The history of stamp collecting 16, The publishing house of Moens

Inspired by a series of articles by K. Kouwenberg that appeared in the monthly magazine Philatelie in the late 1970s, Rob Smit describes the history of stamp collecting anew in biweekly installments. This is part 16, The Publishing House of Moens. In the previous installment of this series, we discussed the stamp trade of Jean Baptiste Moens. However, Moens was also primarily a publisher and bookseller. As we saw, Moens invested heavily in stamps at a time when the trade in them was less strong. He could never have done this without his income from the book trade and publishing house. Naturally, we focus primarily on his philatelic publications in this context, but I do not wish to leave unmentioned that he also published many other works in various fields. The most important philatelic publications are: In March 1862, 'le appeared Stamp Collector's Handbook ou General nomenclature of all stamps adopted in the various countries of the world'. This catalogue was the first French-language stamp catalogue following the publication of Potiquet. A successful publication and a groundbreaking work for philately. Click here to view the 1st edition. Click here to view the 2nd edition. After the 2nd edition, a supplement was published in January 1863 which, together with the second edition, formed the third edition. Also in 1862, a publication appeared concerning stamp forgeries: *De la falsification des timbres-poste ou Nomenclature générale de toutes les imitations et falsifications ainsi que des divers timbres d'essais de tous pays (pour alerter les « timbromanes » contre les faux timbres). In itself, it can be considered remarkable that so shortly after the appearance of the first catalogues and the first philatelic publications, Moens not only spilled the beans but even published on forgeries. It probably says a lot about Moens himself (and Hanciau), who by 1862 had already been trading in stamps for quite some time and was utterly disgusted by the forgeries already on the market. Click here to view this edition. This work was translated into English by E. Doble just a few months later (still in 1862) (see image above). In 1864, *les timbres-poste illustrés* appeared. Moens clearly recognized the importance of illustrations in his publications. The illustrations collected in this work were therefore used further in his catalogues, magazine (le Timbre-poste), and his albums. Click here to view this issue. From 1863 until 1900, Moens was the publisher of the philatelic monthly magazine Le Timbre-Poste. Below is the front page of the first issue from February 1863. Le Timbre-Poste was one of the most important philatelic magazines for nearly forty years, in which many new discoveries and descriptions were mentioned for the first time. Reporting was regularly reproduced by other publishers, with or without source attribution. See also a previously published article about Moresnet (click here).   Moens has published various specialized handbooks or catalogues on subfields. As also mentioned in the previous part ' the book 'Les Timbres de Maurice' in 1878, in which he describes, among other things, the blue Mauritius, so famous even among non-stamp collectors. But works have also appeared from other fields, including 'Stamps from the Tour & Taxis office, ''Russian stamps', 'Prussian stamps', 'Stamps of the States of Tuscany and San Marino, 'Timbres des Etats de l'Eglise'. Always listed as author by JB Moens. Although in practice, Louis Hanciau played a major role in the creation of these editions. This is not always easy for historians to ascertain, as Hanciau himself signed his correspondence with JB Moens.   In addition to the publication of catalogues, handbooks, and the magazine, Moens also published stamp albums. I myself own a copy from 1874, which is essentially an album and illustrated catalogue in one. The left-hand pages contain images and descriptions, while the right-hand pages feature boxes where the stamps could be pasted. So much for Moens's trade and expenditures. As previously indicated, his influence in the early days of philately was so great that we will encounter Moens several more times in later installments of this series. For this article, I thank Vincent Schouberechts for his cooperation as well as a number of images. To be continued on November 26. Other articles on the stamp blog in which Moens is mentioned; click here.

Published so far:

1. Introduction and start 2. The first collectors 3. The first catalogueOscar Berger Levrault is the first to provide an overview. 4. Alfred Potiquet, The first commercially published catalogue. 5. Booming 1862, The most turbulent year in philatelic history. 6. Edard de Laplante, the first to live exclusively from the stamp trade. 7. Natalis RondotThe first true philatelic literature appeared in a family magazine. 8. Henri Justin Lallier, Publisher of the first stamp album. 9. Frederick W. Booty, The first catalogue in English. 10. Mount Brown, A successful English catalogue. 11. Dr John Edward Gray, Inventor of the postage stamp, the very first collector, or merely a good cataloguer? 12. The first stamp magazineFirst a failed attempt, but then a sheet of stamps after all. 13. Edward Pemberton, Active philatelist with descendants in philately. 14. Dr. C.W. Viner, Father of English philately. 15. Jean Baptiste Moens, The greatest trader of all time.