Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Wouldn't it be interesting to take some of those items which caught my attention, mount it on a blank page, and proceed to learn everything I could about the stamp's design, it's designer and method of production, the town where cancelled, what was happening in that town and country at that time etc. etc. and include all this in a one page write uo (maybe even from and back of the page. An album full of these pages would make for a most interesting read on some dark and stormy night even for a non-collector. I'm gonna do it!
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Sorry for the several typos... thinking faster than I can type 
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10:16:46am
That sounds like a plan.
In essence that is what many collectors do when they create a display based on some interesting cover or issue. Often what you learn about one item leads to connections with other material and then one day a gold or vermeil medal at the nearest stamp show.
So, let me congratulate you now, in advance, for the excellent and interesting exhibit of an otherwise ignored part of postal history. I bet that it will have taken a lot of work to research the obscure details and gather related materials.
Bravissimo !
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Quote:
"Often what you learn about one item leads to connections with other material"
Thanks cdj1122... never really thought about it that way. It would be interesting... a frame of 16 apparently unrelated items but ultimately linked to a common thread through some uncovered fact in doing background research on each item. But I'm afraid my only medal was a bronze medal a number of years ago for an exhibit of the stamps of Montenegro from their first issue through the First World War! I decided then that I would rather please myself with my album pages rather than philatelic judges with their often arcane ideas about what my collection should be!
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It's a good idea! But I think you will have to put up with several dead ends before you come up with something you can really run with.
Cover: addressee... is the name googlable? Can you get any kind of biography?; Address... is the house still there, what does it look like, and if not, what is there now? (Google Earth is good for this.)
Stamp: basic information from your catalogue will be easy, but how much can you find out about the designer, what else did s/he design, etc.? (The same for engravers, if it is an intaglio stamp.)
Subject of the stamp: why was this subject chosen? If a person, follow up biography (usually easy except in the strangest cases); if an event or occasion, discover more about it (that bit is often quite difficult in my experience).
I once did a school project based on half a dozen wartime covers I had picked up, addressed to people of the same family at different addresses at different periods during the war. Trying to work out who was who and why they might have been moving about the country was a challenge for the children, and I hope instructive about what civilians were doing in wartime.
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08:47:09pm
There was a fellow who taught in a school in Connecticut and was the sponsor of a Stamp / History club. He would lay out a group of similar covers from the late 1800s and then assign teams of his students to different parts of the game.
One team would transcribe the enclosed letters when there were letters included, being sure to check out any unusual word usage. Another team would try to find out what they could about the writers or the addressees, including consulting library archives. They'd write letters to any church where there was mention of a ceremony having been held to check out church records, visit cemeteries and consult any source for added information.
Then he would write an article for the "Global Stamp " newspaper following the children's progress. It was usually very interesting and somewhat amazing what the kids would dig up about the family's history.
Perhaps someone can recall the teacher's name and the name of the school.
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cdj1122,
Yes, I fondly recall the great Global Stamp News and that specific feature... very interesting. GSN was a great read as well, geared much more toward the general collector of average means with interesting stories about stamps that many could actually afford.
I'm going to try a few album pages centered around just a single stamp with a postmark good postmark... city, and date easily determined, and see where it leads. With literally boxes of unsorted older stamps (1st half of 20th century or older) this could be a lifetime project costing me time, paper and ink plus a few binders... not bad for somebody contemplating retirement within the next 6 months! Internet access, lots of history books, and several sets of old encyclopedias... i should be set!
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"I decided then that I would rather please myself with my album pages rather than philatelic judges with their often arcane ideas about what my collection should be!"
I can understand that the rules would stop you from winning, but would the rules stop you from exhibiting?
There is a great value for all of us in seeing what others collect, and how they collect.
There ought to be a great pleasure in making your own statement, n'est ce pas?
Never mind the subversive value of marking-up your own exhibit (using those 1x1" fluorescent Post-It-type notes) to point out your own non-compliance ...
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
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Whenever I find something special, as the original poster mentioned, I put it aside as something I want to keep. It doesn't matter if it fits into my collection or anything. I have no rules. I do have a binder called "My Cool Stuff" and it's full of neat things I like. And that's the album I first show non-collectors. Do I get kicked out for not complying with collecting norms? 
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" It's a good idea! But I think you will have to put up with several dead ends before you come up with something you can really run with. good idea! But I think you will have to put up with several dead ends before you come up with something you can really run with."
