One Cent Magenta Page 16

  “These one-of-a-kind items will always be bought for more money by people who are not collectors in their relative industries,” Weitzman told me in 2016, “because we see them differently than a collector in that industry would see them.” He said that was how he landed the Inverted Jenny plate block. “No one in the [stamp] industry could match what I thought was the value,” he explained. Stamp collectors “saw it as a stamp, the only one.” He was willing to pay more, just as he had been willing to pay more for the one-cent magenta, because he thought of the plate block “not as a stamp but as one more of those one-of-a-kind Americana items.”

  He asked if I’d like to see another unique item that he owned, one that “I’m really excited about.” Of course, I told him.

  It was a pair of shoes. They looked like a pair my mother had when I was a child, a pair I thought had been elegant, with white fabric covering the midsection. The man who saw magenta in the one-cent magenta corrected me when I ventured that the toes and heels of his pair were everyday brown. “Cognac,” Weitzman said with authority, adding that the style was known in the shoe business as a “spectator pump.” My mother’s shoes, though, had not been autographed by the 1941 New York Yankees.

  That was the season in which Joe DiMaggio had a fifty-six-game hitting streak. “He wasn’t married to Marilyn yet,” Weitzman explained, figuring that I would know he meant Marilyn Monroe. He probably also guessed that I would look up their marriage (it lasted all of 274 days, from January to October 1954).

  In 1941, Weitzman told me, “he asked the woman he was with, ‘How would you like a baseball signed by all my teammates?’”

  “She went like this,” Weitzman continued as he mimicked taking off one of his shoes, “and she said, ‘Would they sign my shoe?’”

  Twenty-seven signatures take up space, even when they are small—more than there was on one of the shoes. She had to give DiMaggio both of them. He gave them back with names that I recognized: Lefty Gomez. Phil Rizzuto. DiMaggio, who was named the most valuable player that year. Even the catcher Bill Dickey, whose nickname was “the Man Nobody Knows.”

  Weitzman turned over the shoes in his hands a couple of times. Then he explained why he had them: “In spite of millions of baseballs being signed, it’s the only shoe.” Like the one-cent magenta, the pair was unique.

  I descended so far into Stamp World that I flew to London twice to retrace Redden’s steps and find out what made the one-cent magenta so special. On the second trip, I stood in the vault containing every British stamp but the one-cent magenta. “This is expected to be reference material,” the Keeper of the Royal Philatelic Collection, Michael Sefi, told me. The vault is shown only to serious students of philately, which I didn’t pretend to be, but it is not the only treat for someone who visits Sefi’s office in St. James’s Palace.

  I had arrived on time, but the guard told me that Sefi was locked in. I looked alarmed, and the guard seemed to recognize the edgy expression of an American hearing a phrase that was close to lockdown. He smiled and explained that Sefi’s room was on the courtyard where the Changing the Guard ceremony was about to begin. The regiment that would take over at Buckingham Palace would muster in that courtyard. If I hurried, I could watch the pageantry, and Sefi would step out after it ended. The New Guard played fifes and drums as they marched away. Sefi said it was better when there was a full band.

  Inside, we had a long conversation about the one-cent magenta, with some thrilling show-and-tell. Sefi pulled one of George V’s red albums from its shelf in the vault and carried it to a table in the bright room adjacent to the vault in which he works. He opened it to a page with the four-cent magentas from British Guiana that were issued in 1852. To me, still with the eyes of a stamp newbie, the color looked the same as the color of the one-cent magenta.

  That moment was in my mind the following day, when I had lunch with Christopher Harman, the chairman of the Expert Committee at the Royal. He had a theory that the one-cent magenta had been printed on scraps of paper from earlier stamps sent to British Guiana— specifically, the margins of the sheets that originally contained the stamps from 1852 that Sefi had shown me.

  This was fairly esoteric, but that did not stop us from spending nearly an hour speculating. And it didn’t stop me from spending another hour speculating with another authority, David Beech, a former president of the Royal who was the curator of the British Library’s philatelic collection for thirty years.

