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The London Philatelist

However, it was only with the sale of the Caillebotte Brothers’ collection in about 1888, that Tapling
settled on the final format for his own collection. The Caillebotte collection was sold to Pemberton,
Wilson & Company but bankrolled by Tapling, as was usual, for the first choice of the material. Their
collection was superbly mounted and written up, as one would expect considering that Gustav Caillebotte
(1848-1894) (known as Georges in the philatelic world) was an artist. Each stamp or set in their collection
was mounted on a piece of card, in turn mounted upon an album page. Not only did this arrangement
enhance the appearance of the collection, but it also made it easy to rearrange a page without remounting
the stamps themselves and risk damaging them (Melville, p4).
Within a year of starting this massive undertaking, Bacon began to encounter gaps within the
Tapling Collection which required filling, if possible. Unfortunately, the Museum’s budget was such
that it could make no financial provision for new acquisitions to the Collection. This compelled
Bacon to try and complete the collection, initially from his own personal resources and later by
approaching fellow members of the Philatelic Society, London for donations.
Bacon’s first published appeal was made in October 1892 in the ‘Occasional Notes’ section of
the first volume of the Society’s Journal, The London Philatelist. Tapling had been the Vice-
President and popular both within and beyond the society, consequently its members likewise
embraced the ambition to develop his bequest into a National Philatelic Collection. This commitment
evoked a positive response to Bacon’s appeal and resulted in hundreds of items being donated over
the next few years.

Figure 9. Extract of appeal published in ‘Occasional Notes,’ The London Philatelist, October 1892, p286

Upon receipt of a donation, the individual stamps were mounted on the relevant pages throughout
the Tapling Collection by Bacon and Hamilton. Since no centralised acquisition register is extant,
it is difficult to discern who made donations, when they were made and what each of the donations
comprised. Bacon regularly published announcements of donations within the first eight volumes
of The London Philatelist. However, these were only summaries and he failed to provide the
dates when the donations were made, full descriptions of what was donated or how they were
dispersed within the Tapling Collection. Consequently, over time they were subsumed within the
identity of the Tapling Collection and largely forgotten. Fortunately, as an inducement to donors,
Bacon promised to record the donor’s name and date of donation upon each page on which the

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