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2009 News |
Malaya in Wartime by Brian Austin 9 December 2009
Brian Austin’s interest in Malaya sprang from his boyhood at school in the 1960s in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore whilst his father was serving in the Royal Malayan Air Force. His display of part of his comprehensive collection of stamps, covers and documents covered various periods of particular historic and philatelic interest.
· Some First World War covers including some posted to India (in Tamil script). · The early part of World War II when the British Empire was at war with Germany but a range of censorship arrangements was in operation in Malaya. · The Japanese invasion on 8 December 1941 (a few hours after Pearl Harbour), the events (on a map and with a Book) of the rapid conquest of Malaya culminating in the surrender of Singapore on February 15th 1942. · Issue, for much of the period of occupation, of (British) Malayan postage stamps overprinted – in most cases – DAI NIPPON 2062, the latter being the Japanese year almost equivalent to 1942. Particularly surprising to some of us was Roman lettering of the overprints, the postmarks and the very Englishness of the documents, even under Japanese or native administration. However the Malayan post office was run by a German during Japanese rule; and English was the language at most levels of government amid the wide variety of Chinese, Malay, Thai and Indian tongues actually spoken. · Separate new issues were used in the northern states of Malaya, which had originally been part of Siam, and were ceded back to Thailand by the Japanese in October 1943. · Various Japanese-style pictorial stamps were also issued for general use in Malaya. Also displayed were various overprints in Japanese script, Japanese occupation bank notes (Malayan dollars) and some propaganda ‘Liquidation of Empire’ stamps. · Some Prisoner-of-War Covers were particularly poignant, as was a book on these covers/cards and one on conditions in the notorious Japanese prisoner-of war camps in Borneo. · The return to the British Empire with the BMA overprints from 1945.
Very lively discussion followed with Brian and among the members concerning events that most of us had long forgotten or had never been aware.
A View from the Rostrum by Joseph Cottrial of Warwick & Warwick 25 November 2009
Jo Cottrial of Warwick and Warwick (Auctioneers of Warwick) has unlimited professional opportunity to examine stamps of a great variety of value and interest. He passed on his knowledge and enthusiasm to 17 of our members and a visiting GB-enthusiast from Bavaria. His presentation comprised both a greatly magnified projection (on the wall) of stamps and other collectables plus a wide range of choice stamps representing samples from a forthcoming auction which we could admire in detail during the interval. We saw views of his office in Warwick where he inspects and sorts collections and individual items, of the room where prospective bidders view the lots, and of the actual view – of the bidders – from the rostrum from which business was conducted at about 400 lots per hour. Some of the stamps and covers we saw included: · Some extraordinary versions of the Cape of Good Hope triangulars including a 1d blue and a 4d black. · The story of the US 24c ‘inverted Jenny’ (aircraft) – briefly a collector bought the only known sheet of 100 of these mistakes for $24 (i.e. at face value), one of which sold in 2008 for £183,000. · Some scarce GB overprint variations including for Mafeking under siege and other Bechuanaland. · Zeppelin stamps on covers including their use on non-German mail. · Covers rescued from fires and air crashes orposted from Queenstown, the Titanic’s last port of call. · Exquisitely made Valentine covers. · Real and specially prepared unofficial Mulready envelopes. · The range of rare early 20th century postcards that were projected included those of suffragettes, Art Nouveau decoration, Louis Wain’s seasick cats and several depicting disasters taken by opportunist photographers. The last included a view - from a porthole of the Carpathia - of survivors from the Titanic climbing up nets from their lifeboats.
Other collectables illustrated were medals, coins and bank notes. Actual examples of high value bank notes were displayed, including from the range forged by inmates of German camps and intended to wreck the British economy towards the end of World War II. These were detectable only by an irregularity in the watermark. Fortunately most of the £134 million worth believed to have been produced were dumped in a lake until after the cessation of hostilities. A most enjoyable evening was rounded off with lively questions and discussion.
