FIP POSTAL STATIONERY COMISSION

Message from the Chairman. 2002

First of all it is a pleasure to welcome two new members to the Commission, the Emirates Philatelic Association and the Hong Kong Philatelic Society who have nominated Khalid Ali Al-Omaira and Daniel Szeto respectively, to be their representatives. There are also changes to the representation for Brazil (Marcus Chusyd replacing E.L.dos Santos), Italy (Franco Giannini replacing Carlo Sopracordevole) and Thailand (Surajit Gongvatana replacing Ad Indhusophon).

Sadly we have to report the passing of Derek Palmer and Robert Samuel who represented Chile and New Zealand on the Commission. Both were highly regarded for their depth knowledge and exhibited their collections widely for the enjoyment and edification of other collectors.

Robert was particularly noted for his work as the author of a series of excellent catalogues on the various types of postal stationery issued in New Zealand and had just published a revised section on letter cards (see review) when he was taken ill. They will both be greatly missed by all who knew them.

In the last Newsletter we gave advance notice of the Open Meeting of the Commission to be held on 15 June during BELGICA 2001. This proved to be a successfull event attended by some twenty Commission Members and collectors and the progamme included presentations by Luc Van Tichelen on the "Change of Address" cards of Belgium and the Netherlands; Ross Towle on 'Exploring the Definition of Postal Stationery' and Alan Huggins 'An Introduction to Collecting postal stationery' designed as a mini display to promote interest in postal stationery. A lively discussion ensued with particular interest surronding the questions and issues posed by the items shown by Ross Towle.

In the competitive classes postal stationery was well represented with some fine exhibits, a number of which had not been seen before at international level (see the awards list), and postal stationery also formed an integral part of the Court of Honour display presented jointly by the British Library and members of The Royal Philatelic Society London. In addition to the Exhibition Catalogue included the summary of a contribution to the Symposium organised by I.P.H.F. entitled 'The Origins of Postal Stationery'.

In September the Schweizerischer Ganzsachen-Sammler Verein SGSSV celebrated its 75^th anniversary by holding a special exhibition GABRA IV in Burgdorf. This proved to be a very enjoyable and stimulating event with Georges Schild as the prime organiser. Exhibits were invited on an international basis and most of the exhibitors were present, so it was possible to learn a lot at first hand about the wide range of material on display. All in all a splendid show deserving our warm congratulations as an example of promoting postal stationery collecting.

In October FIAF held their Congress in Buenos Aires and Cesar Jones kindly sent details of the FIAF Postal Stationery Commission meeting together with a list of awards given to the exhibitors from FIAF Member Federations, and a number of reviews of recent publications. In the latter context it has been suggested by Ray Todd that we take steps to ensure articles and other works on postal stationery are publicised and /or published as widely as possible, and I would draw the attention to a feature on 'Australia's Printed To Private Order Envelopes' in the UPSS Journal Postal Stationery May-June 2001 by Stephen Schumann and Wayne Menuz.

Moving to FIP matters there is considerable discussion taking place around the 'Nations Cup' and World Stamp Championship events and 'One Frame Exhibits', and Commission members are invited to send in any comments they may have so that these can contribute to any views that can be presented to the FIP Board. Elisio Ruben Otero has succeded Patrick Pearson as the FIP Board member responsible for liaison with the Postal Stationery Commission and he was present at the meeting held during BELGICA 2001.

Fernando Aranaz recently requested all Commissions to provide texts for an introductory leaflet similar in style to those produced for STAMP SHOW 2000, and the text submitted can be found as attachment to this Newsletter.

For the future there will be a meeting of the Commission prior to the FIP Congress in Seoul in August during PHILAKOREA. As yet detailed information on dates etc. is not available but the 9^th or 10^th are possible dates. If anyone has any matters they would like to raise at the meeting or ideas for presentations please let me know as soon as possible.

Finally I wish everyone a peaceful and enjoyable 2002 and look forward to seeing as many of you as possible in Korea.

Alan Huggins

Commission Chairman

Message from the Secretary. 2002

At the Bureau meeting in Madrid in October 2000 it was decided to establish a bibliography of all litterature.

Concerning Postal Stationery World-wide, and to make the bibliography public at our web-site.

Therefore every member of the Commission was asked to forward information about litterature on postal stationery issued in their homecountry (catalogues, monographs and major articles (author, year and publisher) either direct to me, or to our web-master Ross Towle.

Unfortunately, only a very few of you has reacted to this call. Part of the job being a member of the Commission is to promote the knowledge of how to collect postal stationery, and here is the knowledge of excisting litterature an essential part.

Therefore, once again, I ask you who has not yet responded to this call, to forward the information. My address is in the name and addresslist (enclosed). Our web-master Ross Towle is living at 400 Clayton Street, San Francisco CA 94117, USA. (rosstowle@postalstationery.org). Please use this address instead of the one included in the Newsletter 2002.

I still advertise for information of exhibition results from national and regional exhibitions, literature reviews, information of unusual auction results, and of course reports of national activities to promote the collection of postal stationery, to be brought in the next Newsletter.

Last year it was a great pleasure to meet so many of you at the Philanippon 2001 in Tokyo, and at Hafnia'01 in Copenhagen, - it's allways nice to meet old friends, and to make new ones.

Finally a warm greeting to all members of the Commission, especially to the new members we have got in the past year, and I am looking forward to meet a lot of you at the Amphilex 2002 exhibiton, in Amsterdam. Unfortunately am I not going to Philakorea in Seoul, as I am being 60 years and has invited my family to the Mediteranien for holydays, to celebrate my birthday.

Erik Hvidberg Hansen

Secretary.