Chasing the Birds

One of the delights of our profession is hearing the wide range of inspirations behind the collections we handle.

Sometimes it is the ‘thematic lure’.  One collector I know had been an enthusiastic ornithologist who first started to collect Birds on Stamps and now has a fine specialised collection of Ascension.  Another began to collect Colombia after developing a passion for that country’s best-known product - the coffee, obviously.  At other times the reason might seem purely coincidental. There is for example a well-known Saint Vincent collector who is said to have chosen the country just because his own first name is Vincent.

A visit to the country in question can often provide the greatest spur. Indeed, in some collecting fraternities to have done so feels almost compulsory. If one asks a Falkland Islands collector whether it is a significant advantage to have actually visited the islands one tends to receive a knowing, conspiratorial look. I rather suspect that some rite of passage takes place down there, possibly involving dressing as a penguin.

At Grosvenor we have already moved on to the preparation of the catalogue for our auction of Jim Mullett’s collection of British Offshore Islands that will be held on April 26th for, as they say, the early bird catches the printer (well, they say it in auction houses). In the introductory pages we read that Jim started work in the gumming department of Harrison & Sons at the age of just fourteen, manhandling giant quantities of paper and gum arabic, and presumably returning home each evening not only aching but sticky. One might imagine that this would put anyone off stamps for life but a family trip in the 1960s to the highly attractive but more rarely visited Channel Island of Herm was to prove an inspiration to Jim that was irresistible.

Sometimes, as is so often the case, it is entirely a woman’s fault. I was perfectly happy for years living in Shepherds Bush close to the former White City Exhibition area without once feeling the urge until I came across the young lady alongside. Before I knew what was happening not only was she in my home but she was surrounded by hundreds of exhibition postcards and postmarks.

I came to my senses eventually and that collection has passed on but I kept the ‘Bird from the Bush’ as a reminder not to let women lead me astray in the future.  Well, that is what I tell those who ask . . .

JG