EARLY INDIAN PHILATELISTS

AND DEALERS

By Abhishek Bhuwalka
7 April 2020
 PRESENTATION FORM AT

Early Indian Philatelic Scene

Early Indian Philatelists

Early Indian Dealers

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INDIAN PHILATELY IN LATE
19 TH CENTURY

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 M .P. CASTLE IN INDIA - DEC 1892 / JAN 1893

BOMBAY
• The Bombay Society…is in a flourishing condition
• We had also visits from several of the dealers in the
city

CALCUTTA
• …matter of surprise that no Philatelic Society has yet
been formed…cannot help thinking that the time is
ripe for such a step
• …trade does not seem very strongly represented,
although there are one or two dealers …of Indian
Native States

REST OF INDIA
• Collectors outside…Bombay and Calcutta are
scattered far and wide …difficult to trace them.

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 INDIAN PHILATELY IN THE EARLY YEARS

Green shoots in the late 1870s / early 1880s

Formation of Philatelic
Societies
Firsts in Indian Philately
• Earliest collector and writer - Lt. Col G. B. Mainwaring from the early • 1892 Aug: Bombay
1870s Philatelic Society
• Earliest stamp dealer Universal Stamp Exchange (?) from 1878 • 1894 Feb: The Philatelic
• First Society formed in 1892 Society of Bengal
• First Journal published and first public stamp auction in 1894
• 1894?: Burma Philatelic
• First handbooks published in the 1870s
Society
Most dealers from Bombay and Indians esp. from Parsi and • 1897 Mar: The Philatelic
Portuguese Indian community Society of India

Most renowned philatelists from Calcutta (capital of

British India) and mainly Britishers
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 PROBLEM S TRACKING EARLY PHILATELISTS AND DEALERS

Possible to track only those philatelists who have written or been

written about

The Philatelic Society of India formed in 1897 had some 100+

members in India by December 1899

Almost all were Britishers but only a few wrote or were written about
(not different from the case today!)

Dealer advertisements in journals and ephemeral works as well as

auction or exhibition catalogues or price lists, not preserved

Study of stamps amongst the few philatelists however attained levels

close to or equal to western standards

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EARLY INDIAN PHILATELISTS

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 EARLY INDIAN PHILATELISTS

G. B. Mainwaring B. Gordon Jones W. Wilmot Corfield

G. J. Hynes 1872 - 1957 1859 - 1919
(1825 – 1893)

Charles F. Larmour Sir Charles Stewart- Sir David P. Masson Ernest W. Wetherell
(1853? – 1914) Wilson 1847 - 1915 1869 - 1933
1864 - 1950
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 GEORGE BYRES M AINWARING (1825 – 1893)

Background
• Born in India to British parents
• Joined the army at age 16 and rapidly rose through the ranks
• In 1867 sent to Darjeeling (a town in the Eastern Himalayas) to
study the Lepcha language
• Stayed for 20 years and published many books on the language
Philatelic Contributions
• Perhaps the earliest Indian philatelist we know of
• In 1871 compiled a list of Indian postage stamps from official
sources
• Published in The Stamp Collector’s Magazine (Jan 1874)
• Brought one of the iconic errors of the world – the 4 annas
Inverted Head of 1854 – to the notice of the collecting world
• Collection sold in the 1892 for a sum of Rs. 8,000 to Goodwin
Norman, another big stamp collector

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 G. J. HYNES

Background
• Born in India but educated in India
• Worked in The Presidency Bank of Bombay but on its failure joined postal
department in 1868
• Worked his way up to the office of Deputy Director General of Posts
Philatelic Contributions
• Started stamp collecting in 1883 when Assistant Director General of Posts
• In 1884, Hynes revised and published G.B. Mainwaring's list – India’s first
stamp catalogue (reprinted in the Oct and Nov 1894 issues of The
Philatelic Record)
• Made a stamp collection for the Government of India
• Had the best personal collection of Indian stamps totalling some 25,000
examples including many sheets of the first issues of 1854-55
• Founding President of the Bengal Society in Feb 1894 One of the greatest Indian
stamp collectors
• Resigned on return to England on retirement in Aug 1894
• Participated in some activities of PSL London but resigned in early 1901

