GBPS Programme 2011-12

Iain's display concentrates on the usage of GB high values from the reigns of both King Georges in a very diverse range of postal applications.

The display commences with the express experimental airmail to Paris of 1919, and continues through Seahorse commercial usage, and intercontinental airmails of the 1930s incorporating Iain's award-winning "Flying down to Rio", with complex and difficult routes and rates featured worldwide.

The first "Emblems" high value was issued at the outbreak of World War II; usage was inextricably tied to wartime and subsequent austerity conditions, and again the display demonstrates a wide variety of routes and rates including the largest known franking of the £1 Arms.

Iain will also show the 1951 Festival issue in a variety of usages.

We have long felt that an occasional presentation of something not strictly GB would be of interest to members, and who better to show us something a bit different than Hugh Feldman, who has achieved two Large Gold medals in International competition and a Grand Award in one of America's World Series events? His book "US mail routes by water" has also won awards and copies will be available at The Royal.

His display illustrates the contract and non contract carriage of mails handed loose to route agents or clerks of vessels on most of the navigable waters in the USA. Starting in 1813 on the Hudson river, the use of steamboats spread rapidly throughout the US, including coastal and lake services, and the final part of the presentation shows the various routes by water for mails to and from the west coast from 1849.

Peter Shaw has achieved success at Stampex with his displays and has again had an entry accepted this autumn. His talk covers the preparation of the Wilding Castles issue and the development of the three printers, Waterlow, De la Rue and Bradbury Wilkinson.

The display illustrates some of the problems encountered by the printers and the errors that resulted. Usage of the stamps on registered mail, telegrams, bank mail and express delivery is included.

Waterlow and De la Rue placed markings in margins as a guide to positioning the perforator, and these guide markings differ between the printers and were changed during each contract, thus a pattern has been established which may be used to identify individual plates. Bradbury Wilkinson inserted plate numbers on the issued sheets which are included in the presentation.

Did you ever wonder why the best coloured cancellations of the Line-engraved period derive from this decade? Or why certain colours consistently derive from certain towns? Or why early experimental duplexes can be found in coloured inks?

Mark's research into this began in the 1980s and revealed an organised allocation of deliberately distinctive coloured stamping inks at Surveyor's District level throughout Great Britain. The experiment started in December 1852 and observations demonstrate that by 1858 it had become largely eroded or abandoned. The misuse of these inks, intended for datestamping, for obliteration accounts for most coloured cancellations and it is believed that confusion over whether to use "stamping" or "obliterating" ink with newly introduced double stamps (duplexes) accounts for many others.

The display will include the coloured maps Mark developed for his GBPS display in the 1990s and expanded with observations and discoveries since.

The first half of this display shows Free and Official mail to 1840. Examples of the ways in which mail was marked, regulated and abused will be shown and some of the rare and unusual "Failed Free" handstamps will be included.

In the second half examples of returned mail from 1764 to present day will be illustrated; the development of wrappers and envelopes used to return letters will be examined along with handstamps and the annotations applied to them.

We are again indebted to Stanley Gibbons for holding their annual evening Reception and we hope that there will be a good turnout of members to enjoy the hospitality and (usually) attractive discounts. Please bring along a frame or two to show to us all.

This is of course a celebration of the first UK aerial post.

Peter's collection is the most comprehensive held by one person, and the display encompasses the colour trials and proofs for both postcards and envelopes, including the Royal proofs for the violet envelopes, waybills, dispatch notes, bag labels and bundle labels, together with many pilot signed items.

Trade advertisements with many varieties are displayed as well as various printings of the souvenir stationery. Much of the souvenir ephemera is that of Capt. Walter Windham or the Campbell family.

The return flight from Windsor starts with the unique waybill for bag 1, cancelled the 17th due to the delay by weather, and the silver vesta case that was presented to the pilots, and ends with the two versions of the Box Closed greetings card.

Followed by display of Competition entries and judges' critique (entry details)

Our meeting at Stampex is a joint meeting with our German friends of the Forschungsgemeinschaft Großbritannien. Don't forget to book your place(s) for our Dinner with them, the previous evening of the 24th.

The study of Postage Due mail can give us an insight into some of the more unusual postage rates. Postage Due and Instructional markings fall into three groups:

1. those indicating a certain amount of postage is to be collected
2. marks explaining the reason for a charge which includes the amount due
3. those detailing an irregularity in transmission.