Members Evening on 11th November 2009
The theme of the evening, enjoyed by 13 members, was ‘My Other Collection’. Most of these ‘collections’ were postal or stamp related, being outside the member’s best-known area of interest.
However an outstanding non-philatelic collection was represented by a large (about 4-inch gauge) model of a Lynton & Barnstaple Railway locomotive and trucks. The engine is an authentic gas-powered steam model of US (Baldwin) designed 2-4-2-tank engine ‘Lyn’ of 1900 in Southern Railway livery.
The more philatelic displays included:
· GB Post Office picture/advisory/publicity postcards · An album of commercially worthless but interesting cancelled stamps from Argentina · A range of Machin GB stamps in different types of sheets, produced on various cylinders by various printers · A book on Austrian narrow gauge railways doubling as a presentation pack for a set of currently valid 55 Eurocent stamps · GB Official. Paid envelopes including covers from the administrator of Ascension Island · Stamps illustrating the designs of Jennifer Toombs · French post office stamps for China, Indo-China and contingent places · Ecuador 1881 set and the first Seebeck issue · A comprehensive and valuable display of GB ‘official’ stamps (issued until 1904) with overprints for the Admiralty, Army, Board of Education, Board of Trade, Government Parcels, Inland Revenue and Office of Works – some no doubt forged, many probably genuine because of the relevant postmarks at the places of posting.
Members Evening on 28th October 2009
Thirteen members displayed material relating to the letters N and O. The subjects chosen, in alphabetical order, were:
· ‘National’ stamps, meaning those with surcharges as various forms of extra government funds but often erroneously referred to as ‘charity’ stamps; also some Norway high values, rated at very low prices by Stanley Gibbons. · Nautical and Naval material – covers posted on ships or carried by packet boats and postcards of warships. · Newfoundland: a map, covers and some fine mint pictorial sets. · Newfoundland: most values from the earliest St John’s penny square and triangular issue, through all the jubilees, coronations, pictorials and commemoratives up to the last 1947 issues. · New Orleans: 19th century covers posted there; and US stamps depicting aspects of the city. · New Zealand: a range of stamps and covers. · Nyasaland: from the Rhodesian (British South Africa) BCA overprints, through the British Central Africa issues to the sets of the Nyasaland Protectorate; also the main sets of Northern Rhodesia. · Occupation of Czechoslovakia: illustrating, philatelically, the two stage occupation of Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia by Germany in 1938. · O-Flaw in GB Penny Blacks, with a magnifying glass to detect this mark on the O in ‘One Penny’ as some rows on some plates became worn with use. · Orange Free State: loads of examples including 5/- and other values overprinted as cheaper stamps ran out when postage rates were lowered; also some fine Natal Victorian Chalon Heads. · Overprints on GB George VI stamps issued in Morocco Agencies and for temporary administrations in other North African states. · Overprints, generally described as issued for various purposes in the British Empire with examples of stamps (overprinted for Cambodia, Laos and Viet-Nam) for Indian forces supporting an International Commission in Indo-China in 1954; also two pages of New Zealand stamps and some from North Borneo. · Overprints for various purposes including specimens and postage due as well as telegraph stamps and some railway stamps.
Croatia by Tony Bosworth 14 October 2009
Tony imparts great enthusiasm in his very select pursuit of a particular phase of Balkan politics – through its stamps and postal covers. His subject is the short-lived fascist Independent Republic of Croatia.
As an inevitably oversimplified comment on Balkan demographic politics, the roman-lettered Catholic Croats seldom saw eye-to-eye with the Cyrillic-writing Orthodox Serbs and their relationships were made the more complex by other ethnic groups and by the Muslim communities. Most Croats favoured German culture and ideals; Serbia had for long hated Austro-German domination; and the Muslims, who were alternatively persecuted or manipulated by the Christians, took whatever opportunities were open. Before 1994, independent Croatia existed only: · from April 1941 when Germany invaded Yugoslavia and allowed autonomy to a Croat state extending far beyond historic or modern Croatia and including Bosnia and Herzegovina, · through the years to 1945 under the dictatorship of Italian-trained fascist Ante Pavelić and his terrorizing Ustaše, · to the complete defeat of the Axis powers at the end of the European War (in which Croatian soldiers fought and died for German forces on the Russian front) and the triumph of the communist revolutionaries (after a civil war in which Croatian deaths outnumbered those even in the Russian war).
