Mosely Collection

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Cape of Good Hope, 1855-8, 4d, deep blue/white paper. Part of the British Library Mosely Collection. British Library Cape of Good Hope 4d.jpg
Cape of Good Hope, 1855-8, 4d, deep blue/white paper. Part of the British Library Mosely Collection.

The Mosely Collection of British Africa stamps dating to 1935 was formed by Dr Edward Mosely of Johannesburg, South Africa. The collection was donated to the British Museum by his daughter, Kathleen Cunningham, in 1946 and is now held as part of the British Library Philatelic Collections. After the Tapling Collection, this is considered the Library's most important philatelic acquisition due to the number of countries represented and the number of unique items included. [1] [2]

British Library Philatelic Collections

The British Library Philatelic Collections is the national philatelic collection of the United Kingdom with over 8 million items from around the world. It was established in 1891 as part of the British Museum Library, later to become the British Library, with the collection of Thomas Tapling. In addition to bequests and continuing donations, the library received consistent deposits by the Crown Agency and has become a primary research collection for British Empire and international history. The collections contain a wide range of artefacts in addition to postage stamps, from newspaper stamps to a press used to print the first British postage stamps.

Tapling Collection

The Tapling Collection of postage stamps was donated to the British Museum from the estate of Thomas Tapling in 1891.

Contents

Collection scope

The collection consists of stamps of the following countries and colonies: Ascension; the Bechuanalands; Cape of Good Hope (including Mafeking and Vryburg); Gambia; Gold Coast; Kenya, Uganda, and Tanganyika; Lagos; Mauritius; Natal; Niger Coast Protectorate (now part of Southern Nigeria); Nigeria; Northern Nigeria; Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia); Nyasaland; Orange Free State; Rhodesia; St. Helena; Seychelles; Sierra Leone; Union of South Africa; Southern Nigeria; Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe); South-West Africa; Transvaal; Uganda Protectorate; Zanzibar; Zululand. [1]

Of particular note for quality and completeness are the collections of Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius, Orange Free State, and Rhodesia. Mosely spared no efforts to try to make his collection as complete as possible, and included all known varieties, as well as essays, proofs, 'specimens', and stamps on original covers. [1]

Highlights of the collection include:

The majority of the collection is unused or specimen stamps with a few used stamps. [3]

See also

Postage stamps and postal history of the Cape of Good Hope None

This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Cape of Good Hope.

This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of the Niger Coast Protectorate.

Postage stamps and postal history of Zululand

This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Zululand under British rule.

Related Research Articles

Each "article" in this category is a collection of entries about several stamp issuers, presented in alphabetical order. The entries are formulated on the micro model and so provide summary information about all known issuers.

Postage stamps and postal history of the Southern Nigeria Protectorate

This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of the Southern Nigeria Protectorate.

A. A. Jurgens South AFrican philatelist

Adrian Albert Jurgens was a South African philatelist and signatory to the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists of Southern Africa in 1948 and the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists in Great Britain in 1952.

This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of British Bechuanaland.

Postage stamps and postal history of Ghana

This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Ghana, known as the Gold Coast before independence.

This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Nigeria.s

Postage stamps and postal history of the Niger Territories

This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of the Niger Territories, an area between the Forcados and Brasse Rivers, once administered by the Royal Niger Company but now part of modern Nigeria.

Postage stamps and postal history of Zimbabwe

This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Zimbabwe.

The Universal Postal Union Collection is a deposit by the General Post Office (GPO) in the United Kingdom, under section 4 of the Public Records Act, of its duplicate Universal Postal Union collection of 93,448 stamps, covering the period from 1908.

Crown Agents Philatelic and Security Printing Archive

The Crown Agents Philatelic and Security Printing Archive was deposited with the British Museum from the 1960s, though the first recorded deposit from the Crown Agents was in 1900. The archive consists of a range of philatelic and written material which were the Crown Agents' working records. It is the most comprehensive record of British Colonial and Commonwealth stamp issues of the last 100 years.

The Board of Inland Revenue Stamping Department Archive in the British Library contains artefacts from 1710 onwards, and has come into existence through amendments in United Kingdom legislation.

Postage stamps and postal history of Griqualand West

This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Griqualand West, a former British colony that is now part of South Africa.

Postage stamps and postal history of Eswatini

This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Eswatini, formerly Swaziland.

Revenue stamps of Kenya

Kenya, formerly known as British East Africa issued revenue stamps since 1891. There were numerous types of revenue stamps for a variety of taxes and fees. Also valid for fiscal use in Kenya were postage stamps issued by the following entities:

Few revenue stamps of Nigeria and its predecessor states have been issued, since most of the time dual-purpose postage and revenue stamps were used for fiscal purposes. The first revenue-only stamps were consular stamps of the Niger Coast Protectorate and the Southern Nigeria Protectorate, which were created by overprinting postage stamps in 1898 and 1902 respectively. The Northern Nigeria Protectorate did not issue any specific revenue stamps, but a £25 stamp of 1904 could not be used for postal purposes due to its extremely high face value.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Holmes, H. R. (January 1951), "The Edward Mosely Collection of the Postage Stamps of British Africa", The British Museum Quarterly, British Museum, 16.1, ISSN   0007-151X, JSTOR   4422292
  2. "Philatelic Collections: The Mosely Collection". Bl.uk. 2003-11-30. Retrieved 2011-01-16.
  3. Martin, Jeremy, & John Powell. (2010) West Africa in the British Library Philatelic Collections. Dronfield: West Africa Study Circle. pp. 144-150. ISBN   9781905647040