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July 1995 Claridge's London EXHIBITION OF RARE STAMPS OF THE WORLD John Sacher

A really beautiful hardbound reference.

Number 55 of the Limited Edition of 500. Presented to JOHN SACHER.

Please see picture.

Ref. #Zone-B1679

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FREE UK POSTAGE.

ROBSON LOWE is undoubtedly one of the great names of philately. RL is sometimes credited with the creation of "postal history" as a major collecting area. While this might be an exaggeration, who could argue that RL promoted what he called "the humanity of the hobby". Postal History is world history. Not only great lives and great events, but everyday people and their concerns. Even those postcards of the Edwardian period, with their simple messages "weather fine", "wish you were here", "Gruss aus Basel" are souvenirs, records, of human life. In fact postcards often convey more humanity than covers, because we can read the communication on a postcard. A cover with its original contents is rarely encountered.

RL's Bournemouth auctions were a rich seam of all manner of philatelic properties. They differed from today's auctions in some important details. Dealing with RL, one felt that the buyer mattered. There would often be a timing of sections printed in the auction catalogue, so that bidders knew that the section of Icelandic postal history which was the purpose of their journey to Bournemouth would start "Not before 3.50pm". Do any auctions offer this courtesy today? In addition, if you asked, RL staff would reveal the starting price of a lot in advance of the bidding. There may be arguments why this should be kept secret, but how many times have hopeful bidders waited for their lot to be announced only to find that it opens at a price far in excess of their budget?

Quite often an unsuccessful bidder will later regret that he didn't bid a little bit more. And of course sometimes the successful bidder will privately consider that he has paid too much. Robson Lowe had a phrase for this - "Quality remains long after the price has been forgotten".