A random selection of Tony’s rich display includes:
· overprints announcing the new state (N D Hrvatska) in type (in some blocks each stamp was individually typed on), by the chequered shield (which remains Croatia’s national symbol to this day) or by up to nine lines obliterating the former king’s head; · a wealth of covers at different rates to different friendly or less friendly states, one a postcard with registration, express and airmail stickers and the appropriate value of stamps; · examples of stamps incorrectly used – some accepted as proper postage, most consequently surcharged – and wrong or occasionally sanctioned mixed use of regular postage, revenue, official and even postage due stamps; · the many issues with ‘charity’ extras –such as the Aviation Fund, National Relief Fund, Croat Legion Relief Fund, Red Cross Fund, Croat Youth Fund and Postal Employees’ Fund. All these surcharges were compulsory and most of the funds went into government funds or for fighting an increasingly desperate war.
A most enjoyable presentation and display and a revealing insight into a land, then seemingly remote to most of us, now on the fringe of the European Union. Sudan by Colin Lee - 23 September 2009
19 members welcomed Colin Lee for his comprehensive display, which included:
· An early cover posted in 1841 · Egyptian inter-postal labels used in Sudan · Fine examples of early Egyptian stamps postmarked in Sudan · Starting with the Egyptian overprints of 1897, examples of Sudan stamps issued up to Independence in 1956 · Fascinating explanations of the origins and changes made to the Camel (‘Arab Postman’) series from 1898 · Fine displays of the various postmarks issued in all the various post offices including several scarce examples · A full sheet of telegraph stamps and a separate half sheet · Military telegraph forms used in Sudan
Colin summarised the attractions of collecting Sudan as being a comparatively inexpensive country with a particularly good postmark variety and unusually clear cancellations.
New Acquisitions - 9 September 2009
For the first meeting of the season, members showed their new acquisitions, including:
· A British 1/2 penny bantam stamp of a scarce plate number · New issues from the British Post Office · Guernsey stamps from World War II including shade varieties · Definitive sets from Papua New Guinea, Hong Kong, Nigeria and Rhodesia · British Victorian stamps used abroad · Early German meter marks · Hitler head ‘skull’ propaganda stamps with forgeries.
Newsletter August 2009
Welcome to the Henley Philatelic Society’s new season which starts on Wednesday September 9th and continues every 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month until June inclusive. Put the dates in your diary now!
I hope you will find the forthcoming programme of interest with several ‘new’ speakers covering a variety of subjects, and once again possibly much of the World will be covered, philatelically speaking. I am still waiting to hear from the Revenue Society to see if they have someone who would come and talk to us in March 2010. The early programme is below, and it would be great if we could continue to see you all at our meetings. Last year was great for attendance so let’s try for a repeat performance or even to better it!
9 September - your latest Philatelic Acquisitions 23 September – Colin Lee with his display on Sudan. Many of you will know Colin, from Reading P.S. and I think this is the first time we have had a display on Sudan. 14 October – Tony Bosworth FRPSL – Croatia 1936 – Tony was recommended to me by one of our members and as he comes from Kent please mark this in your diaries now! 28 October – members evening – discussion group – please bring some pages along – more on this evening later. 11 November – 9 pages from your other collection – i.e. the ones we don’t normally hear about!! 25 November – Jo Cottrial from Warwick and Warwick with his presentation ‘As seen from the Rostrum’ – another evening not too be missed. (Warwick and Warwick will be holding a valuation day following this evening at Badgemore Golf Club, Henley) 9 December - Another guest speaker from Reading – Brian Austin with his display Malaya in Wartime
We then come to the Christmas Social and the next time we will meet will be 2010 – a big year for Philately with Stamp World 2010 in May at the Design Centre.
