The year 1840 was an important one for philately. Rowland Hill’s postal reforms were introduced – Uniform Penny Postage in January and the world’s first adhesive postage stamps, the Penny Black and Two Pence Blue, in May. The following month, on 21 June, a boy was born whose name would be forever linked with these small pieces of paper—Edward Stanley Gibbons.

Edward was the son of William Gibbons, a chemist established at 15 Treville Street in Plymouth. By the mid-1850s collecting postage stamps was beginning to become a serious hobby and it is recorded that Edward Stanley, like many schoolboys of the time, had a small collection. We are told that on leaving school in 1855 he joined Plymouth’s Naval Bank as a junior clerk but had not been there more than a few weeks when fate intervened. His elder brother, William, died and Edward was removed from the bank to become an apprentice pharmacist in his father’s shop. The job apparently left him with plenty of spare time, which he used to indulge in stamps. His father, realising that it could be a worthwhile and lucrative pursuit, encouraged him and allowed him to set up a desk in the shop exclusively for stamps.

The date of this enterprise is given as 1856. At the age of 16 Gibbons laid the foundations for what was to become the world’s leading philatelic business. The business evidently prospered for about 1858 it had a room above the shop and employed a lady clerk, a Miss Cummings, and its first trading name: ‘E S Gibbons’. This soon became ‘E Stanley Gibbons’ and later ‘Stanley, Gibbons and Company’.

On the death of his father in 1867, Edward succeeded to the pharmacy. However, the stamp business continued to grow and, as it was the more profitable, Edward decided to devote himself entirely to this; the pharmacy was sold.

Cape Triangulars

One day in 1863 two sailors passed his shop and, noticing the stamps displayed in the window, came in to ask whether Gibbons purchased used postage stamps. When being told that he did the sailors said they had some on their ship and would return. They did, with a kitbag full of Cape Triangulars, many thousands of them, in strips and blocks, including Woodblocks. They told Gibbons that back in Cape Town they had been persuaded to buy a 1s. raffle ticket at a bazaar and the stamps had been their prize. They were offered £5 for the lot, which they were pleased to accept.

Whatever the truth of this story, it is certain that Gibbons had large quantities of Capes for sale at this time. Entries in his letter copy-book of 1864 confirm this: To Mr Alex Rosenburg, 16 March, 1864. ‘I can supply you with Cape of Good Hope 1d., 4d., and 6d. in any quantity, 10d. a dozen; genuine old woodblocks, 3s. a dozen.’

To Mr J Pauwels, 24 March, 1864. ‘If I send you any more 1d. blue and 4d. red woodblocks they will be 4s. each, as I am offered that by several dealers. I enclose 1.2 dozen 1s. Capes @ 1s.6d. dozen.’

He had so many Capes for sale that he was able to offer ‘common’ 1d. and 4d. values at 8s. a gross. In April he was turning down the offer to buy 1d. triangulars ‘as they are no good to me’. Although there is no record of the profit Gibbons made on this early purchase, he later estimated it to have been about £500.

Other purchases included the remainder of the original stock of the Fiji Times Express stamps, brought home by his brother, Alfred F Gibbons, an officer in the Royal Navy (instrumental in many other purchases for the flourishing business), and a quantity of stamps from the Postmaster of Albany, Western Australia, which included 120 2d. Swans printed in mauve, the colour of the 6d. The Postmaster regretted that he had to charge 6d. each for these as that had been what he was charged by the authorities! These stamps are now catalogued at £9000 each.

The first catalogue

With his stock expanding it made sense to advertise, and the earliest known advertisement appeared in The Stamp Collector’s Review of 15 June 1865. This offered ‘Mixed used stamps, beautifully assorted’ at 1s.3d. per hundred; it also offered a price list on receipt of a 1d. stamp. However, the recognised forerunner of today’s extensive range of Gibbons catalogues was the 16-page ‘Descriptive Price List and Catalogue of British, Colonial and Foreign Postage Stamps’, the first known copy of which is dated November 1865 and was sold for 2d. post free. Stamps were priced unused and used, singly and by the dozen, and included Brazil ‘Bull’s Eyes’ at 4s., 2s. and 10s.6d. respectively for the three values, Swiss ‘Zurich’ 4 and 6 rappen cantonals at 2s.6d. each, Penny Blacks at 1d. each used (or 6d. a dozen), and 1840 2d. Blues at 2d. each used.

