I have just been united with these beauties which I'd won back in March and had sent to a friend in the UK.
THE THIRD LONDON PHILATELIC EXHIBITION.
21-28 January 1939, Central Hall, Westminster, London.
Listed in the Morgan-Wilson catalogue as sheets of 12 (6 ships and 6 planes). My recent trip found them at last in my possession and they are real beauties.
These sheets of 18 are not listed and my attempts to find out more have proved fruitless. I hope to find out more in the coming days.
The listed sheets, which are themselves scarce, are noted as perf 14½ x 14 while these are 15 x 14.
Printed by Harrison and Sons.
More on British Philatelic Exhibitions to come......
The sheet shows the colour seperations of the $20 Hong Kong Definitive of 1962.
Printed in Photogravure by Harrison & Sons. Exists 4 types of which 3 are shown below.
The normal sheet signed by Pietro Annigoni is not shown.
Annigoni was not only responsible for the portrait of the Queen on this series, but he also opened the show. He signed a small number of sheets and they are very scarce.
Engraved labels of a De La Rue portrait from sheets of 32. Pl No.1 in bottom margins.
Also exists other colours as Plate Proofs of which one sheet of each was printed (since broken up into blocks of 4)(not shown)
A second souvenir was also available at the show.
Labels in Carmine and Deep Blue showing the De La Rue monogram on a globe. Printed in sheets of 100, 2 panes of 50. Plate number 1A appears in the bottom margin of the left pane, and Plate Number 1B on the right pane. The De La Rue imprint is on both panes.
Shown below is a Plate/Imprint pair of the Carmine label.
(Ack: British Philatelic Exhibitions, Morgan & Wilson).
14-26 May, Royal Horticultural Society Hall, London.
The Junior, now National Philatelic Society held a competition to design an airmail stamp for Great Britain.
The winning design would be used to produce labels for this Exhibition and for over 90 years collectors of such souvenirs have searched for all the different types and varieties. Together with the 'Ideal' stamp of 1912, they are without doubt the most popular of all British Exhibition souvenirs.
6 colours were used and they matched the colours of the KGV definitives of the day.
In addition to the six colours, there were differences in watermark and perforation and together with imperforates 10 or 11 types of each colour exist.
There are four types of watermark: Multiple panes, MP Inverted, Single plane, SP Inverted. I have never figured out how to tell the difference between the Mutiple Planes Watermarks !!
Printed by De La Rue on paper by Roughway Mills. It is believed that specimens without watermark are from the borders of sheets on watermarked paper !!
All colours exist with perforation 14 or 15x14, done on a Grover perforator.
Next time.......King George V visits the Exhibition.
THE LONDON INTERNATIONAL STAMP EXHIBITION, 1923. (Continued)
May 18th was a special day for the Exhibition organizers because King George V was to visit the show. So special sheets of labels of the same design, but in Gold and Royal Purple, were ordered from De La Rue for presentation to the King. One sheet of each was ordered and they remain in the Royal Collection until today.
Much later, copies were found to exist on the marketplace so more than one sheet must have been printed. Given the scarcity of these two special colours, it is doubtful than many more than one sheet exists.
In 2012 I was lucky enough to purchase from a collector in Croatia a selection from this exhibition. Included amongst them were two copies each of the special 'King's' printings. 3 of them are mentioned in the catalogue but one is not, that being the Royal Purple with SP watermark and on gummed paper. The listed copy is with the MP watermark and on ungummed paper.
These 4 little stamps will always hold a special place in my collection, but the mystery of how they came about will remain, seemingly, forever.
Waterlow & Sons publicity labels were overprinted for the Exhibition.
Two types exist.
The first type shows the Statue of Boadicea and the Houses of Parliament. The label is in Blue and a red overprint reads 'Souvenir of the Pageant of Postage Stamps'.
The second type shows the Tower of London and a River scene. This type was printed in Grey-Black, Rose and Violet-Blue and they have the overprint in black.
16-24 November, Memorial Hall, Farringdon, London.
The label for this Exhibition shows a city scene with St.Paul's Cathedral and the show venue, Memorial Hall, prominent. Poorly printed but also in a charming old style that makes it quite attractive. The bottom half of the label has as much info as I have ever seen on such a small piece of paper !!