Ian,
I have to agree with you, but when you find a few facts that lead from a cover to a whole historical situation, particularly when it all happened back in the 1800's, and you can tease out different side stories, isn't that just the most fun.
Regards ... Tim
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"I can understand that the rules would stop you from winning, but would the rules stop you from exhibiting?"
Probably neither, so long as you enter it under Social Philately. It is difficult to be sure without a more concrete example, but most of what you suggest should be acceptable under Social Philately. And you certainly wouldn't be disqualified because no-one, especially the judges, are THAT confident of what the Social Philately rules actually are!
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Hi pathman;
Czechoslovakia issued many stamps honoring stamp engravers. They are mostly oblong, about
the height of a definitive, and 3-4 times the length of a definitive. They might be a good place
to start too. I think some of their stamps have the engravers name hidden in the design.
I think Guthrum probably knows tons more about them than do I. I find Czechoslovakian stamps
very attractive because of the engraved/litho process that uses engraving for strong colors and
litho for the softer shades. Very beautiful. Almost like combining Acrylics and Watercolors.
Just sortin'....
TuskenRaider
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30+ year member APS; member of ATA, ISWSC, ATA, PSS, MSS, PMCC, FDCS
07 Oct 2015
10:03:57am
Like many (probably most) of you, I have boxes of loose stamps, stamps on pieces of envelope, and miscellaneous covers just sitting around waiting on something to happen to them... which in most cases won't because life is just too short... they'll end up as part of my estate and who knows whall will happen to them. I occasionally pick through them, stopping to admire some old beautiful engraved design or some weird modern design, admiring a nice SON cancel, etc. But it's just one stamp and you can't start a special;ized collection of everything. As I was having some difficulty in falling to sleep last night I got an idea which I'm sure bis not original on my part.
Wouldn't it be interesting to take some of those items which caught my attention, mount it on a blank page, and proceed to learn everything I could about the stamp's design, it's designer and method of production, the town where cancelled, what was happening in that town and country at that time etc. etc. and include all this in a one page write uo (maybe even from and back of the page. An album full of these pages would make for a most interesting read on some dark and stormy night even for a non-collector. I'm gonna do it!
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30+ year member APS; member of ATA, ISWSC, ATA, PSS, MSS, PMCC, FDCS
07 Oct 2015
10:06:49am
re: Individual stamps with postmarks or covers as billboards of their times... a new collection idea
Sorry for the several typos... thinking faster than I can type
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
07 Oct 2015
10:16:46am
re: Individual stamps with postmarks or covers as billboards of their times... a new collection idea
That sounds like a plan.
In essence that is what many collectors do when they create a display based on some interesting cover or issue. Often what you learn about one item leads to connections with other material and then one day a gold or vermeil medal at the nearest stamp show.
So, let me congratulate you now, in advance, for the excellent and interesting exhibit of an otherwise ignored part of postal history. I bet that it will have taken a lot of work to research the obscure details and gather related materials.
Bravissimo !
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30+ year member APS; member of ATA, ISWSC, ATA, PSS, MSS, PMCC, FDCS
07 Oct 2015
10:55:44am
re: Individual stamps with postmarks or covers as billboards of their times... a new collection idea
Quote:
"Often what you learn about one item leads to connections with other material"
Thanks cdj1122... never really thought about it that way. It would be interesting... a frame of 16 apparently unrelated items but ultimately linked to a common thread through some uncovered fact in doing background research on each item. But I'm afraid my only medal was a bronze medal a number of years ago for an exhibit of the stamps of Montenegro from their first issue through the First World War! I decided then that I would rather please myself with my album pages rather than philatelic judges with their often arcane ideas about what my collection should be!
Login to Like
this post
re: Individual stamps with postmarks or covers as billboards of their times... a new collection idea
It's a good idea! But I think you will have to put up with several dead ends before you come up with something you can really run with.
Cover: addressee... is the name googlable? Can you get any kind of biography?; Address... is the house still there, what does it look like, and if not, what is there now? (Google Earth is good for this.)
Stamp: basic information from your catalogue will be easy, but how much can you find out about the designer, what else did s/he design, etc.? (The same for engravers, if it is an intaglio stamp.)
Subject of the stamp: why was this subject chosen? If a person, follow up biography (usually easy except in the strangest cases); if an event or occasion, discover more about it (that bit is often quite difficult in my experience).
