Stamp Dealers’ Business - Stafford Smith & Son

The postal stationery card is one half of a reply card, (Higgins & Gage 6) and posted from Eureka on 30^th October 1897, addressed to the Brighton stamp dealers and publishers Stafford Smith & Co. The writer enquires:

"Eureka SAR 29.10.97
Gentlemen
Kindly let me know what price you are offering cash for unused Transvaal Comm. stamps have good quantity on hand reply sharp please will reply to yours 13 July next week S D Gilmalser”

Their reply was written on the back of the card and almost certainly returned to the sender in an envelope. Despite looking through many directories the sender’s name remains unconfirmed.

F Nov. 22.97. P.C. Not open to make an offer for these stamps but thank you for writing

When these commemorative stamps were first issued in the South African Republic, it was rumoured that they would become rare. Thus there was much speculating on the Stock Exchange.

The sender S. D. Gilmalser (?) had probably bought copies of Africa’s first commemorative stamp at the time of issue, 6^th September 1895, when it was thought it would be a limited print run. However, the one penny lithographed commemorative stamp, printed by the Printing Press and Publishing Company, Pretoria, had several print runs, with an overall printing of one and a half million stamps. There must have been many such attempts to dispose of unwanted one penny lithographed commemorative stamps.

Messrs Stafford Smith & Son
Messrs Stafford Smith & Son were founded in the 1860s and were one of the oldest firms in the stamp trade. By 1904 Mr. H. Stafford Smith had died but the business continued. Apart from stamp-dealing they were well known as publishers of Stafford Smith albums, for the collector who required an album without printed stamp illustrations. They published The Stamp Collectors’ Magazine (when the firm was known as Mr. H. Stafford Smith & Smith) from December 1863, and later The Philatelist a monthly publication published from December, 1866. A previous article (by Woolgar - see below) mentions that in 1864, in association with Hall & Co., London, Stafford Smith & Co., Brighton, published Moens J.B., Illustrations of Postage Stamps, comprising upward of 600 fac-simile engravings of the different types of stamps, and descriptions of more than 2000 varieties, Illustrations of Postage Stamps, comprising upward of 600 fac-simile engravings of the different types of stamps, and descriptions of more than 2000 varieties, an important source of information for stamp collectors when little was known about forgeries. Perhaps, their most unusual publication was a 1904 diary which incorporated pen ruled cash columns, no doubt intended to enable philatelists to keep track of their purchases!