Blank Pages

A recent thread on the Stamp Community forum about shifting coverage of India's Convention and Feudatory states in Scott's albums (http://thestampforum.boards.net/thread/5126/india-blue-classic-feudatory-states), prompted me to undertake a project that had been in the back of my mind for some time. Namely, identifying the stamps relegated to "blank" pages in various iterations of the Scott Brown and Blue Internationals.

I put blank in quotation marks because I think of blank pages as being ones you can put anything on where as these blank pages are intended for specific categories of stamps. As I mentioned in an early post, I swear I read that Scott at one time had a specific name for these, but I've never been able to locate the reference.

I had not realized that there is a surprising amount of inconsistency regarding which categories of stamps are given spaces and which are given blank pages. And by inconsistency I mean not only what appear to be similar types of stamps (e.g., India's Kishengarh official stamps are given a blank page but Tranvacore has dedicated spaces) but also going back and forth in different albums covering the same time period. For example, early Afghanistan has spaces and descriptions in the 1896 International, but these have been replaced by two blank pages in the 19th century edition. Same for Madagascar. Well, almost the same. The 19th century edition provides a page of outlined spaces for these oversize British Consular stamps but no descriptions. Huh?

One thing I had never noticed is that the 19th century edition published in the 20th century does a poorer job of covering a variety of areas than the Internationals published in the 1800s. I would have guessed that Scott would have used issuing a "closed" album as an opportunity to beef up coverage and correct mistakes. Obviously, I would have guessed wrong.

I've tried to come up with reasons to explain the blank pages, such as

--issues in progress or insufficient information to create dedicated spaces
--mounting issues (e.g., the oversized Chinese special delivery)
--obscure issues of minimal interest to most collectors but that would require many pages to provide dedicated spaces
--laziness, trying to keep down costs.

But these are just guesses. And, in at least in the case of US souvenir sheets, there was perhaps the laudable desire to give Big Blue collectors a place for this category without including expensive issues such as the White Plains sheet.

It is interesting that blank pages disappear for the last decade of the Browns. As long as I'm guessing, this was the time that Scott was starting its Green Specialty albums which as far as I know do not have blank pages. Perhaps the Browns were the beneficiaries of increased editorial diligence.

BROWN INTERNATIONAL 1896 Edition
Colombian Republic insured letter stamps
Colombian Republic Tolima insured letter stamps
Queensland revenues used for postage
South Australia official stamps

BROWN INTERNATIONAL 19TH CENTURY Edition [and Vintage Reproductions reprint of same]
United States. Confederate States. Provisional issues.
Afghanistan [2 pages, entire country!]
China issues of the treaty ports [3 pages]
Colombian Republic insured letter stamps [2 pages]
Colombian Republic Tolima insured letter stamps
Griqualand--West. Cape of Good Hope stamps surcharged
India. Protected States of the British Empire in India. Alwur, Bamra, Bhopal, Bhore
India. Protected States of the British Empire in India. Bundi. Bussahir. Cochin. Dhar. Duttia. Faridkot.
India. Protected States of the British Empire in India. Holkar, Hyderabad, Jhalawar, Jhind, Jummoo, Kashmir
India. Protected States of the British Empire in India. Kishengarh, Las Bela, Nangaon, Nepal, Nowanuggur, Pountch.
India. Protected States of the British Empire in India. Rajpeepla, Scinde, Sirmoor, Soruth, Talcher, Travancore, Wadhwan.
Madagascar. (British) [provides 6 oversized spaces but no descriptions]
Mexico. Provisional issues of various districts of Mexico
New Republic (Part of Zululand). [provides 1 cut; remainder of spaces without descriptions for 1886 issues]
Peru. Various issues of Peru used in different districts, during the Chilean war, 1881 to 1884 [1 and 1/2 pages]
South Australia. Official stamps.
Venezuela. Revenues used for postage 1867 [1/2 page]
Victoria. Revenues used for postage
Western Australia. Revenues used for postage [1/2 page]
[possible that I missed some of these half pages]

BROWN INTERNATIONAL1901-1920 Edition
China Special delivery stamps
Colombian Republic insured letter stamps
India. Kishengarh. Official stamps

BROWN INTERNATIONAL 1920-29
India. Protected States of the British Empire in India. Bargain, Cochin, Duttia, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kishengarh, South, Travancore [1 page]

BROWN INTERNATIONAL 1929-34
[none]

BROWN INTERNATIONAL 1934-39
[none]

BLUE INTERNATIONAL (1914--this was the first edition; unfortunately, my copy is incomplete)
Afghanistan (2/3 blank page)
China. Issues of the Treaty Ports
Colombian Republic insured letter stamps
Colombian Republic Tolima insured letter stamps
India. Federated States of the British Empire in India (Alwur...Wadhwan)
Italy. Offices in the Turkish Empire 1902-11
Italy. Occupation stamps 1912
Lubeck [1/4 blank page]
Oldenburg [1/4 blank page]
Parma [1/4 blank page]
Lubeck [1/4 blank page]
Philippine Islands. Special delivery stamps [1/5 blank page]
Philippine Islands. Postage due stamps [1/5 blank page]
Russia. Offices in the Turkish Empire 1909-10
Schlewsig-Holstein [1/5 blank page]
Tahiti [1/5 blank page]

BLUE INTERNATIONAL (1947 edition)
US Souvenir Sheets (missing in later editions)
India Convention States
India Feudatory States (missing in later editions which provide dedicated spaces for a few of these)
Italy Offices in the Turkish Empire
Italy Aegean Islands Occupation Stamps (in the 1943/47 edition these were split between two pages; later versions have combined this into one page)