Published by kind permission of the author.

NEARLY a quarter of a century after his death, Alec Rosenblum’s name continues to be synonymous with Australian Commonwealth philately. More than anyone else, he researched and published information which encouraged others to take up the challenge of studying this field. Rosenblum’s handbook, The Stamps of the Commonwealth of Australia, remained the most important work of its kind for many years.

Alec Rosenblum was born in Melbourne in 1895 and, like most, developed an interest in stamps during his childhood. Fifty years after the issue of the Kangaroo stamps, Rosenblum recounted in an article that he had been in the Melbourne GPO on the day the 1d stamp was first issued to secure his supply.

Alec Rosenblum (1895-1973) appears at the right of this group judging entries in the 1928 Philatelic Exhibition stamp design competition. Standing to Rosenblum’s right is John Ash, General Manager of the Note Printing Branch.

He gained a Bachelor of Science degree at Melbourne University and spent his career working as a research chemist. This provided him with a scholarly basis for his philatelic work. He made a dose study of inks and dyes, which obviously had practical application to his philatelic research. Rosenblum spent the First World War in England, where he undertook research for which he was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire).

Returning to Melbourne in 1919, Rosenblum began playing an influential role in collector circles. He was President of the Philatelic Society of Victoria (later the Royal) in 1922-23 at the comparatively young age of 27. He began writing on a regular basis for the Australian Philatelic Record, a journal launched in 1918 to provide a forum for serious philatelic articles. Together with J.R.W. Purves and W.R. Rundell, Rosenblum contributed the bulk of the editorial. In 1922, the Record passed out of stamp dealer Stan Orlo-Smith’s hands to a group of Melbourne philatelic societies and Rosenblum was appointed its editor. It was renamed the Victorian Philatelic Record.

Rosenblum at first wrote on Victorian topics, but soon turned his attention to Australian Commonwealth philately and he produced most of the basic research on the Kangaroo and George V issues. The Australian Philatelic Record contains his first writing on the Kangaroo dies and retouches and reentries on George V stamps. He discovered the retouch to the line through value flaw (thin FOURPENCE ) on the 4d George V. He also published serials on the NWPI overprints and the Papua Lakatoi electrotypes.

In 1922, the Melbourne Philatelic Club published Rosenblum’s The Stamps of the Commonwealth of Australia comprising 65 pages. This was a notable event, as the publication of philatelic handbooks had been restricted in Australia – the major handbooks on colonial subjects had been the domain of the Royal Philatelic Society, London. Rosenblum’s handbook clearly filled a gap and he was the obvious author to write it. The popularity of the handbook can be gauged by the fact that a second edition appeared in 1926, and a considerably enlarged, hardbound third edition in 1928. The third edition acknowledged the co-operation of J.R.W. Purves. The handbook eventually reached six editions spanning 46 years under Rosenblum’s authorship. This was then a record in philatelic publishing (It has now been exceeded by Nelson Eustis’s Australian Air Mail Catalogue, which was first published in 1937).

Rosenblum contributed to another remarkable publication – The Commonwealth Specialists’ Catalogue (later prefixed “Australian“). The first edition appeared in 1926 published by Stan Orlo-Smith. It was, for its time, a work of considerable scope and one of the most specialised single country catalogues available (and still remains so in its multi-volume format). Between Rosenblum’s hand-book and the Specialists’ catalogue, there was plenty of opportunity to keep the philatelic world regularly updated.

In 1928, Melbourne was the venue for the fourth Australasian Philatelic Exhibition, also styled as the International Philatelic Exhibition, because a significant level of overseas participation was involved. It was the biggest philatelic exhibition ever staged in Australia and Rosenblum was the organising secretary. The Post Office also played a supportive role by operating a printing press in the Melbourne Town Hall, which produced Australia’s first miniature sheet. Rosenblum undertook the task of liaising closely with (Sir) Harry Brown, the Post Office’s chief, and other senior officials to secure this cooperation.

The 1920s and 1930s were Rosenblum’s decades during which he emerged as the best known philatelic identity in Australia. It was probably Rosenblum more than anyone else who caused the shift in philately’s centre to move from Sydney to Melbourne. Two leading Sydney dealers and publishers, James Smyth and Fred Hagen, both departed from the scene in the early 1920s and this is perhaps not a coincidence. Melbourne was clearly dominant with the Victorian Philatelic Record, The Commonwealth Specialists’ Catalogue, Rosenblum’s handbook and the 1928 exhibition.

During his time as editor of the Record, Rosenblum championed the cause of a recess-printed stamp series to replace the Kangaroo and George V issues. The Post Office’s announcement of a stamp issue the following year to mark the opening of Parliament House in Canberra, provided an impetus for Rosenblum’s campaign. Of course, he was not successful, but a decision was made in 1930 to issue new definitives and only the Depression’s effects caused the plan to be dropped after a start had been made with the 1/- Lyre bird and 6d Kookaburra stamps in 1932.