  We will probably never know where the paper came from, just as we will probably never know about its cocoon phase, the time from its printing in British Guiana to its discovery by Louis Vernon Vaughan in his uncle’s abandoned house. But I found myself thinking about its storied afterlife—and about what makes something collectible, valuable, and enduring.

  If the one-cent magenta had not gotten out of British Guiana when it did, it wouldn’t have been seen by the most influential eyes in philately.

  If Edward Loines Pemberton had snapped it up when he had the chance, it wouldn’t have gotten to Philippe Arnold de la Renotiere von Ferrary, the collector to end all collectors, and it wouldn’t have become an object far beyond the means of most philatelists.

  If Edward Denny Bacon had not declared it authentic, it would have been cast off as an album weed, as a fake or a forgery.

  If Arthur Hind hadn’t been talked into buying it, if Small and Weinberg hadn’t seen its investment potential, if du Pont hadn’t shown up at the 1980 auction, the one-cent magenta would have led a less exalted life.

  It has been a record-setter time after time not because it is a stamp but because it is the only one of its kind. That is what Weitzman understood. He did not care about the paper it was printed on, the celebrity factor that came with it, or the money that he spent to get it. What he wanted was the thing that no one else could have.

  acknowledgments

  This book began the way I described it in the “Stamp World” chapter, with a chance encounter at a cocktail party—and then I wrote a newspaper story about the one-cent magenta. That led me to Elisabeth Scharlatt and Amy Gash at Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill—more about them later—and into Stamp World, as I came to call it.

  If you are a Stamp World habitue, I know, I know, nobody uses benzene to assay stamps anymore—one accomplished philatelist showed up at my desk at the New York Times one day and did a demonstration of what I took to be a less volatile chemical, heptane. Besides, dunking the one-cent magenta in benzene wouldn’t have yielded the information David Redden probably thought the experts at the Royal Philatelic Society needed if they were to issue the certificate he wanted. But Redden’s mention of benzene captivated me, because for years my friend Tom Baker and I have chuckled at the only-i n-New-York memory of the neighbor who insisted that my landlord was storing a huge barrel of benzene in the basement of the building I lived in for a couple of years when I was in my early twenties.

  Tom read an early version of the manuscript and offered his usual perceptive guidance, as did several other friends, notably Barbara Guss. Robert P. Odenweller, who is as sharp-eyed about stamps as he was in the cockpits of jets, was both a source and a helper, steering me away from potential turbulence as I skimmed over Stamp World. So was David Beech, who conducted what I felt were graduate-level seminars that were as much about history and technology—to name only two subjects that we discussed—as they were about philately in general and the one-cent magenta in particular.

  I’m grateful to many other philatelists and philatelic experts on both sides of the Atlantic. I appreciated the cordial welcome at the Royal Philatelic Society London and the time that the Expert Committee’s chairman, Christopher G. Harman, spent in discussing theories about the committee’s work and the one-cent magenta. David Skinner at the British Library also provided expertise and guidance on reference materials, as did Michael Sefi, the curator of the Royal Philatelic Collection. At the National Postal Museum in Washington, the director, Allen R. Kane, was tireless and insightful at
important moments, as were Ted Wilson, the registrar in the Collections Department; and Marty Emery, the museum’s manager of Internet affairs. Thomas Lera’s technical knowledge was enormously helpful. Matthew Healey offered ideas early on and opened doors at the Collectors Club in New York. Robert Rose of the Philatelic Foundation was considerate and perceptive. I enjoyed my encounters with Irwin Weinberg, who died about a month after I last saw him, and Stuart Weitzman, and I was pleased to reach Virginia Baxter, Carrie Hunter, and C. Ian C. Wishart, descendants of philatelists who figured in the story of the one-cent magenta.

  At the New York Times, Carolyn Ryan, Wendell Jamieson, and Diego Ribadeneira were wonderful, as always—encouraging, inquisitive, and, when I needed it, indulgent. I also drew on help from any number of Times colleagues, among them Susan Beachy, Mark Bulik, Doris Burke, Laura Craven, Alain Delaqueriere, Emma G. Fitzsimmons, and Joan Nassivera. Thanks, too, to Warren Bodow, Wayne Bodow, Claude Giroux, Barbara Guss, Eben Price, Alison Shapiro, and Nina Shippen.

