are present. It is also possible that I harbor some

prejudicetowardsthistitlegiventhatitdealswithmycountry’sstamps!15The JPLS is no doubt the most valuable philatelicliterature periodical. Edited by F. J. Peplow, only 100copies of the journal were published every quarter.The members of the Society included almost all thewell-renowned bibliophiles of that era including P. J.Anderson, E. D. Bacon, the Earl of Crawford, H. E.Deats, Dr. E. Diena, Fred J. Melville, W. R. Ricketts,amongstothers.16WhiletheFerrarisalesnumber15(14inParisand1in Zurich) in all, the Maurice Burrus collection wassold over 76 auctions from 1962-67. See Bierman,StanleyM.AListofHandbooks,Periodicals,andAuctionCatalogues in the Bierman Philatelic Library. 2ndReviseded.LosAngles:TheAuthor,1993.17ThiswasagiftfromGeorgeTurner,oneofthemostimportantphilatelicbibliophilesofalltime.18If the JPLS is themost valuablephilatelic literatureperiodical,Woodward’smagnumopus on the postagestamps of Japan is undoubtedly the most valuablephilatelic literature handbook. Published in 1928 intwo morocco leather-bound volumes with a woodenslipcase,100autographedandnumberedcopieswereprintedonhandmadevellumpaper; another30wereprinted on ordinary paper for review purposes. Oneset of the former realised€7,440 (orUS$9,600 then)including buyer’s premium of 20% at the SchwankeSaleNo.338heldon22Nov2012(lot#1914);anothersimilar set went for US$9,775 including buyer’spremiumof15%at theSchuylerRumseySaleNo.66heldon19Mar2016(lot#1306).Thelatterisperhapsrarerthantheformergiventhemorelimitedprinting;in the aforesaid Schwanke Sale, a set realized€4,920(or US$6,350 then) including buyer’s premium (lot#1915).19 The first edition was published in 1955 andcomprised four volumes (or parts) in a green clothbinding.PartIcontainsthetext,PartIItheplates,PartIIIthebasictests(selfbound),andPartIVaselectionof Sperati’s forgeries in a matching folder. Most setsaremissingParts III and IV.TheSociety’s libraryhasthe all the parts but the final part is missing theforgeries.20 Notwithstanding the listing of records madeavailablebytheGPLprojectonthefly,abibliographycan prove to be equally useful especially if one doesnotknowwhatallhasbeenpublishedonaparticularcountryorsubject.