A 70-year-old grandfather on the Isle of Wight says he owns the world’s largest private collection of post boxes, a stash of 260 items amassed over about 30 years and displayed throughout his house, garden and shed.
Arthur Reeder, a retired electrician from Newport, operates the display as an informal museum, giving tours to postal enthusiasts who visit from across the United Kingdom and abroad. He said he could not name a favourite among the pieces. “Picking a favourite is like picking a favourite child,” he said, adding that he considers himself “its custodian rather than its owner.”
The collection ranges from a wall-mounted Victorian box dated to 1857 to a Penfold hexagonal pillar box, introduced by designer John Wornham Penfold in 1866 and regarded by Mr. Reeder as a “holy grail” among collectors when he acquired one in 2008. He also holds a unique 1880s model made for Manchester by the Cheshire Lines Committee, examples from elsewhere in the British Isles and overseas pieces, including one from the United States and a box on loan from an international postbox appreciation society in Hong Kong.
Reeder said the collection draws international visitors and that valuations vary widely by age, rarity and condition, from a few pounds to several thousand. He estimated the cache to be "worth a small house" but said he would not sell. "I could probably buy a small house if I sold my collection but what would I do with my time then?" he asked.
The collector traces the hobby to a 1994 trip through North Wales. He found a redundant wooden station box in a skip, repaired and restored it, and was introduced to other collectors thereafter. When he moved to the Isle of Wight in 2002, the scale and weight of the collection required an unusual removal arrangement: Reeder said only a circus company with experience transporting elephants could handle the job.
He runs the space as a semi-public attraction rather than a formal museum, offering tours to visitors and fellow enthusiasts. "People who come from all over the world want to see them," he said. He recalled two visitors from Canada who later sent him a postcard. He said a neighbour initially complained to the council that the display was an "eyesore" but changed his mind after Reeder asked whether Royal Mail post boxes were an eyesore.
Reeder described the practical costs of collecting as modest compared with the travel required to find rare pieces. He has sought boxes from the top of Scotland, across to Cork and down to Truro, and keeps in contact with other collectors. "There are some boxes I don't have that I could have bought at auctions back in the day but I didn't have enough saved up," he said.
He also voiced a preservationist view of post boxes as national heritage. "It's a use it or lose it thing," he said, noting that some countries have begun removing roadside boxes and recalling their role during wartime as a primary means of communicating news of loved ones. Reeder said his father collected stamps, which he called "much easier but equally expensive."
Post boxes have a long history: they were first used in Paris in the 17th century, and the oldest example in Britain dates to 1809 in the wall of a Wakefield, West Yorkshire, post office. Artist Richard Redgrave contributed to designs of Victorian pillar boxes in the 1850s; early boxes were initially painted green and later became widely recognised in the classic red livery after designs such as Penfold’s became standard.
There are now well over 100,000 post boxes across the UK and roughly 200 different types still in use, according to the Letter Box Study Group, which documents and researches letter box history and design. Reeder said he keeps in touch with other collectors — one friend in Essex has a substantial collection he estimated at about 100 fewer boxes — and occasionally swaps pieces.
He said the oldest pieces in his care have survived two world wars and that he treats his collection as something to be preserved for others. His stated ideal museum visitor is the Prince of Wales, but he is content to continue welcoming enthusiasts from near and far to view the collection at his Isle of Wight home.