Printed in 3 colours.
Black with rough roulettes.
Grey-Blue, Perf 11.
Grey-Green, Perf 11.
Much of the info for this and other Exhibitions is due to the excellent catalogue, 'British Philatelic Exhibitions' by Glenn Morgan and Graham Wilson. More about the catalogue another time.
The show organizers gave New York Stamp Producer and dealer John Nicklin permission to produce publicity labels for this Exhibition. They depict St.George and the Dragon.
Perforated 15 or Imperforate by Typography they exist in 4 colours.
Yellow and Emerald
Yellow and deep blue
Yellow and violet
Yellow and chocolate
Shown below are Imperf examples gifted to me by a very dear friend from another forum.
They were issued in sheets of 15 (3x5) with top and bottom marginal imprints. I have the sheet set but show only the Yellow and Emerald one below as an example. The sheet set is perforated.
1975. NORTH WESTERN PHILATELIC FEDERATION CONVENTION.
10th May, Town Hall, Hyde, Cheshire.
The sheet below commemorates the 40th anniversary of the Jubilee of KGV. It shows an unadopted design for the Jubilee issue (most likely) by Van Dyk.
Another sheet, altogether more scarce, was issued for the Luncheon menu.
It shows the same unadopted design in colour trials. The sheet is on thick glazed card.
(glazed on front only)
This attractive sheet was printed by De La Rue from a proof which used the original plate.
Printed in Typography.
There exists also a small number of error sheets with text omitted although this writer has never seen one !!
Note the prices quoted in 1963 and compare with those of today. Power to Philately !!
First held in 1966 at the Seymour Hall, Marylebone in London (now a Leisure centre), the Exhibition stayed at the same venue until 1978 when it moved to the Wembley Conference Centre. After a brief stop at the Cunard International Hotel, the BPE merged with Britain's other National Exhibition, Stampex in 1987 and found a new home at the Horticultural Halls in Victoria.
During these years, a number of very interesting and (dare I say) beautiful Exhibition souvenirs were produced, many quite scarce and much sought after. Most were issued in similar format of a small Miniature sheet but often with Presentation issues in limited numbers.
Over the next few additions to the thread, I will be showing some items from these Exhibitions........including one or two of the less well known !
A starter......
1975.
Sheets printed in recess by De La Rue showing the 1925 Wembley (GB) stamps. No denomination in the bottom corners. The regular blue version and the Presentation sheet in Emerald were both overprinted 'SPECIMEN' in limited quantities for special guests.
By De La Rue, the sheet (thickish card) depicts the unissued Orange-Red Definitive of KEVII. This time, there is a cancellation bar over the bottom right-hand corner.
On thick card, this sheet shows the Ireland Jonathan Swift commemorative of 1967 but without value.
Printed by the Irish Revenue Commissioners (Philatelic branch), Dublin, on a Chambon Press
in Photogravure.
Again on thick-ish card, the sheet shows a blackprint of the 10/- Malta Definitive of 1956.
Printed by John Waddington of Leeds (printer of 4 stamps in the GB Machin series) using their own Kirketch process (a Typographic printing of a recess-printed stamp ).
The sheet is numbered on the reverse and also with a dated show handstamp.
The show ran from Nov 1st to Nov 4th and a different colour handstamp was used for each day. I have copies of Nov 1st (Red) and Nov 4th (Black). Exists also numbered copies without handstamp.
The sheet may be hard to find. I have only ever seen 2 in all my searching for Exhibition material, one in my collection and the other I was outbid on.
But they must be around somewhere, I will keep my eyes open. Should you find one, do not let the price put you off. The catalogue I use gives a 'market' price for most items. This is an average of items seen at auction,dealers etc. But in my experience most of the better items go for 2 or 3 times that figure.
Cinderellas are particularly strong at present and I have recently bid on a few items that went for 5 or 6 times catalogue !!
The one below is NOT one of them !
(Just couldn't leave without posting something.....back to the B.P.E. shortly)
An interesting Exhibition for the collector of cinderella sheets !
I have 6 types of the one design used for the show. And there are more.......
Printed in letterpress by Harrison & Sons, the sheet depicts the Queen Victoria £5 High Value definitive of 1882, 100 years before.