The 1865 catalogue included an advertisement for stamp albums prepared by J B Moens of Brussels. But soon Gibbons was producing his own. The first of these, the Improved, was a small, moderately-priced oblong album; although it was to change appearance its name remained in the Gibbons range of albums for many years.

About this time the VR illustrated album was also published. This was an elaborate album, with heavy board covers and a built in clasp; the pages had separate ‘compartments’ or squares for every stamp that had been issued—the forerunner to the later Imperial and New Imperial albums. These first albums were to create opposition from other publishers and result in legal action; this, however, was satisfactorily resolved. Thus were laid the foundations for Stanley Gibbons to become not only a leading stamp dealer but also an authoritative philatelic publisher.

On the move

In 1872 Gibbons moved from Treville Street to nearby Lockyer Street. His Price List and Catalogue was by then much larger, with a two-colour cover illustrating stamps and additionally inscribed ‘Dealers in Crests’. He was not to remain at the new address for long; he decided that Plymouth was too far away from London for the successful expansion of his business and so, towards the end of 1874, moved to a house at 25 The Chase, near Clapham Common.

Here his business continued to expand, though the comings and goings of his female clerks was rather frowned upon in what was an exclusive neighbourhood, leading to difficulties with his landlord who thought Gibbons was running a school. So, in 1876, he moved again, this time to 8 Gower Street, near the British Museum. From there the business grew, almost entirely through correspondence— at busy times he was handling 200 to 300 letters a day. He continued to edit, without help, the albums and catalogue and it was from Gower Street that the first Gibbons’ blank album, the Philatelic, was produced. By 1879 the Catalogue and Price List (with the emphasis now on ‘catalogue’) had grown to 100-pages with stamp illustrations supplied in a separate appendix. Later, catalogue numbers were introduced for the stamps of each country and linked to the spaces in his albums, thus customers were able to easily identify and order the stamps they required.

Stanley Gibbons Limited

After 34 years in business, Gibbons decided to retire. He now wanted to travel abroad and visit some of those countries whose stamps he had been dealing in for so long. He found a buyer in Charles James Phillips, a part- ime dealer in Birmingham where he worked at the Assay Office. In July 1890, for the sum of £25,000, Gibbons parted with his long-established business which became a private company. Phillips became managing director of the new company, Gibbons accepted the position of Chairman of the Board and his brother and CJ’s father became directors. One of the first acts of the new owner was to publish a new stamp magazine and, on 20 July the first edition of Stanley Gibbons Monthly Journal, forerunner of today’s Gibbons Stamp Monthly, was published. The first couple of editions were edited by Phillips himself but then Major E B Evans was appointed Editor and it rapidly became one of the world’s leading stamp journals.

As the business of Stanley Gibbons Ltd grew (the first year’s trading returns were almost double that of the previous year) it became clear that the private house it occupied at Gower Street had its limitations. It was decided, therefore, to open a small shop that could accommodate personal callers. Suitable premises were found at 435 Strand and the branch was opened on 6 March 1891 with a Mr J W Jones as its manager. Business continued to grow so much however, that it was decided to amalgamate the shop and offices so, in 1893, the company moved to 391 Strand, in an area long recognised as the centre of the stamp trade.

By the time the new century arrived, Gibbons had become the leading company in a well-established hobby. Many famous collections were purchased, rare stamps became known and identified and the Gibbons catalogue had become the collector’s main source of reference. The tenth edition (published in 1895) had become a compact, pocket-size book listing all the world’s stamps and postal stationery and included more than 6000 illustrations. Later editions stretched to three and four volumes and also included local stamps. By the edition of 1900, locals and stationery had been dropped and two volumes covered the British Empire and Foreign Countries.

Into America

The Edwardian era saw further expansion of the company, with additional premises adjoining 391 being acquired. A branch was opened in New York in 1902 and the firms of Hamilton-Smith and Co (stamps) and Glendining and Co (auctions) were purchased. In 1905 a branch was opened at Gracechurch Street in the City of London, though this closed after just 18 months. Another journal, Gibbons Stamp Weekly, was launched in January 1905 and ran for five years. The following year a ‘New Issues Department’, run as a separate company, was created. Gibbons staff then numbered 56 employees.

