Campbell Paterson MBE
Our Founder
Our founder, Campbell Paterson, entered the business of philately in 1941 when he joined the well-established firm of Pim & Company in Auckland. “CP” as he came to be known throughout the philatelic world had worked in the Auckland Savings Bank but had found that deteriorating hearing had made advancement in banking an impossibility. Although he volunteered for service in World War II, this impediment prevented him from serving in the Forces as well.
As a lifelong philatelist and specialist particularly in the early Recess Engraved issues of Great Britain, the idea of “enjoying yourself and making a living at the same time” was something that appealed to him and he settled quickly into writing notes for the “Pacific Stamp Journal” and designing and producing for Pim’s his first highly specialised Catalogue of New Zealand Stamps. Cataloguing came to be his forté and over his long career he used this gift to simplify the field of New Zealand stamps and inform and enthuse all those collectors who came into contact with it and him.
The 1935 Pictorials were his early “stamping ground” and he, together with the many specialists in the field in New Zealand and overseas made this magnificent “Second Pictorials” issue one of the best documented and researched in the world.
In 1949, he left Pim’s to commence his own business, Campbell Paterson Ltd. The business developed rapidly and in 1952 he produced the first CP Specialised Catalogue of New Zealand Stamps. The following year this was extended into loose-leaf format, a relatively slim volume compared to the big two-volume book that it is today in full colour. Nevertheless, collectors took to the idea of updating their catalogue without buying a new volume every year and the Catalogue has continued to be updated in this way ever since, a period of sixty years. In 1956, CP travelled to Britain with his family to establish the UK arm of our business. He returned within three years to New Zealand but from 1960 – now back in the UK – continued to establish and enlarge both the business and the field of NZ stamp collecting in Britain, encouraging the formation of the New Zealand Society of Great Britain – the “Kiwi” Society – which flourishes to this day. Several years before his death, CP was honoured by the Queen with the MBE, for services to New Zealand and to Philately. He died in 1993 at the age of 83.
Warwick Paterson
The second generation to be involved in our business, first came to New Zealand to take the Auckland Branch over in 1966, when our previous manager the able John Robinson died. Warwick – a chartered accountant by training and profession – was at that time living in England and progressing his career in industry working for one of the first companies in England to produce pre-cut timber-framed cedar wood housing – Cedar Homes Ltd (later Guildway).
Warwick returned to Auckland to take over the Auckland Branch and has managed it, editing the CP Newsletter in that period for 46 years. In that time he has assisted in the formation of many and in the disposition of a number of the major New Zealand specialised collections throughout the world.
With the introduction of email, facsimile, and the internet, the English branch of the Company was closed in 1993 and since then the business has been directed from Auckland by Warwick Paterson.
He is a lifelong collector of the Small Queens issues of Canada (1870 – 1897 ) and recalls as a schoolboy pursuing the London dealers in the Strand for study supplies.
Warwick was elected a Fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society of New Zealand in 1998. He has contributed to service organisations for many years particularly as National Chairman of the Victoria League for Commonwealth Friendship in NZ and as President of the Rotary Club of Newmarket in Auckland.
Fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society of New Zealand.
Warwick died on 22 October 2013 at the age of 72 during the course of a routine operation.
He will be greatly missed by Andrew Dolphin and staff.
The late Warwick Paterson
& his wife Jennifer
David Holmes & Nigel Shanks
June 1, 2014 saw Campbell Paterson become a divison of Auckland City Stamps Ltd and continue trading under the directorship of David Holmes and Nigel Shanks. David, an authority on New Zealand postal history, joined Auckland City Stamps in 1977 and remained there until 1995, when he left to set up his own firm. He is a life member of The Postal History Society of New Zealand.
In 2009, David purchased Auckland City Stamps with Nigel Shanks, who is also a director of several companies ranging from restaurants to advertising in New Zealand and across the Pacific. Together, they have developed the business and now hold bi-monthly postal auctions, as well as two public auctions in Auckland per year – one in March and the other in August.
David Holmes & Nigel Shanks
The CP Tradition
‘The CP Tradition’ of fine service to New Zealand collectors will continue, while providing the latest information, new discoveries and quality offerings of stamps and covers.
The world renowned ‘CP Catalogue of New Zealand Stamps’ continues to be published by the new owners under the stewardship of Stephen Jones who is a very knowledgeable and highly regarded philatelist. Not only is he the author of Illustrated First Day Covers of New Zealand Part 1: Health (2001)’ and revised in 2008 and Part 2 on Commemoratives, Definitives, Christmas etc (2004) but he has also been the editor of ‘Captain Coqk’ since 2014 and since 2010 has been on the Royal Philatelic Society of New Zealand Expert Committee. A collector for more than 55 years, Stephen’s New Zealand collecting interests include Destination Mail, Railways, Newspapers, Perfins, Early Usage, Revenues, Proofs and Specimens.
Contact us
Campbell Paterson Ltd
1 Ngaire Ave,
Newmarket.
P O Box 99988,
Newmarket,
Auckland 1141,
New Zealand.
Phone
+64 9 522 0311
Send us a request