When did stamp collecting first appear as a hobby in Britain?

Stamp collecting as a hobby in Britain emerged shortly after the introduction of the first postage stamps in 1840. The earliest known reference to the practice is an advertisement placed in The Times of London in 1841 by a young lady who expressed a desire to collect cancelled postage stamps to decorate her dressing room.12

While this initial interest began as a simple accumulation of stamps, it quickly evolved into the systematic study and collection of various postal issues. By the 1860s, the hobby had matured significantly, marked by the publication of the first stamp catalogs in England by collectors such as Frederick Booty, J.E. Gray, and Mount Brown in 1862.2