Philatelists who set out to form a topical collection around their pet subjects would be wise to determine in advance the scope of their collection. An ornithologist who set out to assemble a topical collection of stamps depicting birds, for example, would have to face up to the fact that he would need (at the last count) about ten thousand stamps to complete it – birds have long been a favourite subject with stamp designers. An architect would be a very brave (and wealthy) man indeed if he rashly decided to collect all stamps with architectural themes: they number many, many thousands, showing all types of structures from the primitive to the grandiose over an enormous span of time. Likewise, a doctor who set out to collect stamps with medical themes would soon have to pause and take stock of the situation, perhaps finding it wiser to settle for a restricted collection such as famous doctors or scientists, or hospitals, nurses or surgical equipment on stamps, or even stamps depicting plants used in the preparation of drugs and medicines.

Doctors might prefer not to collect stamps with death themes, but no such reservation was felt by the National Funeral Directors’ Association in the United States in 1958, when it awarded a research grant of $1000 to Dr Edwin A. Christ of the State University of South Dakota ‘to undertake research into, and to form for the Association’s archives a topical museum collection of postage stamps and related materials dealing with death and the mortuary complex’. A selection of some of the very colourful postage stamps issued by the various island of the Pacific reflecting life in the South Seas and the history of the region.

No doubt pride of place in such a collection would be given to stamps which had been used on packets used to transmit human ashes through the post. The existence of such items came to the notice of the philatelic world in 1961 when the Church of England Convocation of Canterbury had before it the following motion:

That this House, mindful of the reverence due to the human body, deplores the growing practice by which the ashes of those whose bodies have been cremated are sent through the post and calls upon the members of the clergy and of the laity to do all in their power to discourage this irreverent practice.

The Convocation took no action.

Just as one man’s drink is another man’s poison, so it is with stamp collecting: some very odd themes have from time to time been selected as subjects on which to base topical collections. I once heard of an American dentist who had formed a collection of stamps depicting teeth. The collection comprised the relatively few stamps showing skeletons or skulls (these would also qualify for inclusion in the death and mortuary collection) plus a range of stamps depicting individuals smiling – with teeth showing. I do not know whether the dentist was able to sub-classify the stamps into genuine and false teeth divisions! Another rather oddball collection reported from Ahericaa few years ago was one formed by an ex-sailor: it comprised stamps depicting ships sailing westward. The report made it clear that ships sailing north, south or east were strictly barred from this enthusiast’s albums. The idea may not be as crazy as it sounds because many stamps commemorate specific voyages and a knowledgeable sailor would, from other clues in the design such as location of sun, ship sails, smoke from funnels and so on, be able to determine fairly accurately the direction in which a ship was sailing.

Some years ago, a London stamp magazine reported on an unusual topical collection being formed by an English woman, on the theme of groceries. The lady in question had, with considerable energy, been able to locate a very comprehensive range of stamps depicting her chosen theme, including tea, coffee, sugar, cocoa, butter, rice, pepper, salt, bread, barley, oats, coconut, dates, raisins, bacon, eggs, oranges, milk, fish, tomatoes, cheese, wines, soup, paprika, potatoes, poultry, and more.

Other single subjects which are very popular with topical collectors include religion, medicine, the Red Cross, zoology, architecture, boy scouts, girl guides, dancing, music, theatre, art; literature, poetry. transport, exploration, vintage cars, waterfalls. rainbows, astronomy; space exploration, costumes, dothing. headwear, science, history; archeology and industry.

These are only suggestions though: main fine topical collections have been formed on themes other than those mentioned. One noted American socialite, Mrs Fay Jordan, departed from the idea of a theme by forming her topical collection, ‘a bunch of violets’, around a colour – every stamp in the forty-volume collcction was coloured violet or a shade of violet. The collection was beautifully mounted and annotated, the latter being done by hand, with violet ink, of course!