Fletcher Collection

1682 Penny Post Paid Dockwra handstamp on letter posted at Lime Street to Warwick Lane in London. A prime artefact in the Fletcher Collection.^[1]

The Fletcher Collection is Hugh Greenwell Fletcher's lifetime philatelic collection of British postage stamps and British stamps used abroad including overprints and non-stamp items such as postal stationery. On his death in 1968 (aged 86), the collection was bequeathed to the Bruce Castle Museum in Tottenham, once the home of Sir Rowland Hill. The collection was donated to the British Library in 1989.^[2]

Description

Half of the collection is of pre-adhesive material. There is a 1682 letter carried by the William Dockwra's original London Penny Post, and a study of the handstamps once the government took over the service. The collection includes a group of early 19th century 5th Clause Posts.^[3] The uniform rates include seventy-three examples of the 1839-1840 handstruck 4d. (including used on 5 December 1839, the first day of the new rate, from Dublin, Edinburgh, and Glasgow), and during the subsequent period of the uniform one penny rate with rare private prepaid envelopes printed by Baraclough in brown (illustrated), and by Buchanan in blue.^[2]

The remaining collection includes a wide range of stamps (mainly used), with plate reconstructions throughout the Queen Victoria period - including each of the plates of the 1840 penny black. Postal stationery is included with complete uncut sheets of Mulready 1d and 2d (envelopes and lettersheets of each value). There is a Mulready 1d lettersheet used on 2 May 1840, that were first sold on 1 May 1840. Later issues include embossed envelopes with advertising rings.^[2]

The stamps of Great Britain used abroad include covers showing mixed issue frankings from Danish West Indies, Nicaragua, and Beirut.^[2]

See also

• British Library Philatelic Collection
• William Dockwra

References

v t e British Library Named collections Ephemera Ettridge Collection Evanion Collection Francis Place Collection Jaffray Collection National Reports Collection Literature Ashley Library Cotton Library Dexter Collection Durrell Collection Eccles Collection Ediciones Vigía Garrick Collection Hannas Collection Harold Pinter Archive King's Library Leyden Medical Dissertations Paston Letters Thomason Collection Todd-Bowden Collection of Tauchnitz Editions Manuscripts Arundel Manuscripts Coptic Language Collection Cotton Collection Egerton Collection Harleian Collection Royal manuscripts King's manuscripts Lansdowne manuscripts Stowe manuscripts Syriac Collection Stefan Zweig Collection Maps Beudeker Collection Newspapers Burney Collection Philatelic Bailey Collection Blackburn Collection Bojanowicz Collection Booth Papers Burnett Collection Campbell-Johnston Collection Chismon Collection Chinchen Collection Contributions Agency Collection Crawford Library Crown Agents Archive Crown Agents Collection Davies Collection Ewen Collection Feldheim Collection Fitzgerald Collection Fletcher Collection Foreign & Commonwealth Office Foreign Office Collection General Collection Ginger Collection H.M. Customs and Excise Collection H.M. Stationery Office Collection Harrison Collection Harrison & Sons Collection Hasluck Collection Heys Collection Imperial War Museum stamp collection Inland Revenue Stamping Archive Johnson Collection Kaluski Collection Kay Collection Langmead Collection Landmark Trust Lundy Archive McInroy Collection Model Collection Monks Collection Mosely Collection Muraleetharan Papers Murray Collection Photograph Collection Postal Authority Publicity Collection R.P.S.L. Handouts Collection Row Collection Ryan Collection Seymour Collection Scott Collection Shelley Collection Sherborn Collection Smith Collection Supplementary Collection Tapling Collection Treasury Excise Correspondence Turner Collection of Forgeries Turner Collection of Newspaper Tax Stamps Turner Collection of Railway Letter Stamps U.P.U. Collection Walker Collection Williams Papers Wilson-Todd Collection Sound British Library Sound Archive Oral History of British Science St Mary-le-Bow Debates Other Bookbindings British Library Sounds Employees Friends British Museum Reading Room National Preservation Office Category Commons Portal