He is inviting you to send in your philately to have it reviewed to establish its provenance.  Provenance is a quality seal – As in Art, Provenance is an indispensible attribute for valuable and important stamps.   Appointments are first come first served and will be held daily between 10am - 3pm. 

Karl has worked for over 35 years to develop the Great Britain Karl Louis Card Index and it his extensive knowledge and passion that allows the index to be maintained.  This index is by far the most comprehensive and important census of British Stamps in the philatelic world. Describing philatelic rarities calls for more than just quoting catalogue numbers and values. Provenance is a philatelic pedigree of former owners from the inception of philately until the present day. Those collections held in the highest esteem by their contemporaries and containing the great rarities, the modern day “Large Gold” exhibits can be traced back to the collectors who once owned the particular rarity and the auctions where they were sold and changed hands. Frequently, the further back a philatelic pedigree goes, the more coveted the rarity becomes. Provenance is a quality seal. 
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More information on this will be announced.   To be the first in the know sign up to the newsletter. 

The Royal Philatelic Society London is delighted to announce they are an official partner for Virtual Stampex.  Comments below including sneak peak at what will be happening on their  booth from President Richard Stock. 

Exciting to see a month long stamp festival brought to you by Stamp collector magazine 

The Glastonbury of stamps the ‘Summer of Stamps’ virtual festival is set to capitalise on a growing interest in traditional hobbies, such as stamp collecting.
 
The online event will begin on 9 July, offering stamp collectors:
 

• A bustling stamp marketplace, featuring the latest stock and information from a wide range of stamp traders and auction houses, including Stanley Gibbons and CDDStamps
• Daily content, including exclusive videos and guides from organisations such as the Royal Philatelic Society London, the British Library and The Postal Museum
• A virtual goody bag, featuring offers and discounts
• Competitions, challenging collectors to put together one-page stamp displays, including a special competition for young collectors
• A series of limited edition First Day Covers featuring a special ‘Summer of Stamps’ postmark

 
More information on this can be found here. 
 

Blogger star & stamp collector, Graham Beck offers his insight into Getting Social with Philately.  He is also doing an insta takeover this Friday 12th June ... so head to the PTS Instagram page for more. 

Bill Barrell shares his advice on sorting out your GB Imperforate Penny Reds

This Stampex David Feldman is supporting the Court of Honour showing one of the greatest collections of British Guiana ever formed. 

This collection being the bases of the famous John DuPont collection and more recently expanded into the collection on dispaly. The exhibit will display postal history, stamps and covers especially showing the well known "Cotton Reels" of 1850, including key pieces; the legendary “Miss Rose” cover, “Burrus" and the "Plantation" covers.

The "Plantation" cover illustrated item:
​1850-51 pelure paper (very thin and transparent, almost onionskin) 4 cents black on pale yellow, Townsend Type A, with initials of postal official Lorimer "WHL", sheet corner margins, used on cover from Plantation Woodlands (list of cattle enclosed) to Georgetown, with central Demerara datestamp MY 09 1851 An exceptional stamp and probably the largest margined "Cotton-Reel" in existence. On cover it is clearly one of the major items of the issue Provenance: Dale-Lichtenstein, Burrus Expertise: Signed Bloch, cert. BPA (2014)

!! Spoiler Alert !!  Crossword answers 

​The Bolaffi Group through its three auction houses, Aste Bolaffi, Harmers of London and Solar y Llach have brought many historically important items to market. One of the most interesting lots sold by the group was comprised of the second issue Mauritius 1d and 2d stamps in May 2015.
 
These exceptionally sought-after stamps have a unique origin that helped solve a quintessentially 19th century colonial problem, “how does a British socialite ensure that her ball invitations are distributed to the colony’s great and good?”. The hostess was Lady Elizabeth Gomm, the wife of the Governor of Mauritius and her postage needs paved the way for the Empire’s first colonial stamp.
 
Lady Gomm employed the English engraver Joseph Osmond Barnard to create the design. The initial design (1847) included the text ‘Post Office’ but this was updated a year later to ‘Postage Paid’. While the first issues are the most desirable only 27 examples are known, most of which are held in permanent collections.
 
The lot offered was from the second issue (1848). Both stamps had previously been in the collection of Japanese mega collector Hiroyuki Kanai’s (1925-2012) and the 1d had been in the legendary collection of Philipp la Renotière von Ferrary (1850-1917). The stamps’ condition, rarity, excellent provenance and early plate impression helped the lot realise £146,717 (including fees).
 
An impressive price and one which Matteo Armandi is proud to have achieved after years of admiring the celebrated stamps from a distance. Matteo said “after 22 years of working in philately it is still electrifying when you come across property of this importance. Cataloguing them made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, when the gavel went down there was an immense sense of pride, and relief!”.