If you like stamps and stamp history, working on old collections is one of the most interesting things that you can do. We recently purchased a collection that had been made in the 1930s and had been passed down through the generations with considerable care, if not interest, on the part of the new owners. The current owner is an 85 year old grandson of the original collector.
The collection is interesting for two reasons. First, the original collector never used albums, but rather kept most of the stamps that he bought on the original lot pages as he purchased them over 80 years ago. The collector was a loyal George Sloane customer. His choice of dealers was a very good one. Sloane was the among the best of his generation, running a large auction house that most sold mostly US but also did a bit of British business. George Sloane is one of those dealers who has come down to us through his writings. Before he died in 1958, he produced over a thousand columns for the greatest philatelic magazine of its age