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Council Members Entertain

11 December 2008

John Sacher	West African Military Mail	1-6
Christine A. Earle	Sydney Harbour Bridge	7-12
Christopher Harman	GB - Early Revenues	13-16
David Alford	Some aspects of Fiji	17-19
Ian D. Crane	The GB £1 stamp	20-22
Michael Fulford	Cyprus to the End of the Nineteenth Century	23-25
Alan J. Griffiths	Queensland	26-28
Christopher King	The Duchy of Slesvig	29-32
Michael Lockton	Autographed Penny Pink envelopes	33-36
John Ray	Fiji Postal Stationery	37-39
Patrick Reid	Underpaid outgoing mails of Victoria 1901-65	40-42
David Milsted	I.R.Official	43-44
Claire Scott	Death By Post	45-48
Frank Walton	Chinese Airmail	49-52

 

British and French West African Military Mail

Frame 1: 1847 Sierra Leone sailor's letter with 1d coin attached to pay the Military Rate. The captain's 2d was payable on receipt; 1884 Sierra Leone letter from a Company Sergeant Major qualifying for the military rate; 1889 Sierra Leone letter from a Regimental Sergeant Major who did not qualify for the concession rate.

Frame 2: Gold Coast - Wolsey Campaign mail of 1873/74 was sent via St Vincent, Cape Verde Islands and the Pacific Steam Navigation Company steamers from there; 1884 Gold Coast Soldier's Concession Rate cover to Belize with bisected 2d green; 1898 Gold Coast cover from Gambaga, Northern Territories administered by the military.

Frame 3: 1843 Gambia letter to Canada; Covers from Ascension, Lagos, Fernando Po, Teneriffe Canary Islands and St Vincent Cape Verde Islands.

Frame 4: 1852 wrapper from the Ministry of Marine to the Governor of Senegal and sent by British mail; 1864 military rate cover to Reunion; 1865 double military rate cover from St Louis; 1865 and 1866 covers to Algeria from St Louis; 1870 cover at 30c military rate by private ship from St Louis; 1871 military rate Ballon Monté to St Louis; 1878 cover to Alsace, now part of Germany and not qualifying for the military rate.

Frame 5: 1850 and 1851 first issue covers from France to a naval ship at Goreé, one prepaid only the internal French rate and the other also 'voie de mer'; covers from Dakar, Bakel and M'Pal.

Frame 6: Covers from Sidhiou and Thies in Senegal; A cover from Cotonou in Dahomey; A cover from Rio Nunez in French Guinea; Covers from Bafoulabe, Bamako and Kayes in French Soudan. 1886 cover from Poulo-Condore in the Mekong River, Indo-China, to Kita in French Soudan.

 

The Sydney Harbour Bridge

The 'Giant Coat Hanger', as it was affectionately known, is the world's largest steel arch bridge. In its beautiful harbour location it has become a renowned international symbol of Australia.

The Harbour Bridge was officially opened 19 March 1932.
The official opening day was a momentous occasion, drawing remarkable crowds to the city and around the harbour foreshores. At the suggestion of an officer within the Postmaster General's Department, and in collaboration with the Department of Public Works in Sydney, postal services were setup on the Bridge and housed in the South East and North East Pylons. These offices were open from 19th March - 12th April.

The design shows the bridge from the south eastern pylon, with Royal Mail Ship "Orford" in the foreground. The 5/- denomination was an extraordinary, and outrageously high value to issue. It had little to no postal purpose, it was strictly for the souvenir market. The Great Depression was coming to an end, stamps (as always) were seen as a desirable investment. Over 72,000 stamps were bought, but very few appeared postaly used; although some were used on parcels to the UK, and a few used as telegraph stamps.

Construction of the Bridge started with the "Turning of the First Sod" on 28 July 1923.
- 18,000 cubic metres of rock facing were required for the Bridge project
- 52,800 tonnes of steel were used for the arch and approach spans
- 6 million rivets were used

. Workers: Approximately 1,500 people were employed on the Bridge project each year
· Joining of the arch: 19.8. 30 the arch was joined, linking the north and south shores of Sydney Harbour
· The last stone was set in the north west pylon on 15 January 1932
· The last rivet that was driven in the field was on 21 January 1932
· The Final Cost was £10,057,170. 7s. 9d

Great Britain Revenue Stamps from 1694 to the Great Reform of 1853

A few sheets of the most visually attractive items have been chosen to illustrate the ways by which revenue was collected from the first introduction of Stamp Duty in June 1694 to the major reform in October 1853 when many common duties were reduced and their collection simplified.

