Contents of the collection, September, 1861 Stamps 673 " " " August, 1862 " 1,142 " " " April, 1863 " 1,553 " " " July, 1864 " 1,857
These figures are without counting varieties of shade. In 1870 the collection contained 10,400 stamps in all, including 6,300 unused, and more than 1,400 genuine essays. "I was only short of fifty postage-stamps known at that date," he writes, "as also a certain number of Australian stamps, with their various watermarks, which I had begun to study towards 1866, with my old friends and collaborators, F. A. Philbrick and Dr. Magnus."[18]
Here indeed was a collection, probably as near to the collector's elusive ideal of completeness as has ever been attained in a general collection. Writing from memory, in January, 1890, he gives the following list of special items he remembers to have been amongst the 6,300 unused stamps:--
Bergedorf Nov. 1, 1861 ½ sch. violet. 3 sch. rose. Saxony 1850 3 pf. Great Britain 1840 1d. V.R. Switzerland: Zurich 1843 4 rapp. " " " 6 rapp. " "Vaud" -- 4 centimes. " " -- 5 " Tuscany 1849 1 soldo. " " 2 soldi. " " 60 crazie. Naples 1860 ½ T. arms. " " ½ T. cross. Reunion 1851 15 centimes. " " 30 centimes. "Indies" 1854 ½ anna red. New Zealand 1855 1s. New Brunswick 1857 1s. Nova Scotia 1857 1s. British Guiana 1856 4 cents carmine. Peru 1858 ½ peso. Buenos Ayres April, 1858 3 pesos. " " " " 4 pesos red. " " " " 4 " brown. " " " " 5 " orange. " " Oct. " 4 rl. brown. " " " " 1 peso brown (:IN Ps). " " Jan. 1859 1 peso blue (:IN Ps). " " " " 1 " " (TO Ps).
"On the other hand, Spain, without its colonies, was represented in my collection for the period of 1850 to the end of 1856 by 79 unused stamps, 80 postmarked stamps, 8 essays of the Madrid stamp (bear), and was very complete." Even on the extenuated scale of the modern Gibbons catalogue, the total of varieties of the issues 1850-56 only numbers 125.
The first four-figure price for a stamp collection was obtained in 1878, when the magnificent collection of Sir Daniel Cooper, Bart., K.C.M.G., was transferred to the ownership of Mr. Philbrick, Q.C., for £3,000. Sir Daniel's public career, chiefly in connection with the promotion of "Advance, Australia!", is still well remembered, but it is significant of the character of the assemblages at Mr. Stainforth's rectory that this distinguished Australian should have been one of their most active promoters in 1861 and the following years. He was, with Mr. Philbrick, one of the founders of the Philatelic Society in 1869, and was the first of the line of distinguished occupants of the presidential chair of the now Royal Philatelic Society. It is only natural that, with his intimate associations with Australia, the early stamps of that continent and of New Zealand should figure strongly in his collection. It was he who supplied the data which enabled the young philatelic giant, Mr. E. L. Pemberton, to announce the existence of a pre-Rowland Hill stamped envelope in New South Wales, leading to the discovery of the embossed letter-sheets of Sydney, 1838.