Follow the adventures of the world's most sought-after postage stampsfrom a tropical Indian Ocean island to the hushed atmosphere of the modern auction roomin this dramatic and passionate tale of the first stamp hunters. In September 1847 colored squares of paper were stuck on to envelopes and used to send out admission cards to a fancy-dress ball on the tropical island of Mauritius. No one at the party would have guessed that these stamps would one day be worth more than a million dollars. When a two-pence "Blue Mauritius" surfaced on the fledgling French stamp-collecting market in 1865 it...