The normally placid, gentlemanly world of stamp-collecting has been rocked to its foundations by allegations of massive fraud A US stamp dealership, which boasts of its “unmatched reputation for integrity”, has been charged with rigging $20m (£14m) in bids at auctions over a 20-year period.
Author Archives: peter
The De Bry Map of Mauritius (1601)
This map, from De Bry’s, Petits Voyages, Part 4, is the first printed map of Mauritius, published just three years after the Dutch landing in 1598 at the south-east harbor of Grand Port. As Basil Lubbock points out in his book, Old Ship Prints, the map, with clarity and skill, does two quite distinct things—the …
Ordinance No 13
The Legislative Council of the island passed Ordinance No 13 on 17th December 1846, fixing, inter alia, the rate of internal postage at 2d. per half-ounce for country letters and 1d. per ounce for local town delivery. Most of the new regulations came into force on New Year’s Day 1847. Article 9 of the Ordinance …
Mauritius – Not Only Stamps
“You gather the idea that Mauritius was made first, and then heaven; and that heaven was copied after Mauritius.” Mark Twain, “Following the equator” 1897. Mauritius is a small island in the Indian Ocean more than 500 miles east of a much larger island, Madagascar, which is located off the southeast coast of the African …