before the NVPH Netherlands catalogue

A new Netherlands catalogue will be published next week ( click here to read more about it ). The first NVPH catalogue was published in 1934, six years after the founding of the Dutch Association of Stamp Dealers.

The information for that catalogue did not, of course, appear out of thin air. For more than 50 years, much research had been done and written about stamps from the Netherlands and overseas (then still Colonies) in magazines.

Traders compiled price lists of their stock that became increasingly elaborate and comprehensive. In the Netherlands, Hekker in Amsterdam, Keiser in The Hague, and Correljé in Utrecht, among others, were leading in this regard and formed part of the basis for the first NVPH catalogue.

The introduction of the NVPH catalogue made the stamp (exchange) trade simpler, particularly due to the numbering. Until that time, many dealers used Yvert numbering, but some also used their own numbering.

Two pages from Hekker's catalog from 1929.

The first page featuring the Netherlands in the Yvert catalogue of 1925.

An important factor with the introduction of the NVPH catalogue was the completeness of information. Dealers naturally listed primarily the stamps they had available in their price catalogues. The NVPH catalogue supplemented this information with that from the guide, suddenly making the existing variations visible to a much larger audience. Furthermore, it included a guide price, making differences in rarity more apparent.

A good example is the 1867 issue, in which, until then, only the coarse perforation was distinguished in most catalogues, and now suddenly a whole range of different perforations was catalogued. The same applies to many other issues, both from the Netherlands and overseas.

In the preface to the first edition, mention is made of the cataloguery of the first issue by S. Wolff de Beer. Pages with plate characteristics (which later partly disappeared from the NVPH catalogue) led to the most complete overview encountered in a catalogue up to that point.

The first NVPH catalogue was a revolutionary publication that undoubtedly gave collecting in the Netherlands a significant boost. Particularly in the last 20 years, the NVPH has consistently presented a new catalogue containing previously unincluded or improved information, making the current catalogue better than ever.

The new Netherlands catalogue 2027 is another example of this, now partly due to the inclusion of Sandd stamps. One year an edition featuring the Netherlands and Overseas is published. The other year, it features only the Netherlands. Whereas previously the catalogue containing only the Netherlands was a simplified edition, the content is now identical to the Special catalogue, including all variations.

Click here to order the catalog from PostBeeld.