Much of the display will feature postage due markings of the Channel Islands. It will begin with manuscript instructional markings from the mid 1800s, followed by markings on local and unpaid mail up to postal independence in 1969 including an extraordinary 3½d mark. Scarce use during the period of German occupation is shown, followed by the markings of the independent administrations, some of which were only in use a few months.

Underpaid mail from overseas destinations received a totally different series of handstamps conforming to international regulations.

After 1895 letters mailed at the printed matter rate and then returned to sender lead to a new series of handstamps.

After 1969 British stamps were not allowed catching out holidaymakers and leading to new "Stamp invalid" handstamps.

A fascinating subject!

This display features the stamps and postal stationery used by the British Post Offices along the Ottoman seaboard during the second half of the nineteenth century to provide a reliable service for British administrators and merchants.

The Constantinople Post Office was established in 1854 for the British Army in the Crimea, was closed in 1856 when the troops were evacuated, but re-opened for civilian use in July 1857. Subsequently offices were opened in Smyrna (1872), Beyrout (1873), Stamboul (1884), and Salonica (1900) Initially, unoverprinted GB stamps were used, until 1885 when inflation of the Turkish piaster caused the most frequently used values to be surcharged, and from 1905 GB stamps were also overprinted LEVANT for use on postcards and parcels.

British and other foreign offices were closed with the outbreak of World War I, and only Smyrna and Constantinople reopened briefly after the war. The display will feature mail going in and out of all the offices up to the 1914 closures, particularly illustrating the various usages of the surcharged and overprinted stamps and postal stationery of British Levant.

This presentation shows postal history of the British Post Office from the beginning of the reign of George VI to the closing of the BPO in Tangier in 1957.There are examples of the nine British Postal Offices in the French, Spanish and International zones during the period, some of which closed at various times during the two reigns.

Barrie's display falls into four parts

1. KGVI in the French Zone: Casablanca, Fez, Marrakesh, Mazagan, Rabat and Saffi
2. the Spanish Zone, Larache and Tetuan
3. Tangier in the International Zone
4. the Post Offices open during the reign of QEII.

We shall see a variety of items including ordinary mail, airmail, registered mail, registered airmail, post cards etc with a range of instructional marks including OAT and Ship Letter handstamps.

Grosvenor will be holding an auction during the week following our meeting, and Nick Kerridge of Grosvenor has willingly agreed to make specific lots available for inspection on the 21^st if you will email him beforehand; .

Philatex is also taking place at that time and thus the fleet of foot may be able to look in there and come to the meeting as well. Because of Philatex there will not be a dealer present in the meeting rooms.

Based on original research, Ray has compiled an international gold medal-winning exhibit telling the fascinating story of the invention, application and development of stamp perforation in Great Britain, and this is the basis of the display. It traces that story from the first crude attempts to separate stamps from imperforate sheets using whatever tools came to hand, to the development by Henry Archer and others of world leading new machines to roulette and perforate stamp sheets, and their successful introduction.

Many usual items, some truly unique, illustrate the tale. Highlights from the early period include Post Office documents about the interception of a privately perforated Penny Red in 1851, numerous Archer rarities including the only recorded example of a postally used Archer pamphlet and the discovery copy of the Plate 91 Archer trial; examples from the Bemrose machine trials undertaken in Derby on American stamps; and two of the four recorded "First Day" uses of the 1854 perforated stamps. .

There are examples of scarce combination covers, abnormal official perforations, the "world's biggest stamp" (probably) and an array of perforation "errors" including the famous "Cardiff Penny" from the only post 1854 sheet issued imperforate in Britain. With a topic that embraces not only British postage stamps, but also revenues, telegraphs, foreign and colonial stamps, this display has something for us all.

The British ½d Overseas Printed Paper rate lasted for over 70 years, outliving its inland counterparts by nine years. During that period the ½d rate eventually embraced printed matter, newspapers, unsealed envelopes and picture postcards.

The display looks at the types of material sent abroad bearing a halfpenny stamp or using 1/2d postal stationery, ranging from Prices Current and Shipping Lists to Book Circulars and the hazards of sending postcards at the 1/2d rate, with a smattering of items bearing additional stamps to cover registration, the use of airmail, and customs duties. As such it also reflects some of the changes in Post Office and business practice over three quarters of a century. This promises to be an entertaining afternoon!