The Great Texas Stamp Collection : : How Some Stubborn Texas Confederate Postmasters, a Handful of Determined Texas Stamp Collectors, and a Few of the World's Greatest Philatelists Created, Discovered, and Preserved Some of the World's Most Valuable Postage Stamps / / Charles W. Deaton.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Texas Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Deaton, Charles W.,
• Place / Publishing House: Austin : : University of Texas Press, , [2021]; ©2012
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Series: Charles N. Prothro Texana Series
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (152 p.)

Among the many difficulties the newly formed Confederate States of America endured in the summer of 1861 was the failure of its post office department to provide sufficient numbers of that item most crucial to its service: the postage stamp. Faced with the resulting din of customer complaints, a handful of industrious Texas postmasters solved the problem by simply making their own homemade stamps. In this thoroughly researched history of these rare and highly coveted stamps, The Great Texas Stamp Collection traces their journey from creation through their rediscovery years later by local, and then international, stamp collectors—a journey that culminated in the sale of a few pieces at a recent auction in New York that fetched more than $250,000. Weaving the larger contexts of Texas and U.S. postal history together with individual tales of greed, intrigue, forgery, and discovery, Deaton’s book is rich with characters from European royalty to early stamp dealers to common criminals, while also providing detailed examinations of the stamps themselves, including a complete census of the stamps now known as the Texas Confederate Postmasters’ Provisionals. Appealing at once to devoted philatelists, Texas and U.S. history buffs, and amateur collectors of all kinds, The Great Texas Stamp Collection offers a unique vantage point from which to view our history as well as the very nature of collecting.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Glossary of Philatelic Terms -- Time Line of Important Dates -- CHAPTER ONE Difficult Times for Southern Postmasters and Their Customers -- CHAPTER THREE The World’s Greatest Philatelists Acquire Their Own Texas Collections -- CHAPTER FOUR The Printed Texas Stamps -- CHAPTER FOUR The Printed Texas Stamps -- CHAPTER FIVE The “Cut and Paste” Texas Stamps -- CHAPTER SIX The “Book and Pill Label” Stamps of Gonzales -- CHAPTER SEVEN The Curious Case of Wharton, Waxahachie, and Other “Wannabe” Texas Postmasters’ Stamps -- Epilogue -- Appendix. A Census of the Known Texas Confederate Postmasters’ Provisional Stamps -- Notes on Sources -- Index