THE ARMAND E. SINGER TIBET 1809-1975, by Armand E. Singer, 1995
Softbound, 193 pages, five in color.

Professor Singer has formed one of the world's great collections of Tibet.
This volume consists of photocopies of some 190 pages of his collection, five in full color. However, it is much more than a conventional assemblage of a collector's pages, as Professor Singer enjoys placing a great deal of information on his pages: moreover he has numbered each page and included a Table of Contents and an Index, creating a "mini-handbook."
All aspects of Tibetan philately are displayed, beginning with stampless covers and "shirt letters" as early as 1809, all bearing large and striking handstamped red ink seals, of Chinese Ambans (ambassadors) in Lhasa, the 12th, 13th, and 14th Dalai Lamas, Panchen Lamas, and more. 37 pages on the British Presence in Tibet begin, not with the traditional coverage of the Younghusband Expedition of 1903-4, but with an extraordinary cover from the 1861 Sikkim Expedition, then seven pages of rare covers and postal receipts of the 1888-9 Sikkim-Tibet Campaign, a full 16 pages on postal history of the 1903-4 campaign, and 13 more on the 1912-36 period. Singer's 27 pages on the Chinese Influence in Tibet feature important 1890 and 1894 amban covers, then 1911 Occupation Overprints in blocks, sheets and on cover, including rare mixed frankings with unoverprinted issues and a striking set franking, finally numerous scarce 1910-1 covers bearing unoverprinted issues of China.

When Singer finally turns to Tibet's native issues of 1912-56, it is in the extensive fashion one by now expects. 75 pages detail trial color proofs, including the beautiful 1912 unaccepted design; First Issue sheets including the controversial one trangka yellow; an array of First Issue covers replete with rare frankings and cancels; 1914 four and eight trangka on commercial covers, the latter believed unique, and a matched pair of covers, ex-Burrus, bearing 1914 eight trangka and 1920 four trangka enamel each in combination with First Issue blocks, obviously philatelic but shown in their sumptuous color; finally 35 pages on the long-lived 1934-59 design.

Final sections lead one down a delightful array of philatelic byways: the Nepalese courts in Khasa, Kerong, and Kuti, Tibet; Mustang; crested envelopes of the Tibetan nobility; philately of Mount Everest (19 pp.); the controversial 1950 Officials; Radio-Telegraph stamps; the 1949 essays of Heinrich Harrer, author of "Seven Years in Tibet"; and the Second Chinese Occupation.
Highly recommended to anyone who wishes to see a great collection of the most exotic country in the world.