The years preceding World War I were the busiest the company had ever known. A branch had been opened in Buenos Aires in Argentina in 1910 and this brought several important collections into Gibbons’ hands, notably that of Argentine, Buenos Aires, Cordoba and Corrientes formed by Miguel Gambin. 1911 saw the closure of Gibbons’ New York office but also, on a brighter note, the discovery of a Cape of Good Hope woodblock 1d. error of colour unused in an old collection bought over the counter at 391. Other celebrated purchases were the Earl of Crawford’s Mafeking Siege stamps and the stamp business of W H Peckitt. In 1914 King George V, an enthusiastic philatelist, appointed Stanley Gibbons Ltd Royal Warrant holders, an honour which has been accorded through successive reigns. One sad event of this period was the death, on 17 February 1913, of the firm’s founder, Edward Stanley Gibbons. Since his retirement ESG had fulfilled his ambition of travelling the world, visiting, Egypt, America, Ceylon and Europe. He is buried in Twickenham Cemetry, along with his second wife, Maggie, who died in 1889. The war inevitably affected the company, with staff serving in the armed forces and the usual shortages and difficulties such events cause. One immediate casualty was the Monthly Journal which ceased publication.

It was during this period too, in 1916, that the Buenos Aires office closed.

Between the wars

After the war business started to improve, with a boom in War Stamps, for which a catalogue was produced. A pocket-size journal, the Monthly Circular, appeared in 1919, continuing until 1923 when the Monthly Journal returned. Two Great Britain collections totalling £16,000 were purchased in 1920, along with the ‘Curtiss’ collection of American States, the general collection of Sir James Andrew Clark (with a value of £30,000) and the ‘Louis B Smuts’ collection of Cape of Good Hope, including some 3623 Cape Triangulars (possibly including some of those first purchased in 1863!).

In October 1922, Charles Phillips was given the chance to handle the sale of the famous ‘Duveen’ collection and chose to retire from Stanley Gibbons Ltd and move to the United States; his place was taken by George Hamilton-Smith. He held the position for only a few years, dying in 1926. As a result it was decided that William Hamilton Andrews, Company Secretary, and F Stanley Phillips (in charge of all Gibbons publications) be appointed joint Managing Directors of the company. Stanley Mann, a director, became Chairman.

A new beginning

The new management marked a new beginning for the company. The hobby continued to boom and many fine collections were purchased. The Monthly Journal was transformed in October 1927, starting a new life, in a more ‘popular’ style, as Gibbons Stamp Monthly under the editorship of Stanley Phillips. But the sensation of the period was the publication in 1934 of the Simplified Stamp Catalogue, better known today as Stamps of the World.

In 1939 war broke out again. Paper rationing, restrictions on the import and export of stamps, air raids (which led to damage of type and blocks for the catalogue at its printers, the loss of the May 1941 issue of GSM and water damage to stamps held in a Chancery Lane vault) were just some of the problems that had to be endured. The retail mail order departments and their stock were moved to St Albans, but the famous shop at 391 remained open throughout the war. In 1943 Stanley Mann died and was replaced as Chairman by W Hamilton Andrews.

In January 1947 the board was reconstituted upon the retirement of W Hamilton Andrews, with C F Phillips as Chairman, Stanley Phillips as Managing Director and F B Smith, A Cyril Andrews, W F Deakin and F S Wall as directors. C P Rang became joint Editor of GSM. In August of that year the first edition of the new King George VI Catalogue appeared (and sold a record 90,000 copies) and a new Part III: Rest of the World volume started publication in eight separate sections.

In February 1952 the King died and the first stamps of a new reign appeared in December 1952. The following year a successor to the record-breaking King George VI Catalogue was published—the Two Reigns Catalogue. Stanley Phillips, who had become Chairman of the company on the death of Frank Phillips, died in 1954 as did F B Smith. As a result F T Smith became the new Chairman and W F Deakin was appointed Managing Director; F S Wall became Catalogue Editor. The following year, in a new venture for the company, it took over management of the long-established philatelic department at the Army & Navy Stores in London’s Victoria Street, though this lasted only until September 1960.