I haven’t included the Stampex dates or those for local Society Stamp Fairs, as I do not have them – unfortunately Thames Valley Federation doesn’t seem to do as other Federations do and produce an annual programme of these events. Hopefully they will be in our printed programme.
After Christmas here are some more occasions for you all to display some of your pages with ‘Lilac’ and also Revenue and Charity Stamps – both of these being selected by yourselves at meetings during the last season! You have only yourselves to blame! We also have visiting speakers on 24th February, 10th or 24th March, 14th April when Pinner P.S. will visit us, and 9th June – please put these dates into your diaries.
There will also be the Postcard evening which has become very popular and interesting as time has gone on – so start thinking about your display of up to 9 pages now, despite there being no Postcard competition this year. Don’t forget to start thinking about your philatelic competition entries; it is never too soon to start!
It is likely that we will be holding another Open Auction! Please may we have your lots in by the beginning of January! Now is the time to think about it and get rid of those unwanted items, or those of your friends, – if they are sold you receive the sale price less 10% which goes to the club. And start saving for all those ‘lots’ you are going to purchase.
I hope you will agree that it is an interesting programme and the committee look forward to welcoming you all back, to the Village Hall, Bix, at 7.45 p.m.
With best wishes – Anne On behalf of the committee.
Articles from David Beech
David Beech, Curator and Head of the Philatelic Collections at the British Library, has kindly provided three interesting articles for us:
How to look after your Collection – A Basic Guide
Philatelic Research at the British Library
The Philately of the Edwardian Era as shown in its Literature
President’s Evening 24 June 2009
Dave wowed us with a comprehensive display of Scandinavian stamps and associated items. On close inspection the quality and range of items was impressive as usual.
“Something for Everyone” by David Springbett 10 June 2009
David visited us to show us “something for everyone” and lived up to his promise with a dazzling display of revenue stamps, rarities and items from his travels around the world. These included:
· Some of the largest known multiples of British Commonwealth key plate revenue stamps. · The highest know denomination of a New Zealand fiscal stamp. · Prospecting licences granted in British Africa. · Little known Airport departure tax stamps about which David is writing a catalogue.
We also heard several amusing stories about David’s travels including his preference for travelling by the least prestigious airline in order to ensure plenty of space to spread out in first class.
Member Displays ‘The Letter M’ 22 April 2009
Sixteen members assembled at Bix to swap concepts generated by the letter M. Displays included: · Maps in the form of the Falkland Island Dependencies ‘thick map’ and ‘thin map’ stamps from 1946-49; and Money in the form of bank notes for various exotic countries (and the Bank of Scotland). · Malta from the early days, including a strip of three 1d with the middle one spelt ‘One Pnney’. · Massachusetts, Maine, Montana, Missouri and other US M states, including tercentenary stamps for some of the state capitals or chief towns. · British covers for the 1840-1859 period issued from post offices abroad such as Manderville or Montego Bay in Jamaica, and also from Martinique and Montserrat. · Many postcards from New Zealand. · More Maps in the form of stamps in presentation packs showing the scenery of Argentina from South to North; plus Monetary items from that country in the form of a bank paying-in book and a national insurance stamp book. · A Miscellany including Metallic stamps from Sierra Leone and Tonga, Malta 1937 Coronation and other sets, a postcard of the Mumbles railway in steam days and striking examples of some of the GB Millennium issues. · Malaya and the Straits Settlements, mainly during the reign of George VI and including some issued during the Japanese occupation. · Morocco Agencies from late19th Century to early Elizabethan Tangier. · Machin’s GB stamps – their ancestry, their competitive emergence and subsequent development. Queen Elizabeth’s comments of the essays helped to formulate the eventual design with its elegant neckline and draped upper torso.
