The probate value of the Tapling collection was set at £12,000 but on arrival Richard Garnett (assistant keeper of Printed Books) estimated their value at more than £50,000 and described the bequest as the most valuable gift since the Grenville Library[2] in 1847 (equivalent to £24,000,000 in 2011).[3]
The collection covers the period 1840 to 1890 with some items up to 1900 added subsequently and recorded on the album pages. As of January 2009 the stamps were held in 72 boxes and the postal stationery part held in 113 albums and seven boxes.[7]
^"Wills and Bequests". The Times. 11 July 1891. p. 4. Archived from the original on 4 October 2011. Retrieved 16 January 2011. ...to the Trustees of the British Museum his entire collection of postage stamps and everything belonging to him 'appertaining to the science or hobby of stamp collecting,' upon the condition that the collection is kept in a separate room or part of a room, and is to be called 'The Tapling Collection,' and is always accessible to the president and secretary of the Philatelic Society.
^Index to the collection of postage and other stamps bequeathed to the British Museum by Thomas Keay Tapling, M.P., British Museum, p. 24, British Library010637981
^A Sharp Eye on collecting US Classics (Sharp Photography Publications, 2021) ASIN B091MBTGJ7 (read online, page 29)
Sources
Mackay, James A. (1964), The Tapling Collection of postage and telegraph stamps and postal stationery, British Museum
Melville, Frederick J. (1905), The Tapling Collection of Stamps and Postal Stationery at the British Museum. A descriptive guide and index, Lawn & Barlow
Index to the collection of postage and other stamps bequeathed to the British Museum by Thomas Keay Tapling, M.P., Trustees of the British Museum, 1903