Stamp Dealers - Tamsen and a Birmingham Philatelic Society Secretary

Jeff Woolgar and Joan Matthews

The correspondent and the addressee
Who’s Who in Philately 1914¹ records the prominent philatelists of the day which included: Emil Tamsen and George Johnson.

Emil Tamsen of Nylstroom is described as a general merchant specialising in British South Africa stamps and a writer who studied stamps of the Transvaal. He was the South African correspondent for Gibbons Stamp Monthly Journal, having formerly acted in the same capacity for Gibbons Stamp Weekly.

George Johnson B.A. is described as being born in Birmingham in 1861, educated there at King Edward’s School [Ashton] and was a schoolmaster from 1874 to 1897. He was a member of Birmingham City Council, Chairman of Parks and General Purposes Committee and member of the Education Committee. He had collected stamps from 1887 as a general collector, chiefly interested in Great Britain and Colonies and was long serving Honorary Secretary of Birmingham Philatelic Society. His articles about New South Wales were published in the Philatelic Chronicle, and those on Cape ‘Woodblocks’ in The London Philatelist. Outside philately his interests were bowls and gardening, but he was chiefly occupied with educational work.

The letter
Illustrated above, is a one penny Transvaal lettercard from Emil Tamsen addressed to Councillor G. Johnson B.A. in Birmingham and posted from Nylstroom on 3^rd June 1911.

"Nylstroom 2/6/10 [sic] Dear Sir

After all the worry I think you will now have some spare time & I would be very much obliged if you would return my book & send a selection to settle from.

Please remember I marked at Gibbons 1909 & I expect your friend to mark at same Cat.

Trusting soon to hear from you. Truly Yours

E Tamsen"

It would seem that “Cat.” denotes “Catalogue” and refers to Stanley Gibbons’ catalogue numbers. Emil Tamsen was the doyen of Transvaal philately who recorded so much for posterity. Here we see a glimpse into his business dealings and it would seem he was clearly annoyed at having sent an approval booklet to Johnson, who had passed it on to an acquaintance who had not returned it.

George Johnson had been elected Treasurer, Librarian and Exchange Superintendent of the Birmingham Philatelic Society during October 1892 and was later their Hon. Secretary.^{2, 3, 4} When Tamsen sent the letter, Johnson was having even more demands on his time, as he was also Hon. Secretary and Treasurer of the Executive Committee of the Third Philatelic Congress of Great Britain, held under the auspices of the Birmingham Philatelic Society 7^th 8^th and 9^th June 1911, at the Royal Hotel, Birmingham.

The old problem of the unscrupulous or forgetful may have been the problem here. Occasionally lists of fraudsters were published, primarily originating from stamp dealers whose approval books had not been returned.⁵ Presumably George Johnson was having the same problem with Tasman’s approval book; he had given it to someone who was slow to return it. The previous year (1910) during the afternoon of 29^th April, at London’s Caxton Hall, on the third day of the Second Philatelic Congress of Great Britain, Johnson had spoken⁶ about fraudsters. The point raised was “Means to be adopted for the prevention of substitution in Exchange Packets”. Johnson considered that the secretaries of Philatelic Societies were to blame but he believed that when the congress got into full working order, this was going to be remedied by the linking up of Philatelic Societies and their Exchange Secretaries. He hoped that in this way undesirable members would be weeded out. Personally, he was always ready to give any information of a confidential manner; this was greeted by cheers. Nonetheless, Mr. M.P. Castle said that the exchange packet clubs were admirably conducted and he thought it was a matter for the clubs and not Congress.

The Birmingham Philatelic Society had been praised for the quality and value of their exchange packets which were considered by many as the best in the country; a reputation which no doubt they wished to preserve. The scale of this operation was financially impressive. During July 1900, the packets sent out had a combined value of £2,358 8s 10d.

Postscript
We may never know the outcome of this letter but it is probably just part and parcel of the problems endured by philatelic secretaries everywhere! With the Birmingham Philatelic Society’s and George Johnson’s reputation at stake we can imagine that the matter of Emil Tamsen’s approval book was soon resolved.

Note
This article was first published in 2012 as: 'Stamp Dealers (3) – Tamsen and a Philatelic Society Secretary' by Jeff Woolgar and Joan Matthews, where there was a picture of George Johnson illustrated.⁸

Acknowledgements
We would like to thank: David Beech, Ann Stone and Brian Trotter for their help with this article.

References and Notes:

1 Harris, A.H., (1914), 'Who’s Who in Philately 1914', “The Philatelic Circular”, Balham, London, p.71 [The British Library Shelfmark: PP.2491.ZAB].

2 'The Philatelic Chronicle and Advertiser, Philatelic Publishing Coy'. – Birmingham [published from 1891] (1892) pp.32, 33, 55; (1893) p.19; and (1900) pp.19, 30 [The British Library Shelfmark: Crawford 2086].

3 The Philatelic Almanac 1907, 9^th Edition, Chas. J. Endle & Co., England, p.20 [The British Library Shelfmark: Crawford 812(4)].

4 The Birmingham Philatelic Society occasionally held auction sales. The Stamp Collectors’ Annual, 1905, Charles Nissen & Co. London, p.105 [The British Library Shelfmark: Crawford 806(13)].

5 Publications such as: the first edition of The Philatelic Fraud Reporter compiled by The Boy’s Own Stamp Co., Northamptonshire during 1894-5 lists more than 300 “unscrupulous stamp rogues”, 16pp [The British Library Shelfmark: Crawford 804(8)] and The Black List [1886] published in the USA [The British Library Shelfmark: Crawford 770(4)]. Another from an American publisher, consists of names of fraudsters who had been sent approval booklets by stamp dealers; Coffin’s directory of philatelic frauds, published 1887 in Maine [The British Library Shelfmark: Crawford 770(2)].

6 A History of the Philatelic Congress of Great Britain and a Précis of the Proceedings at the First Four Congresses held at Manchester, London, Birmingham, Margate in 1909, 1910, 1911, 1912, compiled by F.A. Bellamy and J.J. Darlow for the Permanent Philatelic Congress Committee. (1914). [The British Library Shelfmark: 08247.g.16].

7 ibid, The Philatelic Chronicle and Advertiser (1899), p.6 and (1900), pp.85, 86.

8 Picture Postcard of George Johnson, © The British Library Board [The British Library Shelfmark: Crawford 1063]. Apart from the official set of twelve picture postcards this binding also contains other official items relating to the Third Philatelic Congress of Great Britain which include, typed minutes, admission tickets, photographs and souvenir labels (stamps), programs and other printed items.

This page was first updated here on 5^th October 2023.

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