A special year

1956 was, of course, a special year for the company—the centenary of its founding—and the company celebrated in style. A exhibition was held at the Waldorf Hotel in London, opened by the Keeper of the Royal Philatelic Collection, Sir John Wilson. There were many distinguished guests and many fine stamps to be seen at the show, which attracted 7000 visitors over its six days. The year was made more memorable by the announcement that the company had been granted a Royal Warrant by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Centenary year also saw Gibbons attempt to persuade the Post Office to introduce pictorial definitive stamps, GSM’s Editor, C P Rang, producing several designs to show what could be done. However, in spite of much favourable publicity and the support of Lord Elibank in the House of Lords, the suggestion did not find favour with the Post Office. In 1959 Gibbons acquired one of the oldest established philatelic auctioneers, Harmer Rooke and Co Ltd of Arundel Street, just off the Strand. The following year 391 was given a new, modern shop front.

Far reaching changes

The following decade was to mark some important and far reaching changes in the history of Stanley Gibbons. The first of these was the merger of Gibbons with H E Wingfield (which had premises next door to Gibbons at 392 Strand) on 7 August 1962. The owner of Wingfield’s was A L Michael and, upon the merger, he became joint Managing Director of Gibbons, alongside W F Deakin. Thus Gibbons, Wingfield and Harmer Rooke joined forces to become the Gibbons Group. At the same time the shop was redesigned and enlarged. September 1963 saw the introduction of a new group symbol to replace the old ‘Flying Cape’, first introduced in 1929, and the redesign and enlargement of Gibbons Stamp Monthly under new Editor Russell Bennett, who had replaced C P Rang upon his retirement. One month later, October, saw the publication of the first volume, devoted to the stamps of Queen Victoria, of the new Great Britain Specialised Catalogue.

In the New Year the Editorial and Publishing offices were moved to Buckingham Street and, in July, Mr Michael made philatelic history when he sailed in to Southampton on the Mauretania with stock of an American dealer valued at about US$11/2 million. The stock was unique in that it consisted of only 19th century stamps and covers, many in complete sheets and blocks as originally purchased from post offices. Later that year another substantial acquisition was made—The Letter Filing Appliances Co Ltd of Birmingham. The company had been founded in 1850 by Walter Brampton who invented the springback binder, one of the most popular looseleaf fittings for stamp albums. As a result Gibbons had a controlling interest in the production of their own range of albums.

Catalogue centenary

The centenary of the first catalogue occurred in 1964 and was celebrated in February 1965, by an exhibition held at the Royal Festival Hall. Opened by the Postmaster General, the Rt Hon Anthony Wedgwood Benn, MP, and visited by some 37,500 people, this show was to surpass that of 1956 for the company centenary. A display traced the history of the catalogue (which included, of course, the first known catalogue of 1864), the Post Office and Crown Agents had exhibits and stamp printers Harrison and Sons installed a Grover perforating machine enabling visitors to see sheets of current British definitives being perforated.

There were numerous invited exhibits and these included many rare and valuable items, but the undoubted star of the show was the display of what was regarded as the world’s rarest stamp, the famous British Guiana ‘One Cent’ black on magenta of 1856. Brought from the United States specially for the exhibition, it attracted long queues for each of the four days the show was open. The exhibition was also the launching point for a brand-new catalogue —the Elizabethan. This covered all Commonwealth stamps issued during the present reign and included varieties.

Gibbons also had another attempt at persuading the Post Office to adopt pictorial definitives, this time ommissioning designer Jock Kinneir to produce 12 designs. A ‘miniature sheet’ of the designs was presented in April 1965’s GSM but, again, in spite of favourable comments and an announcement by the PMG that ‘the Queen had consented to consider for approval new designs, both traditional and non-traditional, for new definitive, commemorative and pictorial series of stamps’ it was not to be. The new definitives, when they appeared in 1967, once again featured just the Queen’s head—the nowfamous design by Arnold Machin.