Member Displays ‘Easter Philatelically’ 8 April 2009
Sixteen members met at Bix to enjoy displays related closely or remotely to Easter. In view of the comparative paucity of Easter stamps as such, a remarkable number of members managed to adhere to the subject. Their displays included:
· Easter properly defined as to when it occurs and what it represents – including a Cayman Islands issue, rabbits, Faberge eggs, an RSPCA animal issue, animal stamps and postcards generally and one of the fine New Zealand view sets. · Works of art by Caravaggio and others, on (mainly) Easter stamps. · British commemorative stamps issued just before Easter, with pictures and descriptions – including Halley’s Comet (1986), Isaac Newton (1987), Faraday et al (1991), Columbus (1992) and the Prince of Wales’s landscape paintings (1994). · The only Argentine Holy Week series, a Eucharistic Congress in Buenos Aries in 1984, and various cross themes culminating in the port of Santa Cruz.
Perhaps the most ingenious connections to Easter, by our GB-abroad-only member, was made through biblical/Google research to relate Easter Sunday to Ascension Island, the following Sunday to St Thomas (in the Danish West Indies) and two Sundays after Easter to the Colombian port of Santa Marta.
Technically or remotely related to Easter were:
· A British Wilding tete-beche 3d ‘Easter Bunny’ pair, purchased for £20 in 1986 but worth much more now, plus many examples of more deliberate Swiss tete-beche pairs. · Pre Irish independence (Easter rising) GB stamps post-marked in Ireland. · British Eastern Arabia post offices and later issues in the coastal ports and sheikhdoms along the Arabian Peninsula side of the Persian and Oman Gulfs. · Samoa Express labels, early Albania, Festival of Britain and an Edward VII souvenir item.
Competition Evening - 25 March 2009
Eighteen members met at Bix to enjoy nine-sheet displays, some of which followed national competition rules more closely than others. Topics included:
· Some fine early George Washington stamps on cover, including illustrated notes on some of the places to which the letters were addressed. · Polish stamps from the beginning (after World War I) up to 1944. · Various markings inflicted on GB letters including improperly posted letters and registrations, and ‘not opened by censor’. · Early covers passed through British post offices in Puerto Rico, including from Spanish (pre-1810) days. · Argentina revenue and Cinderella stamps – national provincial or municipal – including picturesque receipted bills, a death certificate and state of health labels used on identity cards in the port of Rosario. · Local postal surcharge labels adding extra charges to national postal services by provincial postal authorities in China. · Rocks to riches: early mining, mainly for gold, in the Klondike and various states of Australia.
Also displayed were three GB mint Mulready letters. Members had to determine which was the genuine one, which the forgery, and which the facsimile.
A silent auction was held and a number of interesting stamps changed hands, including some nice long Indian revenues somewhat resembling the GB postal Victorian £1.
Members Evening 11 March 2009
Seventeen members met at Bix to enjoy displays by two of their number.
Stephen Gardner presented a wide and intriguing range of Indian revenue and similar stamps, labels and documents including a few postage and revenue or postage adapted/overprinted stamps. Many of the revenue stamps were postcard size and of intricate design, at the top of full-page water-marked documents, the blank space to be filled with the legal content of each document and the agreeing authoritative signatures or humbler thumbprints. The range covered revenue, telegraph and similar stamps, receipts and ‘hundi’ money transfer certificates - from throughout the British Imperial period, for the many Convention or Feudatory ‘native’ states, and up to the more recent three-headed lion emblem adopted for a wide range of stamps and documents for the Indian Republic. On studying the exhibits in detail, the high quality of the material was evident. These must have been difficult to gather considering that so many violent and untidy ways of cancelling the stamps had been used. Godfrey Skinner displayed a dazzling array of covers, documents, postcards and stamps relating to the aircraft produced from the earliest days to World War II by the Junkers factory at Dessau, Germany. These were predominantly passenger aircraft, many developed for use by Lufthansa, Germany’s national airline. There were examples of the earliest models from the J1 and the later G-series, including the huge G38 airliner. Thereafter most of the display (as much of Junkers’ production) concerned the ubiquitous corrugated iron-fuselage three-engined Junkers JU 52/3m. Originally conceived and developed in the same era as the American Douglas DC3 Dakota, about 5000 Ju 52s were built and some flew for 50 years. The first prototype comprised seven single-engined aeroplanes, one of which was used in Canada to deliver equipment to remote mines. However other airlines that had ordered the aircraft felt that they were underpowered, so the wings were remodelled and extra engines were added to each wing, tripling the engine capacity and defining what became the classic type. Postcards, stamps and covers showed Ju 52s in use by numerous airlines including Argentina, Bolivia, Switzerland and other European countries. Hitler had his own personal Junkers 52 whilst Goering’s was painted bright scarlet.
