Martin Mills stamp albums

[Xenophon PCDGS]

One of my twin sons has been left six of these "springback" stamp albums in a will request containing a good collection of Danish stamps. He was told tat these albums were supplied by the manufacturing company who were based in North Wales, but cannot trace any information on the company, so I wonder if there are any philatelists on this website who could assist.

The albums are soundly made and of a good quality and are all in a green coloured binding.

 

[Gloster]

All I can find is that they described themselves in 1953 as Stamp & Album Co. and we’re at 23 Hackings (or Hackins - not impressive if you can’t spell your own street name) Hey, Liverpool 2. At another, probably later, date they were at Mews, Rhyl, and said established in 1948. They may have lasted until the present century, but a comment suggested that they were later just a supplier of albums.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Thanks for this information. The name Martin Mills is on the spine in gold blocking on all the albums. The insert leaves seem to be of a very good quality cartridge paper and I have a feeling that these were also supplied by the same company. At the front of the oldest stamp issue album was a very old newspaper cutting that made reference to a stamp dealer by the name of Arthur Price & Co in Dublin.

My son has made arrangements for the collection to be valued for insurance purposes.

 

[Gloster]

Thanks for this information. The name Martin Mills is on the spine in gold blocking on all the albums. The insert leaves seem to be of a very good quality cartridge paper and I have a feeling that these were also supplied by the same company. At the front of the oldest stamp issue album was a very old newspaper cutting that made reference to a stamp dealer by the name of Arthur Price & Co in Dublin.

My son has made arrangements for the collection to be valued for insurance purposes.

Sorry, when I said albums I meant that to mean that included the various inserts and other parts of the binder, but probably not the stamps, or at least not in the same package. There was also a vague comment that the company may have supplied the albums (as defined above) that were sold by Stanley Stamp’s Gibbon Co.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

An advert in a 1957 philately newsletter in South Africa has the business and its address as being Martin Mills Stamps & Album Co., Lusanga (Mews?), Rhyl, North Wales. Believe Lusanga was/is a largeish freehold property with an address of 16 Trellewelyn Road in Rhyl.

The Martin Mills stamp albums available in 1957 seem to have come in two main types, the "Viscount" and the slightly cheaper "Barclay Classic", both (I think) in red, green, black and/or possibly brown coloured covers, and even now they still come up for sale, from time to time, on the usual online auction sites.

There was a separate (?) firm, also located in Rhyl, which sold used stamps, literally by the million. This was Thomas Cliffe Ltd., which business was based on Marsh Road in Rhyl

Interestingly, when the 'Lusanga' property in Rhyl was offered for sale in the local press in September 1948, it was at the direction of a certain Thomas Cliffe Esq.

Perhaps the purchaser was none other than the eponymous Martin Mills, hence the subsequent reference to "Established 1948" mentioned upthread?!

 

[mailbyrail]

Martin Mills albums were going strong in the 1960s when I started collecting. They advertised in the various stamp magazines of the time and produced good quality albums and loose leaves. There is still a second hand demand for their unused products or even used pages in good condition. Like most things that always seem to be around, then one day you realise they have vanished.

 

[johntea]

Our next door neighbour recently passed away (aged 99 and less than a month away from the big 100!) and we found some of their stamp books clearing out so got them valued recently for a grand total of...around £200 so it isn't as easy as it looks on the Antiques Roadshow

Although on the flip side their house which they probably bought for about 40p all those years ago is going on the market for around £400-£450k so swings and roundabouts I guess!

 

[DelW]

Sorry, when I said albums I meant that to mean that included the various inserts and other parts of the binder, but probably not the stamps, or at least not in the same package. There was also a vague comment that the company may have supplied the albums (as defined above) that were sold by Stanley Stamp’s Gibbon Co.

Do I detect a reference to a very old edition of I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again? I seem to recall Bill Oddie using the phrase "Stanley Stamp's Gibbon Catalogue", for some reason gibbons featured regularly in one series ...

 

[Gloster]

Do I detect a reference to a very old edition of I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again? I seem to recall Bill Oddie using the phrase "Stanley Stamp's Gibbon Catalogue", for some reason gibbons featured regularly in one series ...

Indeed, you are correct: the joke has been floating about in my mind for decades. However, the basic fact behind the sentence is correct, i.e. somebody did make a vague reference to Martin Mills suppling albums that were, presumably, sold under the name of a well-known supplier of members of the family Hylobatidae.

 

[4COR]

Our next door neighbour recently passed away (aged 99 and less than a month away from the big 100!) and we found some of their stamp books clearing out so got them valued recently for a grand total of...around £200 so it isn't as easy as it looks on the Antiques Roadshow

The bottom fell out of stamp collecting years ago - stamps have to be truly rare to be worth much. Old stamps that are not truly rare now sell for a fraction of their worth back in, say, the 80s. I'll have the same type of valuation for my father and late grandfather's stamp collections at some point in the future: books and books of stamps from various British colonies or eastern European states - but it'll probably be less that £200!

 

[Bevan Price]

The bottom fell out of stamp collecting years ago - stamps have to be truly rare to be worth much. Old stamps that are not truly rare now sell for a fraction of their worth back in, say, the 80s. I'll have the same type of valuation for my father and late grandfather's stamp collections at some point in the future: books and books of stamps from various British colonies or eastern European states - but it'll probably be less that £200!

Yes - "financial speculators" made collecing rare stamps almost unaffordable for genuine collectors for a while in around the 70s or 80s. I lost interest in trying to collect "old" GB issues, and I suspect I was not alone - hence a collapse in value of many stamps.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Yes - "financial speculators" made collecing rare stamps almost unaffordable for genuine collectors for a while in around the 70s or 80s. I lost interest in trying to collect "old" GB issues, and I suspect I was not alone - hence a collapse in value of many stamps.

I am informed that insurance companies who had set premium levels for insuring stamp collections that had been valued prior to the value collapse in the time period mentioned above insisted on policy holders keeping the original insured level if they were to keep providing insurance cover.

My son has now used the services of a well-known valuation company in order to ascertain the current value and the person valuing the collection said that the stamp collectors of the country of Denmark in which the collection was based would be pleased to find a collection in identical good quality stamp albums and would see such a collection as ideal for a new serious collector who wanted to have a collection starting from the first issues.

 

[Ediswan]

Rather than the usual 'commerative gold coin' TV adverts, yesterday there was one for a set of four pristine condition 1953 coronation stamps.

 

[Ianigsy]

The other issue is that there are far more collectors dying off than starting the hobby, so there are a lot of basic collections covering (say) George V to Elizabeth II coming onto the market at the same time.