Continued expansion

The company’s expansion continued. In January 1966 Rex Phillips succeeded F S Wall as Catalogue Editor. Gibbons Stamp Monthly printed an all-time high of 70,000 copies of the May 1966 edition and in June it was announced that Harmer Rooke would be known as Stanley Gibbons Auctions at the start of the new 1966–67 season. Later that year the Editorial offices, along with Auctions, Publications and Trade Departments moved to new premises in Russell Street, just off Drury Lane. A new retail store, StanGib Limited, was opened in New York in 1967 and Gibbons joined forces with the Whitman Publishing Company of Wisconsin to produce the Gibbons-Whitman Stamp Catalogue, priced in US dollars, which embraced the contents of the SG ‘Part One’ plus the listings of United Nations and United States issues. StanGib was appointed distributor of British stamps in the US and Canada for the British Post Office in September, the agency being officially opened by the Postmaster General, the Rt Hon Edward Short, MP. Back in the United Kingdom, September also saw the launch of one of Gibbon’s most successful, bestselling publications—Collect British Stamps —sales of which now total well over 3•8 million copies. At the end of the year W F Deakin retired as joint Managing Director.

Gibbons goes public

Following the resignation of F T Smith as Chairman of Stanley Gibbons Ltd in 1968, A L Michael was appointed to hold the combined offices of Chairman and Managing Director. In February an announcement was made that the Board was considering making Stanley Gibbons Ltd a public company and in April it ‘went to market’ with an offer of £1 shares that was heavily oversubscribed. This success provided working capital for the firm’s future development and expansion.

Two further developments were to make 1968 a memorable year for Gibbons—the opening of the Rare Stamp Department at Romano House in the Strand, and the publication of a ‘bigger, brighter’ Gibbons Stamp Monthly in A4 size. Romano House was once the site of one of London’s most fashionable restaurants, patronised by the rich and famous. The new department was opened by Ruby Miller, a famous Gaiety Girl, and the inaugural exhibition of rare stamps and memorabilia was attended by eminent collectors along with celebrities from the theatrical world.

The company continued in its quest to acquire superb stamp collections, one such being a whole world collection formed by an oil magnate in Argentina, the collection contained probably the finest specialized studies of Argentina, Corrientes and Bolivia ever seen and had a total value in excess of a quarter of a million pounds.

In June 1969 the entire Trade and Publications Division was moved to new premises in Hall Green, Birmingham, linking up with the Letter Filing Company, thus concentrating the manufacturing, warehouse and distribution centres under one roof. The newly named Stanley Gibbons Products Ltd later incorporated the office filing and stationery businesses of Brace Windle (Didcot) Ltd and the Birmingham Envelope Company.

New ventures

1970 was an important year and saw several new ventures. GSM was renamed Stamp Monthly from the June issue and, that same month, it was announced that Parts II and III of the catalogue were to be abolished—to be replaced by a series of small paper-backed ‘parts’, each devoted to a single country or small group of countries. Also on the catalogue front the, then, final part of the Great Britain Specialised was published, devoted to the stamps of the present reign. The first of the series of ‘Maximus’ auctions was held at the Drury House auction rooms at the beginning of the year. The collection, one of the largest and most valuable ever formed in this country, comprised British stamps from 1840. The final sale took place in November, the collection realising a total of £240,000. Highlight of the year was ‘Philympia 1970’, the international stamp exhibition held at Olympia in London.

This highly successful show had been in preparation for many years under the direction of A L Michael, Philympia’s General Manager. Stanley Gibbons Ltd, who had an impressive stand at the show, were awarded a ‘comprehensive’ gold medal for their catalogues. Later that year, in December, Gibbons announced the formation of a new subsidiary company— Stanley Gibbons Currency Ltd—to promotethe collection of banknotes, for which the term ‘notaphily’ was coined. Colin Narbeth was appointed its Managing Director. To coincide with this the first fully-priced catalogue covering Bank of England and Treasury banknotes, Collect British Banknotes, was published.

Stanley Gibbons, along with many other commercial firms, especially those which relied on mail-order business, were hit hard in 1971 by a nationwide postal strike. This lasted several weeks and led to staff making personal visits and deliveries to the firm’s customers where they could. A more cheerful note was sounded in May of that year when Stanley Gibbons Ltd received the Queen’s Award to Industry for their achievements in doubling their export earnings in the previous five years —the first such award to a stamp firm.

The year ended with two special auction sales. The first, at Drury House in October, was an All-World Coins, Medallions and Banknotes sale, then in New York in December more than US$750,000 of rare stamps were sold during the ‘Anphilex’ stamp exhibition and at the subsequent auction in their New York showrooms. Highlight of this auction was the sale of the 1d. ‘Post Office’ Mauritius of 1847 on an original envelope containing an invitation to a ball held by Lady Gomm, the Governor’s wife, which realised US$175,000, making it then the world’s most valuable single stamp on cover.

