Having just reached 60 years old, which coincided with me being presented with my first grandchild, I have started to look back on my 40 years career as a professional philatelist.
Whilst at school, a classmate had collected GB stamps which he proudly showed to us all. So although not a collector at that time I did have an interest in the hobby which was to play such an important part in the rest of my life.
In 1968 I was drifting around in a Buckinghamshire town working in an estate agents office trying to sell houses for the then inflated prices from £6,000 to £10,000. The company ran a monthly auction at which I sat on the rostrum (an old oak table) and made notes. I remember mahogany wardrobes being sold for a 1/- to people boarding out their attics. The auctioneer was a real character who regularly made comments, that in today's climate of correctness would probably result in him ending up before the local judge. I very much remember him offering a clock with a broken dial and telling a lady bidder that it had a much prettier face than she had! All was taken in good spirit and she eventually bought the lot. From that time I was hooked on auctions.
I remember reading a three months old Stamp Collecting magazine and seeing an advertisement for a trainee philatelist. I applied for the job! And got a reply from Robson Lowe telling me the job had gone (I was not surprised after three months). But I had no idea who Robson Lowe was and what type of organisation I was applying to. All I was aware of was that they were auctioneers of stamps. It was the auctioneer part that appealed to me - not the stamps; they could have been cabbages for all I cared!
I duly turned up at 50 Pall Mall, for an interview with John Forrest (RL managing director). I was told the job in the advertisement had gone but they had an opening for a photographer. What the job really entailed was mounting stamps for the photographer to prepare for the catalogue. I was to be paid the sum of £12.10/- a week + luncheon vouchers and two weeks on double pay for holidays. I was to be given a three months trial and then my salary would be reviewed. I though it was a great deal. However when I got home my parents were not so pleased. I was greeted with “No future in that, you should stick with estate agency”. They have both changed their minds some forty years later. I had a daily commute of an hour each way.
On arrival at 50 Pall Mall two weeks later I was greeted by the then head of Department David Boyd and given my first task of counting stamps in lots from the Thill Scandinavian locals collection. Robson Lowe however had other ideas and gave me the task of mounting the mint block of 36 GB VR 1d blacks and the Newfoundland Balbo inverted overprint block of four! both from the Vivian Hewitt collection What a start! - to be continued….
Ken Baker
26th March 2009