Members Evening 25 February 2009
Carlo (Mick) Micotti entertained other members to a two-part display. The first part was widely varied and included:
· Various letters posted from or concerning ships, including the Trafalgar-contemporary battleship Saturn, and cards or letters relating to Swiss lake steamers. · Exquisite small Victorian friendship/Valentine cards. · Prisoner-of-war letters. · A wide range of Swiss soldier labels. · Two 19th century books of great interest and value including the work Album Weeds by the Rev. Earee dealing in great detail with stamp forgeries and how to recognise them; and a full clearly authentic and comprehensive book on the private life of Queen Victoria by a ‘servant’ of the queen. · Zurich Zeitung of 1st September 1939 announcing the invasion of Poland by Germany, the mobilization of the Swiss Army, but also the Swiss formal declaration of neutrality in the war that started on that day. · Swiss stamp forgeries including examples of the work of Fournier, a Geneva-based “artist” who in the 1890s and 1900s employed six or seven others to produce fine facsimiles of scarce stamps for sale to collectors who could not afford the genuine versions. These stamps were often marked as facsimiles on the back or some discreet indication on the front; but they could also be used as forgeries, i.e. pretending to be the real thing, by unscrupulous dealers.
The second part of Mick’s display was two sections out of ten thematic sets that he had purchased at the auction of the collection of the late Brian Buckle – a friend from North Berks who had visited us several times at Bix. The two sets that Mick showed concerned stamps and pictures of science (and scientists) and music (instruments and musicians) with full explanations.
February 2009 Newsletter
To members and friends:
Hello Everyone,
We are well into the Philatelic Season and I hope you are all enjoying the evenings. On behalf of the committee ‘welcome’ to our new members, we are delighted to see you all and hope that we are providing the type of evening that you are looking for – please do let us know what you are hoping to find at the club.
We have seen some very interesting material already and there is much more to come. The ‘member’s evenings when you show us nine pages (we have discovered that many of our members cannot count!) remain popular with excellent displays, and members showing much ingenuity to make sure they are covering the subject of the evening – do come along to the next ‘do it ourselves evening’ on April 8th when you are invited to bring along nine pages on Easter – lots of scope there!
I have to admit that I made an error when I was compiling the programme and have had to change some of the guest speakers around and the changes are listed below.
Wednesday February 25th, our well-known member Mic Miccotti has very kindly stepped into the breach and will give a display entitled ‘A Miscellany From My Collection’. There are bound to be lots of interesting items as Mic is renowned for finding all sorts of goodies.
Other alterations are:
April 22nd Derek Harwood will show us some London Postal History and his wife Pamela her Lighthouses.
June 10th Renowned Philatelist David Springbett is coming to bring us his display ‘Something For Everyone’.
June 24th Is our final ‘stamp’ evening of the season – ‘The President’s Evening’ which is always interesting and light-hearted with plenty of friendly banter. Richard Gash, our dealer member, will also be in attendance, so bring along your ‘wants list’ too. Two weeks later we will be having supper, probably at the Dog and Duck at Highmoor and partners are very welcome to join us.
As these are all guest speakers please put the dates in your diaries NOW!!
Also please don’t forget the competitions on 25th March. There are many classes for you to choose from, or you can enter them all! Stamps, Postal History, Thematic, Aero-philately, Cinderella, Postcards, Social Philately – I hope I haven't left any out.