A new name and new Companies

A new Gibbons catalogue appeared in March 1972, Collect Channel Islands Stamps (now Collect Channel Islands and Isle of Man stamps). Further commercial changes were also made to the company that year. In July the new name of Stanley Gibbons International Ltd was adopted to help future expansion into overseas markets. At the same time it was announced that the famous trading name of Stanley Gibbons Ltd, used since 1890, would be retained for a company to confine its activities solely to the stamp business. Similarly, Stanley Gibbons Publications Ltd was formed to handle projected expansion of the publications business.

Another successful purchase was made in November when the vast collection of an American millionaire was acquired. Valuers spent seven days assessing the collection which was housed in over 1000 albums and valued at more than US$2 million.

The first part of 1973 saw more famous name collections purchased, including one of British Honduras stamps, valued at £50,000, a collection of British Commonwealth classics, valued at £750,000, and one of the finest collections of Antarctic mail, valued at £20,000.

The later half of the year saw the formation of a new coins department, which merged with the banknote department to form Stanley Gibbons Currency Ltd. In November came the announcement that Stanley Gibbons International had acquired Briefmarkenhaus Merkur, the Frankfurt stamp business of H O Fraser, a leading expert in classic and rare stamps in West Germany. A private German company, Stanley Gibbons Merkur GmbH, a wholly-owned subsidiary, was formed with A L Michael as Chairman and H O Fraser as Managing Director. In April 1974 trading figures for 1973 were published and showed a record turnover of £4,554,800 (almost half as much again as those for 1972). Exports were also at a record level, exceeding £1,500,000.

In the late autumn of 1974, Stanley Gibbons ventured into fresh fields with the publication of a new magazine for flower arrangers—Flora—a lavish quarterly publication with many pages in colour. The year 1975 saw the completion of an ambitious catalogue production programme covering the foreign countries. This had begun in 1972 with the publication of ‘Europe’ in three volumes, and continued with the issue of ‘Overseas’ countries in four volumes. The ‘part’ catalogues introduced in 1970 had not proved a success and the new volumes replaced the old Part II Europe and Colonies and Part III America, Asia and Africa. Yet another new venture was begun that year when, in June, Gibbons entered into the world of antique maps and a new company —Mapsellers Ltd—was formed to trade in them.

A new Chairman and a Takeover

Howard O Fraser was appointed Managing Director and joint Deputy Chairman of Stanley Gibbons Ltd upon the retirement of John Webb in March 1977 and in October of the following year he became Chairman of Stanley Gibbons International, following the retirement of A L Michael. This period saw the company developing its overseas links, holding international exhibitions in Melbourne and Sydney (1977) and Johannesburg (1978). A new USA branch was opened at the Rockerfeller Center in New York—Gibbons (Philatelists) Limited—and Stanley Gibbons Monaco SAM in Monte Carlo in April 1978, an exhibition being held there in December. Major purchases were of the old established firm of Charles Nissen and Co for a price of £861,000 and the stock of Samuel Ray of Chicago for a price of several hundred thousand dollars. Publishing events included a Channel Islands Specialised Catalogue and the acquisition of the magazine Coins and Medals.

December 1978 was a momentous month for the company, Letraset International, a manufacturer of commercial art products, made an offer for the share capital of Stanley Gibbons International Ltd. This was accepted and Gibbons became a subsidiary of Letraset with H O Fraser joining the Letraset board as Deputy Chairman.

A major purchase was made in August 1979 when over US$10 million was paid for the Marc Haas collection of early American postal covers and Frimarkshuset AB, Scandinavia’s leading stamp firm, was also acquired that year. On 8 November Sir William Barlow, Chairman of the British Post Office, formally reopened Gibbons’ new five-floor Specialist and Rare Stamp Department at Romano House. The department had occupied the first floor of Romano House since 1969, but in 1978 Gibbons had managed to obtain the lease for all five floors. The refurbishment provided sumptuous surroundings and a spacious and elegant Gallery for the display of leading collections. Two years later, in 1981 (the company’s 125th anniversary year), Gibbons were able to include the ground floor shop area of the building.

With a floor area of about 4500 square feet, it became the largest stamp shop in Europe; after almost 90 years at the famous 391 address Gibbons had finally moved.

