Newsletter 2004.

Edited by Erik Hvidberg Hansen, Denmark.

Commission News and Activities.

The following changes have taken place in the membership of the Commission. We welcome Mario Ortiz from Colombia; Dr Se-Young Chang from the Republic of Korea (replacing Sang-ho Yeo); Antonio So from the Phillipines; Hernani António Carmelo de Matos from Portugal (replacing José dos Santos Correia); and Yacoub Jaber Sorour from Quatar. Hernâni de Matos advises that he has a website called Portuguese Postal Stationery with the address http://www.inteiropostais.com

Although there have not been any formal meetings of the Commission in 2003, the Commission participated in LUBRAPEX 03 which celebrated the 150 years Anniversary of the fírst Portuguese Stamps, by the Chairman giving a talk entitled "The Origins and Devellopement of Postal Stationery - Philatelic Cinderella; Chimera or Chameleon?". A combined talk and display was also presented at the 2003 British Philatelic Congress on "British Postal Stationery in Retrospect".

2004 sees us looking forward to two major exhibitions, ESPANA 2004 in Valencia from 22-30 May and SINGAPORE 04 WORLD STAMP CHAMPIONSHIP from 28 August to l September. The latter venue will host the 68'11 FIP Congress with Commission meetings being held on 31 August (details will be notified separately later), the business of which will include the election of Chairman, Secretary and Bureau members for the period 2004 - 2008. A separate note and nomination form is enclosed with this Newsletter and members should ensure that any nominations have the support of their Continental Federation,

The FIP Board agreed that a series of seminars would be held in 2004 and asked that Commission Chairman prepare suitable outline programmes for both beginner collectors and advanced collectors. A copy of the proposals mede is attached for information, and which, it is hoped, will prove of interest and as a basis for use by Commission members. The possibility of holding a Seminar for more advanced collectors in Singapore is being considered and any suggestions for particular topics to be included should be sent to me as soon as possible.

It is pleasing to note that interest in postal Stationery continues to expand as shown by the strength of the market, the increased number of exhibits being entered at both national and international events and the number of new publication being produced (see Book Review section).

A recent developement has been the introduction of the "One frame" class and here I hope we shall be seeing more postal Stationery exhibits amongst the entries.

Finally I wish all members of the Commission a peaceful and philatelically satisfying 2004 and look forward to seeing you in Singapore.

Alan Huggins

Message from the Secretary.

It has earlier been decided that the Commission will establish a bibliography of all literature concerning Postal Stationery World-wide, and to make the bibliography public at the commission web-site.

Therefore every member of the Commission is asked to forward information about literature on postal stationery issued in their home country (catalogues, monographs and major articles, author, year and publisher) either direct to me, or to our web-master Ross Towle, if you not already have done it.

Part of the job being a member of the Commission is to promete the knowledge of how to collect postal stationery, and here is the knowledge of existing literature 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 address list (enclosed).

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.

I am looking forward to meet a lot of you at the next official Commission meeting in Singapore in August.

Frik Hvidberg Hansen

Secretary

FIP Commission for Postal Stationery - nomination for Chairman, Secretary and three Members of the Bureau.

At the Meeting of the Commission to be held in Singapore 31st  August 2004, the Chairman, Secretary and three Bureau Members representing the Continental Federations will be elected for the period 2004 - 2008. Each Continental Federation is to be represented on the Bureau by one ordinary member (Art 43.3 FIP Statutes).

Guidelines for the duties and regulations for the Philatelic Commissions of the FIP, article 14.2:

"All nominations for the Chairman, Secretary and the Bureau must be submitted by the FIP Member (Federation) in writing to the Chairman of the Commission with a copy to the FIP Secretariat five month before the date of election. Names of the candidates are to be included in the agenda of the Conference".

Please note that a nomination for Chairman or Secretary is not automatically a nomination for the Bureau. A

candidate must be nominated for both offices to take part in both elections.

Nominations from Federations must be sent to the adresses below before 31st  March 2004.

Dr Alan K. Huggins                           

Mrs Marie-Louise Heiri

Chairman FÏP Postal Stationery Commission      

Secretary General of the FIP

134 Berkley Avenue                          

Jupiterstrasse 49

Chesham, HP5 2RT                           

CH-8032 Zürich

United K.ingdom                               

SWITZERLAND

Book reviews.

IRISH POSTAL STATIONERY STAMPED TO ORDER - CATALOGUE AND HANDBOOK.

By Otto Jung; Forchungs - und Arbeitsgemeinschaft Irland e.v. im Bund Deutscher Philatelisten e.v. FAI Literature Series Volume 25 pp 170, (2003).