NB: The most important event of all The Open Auction on May 27th but we won’t have a successful auction unless we have hundreds of ‘lots’ so please dig out all those unwanted items and give them to Malcolm, Tom, Dave or me so that they can be included. Please bring them with you to the next meeting or tell one of us that you have some material for the auction, or, if necessary, ask one of us to collect them from you. If they sell you receive the sale price less 10% which goes to the club. And of course it goes without saying that we hope you will all be able to come to the auction and also bring your philatelic friends along too. The more the merrier!
Subscriptions remain a modest £10 for the year. Where else can you get an evening’s entertainment for just 50p a time? And with coffee and biscuits included!
I hope you will agree that there are some interesting evenings ahead and we look forward to welcoming you, your friends and other new members, to the Village Hall Bix. (between Henley and Nettlebed) at 7.45 p.m. for 8.00. Our meetings always have time for exchange of material and for a chat to other collectors so do come along ‘and give it a try’. If you would like directions to the hall please telephone 01491 681 739 or 01491 612 200.
With best wishes – Anne (on behalf of the committee)
Members Postcards Evening 11 February 2009
Fifteen members and one guest attended and eleven contributed with the following themes:
· The Snowdon Mountain Railway from its earliest nineteenth century days with some historically valuable postcards and commentary on pages purchased from a sixteen page competition which was rejected by the judges as ‘disgraceful’. · Palestine views in the brief existence of that country from the end of World War I to the end of World War II. · World War I illustrated postcards sent back to England from the Western Front with photos of the rubble or battlefields and intriguing written messages concealing the real horrors; plus some less poignant GB cards. · Views from Mongolia, Tuva and the Asiatic Soviet Union. Yurts, town views and the monument marking the centre of Asia. · A selection of nineteenth century German postcards, including some for local city posts, in pristine condition and with beautiful manuscript addresses. · Views and portraits from Argentina. · Fijian sailing canoe cards from 1905-1911. · ‘A walk around Reading’ A full range of views including many buildings now gone, some like the old town hall still there, the early twentieth century trams, and separate pictures of the men (in caps) leaving Huntley & Palmer’s Biscuit factory and then the ladies (in straw hats and long dresses). · Attractive PHQ cards of British natural history issues from the 1980s. · Mediterranean views of the harbours at Gibraltar, Valetta (Malta) and Port Said; plus various railway stations including Calais Maritime (with the ships’ gangways across the rail tracks) and London Victoria (with hansom cabs lined up on the ‘Dover’ side). · Ecuador – starting with the high Andes volcanic peaks, plus town views and colourful costumes.
Members Evening 28 January 2009
Fifteen members attended and eleven contributed. The theme for the evening was ‘Yellow and Orange’. As usual, this was interpreted in a wide variety of ways.
· Some middle period Dutch stamps (because the Netherlands are an orange country) plus a range of Australian King George V 4d stamps in orange or orange-yellow. · Various counterfeit and propaganda stamps from World War II – with a valuable book on these. · Under the (mainly) yellow flag of Sarawak – a selection of Sarawak and North Borneo stamps. · British Victorian 1/2d and 1/- orange stamps posted from South America and the Caribbean just before the British post offices closed in 1882. · Yellow and orange flowers, various philatelic exhibition issues and some gold mining stamps and covers. · Posters of German yellow post buses and postmen; and a wide variety of local and letter agency stamps for city mail operated in the 19th century as separate systems from that provided by the Reichspost. · A worldwide selection of yellow stamps, shown in part-sets to reveal detail that can only be seen in louder colours; plus a range of British Queen Victoria stamps overprinted for colonies or post offices abroad. · Yellow 1/2d stamps added as a surcharge to letters sorted on 1960s Travelling Post Offices; also a similar yellow stamp surcharge for a New Zealand TPO letter. Pictures of Le train petit jeune (yellow) in France. · A George V Nigeria £1 black and orange stamp plus a sheet of very fine Malta Queen Victoria 1/2d orange/buff. · British Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth mint orange and vermilion stamps. · A selection of citrus fruit on stamps.
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