[2] Ridpath began his career as a stamp dealer in the firm of Young and Stockall but went into business on his own account in 1877.

McKinnon had placed his collection in the hands of his friend Robert Wylie Hill in Glasgow who first offered it to Edward Loines Pemberton but no sale resulted despite Pemberton later confirming in a letter to Frederick Philbrick that he had seen the collection and that it included a "ONE cent, red [magenta], 1856!!!

[7] As the financer of the deal, Botteley was offered his pick of the collection but was asked not to take the 1c magenta as Ridpath already had it in mind to sell it in Paris to Philipp von Ferrary[7] which he did for a price that may have been £40[6] or £150.

The block had been discovered in a Liverpool merchant's files around 1888 by someone known to local dealers only as the "Upside Down Man".

[11] In September 1893, Ridpath gave the Manchester Philatelic Society a "limelight exhibition" in which photographic images of stamps were shown on a screen at a magnification of 1000 times.

"[16] The display was so successful that Ridpath was elected an honorary member of the society at the end of the meeting.