Frame 13 - Early documents show the different base papers used on parchment documents. Particularly unusual is the very early document showing the use of white base paper and the apprentice's indenture using green base paper. The use of a staple and cypher label on a paper document struck with a 5/- stamp is also unusual.

Frame 14 - Very large numbers of almanacs were sold each year, and from August 1711 they were subject to a tax. Newspapers were also taxed from August 1712, largely as a form of censorship in order to close down the many broadsheets then existing that were attacking the government. The manufacture of paper was heavily controlled by the Excise Office. In 1821 large labels were introduced printed in red and black for England, blue and black for Scotland and green and black for Ireland.

Frame 15 - The turbulent eighteenth, with its succession of wars, saw many different ideas for raising tax. Shown are labels used for duty on gaming, hats, perfume and hair powder as well as patent medicines, the hire of post horses and coloured wallpaper. Notes issued by private banks were taxed from 1783 and, in 1821, the tax stamp was printed on the reverse of the note by the Congreve process. The only known proofs of the Congreve stamp are shown.

Frame 16 - With effect from 10th October 1853, many common duties could be paid using adhesive stamps. Shown are the first of these, covering receipts and drafts, with rarely seen proof material. At the same date an adhesive stamp was introduced for life policies using the same head of Queen Victoria used for the postage stamps. The proofs and essays shown are from the Perkins, Bacon archives.

Some Aspects of Fiji

This exhibit shows some of the areas of interest for collectors of Fiji material. It is far from comprehensive.

Situated in the South Pacific, the Fiji Island group occupies about 7400 square miles and is about 1700 miles north-east of Australia and 1200 miles north of New Zealand.

It consists of two large islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, and about 250 smaller ones, of which less than half are occupied.

Frame 17. In 1871, the Cakobau government established the first official postal system. This frame (left) shows the stamps used up to 1875.

Frame 18. A War Tax was established in 1915 and lasted until 1920. Items from this period are shown.

Frame 19. The Acceleration of Fiji External Mail by Air 1925-1945.

 

 

 

 

 

A One Pound stamp please

Collecting just one denomination makes life very easy in one sense - what you are after is decided for you. Given that £1 stamps tend to cost about, well, at least a pound each and sometimes more, does make it occasionally difficult on the pocket. This mini-collection started with a fortunate purchase at a Pall Mall auction over forty years ago of six 1878 colour trials for the then magnificent sum of £26. One should have stopped there. No more potentially financial rewarding purchase has ever beaten those.

£1 stamps extend across all reigns and provide nearly all types of printing; often very fine designs and a variety of colours. The February 1971 change of British currency may have been in the middle of the inflation times that have devalued the £1 but stamps with that face value still live on across today's Post Office counter. As well as reflecting a mini-history of GB stamp design, this collection also includes a few 'island' issues and some Cinderella items. All these make for variety and at the same time serve to show the viewer a few items with which familiarity has not yet bred contempt.

The illustrated hand-drawn design matches a similar example but with a £5 denomination in the British Library's Philatelic Collections. My executors have strict instructions NOT to donate 'my' £1 to the national collection, so during this display a careful eye will be kept on any RPSL Past President from that establishment viewing it with studied nonchalance.

Cyprus to the End of the Nineteenth Century.

Modern history of Cyprus begins with the Lusignan Kingdom, that ruled Cyprus from 1192 - 1489. During the last 100 years of their rule. The Republic of Venice exerted an ever increasing influence over the Lusignan administration until in 1489, Queen Caterina Cornaro, herself a Venetian, abdicated and the Republic of Venice assumed control. Under Venice, Cyprus was chiefly a military and naval base, but the Republic was not able to hold this distant territory against the military might of the Ottoman Empire then at the zenith of its power. Cyprus passed entirely under Turkish rule on 17th March 1571, thus to remain for three hundred years. In 1878 the Russians and the Turks had been at war for nearly a year and in order to help the ailing Ottoman Empire the British government decided to offer to occupy Cyprus as part of a defensive alliance with them. It was also thought, but subsequently disproved, that it would provide a vital link in the protection of the route to India.