The sheets were numbered on the reverse in black.
Normal version.
Error sheet. Can you spot it ? This one is inlisted.
This one is also unlisted. The sheet is not numbered on the reverse and is handstamped with a show cancel that reads September 6th, fully one month BEFORE the Exhibition !! Possibly a pre-show publicity item ? error of date ? Who knows.
First up is a sheet with 'Trade Sample' handstamped on the reverse side and it is my understanding that these were presented to suppliers and dealers. They are unnumbered.
The following sheet was overprinted 'SPECIMEN' by Typography. They are also unnumbered and scarce.
The last sheet is on thinnish card, printed in black and is numbered. 1,000 only were printed and used for presentation purposes. Scarce.
A addition to those shown above and in my previous post, other similar sheets exist in limited quantities. The same design was used to print smaller sheets, gummed (all the sheets thus far from 1982 are ungummed) and numbered on the front. An 'A' prefix were used for show covers and a 'B' prefix for postcards. 1,000 of each were printed and half were used on covers/cards.
I know it can be the same with collecting postage stamps of low value and yet they can be hard to find. So it is with Cinderellas too and these last two items I have never seen in 10+ years of collecting Exhibition material !!
An interesting sheet from the House of Questa showing designs by Bradbury Wilkinson & Co ltd for a GB airmail issue.
It is has often been a topic of discussion by GB collectors and Philatelists as to why the inventor of postage stamps never issued an airmail stamp until almost the 21st century......and then only in the form of a Machin !
Designs have been submitted and cinderellas are in abundance of airmail fantasy stamps. A missed opportunity ? Maybe. More to come on this.
Back to the sheet and the 1984 BPE.
Printed in photolithography and unnumbered, the sheet also exists with a 'SPECIMEN' overprint for presentation purposes.
I most certainly would have approved of an airmail issue like this. Lovely design.
A good number of unscrupulous dealers and sellers use this item to tell philatelic 'porkies'. One can often see the 'stamps' cut out from the sheet and sold as essays or proofs which is totally untrue. I have written many times to 'offer my advice' and have had many an angry reply !! The same for other sheets which you will see in future posts.
One of my pet peeves.
I have always wondered, and never had a good explanation, as to why Great Britain did not use airmail stamps until…a Machin? I did not know about that! By the same token, why did Latin American countries issue so darned many airmail stamps, often without the slightest hint of an aviation theme?
Actually it was the 21st Century ! I erred.
Airmail Machins were first issued March 2003. 5 colours exist, now obsolete.
I agree, it is odd how some nations issue airmail stamps with little or no connection to their use in the design. Bulgaria has a quite a few.
Let's sneak away from the BPE events for a moment and continue with the airmail theme.
The following sheet was issued for the National Exhibition, Stampex in 1965. As in my previous post, the sheet depicts designs for airmail stamps. The sheet is by Victor Whiteley and celebrates the Centenary of the ITU and the inauguration of London's Post Office Tower which is shown in the central design.
Also like the previous airmail-themed sheet, this one has been used by shady dealers and sellers to pass of the 'stamps' as essays or proofs. Given the size of the white borders around each design, some have even gone to the trouble of perforating them !!! Annoyingly, they fetch high prices and collectors buy them. They are simply bogus !
I'm not sure about the exact numbers, but at one point I think Venezuela had issued almost as many airmails as regular issues! Then they abruptly stopped airmail issues in the 70s.
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"Just one more small collection, hun, really! LoL "
No airmail or BPE connection with this one.
Printed in Lithography by the House of Questa it commemorates the death centenary of Rowland Hill and reproduces the 1d black and 2d blue.
A second version in limited numbers exists with a 'Specimen' overprint in black.
11th April, Stirling University, Stirling, Scotland
A nice sheet, in Emerald green, celebrating the 75th year of the formation of the Society. It depicts a booklet pane of KEVII definitives which was issued in the same year.
Printed in halftone by Woods of Perth, the sheet is numbered on the reverse.
Exists also a limited number of sheets in Yellow-green although this writer has never seen one !
The fair ran alongside the annual Scottish Philatelic Congress.
The souvenir sheet depicts a 1913 Seahorse design in Greenish Blue with no denomination or shield design (see information sheet).
