He 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. 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." Collaborating with Sir
Eric Studd, he discovered the 1854
One Anna Red Die I "Substituted Transfer". He also found the
typographed Two Annas yellowish grey-green of 1854 on a previously unknown paper
watermarked
One Anna, Later in year 2010, Markand Dave FRPSL had published a detail paper on this subject of "1854 Two Annas on ONE ANA Watermark" in London Philatelist (The journal of The Royal Philatelic Society London) with one N in ANA, where Mr.Desai has reported two N in ANNA. The Desai collection was offered for sale to the public in 917 lots by Messrs
Robson Lowe, philatelic auctioneers, on 25 and 26 May 1949. The
auction included his collection of "
Scinde Dawk" stamps and the
1854 issues of India. He was a Fellow of the
Royal Philatelic Society London. ==Death==