Lennon brings ‘Cool’ to collecting
In the early 1950s, John Lennon received a stamp album as a gift from his older cousin Stanley Parkes. Parkes's own name had originally been on the flyleaf; Lennon rubbed it out and replaced it with his own, along with his address at Mendips, 251 Menlove Avenue, Liverpool, the house he shared with his aunt Mimi.
His first act appears to have been to draw a beard and pipe on the printed portraits of British monarchs, Queen Victoria and King George VI.
However, over several years, Lennon built the collection to more than 800 stamps across 150 pages, trading and acquiring international examples sent by family members abroad, including stamps from India, New Zealand and the United States.
Images courtesy of the Smithsonian National Postal Museum
Paul Fraser Collectibles sold the album to the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum in 2005 for £29,950. Paul worked personally on the acquisition with curator W. Wilson Hulme, who said at the time: "It just doesn't get any cooler than John Lennon. I see exhibiting John Lennon's stamp album as a fun, novel way to introduce stamp collecting to a whole new audience."
The album made its public debut in 2006 and has since travelled to New York, Stockholm and beyond, returning to the Smithsonian in 2018 for a dedicated exhibition. A digital interactive version of the collection is also maintained by the museum.
Images courtesy of the Smithsonian National Postal Museum