  I marveled, time and again, at Elisabeth Scharlatt and Amy Gash—Elisabeth for seeing the possibilities in a story like this, Amy for seeing those possibilities through. She added a special incisiveness that’s reflected on every page. I’m indebted to many others at Algonquin, among them managing editor Brunson Hoole and copy editor Matthew Somoroff. Thanks to my agent, David Black, for doing what he does once again.

  And then there’s the incomparable Jane, who understood from the beginning that that little smudge was important and put up with my descent into Stamp World.

  notes

  1. Stamp World

  1

  a first-time author Mike Offit, Nothing Personal: A Novel of Wall Street (New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2014).

  2

  What a place for a book party Paul Goldberger, The City Observed (New York: Vintage, 1979), 227; Paul Porzelt, The Metropolitan Club of New York (New York: Rizzoli, 1982), 59-60; Paul R. Baker, Stanny: The Gilded Life of Stanford White (New York: Free Press, 1989), 142-44.

  3

  one of the pianos from the movie Casablanca “A Star Piano’s Value As Time Goes By,” New York Times, December 14, 2012, A36, and “‘Casablanca’ Piano Is Sold for $602,500,” New York Times, December 15, 2012, A20.

  3

  the first book printed “For First Book Printed in English in New World, Let the Bidding Begin,” New York Times, November 16, 2013, A14, and “Book of Psalms Published in 1640 Makes Record Sale at Auction,” New York Times, Nov. 27, 2013, A20.

  3

  the same copy of the Declaration of Independence “He’s Auctioned the 1775 Declaration, Twice,” New York Times, July 4, 2000, B2.

  4

  “Get ready to freak out” “World’s Rarest Stamp Sets Auction Record,” Time online, June 18, 2014. http://time.com/2896879/worlds-rarest-stamp/.

  5

  “a fetishistic underworld” Sarah Hampson, “Notes from the Philatelic Underworld: How Stamps Are Undergoing a Revival,” The Globe and Mail, December 17, 2014, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/home-and-garden/design/notes-from-the-philatelic-underworld-how-stamps-are-undergoing-a-revival/article22118332/.

  6

  “Get your mind out of the gutter” “The Story of the First Stamp,” Smithsonian online, July 19, 2013, http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-story-of-the-first-postage-stamp-14931961/.

  6

  “It is a pity ” H.W. Fowler, A Dictionary of Modern English Usage: The Classic First Edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).

  6

  I looked in the Oxford English Dictionary http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/142410?redirectedFrom=philately#eid.

  7

  He mailed himself Deirdre Foley Mendelssohn, “The Eccentric Englishman,” The New Yorker, September 14, 2010, http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-eccentric-englishman; http://www.wrbray.org.uk/.

  7

  start pedaling David Leafe, “The Man Who Posted Himself,” (Daily Mail, March 19, 2012, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2117448/Prankster-W-Reginald-Bray-tested-Royal-Mail-limits-exasperated-Hitler.html).

  8

  It had not been seen in public Talk by Daniel A. Piazza at the National Postal Museum, June 7, 2015.

  8

  it disappeared at a collectors’ convention Stanley N. Bierman, The World’s Greatest Stamp Collectors (Sidney, Ohio: Linn’s Stamp News, 1980), 33.

  8

  the ugliest stamp “Interim Stamp Uses 17 Words Just to Say 4 Cents,” New York Times, January 25, 1991, A18.

  8

  “a shoddy-looking thing” Alvin F. Harlow, Paper Chase: The Amenities of Stamp Collecting (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1940), 139.

  9

  “unsatisfactory to the aesthete” L.N. and Maurice Williams, Rare Stamps (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1967), 11.

  9

  “been through the wash” Alex Palmer, “The Remarkable Story of the World’s Rarest Stamp,” Smithsonian (online), June 4, 2015, http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/remarkable-story-worlds-rarest-stamp-180955412/.

