Hoping To Discover More About My Grandfather's Commonwealth Stamp Collection.

Hello everyone. My name is Rob & I live in France. My grandfather passed away in 1970 & was an avid collector. Whilst he wasn't rich he certainly had money to indulge his passion. I can remember my mum showing me 2 albums from the Ascension & Falkland Islands, I can remember how beautifully presented they were with pencil annotations & SG reference numbers. Sadly these have not been found but I was happy to find his Commonwealth collections- mainly Australia, Canada & New Zealand with a few pages of US stamps. I inherited his love of collecting but not of stamps. As a collector myself I hope to understand his method of collecting & to fill in some of the gaps in the collection(which was made in the pre-internet days). I have no interest in their value as I will never sell them. All the stamps have been mounted using hinges & pre-date 1970 when he passed away. TBH my main interest is in the 19thc ones & the skill it takes to identify plate variations etc. Any suggestions on where to start would be gratefully received but I guess some photos of the oldest ones would be a good place to start. Many thanks in anticipation. Regards Rob.

Here are some photos of Canada & New Zealand.
Any comments or help much appreciated.

Hello. One useful acquisition would be a Gibbons Commonwealth catalogue - these days, it covers the period up to 1970. You don't need this year's model, but look for a reasonably recent one, which will be in colour. Lots on ebay uk.

Many thanks. I have his copy for 1969 which is full of his notes, receipts & wants lists. He had very neat handwriting & I would like advice on presenting them as some are on loose pages & need to be put in an album. I don't really want to re mount them as I would lose his comments & plate numbers etc that he has written.

When I next visit UK I'll look for a more recent colour copy. Thanks again.