The Cyprus convention was signed on 4th June 1878. Britain occupied Cyprus on 8th July 1878 and the first post office was opened at Larnaca on the south coast on 27th July 1878.Initially it was administered by the Foreign Office and current British stamps were used until 6th December 1880 when the transfer of Administration was made to the Colonial Office, although Cyprus did not become a Crown Colony or even a British Possession. In law it was still part of the Ottoman Empire administered by the British Government.

Queensland

Three aspects of Queensland - Postal History : Traditional : Postal Stationery

Frame 1 - Moreton Bay - the NSW area from which the new Colony of Queensland evolved - pre-stamp entires; registered mail with NSW stamps and combination mail ; early registered covers from the Colony

Frame 2 - The Bradbury Wilkinson issues from 1882 - showing the development of the design and a selection of the various issues.

Frame 3 - A small selection of post UPU issues of post cards, letter cards and pictorial cards including essays, proof and development material.

 

 

 

 

The Duchy of Slesvig 1851-67

The Duchies of Slesvig and Holsten (Schleswig and Holstein in German) were associated with the Danish Crown from the late Middle Ages until the Second Schleswig War of 1864 when they were seized by Prussia and Austria. The population of the Duchies did not exceed a million until 1864. Slesvig's population was less than 30% of that in Holstein, the economy was less mercantile than Holstein, and philatelic material is correspondingly scarcer.

Slesvig was always more Danish and Holstein more German, and neither Duchy was ever part of the Danish Kingdom, although there were enclaves within Slesvig which were part of the Danish Crown. Viscount Palmerston is reputed to have said "The Schleswig-Holstein question is so complicated, only three men in Europe have ever understood it. One was Prince Albert, who is dead. The second was a German professor who became mad. I am the third and I have forgotten all about it."

Had he been a postal historian he might have said something similar about the administration of the post in the Duchy of Slesvig. From 1864 to 1868, fourteen different administrations ran postal services in the Duchy.

A provisional Schleswig-Holstein government in Kiel issued the first stamps on "Danish" soil, in Holstein, on15th November 1850, and these were on sale until the end of March 1851. Postage stamps were introduced by Denmark in Slesvig on 1st May 1851, although they could be officially used to send mail to the Duchy from the Kingdom from 12th April 1851. The last day of use for Danish stamps in Slesvig was 31st March 1864, after which adhesive stamps for the Duchies of Schleswig, Holstein, and Schleswig- Holstein were sold.

There were 46 post offices which used numeral or mute cancellers during the Danish period, of which six were railway bureaux, three were at railway stations, and the remainder were located in towns and villages. These pages show examples of the postmarks of the offices during the Danish period, matched where possible by covers from the Schleswig-Holstein administrations. Covers from Rendsburg, a border town on the River Eider since the Carolingian Empire, illustrate the stamps of the provisional government.

Autographed Penny Pink Envelopes.

Introduction
From 1693, Members of both Houses of Parliament and Officers of State were permitted to send correspondence free provided it met certain criteria laid down under the Franking System, which included that of the signature of the sender in the bottom left-hand corner of the envelope.

The Uniform Penny Post
On 10 January 1840, the Franking System became obsolete with the introduction of the Penny Post. After protests from Members of Parliament, Rowland Hill introduced Parliamentary Envelopes on 16 January, which gave free postage provided the envelopes were posted within the Houses of Parliament and signed in the bottom left-hand corner. These envelopes were withdrawn on 6 May 1840 with the introduction of Mulready envelopes and adhesive stamps. On 10 February 1841, Penny Pink envelopes were issued and Eminent Victorians, familiar with the Franking System, continued to sign these envelopes in the bottom left-hand corner.

Display
Starting with signed Parliamentary and Mulready envelopes, this display goes on to show a selection of Penny Pink envelopes signed by the sender. The envelopes are arranged approximately in date order and in several cases matched with a "Free Front" signed by that sender. Many are signed by Archbishops and Bishops of the Church of England but also include such eminent Victorians as Charles Dickens, Rowland and Florence Nightingale. The display shows a wide range of Penny Pink envelopes, Post Office and Stamped-to-Order, from a very early usage on 19 March 1841 to those issued towards the end of Queen Victoria's reign.
The display also illustrates the development of postmarks from the black Maltese Cross through to the duplex design used from the 1860s onwards.

