Description

Robson Lowe Ltd, 1978. Hardcover, 130 pp. No other printings listed. With a chapter on settings by Paul P. Hock and C. Chen. Very good in very good dust jacket. Green cloth covered boards with gold lettering on spine. light bumping to edges of covers and light overall scuffing with a bit of the color scuffed off along edges. Binding tight. Pages clean and unmarked. Dust jacket has a few small nicks and tears and light creasing along edges. light overall scuffing and soiling to jacket as well. Now in an archival-quality (removable) Brodart Cover. NOT Ex-Library. NO remainder marks. Black and white illustrations, with some in color. [From front jacket flap] Over the past sixty-four years, fifty-three different authors have written articles or monographs about one or other aspect of the first postage stamps of China. Such has been the interest in the past. In this volume. Philip Ireland records the discoveries of his predecessors and his own, the whole comprising a complete record. Such has not been published before. The subject is charming. Robert Hart first proposed a Chinese Postal Service in 1861 but it was not until 1878 that, under his direction, Hart saw the Maritime Customs Post opened to the public. The unapproved and approved designs, the manufacture of the 25 cliches from which each sheet was printed, the history, of the various printings with the re-arrangement of the cliches, the descriptions of usage sometimes in combination with the stamps of France, Hongkong, Japan and the United States, the curious seal Cancellations and Handstamps, the primitive methods of carrying the mail, all contribute attractive themes of interest to a subject which fascinates many philatelists.