Oldest American-Published Stamp Album?

I am trying to determine: a) What the oldest-American published stamp album is and b) whether what I have is it.

I have an 1863 Appleton album that was published in the U.S. The album's intro text suggests that it may be the first American album, at least that is what the writer seemed to think or tried to suggest.

It appears to be the larger of the 1863 Appleton editions described in this Apfelbaum article:
http://www.apfelbauminc.com/library...er-to-mekeel

Any thoughts, suggestions, and pointers or links to references would be greatly appreciated.

(By the way, the album is well-filled, all stamps issued pre-1870. While the "catalog value" is enormous, the quality is highly variable with some stamps in horrible quality. The only fakes appear to be the CSA and the U.S. locals, which are obviously reproductions. Everything else looks good. Unfortunately a previous generation steamed the stamps off the first two pages which is most of the U.S., but that still leaves a lot of stamps including a lot of scarce stamps.)


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Jay,

I think Ken Lawrence had an article in Linn's (maybe the Monthly) about the earliest album.
Or was it earliest collection?

Anyway it seems like it was in the last year or so.

I know it's vaugue information, but it is a start.

Also.I'm sure the group would appreciate a scan/picture of the cover of your album!

Thanks DStamp.

I had seen reference to that (I think it was) article, but had the impression that was about oldest collections and not necessarily American related. However, your urging put me onto this very interesting article:

http://www.linns.com/en/marketplace...art-1-h.html

It states: [after the "first philatelic album" which was for patriotic envelopes]

"D. Appleton & Co. issued the first American edition of a postage stamp album in December 1862, a knock-off of Lallier's French original. Only two copies of that Appleton first edition are known to have survived."

What I have appears to bear an 1863 date, but it still could be the same thing... or maybe not.

Elsewhere (the Apfelbaum article mention in the original post), I read that there was a small "pocket size" Appleton album and a larger size. The text indicates that the small one it really did fit in a pocket -- and what I have is much larger than any pocket I have ever seen, so I assume I have the larger one.

Any suggestions of where to find more information about, or images of, the December 1862 Appleton album so as to compare with what I have?

Other thoughts or suggestions?

BTW, I do intend to make sure that this interesting album is properly documented.

Jay

Siegel sale 1026 lot 1694 in June 2012 offered an 1863 Appleton album, with this as part of the description, "... a smaller edition was published in Dec. 1862, with two copies known to exist (one in green, the other in red), twelve copies of this edition were reported in the American Philatelist (Mar. 1988) and probably no more than 20 exist.

They had estimated it at $500-750, but it failed to sell.

Here is their pic of the cover:

Is this old-time ad of any help? Note final entry:

That's awesome! I'd love to see some scans of what's in it

The most detailed article on the Appleton albums that I am aware of is "America's First Stamp Album Celebrates Its 125th Birthday" by Bill Welch that appeared in the December 1987 American Philatelist. Mr. Welch states that one of the two known copies of the earlier album measures 6 5/8 by 5 1/2 inches. It contained about 80 pages with spaces for six stamps per page. The later edition measures 9 1/2 by 7 1/2 inches with 208 numbered pages and spaces for 3,138 stamps.

thanks for posting the old advertisement for 1867 postage stamp albums. I own the boston hill album. I got it form a neighbor who sold her husbands collection after he passed. I received it in 1979. I think it is in pretty good shape, thought not many stamps left in it.

By all means, can you post some photos of cover and pages?

Wow; back then, you only owned 1 stamp album for room for around 1100 stamps. That didn't take up much room on your bookshelf. How did people come across worldwide stamps back in 1867?

Leaving aside the lack of images of stamps, and the very few spaces that are provided for stamps (it was a late 19th c album, after all), that is a beautiful album. Why can't modern stamp albums be this luxurious looking? The attention to borders and other details is beautiful. Comparing this to contemporary Steiner pages and modern preprinted albums with tiny little borders and not even an attempt at elegance, this kind of album looks much richer and more beautiful. And I like albums with larger pages which showcase stamps much better than smaller pages do.

I wonder what kind of hinges they used in those days?

Jack Kelley

Stamp-edging was pretty commonly used - together with glue, in my experience.

I've found older hinges in dated albums that seem to be made of cloth, perhaps linen.
Nice, a Christmas present to Ms. Bradley.