C. D. Desai

Chunnilal Devkaran Nanjee, known as "Desai", was a Twentieth century Indian commodity trader, financier, and philatelist.

Financial career

Desai was a senior partner in the firm of Messrs. Devkaran Nanjee and Sons, stock, cotton, bullion and exchange brokers. He was also the honorary Treasurer of the Bombay Stock Exchange and one of the founding directors of Devkaran Nanjee Banking Co. Ltd. on May 26, 1938, later renamed the Dena Bank, and other allied companies.

Philatelic career

Desai made many discoveries among the 1854 lithographed stamps of India and formed an outstanding collection of these classic issues with the assistance of Jal Cooper. Desai's collection included many items of extreme rarity. It featured the unique unused block of 14 of the white Scinde Dawk stamp [Robson Lowe, "Encyclopedia of British Empire Postage Stamps," v. III (1951), p. 151.] . His collection included the finest known example of the famous 1854 Head Inverted Four Annas stamp, 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." [Cooper, Jal; Foreword to the auction catalog: The Unique Collection of India offered by order of the Executors of the late Mr. C. D. Desai, F.R.P.S.L., Robson Lowe (London), May 25 and 26, 1949. Sale Nos. 838-841.]

Collaborating with Sir Eric Studd, he discovered the 1854 1 anna red Die I "Substituted Transfer". He also found the typographed 2 annas yellowish grey-green of 1854 on a previously unknown paper watermarked "Stamp Office" [Robson Lowe, "Encyclopedia of British Empire Postage Stamps," v. III (1951), pp. 163, 165.] .

The Desai collection was offered for sale to the public in 917 lots by Messrs Robson Lowe, philatelic auctioneers, on May 25 and 26 May, 1949. The auction included his collection of the "Scinde Dawk" stamps and the 1854 issues of India.

He was a Fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society London.

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