One of the most interesting and comprehensive series of philatelic
works, still in course of publication, was commenced by Messrs.
Stanley Gibbons, Ltd., in 1893, in the form of philatelic handbooks.
These handbooks are written by leading philatelic authorities. Each
important country, _i.e._ important from the stamp collector's point
of view, has a separate volume devoted to it, and into each handy
volume is condensed as much as may be necessary to guide the advanced
collector in specialising the postal issues of the country which he
favours. There have already been published:--_Portuguese India_, by
Mr. Gilbert Harrison and Lieut. F. H. Napier, R.N.; _South Australia_,
by Lieut. F. H. Napier and Mr. Gordon Smith; _St. Vincent_, by Lieut.
F. H. Napier and Mr. E. D. Bacon; _Shanghai_, by Mr. W. B. Thornhill;
_Barbados_, by Mr. E. D. Bacon and Lieut. F. H. Napier; _Reprints and
their Characteristics_, by Mr. E.D. Bacon; and _Grenada_, by Mr. E. D.
Bacon and Lieut. F. H. Napier.

For the instruction of the beginner, Major Evans, R.A., has compiled
an excellent glossary of philatelic terms, under the title of _Stamps
and Stamp Collecting_; and there is, further, _A Colour Dictionary_,
by Mr. B. W. Warhurst, designed to simplify the recognition and
determination of the colours and shades of stamps--a by no means
unimportant matter when the value of a stamp depends upon its shade.

But the most popular of all the philatelic publications are, of
course, the monthly periodicals. The first stamp journal is said to
have been _The Monthly Intelligence_, published at Manchester in 1862.
It had but a short life of ten numbers out of the twelve required to
complete Vol. I. But other journals followed in rapid succession, with
more or less success, from year to year, till in 1893 a list of the