Some postcard pictures of Ferndown and West Moors from bygone days

 

Report

EARLY CLASSICS & POSTAL HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
BRYAN WOOD.

This was Bryan's fifth visit to the club and as he said himself he hoped that he had saved the best until last. Having started collecting in 1932 he decided in 1948 to concentrate on pre 1875 issues. Starting with Canada he opened with the Perkins Bacon design stamps of all the provinces but unfortunately did not have the 12 pence black of the Colony of Canada. A cover of Wells Fargo to San Francisco during the gold rush added a little postal history to this frame.

Continuing through the alphabet all the islands of the Caribbean were covered including a cover from Antigua to Lloyds Coffee House, the forerunner of Lloyds Insurance. An interesting cover from St. Vincent to St. Mawes in Cornwall itemised products as well as slaves. Inter island letters of Trinidad and early Turks and Caicos overprints completed the tour of the Caribbean before we moved on to Ceylon and the proof copies of the first issue. The small island of Heligoland was illustrated by a complete pane of the Hamburg reprints.

Asia was represented by an 1825 letter from the Chamber of Commerce in Canton and the original set of stamps of Hong Kong including the high fiscal values.

The second half of the display began with the Ionian Islands and pre-stamp mail from Mauritius with various examples of the Postage Paid printings. The Challon heads of New Zealand made an impressive display. A ship letter from the Cape of Good Hope was from a real live Captain Hornblower. The complete set of the locally produced woodblocks of South Africa were of particular interest as was the stamps issued by Baden Powell in Mafeking which bore his own image.

When it came to Australia, Bryan explained the difference between a ship letter and an East India Company letter. And there were examples of both these covers. All the territories of Australia were included and the proof copies of the black swan of Western Australia were a fitting end to a sumptuous display.

Keith Elliot gave a vote of thanks recalling past visits and his exclamation of ‘What a display' just about summed up the evening.

14th July 2010

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We welcome anyone to come and join us on the second and fourth Monday of the month at the ‘Day Centre' (opposite Tesco). Meetings start at 7.30pm for 7.45pm:

Terry Kirkman. 01202 572711.
John Garrett. 01202 871624.