I once did a school project based on half a dozen wartime covers I had picked up, addressed to people of the same family at different addresses at different periods during the war. Trying to work out who was who and why they might have been moving about the country was a challenge for the children, and I hope instructive about what civilians were doing in wartime.
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
07 Oct 2015
08:47:09pm
re: Individual stamps with postmarks or covers as billboards of their times... a new collection idea
There was a fellow who taught in a school in Connecticut and was the sponsor of a Stamp / History club. He would lay out a group of similar covers from the late 1800s and then assign teams of his students to different parts of the game.
One team would transcribe the enclosed letters when there were letters included, being sure to check out any unusual word usage. Another team would try to find out what they could about the writers or the addressees, including consulting library archives. They'd write letters to any church where there was mention of a ceremony having been held to check out church records, visit cemeteries and consult any source for added information.
Then he would write an article for the "Global Stamp " newspaper following the children's progress. It was usually very interesting and somewhat amazing what the kids would dig up about the family's history.
Perhaps someone can recall the teacher's name and the name of the school.
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30+ year member APS; member of ATA, ISWSC, ATA, PSS, MSS, PMCC, FDCS
08 Oct 2015
09:58:13am
re: Individual stamps with postmarks or covers as billboards of their times... a new collection idea
cdj1122,
Yes, I fondly recall the great Global Stamp News and that specific feature... very interesting. GSN was a great read as well, geared much more toward the general collector of average means with interesting stories about stamps that many could actually afford.
I'm going to try a few album pages centered around just a single stamp with a postmark good postmark... city, and date easily determined, and see where it leads. With literally boxes of unsorted older stamps (1st half of 20th century or older) this could be a lifetime project costing me time, paper and ink plus a few binders... not bad for somebody contemplating retirement within the next 6 months! Internet access, lots of history books, and several sets of old encyclopedias... i should be set!
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this post
re: Individual stamps with postmarks or covers as billboards of their times... a new collection idea
"I decided then that I would rather please myself with my album pages rather than philatelic judges with their often arcane ideas about what my collection should be!"
I can understand that the rules would stop you from winning, but would the rules stop you from exhibiting?
There is a great value for all of us in seeing what others collect, and how they collect.
There ought to be a great pleasure in making your own statement, n'est ce pas?
Never mind the subversive value of marking-up your own exhibit (using those 1x1" fluorescent Post-It-type notes) to point out your own non-compliance ...
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
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this post
re: Individual stamps with postmarks or covers as billboards of their times... a new collection idea
Whenever I find something special, as the original poster mentioned, I put it aside as something I want to keep. It doesn't matter if it fits into my collection or anything. I have no rules. I do have a binder called "My Cool Stuff" and it's full of neat things I like. And that's the album I first show non-collectors. Do I get kicked out for not complying with collecting norms?
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this post
re: Individual stamps with postmarks or covers as billboards of their times... a new collection idea
" It's a good idea! But I think you will have to put up with several dead ends before you come up with something you can really run with. good idea! But I think you will have to put up with several dead ends before you come up with something you can really run with."
Ian,
I have to agree with you, but when you find a few facts that lead from a cover to a whole historical situation, particularly when it all happened back in the 1800's, and you can tease out different side stories, isn't that just the most fun.
Regards ... Tim
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12:34:55am
re: Individual stamps with postmarks or covers as billboards of their times... a new collection idea
"I can understand that the rules would stop you from winning, but would the rules stop you from exhibiting?"
Probably neither, so long as you enter it under Social Philately. It is difficult to be sure without a more concrete example, but most of what you suggest should be acceptable under Social Philately. And you certainly wouldn't be disqualified because no-one, especially the judges, are THAT confident of what the Social Philately rules actually are!
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this post
re: Individual stamps with postmarks or covers as billboards of their times... a new collection idea
Hi pathman;
Czechoslovakia issued many stamps honoring stamp engravers. They are mostly oblong, about
the height of a definitive, and 3-4 times the length of a definitive. They might be a good place
to start too. I think some of their stamps have the engravers name hidden in the design.
I think Guthrum probably knows tons more about them than do I. I find Czechoslovakian stamps
very attractive because of the engraved/litho process that uses engraving for strong colors and
litho for the softer shades. Very beautiful. Almost like combining Acrylics and Watercolors.
Just sortin'....
TuskenRaider
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