  10

  a mixture of red and purple Author interview and email exchange with Frank H. Mahnke, May 2015.

  10

  a shade called “Chili Pepper” Author interview with Ferne Maibrunn, May 2015.

  11

  the famous Inverted Jenny See George Amick, The Inverted Jenny: Money, Mystery, Mania (Sidney, Ohio: Amos Press, 1986).

  12

  under his pillow Author interview with Robert Odenweller, January 17, 2015.

  12

  his picture on a stamp from Redonda Ralph Vigoda, “Expressing Himself. Where Du Pont Literally Put His Stamp on Things,” Philadelphia Inquirer, Feb. 15, 1996, A1.

  13

  serving a thirty-year sentence Debbie Goldberg, “John du Pont Found Guilty, Mentally Ill,” Washington Post, Feb. 26, 1997, A1.

  13

  “How can I get him a pardon” Talk by Allen R. Kane at reception for Irwin Weinberg at the National Postal Museum, May 8, 2015, and author interview, April 6, 2016.

  13

  handcuffed to his wrist “Irwin Weinberg Got Attached to His $500,000 Treasure; Then He Found He Couldn’t Get Loose,” People, July 10, 1978, 43.

  17

  to be bogus Rob Haeseler, “1 cent Magenta pretender is fake, Says Royal,” Linns Stamp News, June 21, 1999, 1.

  2. Travels With David

  18

  “All they told me was” “Magna Carta Is Going on the Auction Block, Scraggly Tail and All,” New York Times, September 25, 2007, B1.

  19

  it became the most expensive “Book of Psalms Published in 1640 Makes Record Sale at Auction,” New York Times, Nov. 27, 2013, A20.

  19

  Redden said he approached Author interview with David N. Red den, March 22, 2016.

  19

  When I told Wochok Author interview with Taras N. Wochok, January 19, 2015.

  21

  Ridley Scott’s thriller The Counselor Manohla Dargis, “Wildlife Is Tame; Not the Humans,” New York Times, October 25, 2013, C8.

  22

  invested in obscure books Royal Philatelic Society London, press release, July 1, 2014.

  22

  “We may be venerable” “Mission Statement of the Royal Philatelic Society London,” on the Society’s website in 2015. The two phrases were later dropped.

  23

  the Duke of York had been David Cannadine, George V: The Unexpected King (London: Allen Lane-Penguin Books, 2014), 31.

  23

  “it was in this hobby’’ John Gore, King George V: A Personal Memoir (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1941), 296.

  23

  “is said to have been interrupted” Monograph from Michael Sefi, “The Royal Philatelic Collection,” 5.

  23

  once read a paper “The First President of the Royal Philatelic Society, London,” The London Philatelist, December 1906, 287.

&n
bsp; 23

  “showed a most interesting and valuable display” “Philatelic Societ ies’ Meetings,” The London Philatelist, December 1904, 79; Kenneth Rose, King George V (London: Phoenix Press, 2000), 41.

  24

  “mere scraps of paper” Quoted in David Cannadine, “Rose’s Rex,” London Review of Books, September 15, 1983, 4.

  25

  Still, the diplomat Rose, King George V, 41.

  25

  “I was that damned fool” “The Queen’s Own: Stamps That Changed the World,” National Postal Museum, 2004.

  25

  “the greatest gathering” Heritage Statement— 41 Devonshire Place West (London: Feilden + Mawson, December 2013), 13.

  27

  “Doubts have more than once” The Postage Stamps, Envelopes, Wrappers, Post Cards and Telegraph Stamps of the British Colonies in the West Indies, Together With British Honduras and the Colonies in South America (London: Philatelic Society, London, 1891), 39.

  27

  Sir John Wilson was well aware W.A. Townsend and F.G. Howe, The Postage Stamps and Postal History of British Guiana (London: Royal Philatelic Society London, 1970), 47.

  28

  Inside St. James’s Christopher Winn, I Never Knew That About Royal Britain (London: Ebury Press, 2012), 38.