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| Leading London Dealers - W.T. Wilson | ||||
| reprinted from Philatelic Journal of Great Britain Jan 1, 1892 | ||||
TO LONDON. His REMINISCENCES OF THE LATE MR. E. L. PEMBERTON. [By our Special Commissioner.] Our readers will pardon the apparent Hibernicism which places Mr. W. T. Wilson, a Birmingham man, within the category of "Leading London Dealers." The explanation must be that he is a partner in the firm of Cheveley, Wilson & Co., whose other head, Mr. T. W. Cheveley, has already figured in this column. Moreover, Mr. Wilson will soon be counted amongst the millions of the metropolis. As present, his journeys to London are necessarily frequent, and his genial face is well known at the auction sales in Chancery Lane. Therefore, express flying-machines being not yet perfected, it is easy to understand Mr. Wilson's determination to permanently reside in London. It was during one of Mr. Wilson's recent visits to the Metropolis that our interviewer waylaid him and cajoled him to talk "shop." Mr. Wilson is a good and genial talker but he gets a little bit weary now and then of talking "shop," despite the fact that he is as ardent a philatelist now as in the days when he and Mr. E. L. Pemberton were brothers in arms, if such an expression may be applied to philately. It was just his intercourse with and REMINISCENCES OF THE LATE MR. PEMBERTON that our Commissioner most desired him to talk about, and, as if endowed with thought-reading ability, Mr. Wilson tacitly complied with the unspoken request. "How did I first scrape acquaintance with Pemberton," said Mr. Wilson, echoing our representative's opening query. "Well, our friendship originated in a difference of opinion. I thought differently from Pemberton, and I took the bull by the horns by going to see him." "And how did you find him?" "Oh, just as everybody else found him-a genial, good natured fellow, but apt to get terribly excited in a philatelic controversy. I liked the man for his earnestness, mind you, and we speedily became very fast friends." "Was it in Birmingham that you first met him, Mr. Wilson?" "Yes; he was living at Islington Row at the time. That was shortly after I went to Birmingham. I had been a diligent collector, you know, ever since 1860, having started at the age of thirteen. Well, from that time forward Mr. Pemberton and I were well nigh inseparable. I spent many a pleasant evening looking over his stamps, and almost every spare moment was spent with him. Some of MR. PEMBFRTON'S LETTERS are very curious. He was a very humorous individual. I will send you a few of the shorter ones to show you." The samples of Mr. Pemberton's epistolary work submitted by Mr. Wilson are certainly curious enough to merit reproduction here. Their wording, full of a cheery, fraternal sentiment, display in a marked degree the characteristics of the man. For instance, on October 30,1868, he wrote Dear Bill, A pot from Young's-come and see, stamps and tea. Be here by 7, or you won't see Your trop friend. E.P. The illusion is to a lot of stamps from Young & Stockall, the leading dealers at that time. On August 31, of the same year he commenced a letter to Mr. Wilson with : "Dear W.,-As we shall all be out, I should not advise you to come to night," signing himself "Yours in the bonds of baccy, beer, and stamps, E.L.P." Here is a funny one, dated August 6, 1869 Rhyl House, Chester Road, Birmingham. Dear Willyam, Come my pirout bold and free, come and rove the woods with me!* You can have a bed all right. I'll meet you either here, or at the train itself in New Street, should I happen to be too late for the 2.15. Stamps is selling in a way to surprise and delight you. Adoo, from yours trooly, E. L. P. * Poeckry. Later on, we find the same genial correspondent promising, "a new Cashmere and several other things" as adding a special inducement to the accompanying invitation, and still later writing: "Why ask to bring Henry? Of course do so, if he will come. We can bed you both." Throughout, his letters imply the same unswerving friendship. They show us how firm are the bonds of friendship forged by philately. But to resume. Mr. Wilson was not yet pumped dry by any means. MR. PEMBERTON'S LITERARY WORK. "Literary work? Oh, yes; I joined Mr. Pemberton in that many a time. I revised and corrected his first articles, including the one on the stamps of Sydney, which appeared continued....... | ||||
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