The John Sacher Library
The library can trace its beginnings back to 1886 when two members, John K.Tiffany and William Image presented the Society with works of philatelic literature. In the Proceedings of this meeting the hope was expressed that, as the Society now had ‘the nucleus of a valuable philatelic library’, other members would follow the example of those gentlemen and contribute to the collection. This hope was not in vain and over 130 years later the generosity of the Society’s members and philatelic friends has produced one of the leading philatelic libraries in the world.
Many significant libraries from individuals and other societies have been acquired over the years. Among the first was that of Heinrich Fraenkel of Berlin, whose library was bought by the Earl of Crawford. Crawford incorporated what he needed into his own collection and donated the balance to the Society, thus forming the basis of our extensive holding of European language periodicals. Over 500 volumes were presented in 1916 by Franz Reichenheim and, a year later, the library of the Immediate Past President Marcellus P. Castle was received as a bequest. Those with an interest in the history of philately and the great philatelists will notice the bookplates, signatures and hand-written notes evidencing the significant provenance of many of our items.
The earliest philatelic incunabula is strongly represented in our collection including the early catalogues of Oscar Berger-Levrault, Alfred Potiquet, Frederick Booty, Ferdinand Mount Brown, and Dr Edward Gray being present.
The Society’s exhibition collection includes items from 1881 to date relating to international, UK national and other specialist exhibitions. This provides valuable information on events generally, lists of exhibitors and awards made. The literature frequently includes philatelic information and articles not available elsewhere.
An important and exciting new chapter began in 2019 when we moved to Abchurch Lane and into facilities specially designed to provide the best possible conditions for the collections and the people who use them. The new library has been named in honour of RPSL Past President John Sacher.
Books
Our book collection comprises approximately 30,000 books, monographs and pamphlets arranged alphabetically by country. There are also sections on Thematics, Forgeries, Airmail, Maritime Mail and Military Mail, plus a General section consisting of books on topics such as philatelic personalities, exhibiting, design & printing, societies and collecting.
The Reference section includes a range of research aids including bibliographies, indexes, philatelic dictionaries and atlases.
Also available for reference is a large collection of stamp catalogues, including specialised catalogues for many collecting areas and a near complete range of Stanley Gibbons catalogues.
Journals
There are over 3,700 distinct journal titles in the library’s collection. These include some of the earliest produced philatelic periodicals dating from the 1860s. We currently receive issues of over 270 active titles.
Current issues are available for browsing in the Members’ Lounge on the Ground Floor. Recent unbound issues are kept in the library. Once volumes are bound they are kept in our closed access storage and are available on request. The exception to this is The London Philatelist, which is shelved by the main reader desk in the library.
We also have a number of journal indexes available for reference.
Auction Catalogues
The library holds over 30,000 auction catalogues from auction houses around the world, including some dating back to the 1870s and rarities from the 1930s.