Rosenblum’s activities brought him into regular contact with officialdom in the Post Office. To describe one such example, Rosenblum wrote a four-page letter to Harry Brown in December 1929, urging that recess, pictorial definitives be introduced. The additional costs, he argued, would be more than offset by philatelic sales and the stamps would be an effective means of advertising Australia abroad. Further savings could be achieved by adopting stamps smaller than the George V size and excess stocks of existing stamps could be surcharged for base rate postage. The Post Office replied with thanks and said that these suggestions would be added to his previous correspondence! However, Rosenblum’s suggestion that a stamp booklet be provided for the Canberra commemorative was one instance of his ideas being adopted. He was also invited by the post office to serve on the committees established to evaluate designs for the 1929 3d Airmail and the 1930 Sturt Centenary issues.

Perhaps Rosenblum’s greatest legacy was to launch The Australian Stamp Monthly in January 1930. This followed a disagreement between Rosenblum and others about the direction of the Victorian Philatelic Record and Rosenblum resigned as editor in 1929 (this journal had only another full year of publication under J.R.W. Purves’ editorship). Rosenblum was both publisher and editor of The Australian Stamp Monthly and so exercised full control of its contents. The Monthly‘s full-colour cover and editorial emphasis on light feature articles, news and new issues gave the magazine a broad appeal. Rosenblum continued to publish the Monthly during the worst months of the Depression. However, he ran into financial difficulties and was forced to sell the magazine to its printer, Horticultural Press in 1935. Phil Collas, who had been Rosenblum’s assistant, was appointed the new editor. Many years later, Collas recalled that Rosenblum was very bitter about his loss.

During the 1920s, Rosenblum formed an important collection of Australian Commonwealth stamps. His rival, J.R.W. Purves also formed a collection and the two collections became the focus of attention at the 1928 exhibition.

The judges’ nod went to Purves, who two years later sold his Commonwealth collection to King George V. Rosenblum disposed of his collection in 1932. There were other fields of interest and Rosenblum wrote short, but incisive handbooks on Australian airmails and the stamps of Tonga and of Papua.

By nature Rosenblum was a cantankerous man who found it difficult to work with others. During the second half of his life Rosenblum largely dropped out of organised philately in Australia – such as participation in society activities, organising exhibitions and the like. He preferred to pursue his interests alone. He did, however, form close links with the British Society of Australian Philately during regular visits to the UK. Rosenblum became a frequent contributor to Gibbons’ Stamp Monthly and his annual survey of Australian stamps and their market potential in stamp Collecting (which was also re-published in The Australian Stamp Monthly) as a much-read feature.

Rosenblum’s modus operandi was to visit post offices regularly and maintain contacts with postal staff. He probably made daily visits to the Melbourne GPO in earlier years. Rosenblum, along with several other philatelists, met regularly in Collins street to share the news of the day. They called themselves the gutter club. John Ash, the Note Printing Branch’s General Manager before the War, related once to a stamp audience that it amused him to travel bv tram alone Collins street during his lunch-hour to see Rosenblum and others no doubt speculating about his (Ash’s) work

Rosenblum’s informal contacts amongst postal staff must have provided him with much information that could not be obtained at an official level. Rosenblum may even have acquired unofficial contacts inside the Note Printing Branch itself. For example, his handbook prominently describes a rare 1942 printing of the 4d Koala stamp on chalk-surfaced paper used for the Robes stamps. This was supposedly intended for northern Australia, where the paper would be more resistant to the effects of climate than ordinary stamp paper. However, the Japanese bombing of the Darwin post office destroyed the bulk of the special printing and hence the stamp’s rarity. The story is untrue, but there is an element of fact involved.

Subsequent research into the nowavailable records of the Note Printing Branch shows that experimental printings on chalk-surfaced paper were made of each of the 1937-38 Zoological stamps, but none of these were issued may have learned of the 4d Koala printing through a source, but he clearly embellished this with the story about Darwin’s bombing. To those philatelists who have spent many hours searching for a non-existent stamp, they have Rosenblum’s inventive mind to thank.

For all his skills as a researcher and writer, Rosenblum’s greatest flaw was his proverbial willingness to turn speculation into factual statements. For some reason, he did not like to admit to readers that he did not have the full story to relate. If information was unknown to him, he more than likely filled in the gaps from his imagination. By the time the final edition of Rosenblum’s handbook appeared in 1966, this trait was well known to others and his work did not win universal approval.

Nevertheless, Rosenblum’s energy in research and writing stands tall and his output was prolific. He made the most useful contribution any philatelic student can make – to put down one’s findings on paper for posterity. Rosenblurn died at his home in Malvern, a suburb of Melbourne, on Christmas eve 1973 at the age of 78.