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 DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF POSTAGE STAM PS (1884 AND 1885)

First Edition (above) and Second Edition

(to the right). The Second “contains after
each issue ruled spaces for specimens of
the stamps, envelopes and postcards”
(Crawford Catalogue)

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 CHARLES FREDERICK LARM OUR (1853? – 1914)

Background
• Came to India in 1869 and was a businessman in Calcutta
• Father of A. C. Larmour, editor of The London Philatelist during
WWII

Philatelic Contributions
• Started collecting as a school boy in England in 1861/62
• Restarted collecting seriously in 1889
• Main interests were the stamps of British Empire and Portuguese
Indies
• Edited The Philatelic World (singly or with Wilmot Corfield) for 28
of its 32 issues
• Co-edited The Philatelic Journal of India from Jan 1897 – Apr 1898
• Supporter of the formation of The Philatelic Society of India and “Father of Philatelic
Journalism in India”
served on its council
• Resigned abruptly from The Philatelic Society of India in May 1909

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 THE PHILATELIC WORLD

Second magazine from India and

published from Jul 1894 to Mar 1897
(32 issues)

Along with PJI, one of the best English

stamp magazines that era

Edited by Larmour and Corfield for

most of its issues

High quality journal with strong

editorial and contents

Ended with commencement of

publication The Philatelic Journal of
India

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 W ILLIAM W ILM OT CORFIELD (1859 - 1919)

Background
• Accountant by profession
• Lived in India 1886-89 and then 1893-1911
Philatelic Contributions
• Started collecting in 1865 and had one of the oldest continuous
general collections in existence
• Edited The Philatelic World (mostly with C. F. Larmour) for 17 of its
32 issues
• Co-edited The Philatelic Journal of India from a few months in 1898
• Co-author with C. S. F. Crofton on the Fiscal and Telegraph Stamps of
British India
• Used the pseudonym Dâk (post) in many of his writings
Poet amongst Philatelists
• As a poet wrote Dâk Dicta and More Dâk Dicta in 1910/1911
• Treasurer and Hon. Secretary of The Philatelic Society of India from
1897-98 and 1900-1909 respectively

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FISCALS AND VERSES!

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 SIR CHARLES STEWART-W ILSON (1864 – 1950)

Background
• Drafted into Indian Civil Service in 1883 and came to India in 1886
• Started working in the Postal Department in 1892
• Was Director General of Posts from 6 years between 1906 and 1913
• After his retirement and return to England became Assistant Secretary at the
Ministry of Munitions from 1915-21
Philatelic Activities
• Started collecting as a school boy but swapped his stamps for books of John Ruskin!
• Renewed collecting in 1894 when he was Deputy Director General of the Post Office
• Collected India, Ceylon, Hong Kong, and Straits Settlements initially; later got
interested in Holland and Colonies and Japan.
• Joined The Philatelic Society of Bengal in Oct 1894 and elected its President 20 days
later!
• Founding President of The Philatelic Society of India 1897-1905 and Editor of The
Philatelic Journal of India 1898-1904 excepting 1902 Father of Indian Philately
• Wrote the handbook on Convention States Stamps and co-authored the famous The RDP (1921)
Postage and Telegraph Stamps of British India with L. L. R. Hausburg (1907)

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 THE PHILATELIC JOURNAL OF INDIA

Stewart-Wilson edited the magazine for

almost 6 years from 1898-1904 ex 1902
when he was on leave in UK

Responsible for elevating the journal to one

of the best in the world

Journal pioneered articles on Indian Native

States

Original articles on foreign countries as

well from Chile to Holland to Peru!

From 1897 to 1910, each volume of the

journal comprised 350-450 pages!