Recession

In spite of these apparent successes, the period was not a stable one for Gibbons. There were many management changes, notably the retirement of H O Fraser and the appointment of David Stokes as Managing Director of SG International. The economic recession contributed to the closure of several non-stamp subsidiaries such as those handling coins and banknotes, maps and playing cards, and it was decided to concentrate on the company’s greatest strength—stamps sales and the promotion of stamp collecting. Letraset was itself taken over by the Swedish stationery company Esselte Aktiebolag and in 1982 the announcement was made that Esselte had sold Stanley Gibbons and its principal subsidiaries (retaining only Stanley Gibbons Products Limited) to a consortium comprising the existing executive directors of Stanley Gibbons. This was summed up by The Times in the headline ‘Stanley Gibbons returns home’.

This new beginning had been preceded by the production of a Post Office prestige stamp booklet telling the story of Stanley Gibbons, written by SG staff writer James Watson, it illustrated historic items from company archives. The following year saw the publication of the first in what was to become a series of thematic stamp catalogues—Collect Birds on Stamps, now in its fifth edition.

A new beginning was also announced for Stanley Gibbons Publications when they moved to new premises in the Hampshire town of Ringwood, close to Bournemouth and on the edge of the New Forest. The move began in 1984 and was completed by the end of the year. The new premises provided increased office and warehouse space but the move also led to some management changes. The long-time Editor of GSM, Russell Bennett, retired, his place being taken by John Holman, and Catalogue Editor Stanley Zimmerman relinquished his post to David Aggersberg (though he remained as Managing Director of the division). Completion of the move saw the company, Stanley Gibbons Holdings PLC, with three operating divisions in the UK—Stanley Gibbons Ltd (London), SG Publications/Operations (Ringwood) and Urch Harris & Co Ltd (Bristol).

A further management change occurred in 1986 when Stephen Quinn was appointed Chief Executive in February, this was followed by the announcement in August of a successful rights issue and the sale of the Urch Harris subsidiary (repurchased in 1994). The final years of the 1980s saw a new shop opened in Singapore in 1987, a new Editor, Hugh Jefferies, for GSM and the acquisition of Proud- Bailey Company Limited, one of the largest postal history dealers in the UK. Stanley Gibbons Publications range of Starter Packs took the What Toy Award for ‘Best Educational Toy of 1988’, this highly coveted award is usually confined to members of the toy world, so it was a pleasure and surprise for a company on the fringes of the toy industry to receive this top award at their first attempt. This period was also tinged with sadness, with the deaths of former Chairmen A L Michael (1987) and H O Fraser (1989), as well as former director A Cyril Andrews (1988).

A return to profitability

The company’s shop at 399 Strand was completely remodelled in 1990, at a cost of £200,000, being officially opened on 30 April. The company reported a loss for the 1989/90 financial year and Paul Fraser was appointed Chairman of the company in November 1990. Under his management the company slowly began to return to profitability and in 1995, having purchased shares representing 76.83 per cent of the company, he made an offer to buy the remaining shares. This was successfully achieved in December 1995. That year also saw the first of a series of successful exhibitions promoted by Stanley Gibbons —Stamp ’95, held at the Wembley Exhibition Centre for four days in April. The show, opened by sports personality Fatima Whitbread, was a refreshing change from most stamp exhibitions, making a major effort to attract children. Further successful shows were held in the following years, not only at Wembley but also Birmingham and Manchester, which, with their mixture of stamps, themed displays, entertainers and celebrities, did much to publicise and encourage the hobby of stamp collecting.

A new British record was set by Stanley Gibbons in 1998 when £220,000 was paid at auction for a unique cover bearing a block of ten Penny Blacks on a cover postmarked 6 May 1840 (the largest known block of ‘Blacks’ on cover). In 2000 the cover was sold to the Royal Philatelic Collection.

Another takeover

On 7 April 1998 the national and financial press announced that Paul Fraser, owner of Stanley Gibbons, had agreed to sell the company to Flying Flowers Ltd for £13.5 million. Flying Flowers, which specialized in the sending of flowers by mail order, already owned the well-known cover producers, Benham. Tony Grodecki, Managing Director of Benham, also became Managing Director of Stanley Gibbons on completion of the purchase. However, things did not go as planned and, in 2000, it was decided to demerge the two companies; it was announced that running the two business separately, each with its own management, would enable them to take greater advantage of the changing economic environment; Flying Flowers kept the Benham and Urch Harris businesses. With the demerger came a change of name for the holding company to communitie.com.

