Chunnilal Devkaran Nanjee, known as "Desai", was a Twentieth century India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n commodity

Commodity

In economics, a commodity is the generic term for any marketable item produced to satisfy wants or needs. Economic commodities comprise goods and services....

 trader

Trader (finance)

A trader is someone in finance who buys and sells financial instruments such as stocks, bonds, commodities and derivatives. A broker who simply fills buy or sell orders is not a trader, as they are merely executing instructions given to them. According to the Wall Street Journal in 2004, a managing...

, financier

Financier

Financier is a term for a person who handles typically large sums of money, usually involving money lending, financing projects, large-scale investing, or large-scale money management. The term is French, and derives from finance or payment...

, and philatelist.

Financial career

Desai was a senior partner in the firm of Messrs. Devkaran Nanjee and Sons, stock, cotton, bullion and exchange broker

Broker

A broker is a party that arranges transactions between a buyer and a seller, and gets a commission when the deal is executed. A broker who also acts as a seller or as a buyer becomes a principal party to the deal...

s. He was also the honorary Treasurer of the Bombay Stock Exchange

Bombay Stock Exchange

The Bombay Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located on Dalal Street, Mumbai and is the oldest stock exchange in Asia. The equity market capitalization of the companies listed on the BSE was 1.63 trillion as of December 2010, making it the 4th largest stock exchange in Asia and the 8th largest...

 and one of the founding directors of Devkaran Nanjee Banking Co. Ltd. on May 26, 1938, later renamed the Dena Bank

Dena Bank

Dena Bank is one of the earliest banks in India headquartered in Mumbai.-History:* Dena Bank was founded by the family of Devkaran Nanjee under the name Devkaran Nanjee Banking Company Ltd....

, and other allied companies.

Philatelic career

Desai made many discoveries among the 1854 lithographed

Lithography

Lithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface...

 stamps of India and formed an outstanding collection of these classic issues with the assistance of Jal Cooper

Jal Cooper

Jal Manekji Cooper FRGS was an Indian philatelist, and an expert and authenticator of the postage stamps and postal history of India. Cooper was also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the author of several philatelic handbooks. He was both a stamp dealer and a collector and was...

. Desai's collection included many items of extreme rarity. It featured the unique unused

Mint stamp

In philately, a mint stamp is a stamp which is in its original state of issue, is unused, has never been mounted and has full gum, if issued with gum. The term applies equally to postage stamps and revenue stamps.- Variations :...

 block

Postage stamp block

In philately, a block is a group of postage stamps still attached to each other. Blocks are of interest not only because they are rarer than individual stamps, but they also preserve relative positions of stamps as they were originally printed, information that is crucial to understanding how the...

 of 14 of the white Scinde Dawk

Scinde Dawk

Scinde Dawk was a very old postal system of runners that served the Indus Valley of Sindh, an area of present-day Pakistan. The term also refers to the first postage stamps in Asia, the forerunners of the adhesive stamps used throughout India, Burma, the Straits Settlements and other areas...

 stamp. His collection included the finest known example of the famous 1854 Head Inverted Four Annas stamp

Inverted Head 4 Annas

The Inverted Head Four Annas of India is a postage stamp prized by collectors. The 1854 first issues of India included a Four Annas value in red and blue...

, cut square and on cover, as well as a second cut square example of this rarity.

As Jal Cooper noted,

"The late Mr. Desai had few equals in the realm of Indian philately. .... His helping hand was a constant source of solace to many Indian dealers and there was a regular pilgrimage to his home from dealers in other parts of India."

Collaborating with Sir Eric Studd, he discovered the 1854 1 anna red Die I "Substituted Transfer". He also found the typographed

Typography

Typography is the art and technique of arranging type in order to make language visible. The arrangement of type involves the selection of typefaces, point size, line length, leading , adjusting the spaces between groups of letters and adjusting the space between pairs of letters...

 2 annas yellowish grey-green of 1854 on a previously unknown paper watermark

Watermark

A watermark is a recognizable image or pattern in paper that appears as various shades of lightness/darkness when viewed by transmitted light , caused by thickness or density variations in the paper...

ed Stamp Office .

The Desai collection was offered for sale to the public in 917 lots by Messrs Robson Lowe

Robson Lowe

John Harry Robson Lowe , Robbie to his friends, was an English professional philatelist, stamp dealer and stamp auctioneer.- Life and career :...

, philatelic auctioneers, on May 25 and 26 May 1949. The auction

Auction

An auction is a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder...

 included his collection of the "Scinde Dawk

Scinde Dawk

Scinde Dawk was a very old postal system of runners that served the Indus Valley of Sindh, an area of present-day Pakistan. The term also refers to the first postage stamps in Asia, the forerunners of the adhesive stamps used throughout India, Burma, the Straits Settlements and other areas...

" stamps and the 1854 issues of India.

He was a Fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society London.