The Postal Stationery Envelopes and Registered Envelopes of Fiji

Registered postal stationery envelopes, printed by De La Rue, were first issued in October 1911. Although King Edward VII had died more than a year earlier his effigy was used on the envelopes because, at the time that the order was placed, the design for the new King's head die had not been approved. Initially all registered envelopes were printed in blue but, in 1927, the colour of the stamp on the G size envelopes was changed to brown. McCorquodale & Co. were awarded the printing contract in 1962. At this point the design and colours were changed, the H2 size was replaced by size H and the stamps were embossed instead of surface-printed. The last printing was made in 1992 and these envelopes are still on sale in 2008, demand for them nowadays being almost non-existent.

Postal stationery envelopes were first issued in September 1912, printed by De La Rue, the design utilising the head of KGV embossed in red. The initial supply was size "9", the paper being grey with blue interior. In later issues, between 1913 and 1931, sizes "13" and "official pouch" were introduced, together with varying qualities of paper. After 1931 no further envelopes were required until, in 1962, an order was placed with McCorquodale & Co. The new design was issued in 1963, denominated 3d. Changes in the size of envelope, and type of paper, were introduced in later printings, the last of these being made in 1977. Finally, undenominated "postage prepaid" envelopes, printed in Fiji by Kanvan Papers Limited, were issued in 1997. These were intended for local and international airmail services, the former in three sizes and the latter, designated for zones A to F, in two sizes. These are still in use in 2008.

Changes in postal rates over the years, and the adoption of decimal currency in 1969, have resulted in a multiplicity of issues, some of them only available in small quantities and accordingly hard to find, especially in used condition.

Underpaid outgoing mails of Victoria 1901-65

This exhibit is a study of the tax marks applied to underpaid mails from the Australian State of Victoria to destinations outside Australia. The study has shown that there were at least two distinct handstamps for all taxe denominations up to 50 centimes. Examples of all the values are shown, together with a tabulation of the recorded dates of usage.

This is part of an ongoing study of these underpaid markings, of Australia covering this period.

Queen Victoria & King Edward VII I.R. Official Issues 1885 to 1904

A Post Office circular of September 26th 1882 confirmed the introduction of I.R. Official overprinted issues for "denoting the postage and registration fees on letters transmitted by certain Officers of Inland Revenue stationed outside the metropolis and addressed to places also beyond that area". October 1st 1882 was the first authorised date of use. Head Office mail was sent free of charge but it became practice for outlying offices to send their mail to Somerset House for onward delivery and in May 1883 I.R. Official stamps were issued for use in London. The gross value of I.R. Official stamps in use in 1883 was £3,668 growing to £55,869 in 1896. The Inland Revenue mail shows various forms of taxation relating to Male Servants, Dogs, Carriages & Motor Vehicles. Rare items include the KEVII 2 ½d pair on cover to Germany.

Death By Post

In the days before telephones, faxes and E-mails, when letters often arrived on the day they were posted, the mails were the medium through which news of a death was conveyed to the recipient. This message could also be accompanied by the use of special mourning stationery involving black borders, black sealing wax and black wafers. The death of a monarch or of an immediate member of the Royal Family would be marked also with a period of Court mourning during which envelopes from Government Departments and occasionally telegrams would be utilised with a printed black border and often a black crest embossed on the rear flap.

As well as the external manifestations of death, a letter could inform the recipient of the nature of the death and of the funeral arrangements, apart from expressing sympathy. However the posts could be involved also in the transmission of death and for many centuries it was believed that the air contained in letters, as well as the materials themselves, were capable of carrying diseases such as cholera and plague, which resulted in the development of forms of disinfection. Neither was the threat of death always left entirely to nature. Then, as now, the blackmailer used the post as an anonymous way of conveying what could be a fatal message. A letter bomb too has an immediate relationship to the title but raises obvious difficulties in showing examples in mint or used form.

The display ends with the nearest equivalent - a souvenir of the New Zealand Maori Wars sent by Book Post, with the cartridges and powder now removed to render it harmless to the viewer.

 

 

Chinese Airmail

The development of the airmail services of China has a similar story to most large countries across the world. However, this display features two facets that were not seen by many other regions: wartime route disruption and post-war inflation. The cover illustrated demonstrates these points well. With the Pacific routes being closed due to the war, a new 'Hump' route was pioneered which took mail over the Himalayas to Calcutta; this route prevailed after the war. The hyperinflation between 1946 and 1948 necessitated new postal tariffs at an alarming frequency. Some rates were only in place for a few days, giving plenty of challenges for any postal historian wishing to find an example of each rate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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