This reflected Stanley Gibbons’ key objectives to be ‘the number one community destination in each of its chosen fields’. In 1999 the business had started developing an internet strategy with the intention of launching three brands: Stanleygibbons. com, concentrating on stamps and philatelic publications; Collectorcafe.com, an information-based portal offering opportunities in other collecting areas; and Frasersautographs.com, offering autographs and memorabilia. An additional site, Stampcafe.com, an online catalogue, was added shortly after, followed by allworldstamps.com and gibbonsstamp monthly.com. The latest internet offering, launched at the end of 2005, is ‘My Collection’.

The site, which replaces Allworld stamps.com, provides collectors with the opportunity to browse the Stanley Gibbons catalogue and manage, view and value their collections online. All current Stanley Gibbons websites can be accessed from the internet address www.stanleygibbons.com Concentration on the internet did not preclude traditional forms of business and in 2001 the company acquired the wellknown British Commonwealth stamp dealers, EHW & Co, its largest single purchase for over 20 years and a reflection of its confidence in the stamp market. This confidence soon manifested itself in the announcement that profits for the Stanley Gibbons Group Limited (the new name had been adopted on 2 May 2002) had increased by over 300 per cent for the six months ending on 30 June 2002—a trend that has continued in recent years. In December of that year the company launched the Stanley Gibbons Price Index —the SG100TM—designed to present an accurate picture of current market activity. The success of this encouraged the introduction of a second index—the GB30 Index—concentrating on rare British stamps, in 2004.

Although Stanley Gibbons is now celebrating its 150th anniversary, one major part of the group is much younger. In 1976 Paul Fraser became a partner in Plastic Wax, a company in Bristol specialising in rare and second-hand records. In 1978 Plastic Wax began to display, for decorative purposes, signed pop memorabilia that had came its way; this prompted offers and, as a result, Fraser’s Autographs was born. The company celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2003 and is the UK market leader in its field; it is now situated at Stanley Gibbons’ 399 Strand shop in London, Mr Fraser having merged his business into the SG Group in 1996. Last year the Fraser’s acquired the boyhood stamp collection of John Lennon; signed twice on the flyleaf, this album neatly brings together Stanley Gibbons’ main activities—philately and autographs. Also obtained last year were two important additions to the company’s archive. The first is a copy of the earliest Price List & Catalogue, unlike the two other known examples, this catalogue is undated but it is thought that it could be an uncorrected proof of the 1865 edition.

The second item is a large section of Stanley Gibbons’ personal scrapbook recording his world travels during the period 1891 to 1907. This has now joined the other section of the scrapbook which was already in the company’s possession. One major change in recent years has been the appointment of GSM Editor Hugh Jefferies to Catalogue Editor, following the retirement of David Aggersberg in 2003. Under the new Editor the catalogue programme has increased, with a series of catalogues listing countries of the Commonwealth, all illustrated in colour. Colour has also been added to the other Gibbons catalogues as they have been republished.

New production techniques have also been introduced, enabling much of the process to come under in-house control.

The future

Gibbons’ Chairman, Paul Fraser, has just reported ‘another record-breaking year’ for the year ended 31 December 2005, with a profit before tax of £2,819,000. Internet sales have increased by over 30 per cent and there have been increases in other areas too. Demand for investment quality stamps is rising, with supply and demand pressures pushing up prices of the best material, and the company is now focussing on the recently-launched Rare Stamp Investment Fund which ‘gives investors the chance to benefit from the consistently high returns available from rare stamps’.

The past 150 years have seen the fortunes of the company founded by Edward Stanley Gibbons in 1865 rise and fall and rise again several times, but the fascinating hobby of stamp collecting still endures and as long as it does we can be sure that Stanley Gibbons will be leading the way, as it has for so long. Note: This is an updated version of an article first published in Gibbons Stamp Special, a special publication produced to celebrate the company’s anniversary. Containing a variety of articles about the company, as well as other features, Gibbons Stamp Special is available for £4.95 (plus £1 postage) from Stanley Gibbons, 7 Parkside, Ringwood, Hants, BH24 3SH.