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 BRITISH INDIAN STAM PS SURCHARGED (1897 AND 1898)

One of Wilson interests was the stamps of

British India surcharged for use in six Indian
states - “Convention States” stamps

Articles in The Philatelic Journal of India

were published in book form and were the
first publications of The Philatelic Society of
India

A second edition co-authored with Gordon

Jones was published in 1904

Co-authored the Telegraph Stamps section

of Indian Philately's pathbreaking work -
The Postage and Telegraph Stamps of British
India

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 SIR DAVID PARKES M ASSON (1847 – 1915)

Background
• Born in Scotland but moved to India as a boy
• Apprenticed in the banking business and rose to become Managing Director of
The Punjab Banking Company
• A.D.C. to the Commander-in-Chief and the Viceroy of India, for fifteen years
Lieut.-Col. of the 1st Punjab Volunteer Rifles, and Member of the Council of the
Lieut-Governor of the Punjab – amongst others!
Philatelic Contributions
• Had a schoolboy collection which he gave up on starting his banking career
• Restarted collecting at the age of almost 50 in 1895/96 when looking at his
daughter’s stamps
• Within 4-5 years had the best collections of Jammu and Kashmir and
Afghanistan
• Wrote many articles on the stamps of Jammu and Kashmir and Afghanistan in One of the ‘Fathers of
The Philatelic Journal of India which were made into handbooks Philatelists’ inscribed on Roll
• Treasurer, President, and Vice-President of The Philatelic Society of India of Distinguished Philatelists

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 POSTAGE STAM PS OF JAM M U AND KASHM IR (1900 AND 1901)

Masson spent his summers in the

vales of Kashmir and loved the region

Kashmir collection won a Gold medal

at the Manchester International
Exhibition of 1899

Writings on the stamps of Kashmir

published in two volumes in 1900 and
1901

Exposed the circular forgeries of

Kashmir and lead to part rewriting of
Gibbons catalogue

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EARLY DEALERS

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SOM E EARLY DEALERS

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 N. D. BOT TLIWALLA

Bottliwalla was one of the earliest Indian

dealers from 1882

Unlike most other dealers also carried stock of

Scinde Dawks of 1852 and India’s first issues of
1854-55

One of the dealers who met M. P. Castle on his

1892/93 India visit

This price list is from the Crawford Collection

and dates to 1892

His 1894 list was an edition of 10,000 copies

indicating his widespread reach

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 RAM GOPAL & CO.

Ram Gopal & Co. was an

early stamp dealers from
possibly late 1880s

From Alwar, a small town

in Rajasthan

Mainly an Indian Native

States dealer

Still existing into atleast

the 1950s

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 B. GORDON JONES (1872 – 1957)

Stamp Dealing
• Started collecting stamps in 1887
• Established a stamp dealing firm under his name in 1891
• Conducted India’s first stamp auction in Sep 1894
• Sold to Universal Stamp Exchange in Aug 1895 and went to England
• Returned to start The Calcutta Philatelic Co. and the journal Stamps in
Jul 1897
• Left India in 1908 but continued stamp dealing from London

Journalistic Contributions
• Started The Philatelic World in Jul 1894 and edited its first two issues
• Edited his in-house journal Stamps for nine years
• Co-authored a couple of handbooks for The Philatelic Society of India Philatelic Dealer and Writer
• Became its first Honorary member in Jan 1905
• Edited The Philatelic Journal of India from Apr 1907 to Jun 1908

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 AUC TIONS OF B. GORDON JONES

First Auction in India held by B.

Gordon Jones on 15 Sep 1894

Auctioneer was C. F. Larmour and

sale attended by 20 collectors and
three dealers

While the Bombay journals did not

think auction was a success, The
Philatelic World, (of course) did!

For a long time Jones / B. Gordon

Jones & Co. was the only auctioneer
in India

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EARLY INDIAN PHILATELISTS
AND DEALERS

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