• Source: Tapling Collection

The Tapling Collection of postage stamps was donated to the British Museum from the estate of Thomas Tapling in 1891.
The probate value of the Tapling collection was set at £12,000 but on arrival Richard Garnett (assistant keeper of Printed Books) estimated their value at more than £50,000 and described the bequest as the most valuable gift since the Grenville Library in 1847 (equivalent to £24,000,000 in 2011).
It is held in the Philatelic Collections of the British Library and selected items are on permanent public exhibition.
The collection covers the period 1840 to 1890 with some items up to 1900 added subsequently and recorded on the album pages. As of January 2009 the stamps were held in 72 boxes and the postal stationery part held in 113 albums and seven boxes.




Highlights



The collection features these rarities:

Gold Coast: 1883 (May) 1d on 4d magenta, unique
Great Britain: 1858-79 1d red, plate 77, one of a few known
Hawaii: 1851-52 2 cents to 13 cents (both types), the "Missionaries"
India: 1854 4 annas blue and pale red, error head inverted, two used on a cover, unique
Mauritius: 1847 1d red used on cover and 2d blue, the "Post Office" issue
Spain: 1851 2 reales, error of colour, one of three known
Switzerland: Zürich: 1843 4 rappen, the unique unsevered horizontal strip of five
Uruguay: 1858 120 centavos blue and 180 centavos green, in tête beche pairs, two of five known
Western Australia: 1854-55 4d blue, error frame inverted
The collection also includes a significant number of colour varieties of early United States postal issues.




See also


British Library Philatelic Collections
List of postage stamps




References and sources


References

Sources
Mackay, James A. (1964), The Tapling Collection of postage and telegraph stamps and postal stationery, British Museum
Melville, Frederick J. (1905), The Tapling Collection of Stamps and Postal Stationery at the British Museum. A descriptive guide and index, Lawn & Barlow
Index to the collection of postage and other stamps bequeathed to the British Museum by Thomas Keay Tapling, M.P., Trustees of the British Museum, 1903
Harris, Philip Rowland (1998), A history of the British Museum Library, 1753-1973, British Library, ISBN 978-0-7123-4562-0




External links


Media related to Tapling Collection at Wikimedia Commons

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Tapling Collection
• Stamp collecting
• British Library Philatelic Collections
• British Library
• Inverted Swan
• Cotton library
• Thomas Tapling
• Tauchnitz publishers
• Paston Letters
• Universal Postal Union Collection