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Return To Catalogue - Canada - Taylor
Note: on my website many of the
pictures can not be seen! They are of course present in the catalogue;
contact me if you want to purchase it.
Edward E.Craig and Robert J.Melvin were stamp dealers in Canada (Princess Street, St.John, New Brunswick) and were involved in creating the Baldwin's Railroad Postage bogus stamps.
These labels are forgeries made by (or inspired by) Allan Taylor in or before 1865 with the help of Craig and Melvin (both stamp dealers in Canada). The train design exists in a number of colors (red, blue, brown, black) and on colored paper. A sub-type seems to have a blotch in the frameline next to the bottom left '2'. The design with 'PAID' in the ellipse seems also to exist in the colors 2 p black on red and 2 p black on green.
More pictures acan be found at: http://alphabetilately.com/US-trains-00.html.
The following text was found in the Stamp Collector's Monthly Magazine of 1866 (Vol.1, No. 10) of St.John, New Brunwick by George Steward Jr. concerning the Baldwin stamps:
A TIMBROPHILIC BUBBLE BURST!
STAMP COLLECTORS BEWARE!!
AN EXPOSE!!!
BALDWINS RAILROAD POSTAGE : an obsolete local of considerable
rarity"-as it is impudently termed by dealers interested in
its sale-is attracting some attention at present in Philatelic
Circles. Of course the venders of these stamps affirm stoutly
that they are genuine ; but we beg to assure buyers that this is
not the case. The "Baldwin" is a forgery and the Boston
dealer who now advertises it as genuine knows that it was made to
sell only. For the information of our readers we submit
a brief historical sketch-gleaned from authentic sources - of
this stamp.
In the month of May last two young gentlemen belonging to this
city entered into copartnership - which for distinction sake we
shall call Messrs "A. and B., Stamp and Coin dealers.'' They
had been in business but a short time when it occurred to them
that they might "get up" a stamp. Others had done so
with some degree of success, why could not they? Only represent
it to their correspondent as a genuine "local" issued
and used in the province of New Brunswick, and by its sale they
might easily replenish their coffers, and increase their business
many fold. Having hit upon this "happy thought " the
next thing wanted was a name and date. The latter was easily
settled ; it should be an obsolete local, for this would
sell best and be least liable to detection. But the name, -what
should it be? This was a puzzler ! It could not be "Turner's
" -or the " Eastern'' Express, for both of these
companies had agents in almost every city, town and village of
the Union, as well as in the British Provinces, an application to
either of whom might ''spoil their leetle game."
After much grave thought and consideration it was remembered that
a Mr. H. Baldwin had had some years before, an express office on
the European and North American Railway, which runs from St. John
to the Shediac oyster beds. Why not therefore call the
"obsolete local" BALDWIN'S RAILROAD POSTAGE
Nothing could be more favourable and the name was at once
adopted. After sketching a rough design of the projected
"obsolete," the honourable firm went next in
search of an engraver whom they soon found in the person of a Mr.
Gregory of this city. Mr. Gregory being an adept in his art soon
furnished a block or cut of the new stamp, which was taken to the
printing establishment of Messrs J. & A. McM..... of St.John,
and shortly after our enterprising young gents had the
satisfaction of gazing upon the fruit of their own ingenuity-or
in other words upon fifteen hundred of the "BALDWIN'S
RAILROAD POSTAGE LABELS" in the following colours: viz, red
on white, blue on ditto., black on ditto., red on grey, blue on
ditto, black on ditto, red on green, blue on ditto, black on
ditto, red on yellow, blue on ditto, black on ditto, red on blue,
blue on ditto., black on ditto. That such stamps should be
rare-very rare indeed- no one can doubt, for they could only be
had from the makers. We do not know that the manufacturers are to
blame altogether for saying that these stamps were of
"considerable rarity" -seeing they could only be
obtained from themselves, -but every honest man will say that
they were very much to blame for stating that they were NEW
BRUNSWICK LOCALS. But further, we have it on good authority, that
of these " gems, "four hundred were sold to S. Allan Taylor of Boston -
as stamps that never existed, but were issued to
sell only. Mr. Taylor knows all this, but does he denounce
the imposition? oh no! On the contrary, he tries to bolster it up
by "a change of base," and mendaciously says in his
paper, " that the New Brunswick to which these bogus
"obsolete locals'' belong is New Brunswick - New Jersey!!!
Could anything be more audacious? Can he tell us or his readers
when these TWO PENNY locals were issued and used
in New Jersey? and why it is that no mention is made in any of
the NewY ork Price Lists or American Catalogues of the U. S.
local stamps? We hope that our readers will make a note of what
we have said and avoid the Bogus " Baldwin's."
Advertisment of Edward A.Craig & Robert J.Melvin in the Stamp
Collector's Monthly Gazette (Vol. 1, No 1. 1865, page 4) stating
that they are 'sole agents for the sale of BALWIN'S RAILROAD
POSTAGE, an obsolete local of considerable rarity'. They
sold the set of 15 varieties for $1.50 N.B. currency