Printed by Bradbury Wilkinson in recess on ungummed paper with a numbered underprint in Blue-green
Came together with an information sheet sporting the BPE logo and printed in black.
A second sheet was printed in Crimson with a vermilion numbered underprint. Only 640 copies exist. They were used for presentation purposes.
This sheet is very scarce.
Both the above are cut from larger sheets of 20 of which 7 plate blocks of 4 sheets exist in special collections, including one of each colour in the Royal Collection.
In the not too distant past, pre-show publicity labels (mostly of the self-adhesive kind) were ordered by the show organizers for use on their mailings and also given to participating dealers and other show participants. These mostly apply to the larger National and International events.
They are not always easy to find.
Below is one from the 'StampShow 2000' at the Earls Court, London with clever usage of the Penny Black ! Note also the corner letters on the reproduction 'RM' for Royal Mail one of the main sponsors.
Not sure of the sheet size but pictured is my right-hand corner block of 15 with 'margins'.
This particular type has been seen with dealers overprint above or below the central design. I wonder if that was with permission of the organizers ?? !!
It should be noted that the ribbons and the text form part of what was the official show logo.
Apart from the re-vamped major International and National Exhibitions of 1940, which I have not yet covered, the only other stamp Exhibition to take place during the war years was that of the Czechoslovak Philatelic Society in 1943.
The government in Exile fought alongside Great Britain and many members of the Society were soldiers in the their own units of the British Army. They themselves helped organize this Exhibition.
CZECHOSLOVAK PHILATELIC EXHIBITION.
8-20 November, Grosvenor Place, London.
3 items exist for this event and all were available in limited quantities. The sheet shown below was by Waterlow & Sons Ltd and shows 5 stamp-like labels, perforated 13½. Printed in Intaglio.
The sheet also exists with a 'SPECIMEN' overprint.
A third example exists with each label cancelled by a Czech Army Post Office cancel in green.
The latter two have never been seen by this writer !
Let's just jog backwards briefly and show a few more of those pre-show publicity labels.
The first 4 are from the National Exhibition, Stampex and as in an example shown earlier, the organizers made good use of the Penny Black !
The last one is is from StampWorld, London 1990 and includes the Exhibition logo.
All were self-adhesive.
I am new to this forum so not sure if I have posted in the right place.
I am trying to respond to London Bus1 regarding the Pietro Annigoni stamped sheet 1963. I have been fortunate to find a sheet signed by Pietro Annigoni from this exhibition. It is also personally sent and signed on the back to A W Swanson with Pietro saying " After 24 years and still with good wishes for the next 24 signed Pietro Annigoni"
I will try and post some pictures of the sheet.
I am also trying to find out who A W Swanston is. I am hoping that someone may be able to help me with an article written by Swanson A W in 1975 called "Exhibit souvenirs, Some Personal Thoughts" Stamp Magazine Volume 41 No 481 (Feb 1975) page 64 I would be ever so grateful to see this article to see if this is the same possible A W Swanston who Pietro signed his personalised sheet for.
Thank you for accepting me onto the forum and I will try and post some pictures of the sheet I have.
I have tried downloading the photographs from my phone but says too large. What is the best way of uploading pictures onto the site. Any help much appreciated
If you want to upload photos from a phone, you will first have to run the pictures through a photo editing app in order to reduce the size. The typical 5 Megapixel or higher (my Galaxy S7 has a 12Megapixel camera) resolution phone camera results in a picture much too large for this site. Ideal photo size for this board is up to 900 pixels wide x up to 1200 pixels tall (although the maximums are somewhat larger than this), as compared to the 4032 x 3024 that is the default setting on my phone camera.
That piece of Blue Interleaving is listed and priced in the Catalogue. It has it's own catalogue number !!
I'll bet their aren't many pieces of Interleaving that can say that !!
Are any UK based SOR members thinking of going to the upcoming Strand Stamp Fair on Friday this week (May 10) in London? It's held at the Royal National Hotel in Bedford Way, Russell Square - confusingly not in the Strand!
I plan to go late morning, after a dental appointment. I went a couple of years ago and met some SOR people - I remember a photo of us subsequently appeared on SOR.