Helen Morgan - Blue Mauritius: The Hunt for the Worlds Most Valuable Stamps

About the Author

Helen Morgan trained as an art historian and archivist. She lives in Melbourne, Australia. This is her first book.

Helen Morgans book traces in great detail the stories of the twenty-six known Post Office stamps in existence in a scholarly but very readable fashion. She brings to life the collectors who hunted their quarry and the letters which the stamps adorned. Peter Lewis, Daily Mail

Helen Morgans enthusiasm for these stamps is catching. Ludovic Hunter-Tilney, Financial Times

Fascinating This is a very well and extensively researched book, not only of the stamps, but also of the various personalities, dealers, collectors and others who have discovered, handled or possessed them Mauritius in 1847 is brought vividly to life, as is the stamp collecting world of the 1860s to the 1990s, the period of most activity and discovery of the 1d and 2d items. Philatelic Explorer

Blue Mauritius

The Hunt for the Worlds Most Valuable Stamps

Helen Morgan

ATLANTIC BOOKS

London

Copyright page

First published in Great Britain in hardback in 2006 by Atlantic Books, an imprint of Grove Atlantic Ltd.

This paperback edition published in
Great Britain in 2009 by Atlantic Books.

Copyright Helen Morgan 2006

The moral right of Helen Morgan to be identified as the author of This work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

Every effort has been made to trace or contact all copyright holders. The publishers will be pleased to make good any omissions or rectify any mistakes brought to their attention at the earliest opportunity.

1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978184354 436 4

Printed in Great Britain

Atlantic Books

An imprint of Grove Atlantic Ltd

Ormond House

2627 Boswell Street

London WC1N 3JZ

www.atlantic-books.co.uk

Epigraphs

Il ne faut jamais dsesprer en philatlie.

Lavenir nous rserve peut-tre encore

des surprises heureuses.

(One must never despair in philately.

The future reserves for us yet, perhaps,

happy surprises.)

Georges Brunel,

Les Timbres-Poste de lle Maurice:

missions de 1847 1898 ,

Editions Philatelia, Paris, 1928

Contents

List of illustrations

Two pence Post Office Mauritius stamp. Copyright, Blue Penny Museum, Mauritius.

Ruisseau du Pouce, Port Louis, Mauritius. Postcard, collection of John Shawley.

Mauritian postage stamp commemorating Lady Gomms ball and the Post Office stamps. Collection of John Shawley.

Mrs Lloyds postman, Mauritius by Owen Stanley, Voyage of the H.M.S. Rattlesnake: Vol. 1. MS, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Australia. (PXC 281 f.24)

View of warehouses and the customhouse, Port Louis. Produced in 1847 as a hand-coloured lithograph by Deroy after an original work by Pierre Amand Franois Thuillier and printed in Paris by Lemercier. Copyright, Blue Penny Museum, Mauritius.

Mauritius page. Frederick Booty, The Stamp Collectors Guide: Being a List of English and Foreign Postage Stamps with 200 Fac-simile Drawings , 1862.

La Petite Bourse des Timbres aux Champs-lyses. Arthur de Rothschild, Histoire de la Poste aux Lettres et du Timbre-Poste Depuis Leurs Origines Jusqua Nos Jours , Paris, 1880.

Bordeaux, Cours du Pav-des-Chartrons. Postcard, authors collection.

Edward B. Evans. Frontispiece, Philatelic Record , Vol. 6, 1885.

One penny Post Office on an envelope addressed to Monsieur Alcide Marquay. By permission of the British Library, The Tapling Collection, (6377).

Philipp von Ferrary. Frontispiece, Philatelic Record , Vol. 11, 1889.

Thomas Keay Tapling. Frontispiece, Philatelic Record , Vol. 9, 18878.

The Jerrom letter to Bombay, bearing two one penny Post Office stamps. Courtesy of Investphila SA, Switzerland.

The Bordeaux letter, bearing both one penny and two pence Post Office stamps. Private Collection. Courtesy of Richard Borek, Braunschweig, Germany.

Monsieur Thophile Lemaire. Philatelic Record , Vol. 21, No. 6, June 1899.

The original copper plate (perhaps) used to print the Post Office stamps. Whereabouts unknown. Reproduced from The West-End Philatelist , 1912.

Fred Melvilles Rare Stamps: How to Recognise Them , London, 1922. Held in the Royal Philatelic Society of Victoria Library, Australia.

Alfred Lichtenstein and Thodore Champion. Reproduced from Balasse Magazine , Brussels, No. 104, February 1956.

The one rupee Mauritius stamp issued to celebrate the centenary of the islands first British colonial postage stamps. Authors collection.

The original case containing two Post Office Mauritius and other rare stamps. Courtesy of Museumsstiftung Post und Telekommunikation, Bonn, Germany.

Vernon Warren, The Blue Mauritius , Thriller Book Club, London, undated, first published 1954. Authors collection.

Jean-Baptiste Moens. Frontispiece, Philatelic Record , Vol. 15, 1893.

Bois Cheri, Blue Mauritius vanilla tea. Authors collection and the authors favourite tea!

Authors Note

In terms of prices paid for the Post Office stamps I have cited currencies and amounts given in contemporary sources, such as philatelic journals, and, if available, followed conversions given therein. I did not attempt the onerous task of standardizing prices paid into one currency for comparative purposes. Historical conversions can be difficult to calculate, depending on what criteria are used as a basis (such as monthly salaries and cost of living). What did paying 1,450 for a stamp mean to George V?

The important thing to remember in this story is that while anybody could conceivably discover a Post Office stamp, only the wealthy could afford to buy one. Their financial value remains a wonderment.

Introduction

Probably the hostess would not have been flattered if a guest had intimated that the entire interest and enjoyment of the gathering would afterwards be summed up in a square inch, unless she had reflected that tis on little things great adventures hang.

Rev. C. S. Morton, A Study of the Early Postal Issues of Mauritius, London Philatelist , 1924

Winter in colonial Mauritius, from July to October, was a time of balls and dinner parties. The gay season usually began with the return of the Governor and his family to the capital, Port Louis, from their country residence in Moka. Then Mauritian society stirred itself, eagerly anticipating the invitations to musical soires, picnics, race day at the Champs de Mars, and particularly to the balls. Rejoicing in the cooler weather, the ladies readied their wardrobes, shaking out their best dresses and venturing into the well-supplied merchants shops in town.

Lady Gomm was the Governors wife and, while her ball was neither the first nor the last of the season, it would be the grandest. Elizabeth Gomm was well liked in the island and a great asset to the Governor. She was charming and knew how to entertain to advantage. She was also, it seems, happy to promote Port Louiss newly organized town mail delivery on this occasion, using it to send out the invitations (it is thought) to her ball. What better way to introduce the local community to the concept of the penny postal system and the first postage stamps the island had ever seen?