Collecting Railway Letter Stamps
In the days when the Post Office held a complete monopoly of the mails it was possible for the private individual or business to also send post by rail, by affixing the normal postage stamp plus a railway company stamp and presenting it the station for carriage on the next available service. This maintained the Post Office’s monopoly while producing a useful source of income for the railway companies. This system operated in the UK and Ireland from 1891 to 1947 and led to wide variety of stamps being issued by the various independent railway companies.
These stamps are of interest to the specialist stamp collector as well to the railwayana collector but despite their rarity they remain a Cinderella item and, as such, can still be bought quite cheaply. The unused block featured here were issued by the West Clare Railway Company in the 1890s and were purchased on eBay in 2004 for the paltry sum of €10. A very cheap way to begin a collection of genuine memorabilia from this long gone railway made famous by Percy French’s song “Are you right there Michael?”
Given the prices achieved by far more common Irish postage stamps there is only one way that these curiosities are going – so the message is get in there now! Apart from eBay the stamps occasionally turn up at the various Antiques & Collectors Fairs around the country.
I wrote the above piece five years ago and in the intervening period the price of railway letter stamps has spiralled upwards. In recent months similar blocks of unused stamps have been selling on eBay for €80/90! Too rich for me at that price.
Kenny’s Antiques Auction, Galway, Sun.15th November
A new addition to Kenny’s of Galway operations in a premises close to their book warehouse is a fine art and collectables auction on Sunday 15th, November. The auction is being run in association with the well known Dublin auctioneer – Joe Mullen – and there is something for everyone in the 400+ lots included in the sale. Paintings, prints, books, porcelain and a number of very attractive full colour lithographic posters advertising the Great Southern Railways, Guinness etc.
The full catalogue is available online at: http://www.kennys.ie/auctions/
Kennys Art Auctions
Kilkerrin Park, Liosbaun
Tuam Rd, Galway
DUBLIN TOY & TRAIN FAIR Sunday 15th November
The ideal opportunity for some quality Christmas shopping!
Clontarf Castle Hotel – this Sunday 15th November, 10am – 4pm
*Don’t forget to click on the pic if you want to enlarge the image.
WEXFORD BOOK FAIR – 1st November 2009
BOOK FAIR at the Talbot Hotel, Wexford.
1st November, 2009.
10.30am – 5.00pm
Rare, Antiquarian, Historical, Good general range of books and ephemera.
Wexford Festival Antiques Fair – October Bank Holiday
The 38th Wexford Festival Antiques Fair takes place in the Talbot Hotel, Wexford over the October Bank Holiday – Thurs.22nd/Mon.26th October from 12 noon to 8 p.m. daily. Run as a fringe event to the Wexford Opera Festival this fair rarely disappoints me – reasonable prices and a diverse range of stock. According to my local paper taking part in the five-day event will be Chris Kavanagh (Enniscorthy), Kieran Moran (Co.Wicklow), Marie Curran (Dublin), Brigid Wall (Co.Wexford), Albie O’Donoghue (Co.Waterford), Michael Lee (Co.Wicklow), Terry Stacey (Co.Wexford), Charlotte Freeman (London), Joe Keating (Dublin) and Wexford’s Mairead Furlong.
Of special interest this year will be an excellent selection of Georgian and early Victorian furniture; silver and Art Deco figurines; Irish paintings, mirrors, and collectables – particularly film posters, coins and medals.
The Talbot Hotel is located at the south end of the Wexford quayfront.
Waterford Antique & General Furniture Auction
Monday, October 5th at 11am.
R.J.Keighery I.P.A.V.,
City Auctions, Georges Quay, Waterford
Viewing: Daily Mon-Sat 12-5pm and Sunday 4th 12-5pm.
870 lots of furniture, antiques, bric-a-brac including a Ford Anglia!
The Emperor’s New Clothes – Part.I.
Bobby McLean at the Watch House Gallery, Enniscorthy.
I wrote this piece a couple of years ago and never got round to submitting it for publication and am using it here as the first in a series on Art collecting.
We were recently invited by friends to the opening of an exhibition of paintings by Glaswegian painter, Bobby McLean at the Watch House Gallery in Enniscorthy. Not being a great lover of art exhibitions, I went along to keep my wife company safe in the knowledge that at least it was an excuse to have a few drinks afterwards.
I should have brought my sunglasses. A cursory look around the garish collection of landscapes (?) crudely daubed in oils confirmed my opinions on contemporary art and I was looking for the way out. This art is best viewed in a dark room, it is for laying down and avoiding! If it weren’t for the outrageous prices which varied from €450 to €2,500 I would say don’t give up the day job, but if he can fetch these prices perhaps it is I that should change jobs. This artist cannot paint, although this shouldn’t deter him as many others from the primitive school such as Jack B Yeats command huge prices, but they generally have to be dead first. Out of the twenty eight pictures on view no fewer than fourteen were imaginatively titled “Landscape in Red”! At the bottom of the price list a note stated ‘Art may be purchased in installments’ – enough said.
My friend and I slipped away before the opening speeches, leaving our wives behind with strict instructions not to buy anything. As we savoured our pints of Guinness in a nearby hostelry we hoped that they would not waiver but we needn’t have worried as they joined us as soon as was polite after the speeches. They had learnt that the artist was a ‘colourist’ – that much even I could see but what is obsession with badly drawn electricity pylons?
My advice to anyone thinking of investing in a Bobby McLean painting is don’t! Save your money and nip down to your local Euro shop instead and pick up a nice cheap print that your family and friends will at least understand. If I am not very much mistaken in a few years time it will be worth as much as any of the paintings on view. If this is ‘art’ I will eat not just my hat but my entire wardrobe!
Next up Sean Scully.
Mealy’s Irish Writers & Rare Book Sale Tues.15th September
Tuesday next will see this very interesting sale held in the D4 Hotel (formerly the Berkeley Court, Ballsbdridge, Dublin.4.
Viewing on Sunday 13th: 1.00pm – 7pm & Monday 14th: 10.30am – 8pm.
Amongst the many lots I spotted several early signed works by the late John McGahern; Taylor & Skinners Roads of Ireland (1777); Musgrave’s history of the 1798 Rebellion and the always popular Vanishing Dublin by Flora Mitchell.
Full details of this sale and the Sporting Memorabilia Sale at the same venue on the 16th September are available at http://www.mealys.com/
Collect Ireland 