The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 11 letter word PHILATELIST
I've seen this crossword clue in The Times
P
H
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L
A
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T
More clues leading to the result PHILATELIST
- Foreign character with recent inclination to become collector
- A little ship going round, one holding mail items?
- Philharmonic took in composer audibly a lover of French timbres?
- Collector beginning to pant, greeting delayed catalogue
- Student of stamps from Hawaii absorbed by illustration on catalogue
- Little hasp I fixed for a collector
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "a lover of French timbres" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case a lover of french timbres = philatelist.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.