By all accounts this giant of a stamp dealer should have been serious and dour.   After all, there probably wasn’t anyone stamp collectors could better expect to answer a question or give a good piece of advice.

But Robson Lowe was jovial, genuine with his friendship, and delighted to share his considerable knowledge.   When he passed away at the age of 92 in the fall of 1997 he was generally acclaimed as “the grand old man of philately.”

Robson Lowe left behind a legion of stamp dealers who learned their trade from him and stamp collectors who valued his ethics,  his ability to find wonderful stamps to sell and the abundance of his information.

Reading Lowe’s work is like reading a history of the 20th century.  In July, 1938 he wrote his customers…

Owing to the depression in Wall Street Messrs. Robson Lowe Ltd. have been able to secure a large number of U.S. items at specially low prices, and now that Uncle Sam is stirring again, early application is advisable before all the best items are snapped up.

A few years later, Lowe’s messages took on a more somber tone…

Our new address from November 1, 1940 will be 50 Pall Mall London.   96 Regent Street has been badly damaged by enemy action and will not be available for use until after the war.

Lowe had a keen interest in postal history.   He blazed trails in terms of helping collectors and dealers establish some internationally respected guidelines on how items should be valued, much of which he wrote in “How To Assess the Value of a Cover.”

The first point to consider is the impressions of the stamps.   The second point to consider is the condition of the cover or entire piece. If badly soiled and dirty or torn, 30 to 80 percent discount may be expected.

In assessing the value of a cover make note of the value of the various stamps. Take the highest value and add 50 percent.

His career as a stamp dealer was peppered with special moments and events.   These included an auction at sea, aboard the Queen Mary en route from Southampton to New York in 1966.

But perhaps the most spectacular material Lowe ever handled was the stamp collection of the Swiss industrialist Maurice Burrus, which featured the famed Mauritius cover with the “Post Office” issues.

Stamp dealers and stamp collectors who were fortunate enough to spend time with Robson Lowe were fortunate in at least two respects.   They made a good friend, and they learned something in the process.

The first stamp dealer’s store I ever spent any time in is wrapped in memories that gild reality with a richness that is probably lacking.   But sitting on that swiveling stool at the counter of the stamp store in Brockton, Massachusetts was akin to sitting on a throne.

That was where I saw a compact kingdom of fascination and splendor.   That was where I began to grasp some of the possibilities of stamp collecting, stamp dealing, and where the lives of people who made their living buying and selling stamps came into a vague focus.

I can’t remember the specific items, but treasures were displayed beneath the clear protective covering on the counter.   And I can’t remember much about the stamp dealer behind that counter other than he was large and he was nice.

In Nova Scotia I met Stu Blumenthal.   He was a stamp dealer with a second floor shop on Barrington Street in Halifax, later on had a street level shop.   He sold me wholesale lots which I made up into approvals.   That was years ago.   Today he splits his time between Lunenburg, Nova Scotia and Stuart, Florida.

Pat Herst has done the definitive job telling us about a stamp dealer’s life.   “Nassau Street” is a treat to read.

Perhaps the single greatest stamp dealer of all time was the charming Robson Lowe whose spirit, knowledge and human qualities put him in a league of his own.

Being a stamp dealer is full of both solitude and marvelous relationships.   The trust that exists between a dealer and his customers is perhaps rarely found in other businesses.

You find a stamp for a client and you’re probably as thrilled as the client. You break down a stamp collection you’ve acquired and you have a sense of who wants what.

As a stamp dealer I cannot help but marvel at how no other hobby time has accumulated the body of knowledge and research that stamp collecting has.   At the difficulties in finding supposedly common stamps that the stamp catalog editors must have access to in abundance but none of the rest of us can find.   At what the internet has done to bring stamp collectors and stamp dealers together.

And at how much deep and enduring satisfaction our pursuit of these little pieces of paper provide.

In 1947, when stamp collectors and stamp dealers commemorated the 100th anniversary of America’s first postage stamp, the city was New York, the show was CIPEX,  and our world was obviously a much different place.

When you walked along Fifth Avenue, men wearing hats were commonplace.   So were stamp dealers and their shops. Each was a natural part of the landscape.

