The Collectors
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Friday 20 October 2006
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Malcolm Groom has been collecting stamps since he was a boy, when his grandfather and great uncle sent him stamps from all over the world. Collecting stamps encompasses such a vast arena that collectors often specialize in a particular area of interest.
Malcolm Groom specialises in the pictorial stamps of Tasmania from 1899 to 1912. The stamps were first printed in London and then from 1901, after Federation they were printed in Victoria. There were eight designs of Tasmanian stamps, one for each of the different amounts of currency and each one depicting a different landscape. These were one of the world's earliest stamp series to depict landscape images and are highly collectable to philatelic collectors around the world. The 1899-1900 pictorial series, based on photographs by John Watt Beattie, was intended to showcase the colony as a tourist destination. Malcolm also has the original photographs taken by the Beattie Studios in Hobart, as well as the original artwork made to produce the stamps.
Malcolm is also an International philatelic judge, and travels around the world to assess philatelic exhibits. He also submits his own collections for competitions. His main interest now is in postal history, particularly airmail to and from Australia between 1929 and 1945. Although Malcolm has an extensive collection of stamps and postal history waiting to be organised and displayed, it is his collection of catalogues, reference and history books that take up much more room than his collection.
