‘Howards End’ star Sam West has soft spot for Great Britain’s 1867 Two Shilling Blue

By Charles Snee

Earlier this year, the Financial Times profiled accomplished English actor Sam West, who starred alongside Helena Bonham Carter in the 1992 film Howards End.

Defying the familiar on-off-on-again trajectory of the typical stamp collector, West has been at it since he was 5. He traces his philatelic beginning to The How and Why Wonder Book of Stamps.

Jeremy Taylor’s philatelic profile of the 50-year-old star reveals, among other things, West’s favorite stamp: Great Britain’s 1867 2-shilling Queen Victoria, sometimes called the Two Shilling Blue.

“I regard stamp collecting as an art form,” West explains to Taylor. “The serious collectors don’t keep their stamps in an album nowadays, they present them on sheets that can be displayed easily on a board. When you see them at a show it’s quite beautiful.”

If you’re a fan of West’s on-screen talents, be sure to catch him in Darkest Hour, a World War II drama highlighting Winston Churchill’s early confrontations with Nazi Germany, set for release in the United States Nov. 22.

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