The Star Stamp Company at 503 Fifth Avenue would sell you a Montserrat KGV Five Shilling chalky paper for $14.75.   And there was no shortage of competition…on the same block you could visit The Mercury Stamp Company, Nicolas Sanabria, Carl Pelander, Walter Gisiger, Vahan Mozian, Sylvester Colby, F.R. Ferryman, and F.W. Kessler.

If you stopped in to chat with Mr. Kessler he might tell you about a shipment due to arrive from Paris which would contain the first two airmail issues from the Kingdom of Yemen.

Heading down into the subway on 42nd Street you could stop in at Spencer Philatelic Service.   Above ground on 42nd Street you could visit Stampazine, the Longacre Hobby Shop, The Booklet Stamp Company, and the auction firm run by Fritz Billig and Fred Rich.   In Rockefeller Center Nathan and Edna Deutsh ran the Coronet Stamp Shop.

The Stamp Dealers Enclave in Lower Manhattan

Downtown on Beekman Street postage stamp wholesaler M.J. Stern welcomed dealers to his “House of a Million Stamps.”   On Washington Street was Aero World.   On Park Row were Harvey Dolin, David F. Chassy, Hugh C. Barr and Stanley Gibbons.

Famed Nassau Street, the epicenter of America’s stamp dealers,  remained home to John A. Fox, the Ohlman Galleries, H.E. Swift’s Wakonda Stamp Company, The Broadway Stamp Company, M. Meghrig, Lee Gilbert, A. August Tiger and George Herzog.

But in 1947 you would not have found legendary stamp dealer Herman Herst on Nassau Street…Pat was in Shrub Oak, New York, “1392 miles from Houma, Louisiana on US 6.” offering “…the Famous Americans complete, all 296 blocks, every number in every position, at $397.50.”

And out on Long Island from where it continues to serve collectors today, was the Herrick Stamp Company.   Herrick offered the mint Mauritius Jubilee set for $20.00. Bermuda 81-98 for $32.00 and the St. Kitts Centenary set for $170.00.

The Grand Stamp Collecting Show at Grand Central Palace

If you happened to be in the city May 17th-25th you would have made the pilgrimage to Grand Central Palace for the “Centenary.”   The Centenary International Philatelic Exhibition or CIPEX.

CIPEX may have been the greatest stamp show America ever hosted.   Our collecting world, much more visible and mass appeal, was different then.

The doors opened Saturday, May 17th at ten with the New York Athletic Glee Club and the New York Post Office Band on hand.   Admission was fifty cents.   Stamp dealers and stamp collectors who journeyed to New York from Chicago could have spent time together on a private coach provided by the Pennsylvania Railroad with a special CIPEX return fare of $38.41.

The CIPEX Court of Honor paid tribute to Alfred Lichtenstein, the great collector who was to have chaired the show but suffered a heart attack on a Fifth Avenue bus a few months earlier.   The Court of Honor, showing collections by invitation only, served as a focal point for collectors.

Gimbel’s moved some of its stock up from 33rd Street and Broadway to Booth C at CIPEX where it featured FDR material. Gimbel’s rival, Macy’s, was in the process of exiting the stamp business.   Its stock was put on for auction by J & H Stolow…7,000 lots in a 240 page spiral bound catalog.

Winnipeg, Manitoba stamp dealer Kasimir Bileski came to New York, stayed at the Waldorf Astoria during CIPEX and manned booth 75.   Booth rental was $400. Philatelic societies and organizations could rent a lounge area for $200.

Ten major auctions took place during the show.   Billig and Rich took eight days and used two catalogs and four different auctioneers to put 5500 lots to bid.   More than fifty nations of the splintered post war world put their stamps on sale and on display.   And more than one stamp collecting hundred volunteers were busy guiding wheelchair bound disabled veterans who were avid collectors through the throngs.

It may have been the greatest philatelic exhibition of all time, the high water mark of stamp collecting.    Then again, with the internet connecting so many dealers with so many collectors, and helping so many people new to stamp collecting,  the best days of may not yet have arrived.

We can remember the importance of the CIPEX exhibition, its stamp dealers and its stamp collectors fondly, and to pay our appropriate respects, we can even collect the stamps issued to commemorate the great event.