Yesterday received a copy of the long out-of-print Literature of Cinderella Philately by H.E. Tester. Published in 1972, this was the first in a series (five or six?) of small specialty handbooks produced by the Cinderella Stamp Club (UK).

A chemist by profession, Henry E. Tester was awarded the RPSL's prestigious Crawford medal (1982) for his two-volume "The private ship letter stamps of the world".

As noted previously, in recent years my focus has been philatelic research rather than collecting (or more accurately, accumulating). Remain in awe of the amount of written material produced across the last 150 years specific to what is arguably a rather arcane topic. Interested in stamps of steamship companies? There's three pages of listings. Hotel posts? Two pages. Fiscal and revenue stamps? Tester has 19 pages. And on and on.

Although it is rather likely I will never read the vast majority of the items listed within this slim volume (120 pages), don't believe a successor work has ever been produced. Therefore, the work of Tester and his CSC contemporaries is, in effect, the standard reference. (Should a fellow SOR member present evidence to the contrary, am happy to stand corrected.)

So if you wish to delve into Moroccan Local Posts or Prisoner-of-War and Displaced Persons Camp Post Stamps, I'm your guy.

Thanks to noted bibliopole Leonard Hartmann (Louisville KY) for assisting me with this acquisition.