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The London Philatelist

Donations to the Tapling Collection from the

Philatelic Community, 1891-1899.

Richard Scott Morel FRPSL, Curator, British Library’s Philatelic Collections.

he leading philatelist, Thomas Keay Tapling (1855-1891) purchased or had the pick of every
Tmajor collection that came to market in the 1880s. Buying widely from dealers and exchanging
items with other important philatelists, Tapling accrued a near complete collection of the world’s earliest
postage stamps and postal stationery up to 1889. This collection was bequeathed to the British Museum
following his death from consumption on 11 April 1891 (Negus, 2007, p45). The terms of his bequest
stipulated that his collection never be broken up or sold, be named the ‘Tapling Collection,’ be placed on
public display, and, that it was always accessible to the President and Secretary of the Philatelic Society,
London (Melville, pp1-5). There are unconfirmed reports that the Museum’s Trustees were initially
reluctant to accept the collection for taxation purposes and that the collection was too modern (Negus
2007, p45). Nevertheless, the Museum’s acceptance of the largest and most valuable donation in almost
fifty years fulfilled Tapling’s ambition that his collection should form the basis of a national philatelic
collection (Negus, 2007, pp45-46).
Details of the Tapling Collection and its
numerous rarities have been published in many
languages in countless philatelic books and
articles. Much less explored is how the Tapling
Collection was managed during its earliest years
at the British Museum whilst being arranged and
mounted. This was an important phase in the
Museum’s philatelic history since a range of
material was donated by individuals and
organisations for incorporation into the Tapling
Collection. These donations are historically
significant since they represent the results of the
first collaborative venture between the first
‘Curator’ of the Philatelic Collections at the
British Museum and the Philatelic Society,
London. They also shed important light on how
Figure 1: Thomas Keay Tapling. The British Library’s the museum’s first Philatelic Curator managed
Philatelic Collections: Photographic Collection. the Museum’s collection.
From the moment it was first publicly exhibited inside new vertical slides within the King’s Library
at the British Museum in 1903, individuals viewing the Tapling Collection were in awe of its scale, logical
arrangement, elegant write up and the rarities it contained (Mackay, p5).
Credit for this work cannot merely be attributed to Tapling, since his collection arrived at
the museum as a disorganised accumulation of albums and loose stamps, with only one or two
countries actually written up. Since it was the first bequest of its kind to the British Museum,
there was no in-house curatorial expertise to manage it. Consequently, in May 1892 (Ref. Negus,
2007, p46) the Museum’s Trustees appointed the eminent philatelist, Edward Denny Bacon
(1860-1938) as their Philatelic Adviser and Jane Hamilton (1874-1957) as his Assistant (Negus,
1999, p5).

129 – 334 September 2020