6th June 2011

I do not want to stick my neck out but the future does look bright for Philately

The May week of sales was every bit as exhausting as we had imagined. I was going to say ‘feared’ but of course selling stamps is our ‘raison d’être’ (sorry, I am back in France now and these phrases jump readily to mind).

Sterling work by all members of the Grosvenor team and not yet finished as despatch and invoicing now proceed with all haste. Somehow our accountant, Chris, has to lay claim to over £2.3 million over the next few weeks from the successful bidders so that our vendors are paid on time. A job that calls for true northern determination.

There is no standing still on the philatelic front either with collections rolling in for the autumn sales. The first of these will be on September 28^th and is likely to turn into a two day affair. Particularly absorbing of time and professionally challenging is the collection of the late Dr Ronnie Straus, who many will remember encountering at philatelic societies and in salerooms over the years. Ronnie had an eye for a rarity and carefully tucked these away amid an extensive accumulation gathered together in his Wimbledon home. Certainly one where we are having to look carefully in all the corners of the albums, boxes, envelopes, etc.

I have my own nose in the George V key types of Ceylon, this country having been the greatest user of this economic answer to the high cost of producing colonial stamps. This means that I am spending plenty of time with Peter Fernbank’s “King George V Key Plates of the Imperium Postage & Revenue Design”. This book is the heavyweight of its field, packed with information and, at over 1.6 kilos (that’s over three and a half pounds in the old money) provides plenty of exercise for underused muscles.

Here in Gascony the sun is shining and the grass needs cutting, May being a month of high activity for the local verdure just as it is in the London auction world. Happily in July, like the rest of France and its people, the lawns will decide that they really cannot be bothered and will lie back until September. But until then …