The previous listing, by the same author, of Irish stamped to order postal stationery formed part of volume 16, the Postal stationery of Ireland, published in the FAI in 1994, The Post Office issues were updated by Clancy and Jung in FAI volume 24 published in 2002 and the current work complements this.

With a parallel text in German and English, as before the arrangement of he listing is alphabetical by company rather than by type of stationery. A comparison of the 170 pages of the new work with 125 pages in the previous listing gives an indication of the proportion of new material. Since many of the items described represent individual orders for STO stationery, very often only very small numbers have survived, making the compilation of the listing all the more impressive. The information given has also been updated and the pricing, which is now in euros, reflects the strong market for Irish material.

Once again the author and the FAI have published another excellent addition to the literature on Irish philately and this catalogue is a must for collectors of this area. It is also a very informative read for those with a general interest in postal stationery.

STANDARD CATALOGUE OF MALAYSIA, SINGAPORE, BRUNEI - REVENUE STAMPS & POSTAL STATIONERY, 1st EDITION 2003 - 2005.

Edited by Steven Tan; International Stamp & Com Sdn Bhd., Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 99pp $ 12, £ 8.

This catalogue is the latest publication produced by the International Stamp & in and is very attractively presented being fully illustrated in colour. As is obvious from the title this publication provides a basic listing of revenue stamps as well as postal stationery of the Malay States, Straits Settlements, Labuan, Brunei, Sarawak and North Borneo.

This listing will be welcomed by collectors of these areas and the pricing of the earlier material in particular may come as a surprise to many, although it appears a little arbitrary in places eg, uniform levels for all sizes

Of registration envelopes used which cannot really reflect the relative scarcity of the larger sizes compared with the commoner G sizes

CATALOGUS OF RUSSIAN POSTAL STATIONERY 1845 - 1917 and 1953 - 1960.

Sasha Ilyushin has sent two publications, the first co-authored with Oleg Forafontov, covers the Russian postal stationery issued between 1845-1917, the second the period 1953- 1960. Unfortunately the text of both is entirely in Russian which makes reviewing difficult, but the extensive bibliography given in the first publication indicates the depth of study that has been undertaken by the authors, while the extensive use of illustrations will facilitate their use to non russian speakers.

MICHEL GANZSACHEN-KATALOG EUROPA WEST 2003/04.

The latest edition o this standard listings has just arrived and now comprises over 970 pages. Whilst providing a very useful guide as to the items issued I would very much like to be able to obtain many of them at anywhere near the pricing level quoted. Nevertheless it is the only publication covering many of the countries and the publishers are to be congratulated for continuing to make updated information available to collectors.

Correction to Newsletter 2003: At Philakorea 2002 Prof. Alexander Ilyushin, Russia got a Large Vermeil medal for his exhibit "Stamped envelopes of Imperial Russia 1848 - 1863".

OUTLINE OF SEMINAR SUITABLE FOR COLLECTORS STARTING TO COLLECT POSTAL STATIONERY

It is intended that the seminar will be presented with either examples of actual stationery items or colour photcopies to illustrate the different types of postal stationery and the arrangement and mounting of a collection.

An accompanying text will also be distributed and wherever possible 50mm slides will be used as an integral feature of the talk.

The seminar will cover the following topics:

1.  WHAT IS POSTAL STATIONERY?

2.  THE ORIGINS OF POSTAL STATIONERY

3.  HOW POSTAL STATIONERY EVOLVED

4.  COLLECTING POSTAL STATIONERY

5.  ARRANGING ANO MOUNTING A COLLECTION OF POSTAL STATIONERY

OUTLINE OF A SEMINAR DESIGNED FOR MORE ADVANCED  COLLECTORS

The presentation format is likely to be similar but highly desirable that sufficient display facilities are available for up to 10 frames of material/photocopies.

Seminars could be customised somewhat to reflect specific interests but would range over the following topics:

1.  DEVELOPING A SPECIALISED COLLECTION OF POSTAL STATIONERY

2.  INFORMATION SOURCES

3.  EXHIBITING POSTAL STATIONERY

4.  CRITERIA FOR THE COMPETITIVE EVALUATION OF POSTAL STATIONERY EXHIBITS

5.  JUDGING POSTAL STATIONERY EXHIBITS

6.  SPECIAL SUBECT RELATED TO LOCATION OF SEMINAR

The above formats have already been used over a number of years at various exhibitions or by invitation but it is intended to make them an Agenda item at the next Commission Bureau and General meetings in Singapore.

Alan Huggins

Commission Chairman

Briar Lodge, 134, Berkeley Avenue, Chesham, Buckinghamshire, HP5 2RT, UK

Tel. 0044 (0)1494 772359  Fax. 0044 (0)1494 775741