We had a rich and varied selection of displays in our December ZOOM meeting, all of which will soon be available to view on our Facebook page.
Michael Waugh began with 6sheets on Mailroutes from Thailand to Europe & the USA which were affected by the outbreak of war with Germany and then Japan 1939-41. That was followed by Mark Bailey- Correspondence of George Patrick Campbell (1847-1903)- a resident of Jersey, and well known early dealer in Stamps & Postal Stationery. And Mike Kentzer showed some splendid recent rare acquisitions to his Freefront collection. We then stopped for the competition, which this year had been set by last years winner John Scott. 25 questions with 4 multiple choice options. Mark, our webmaster collated the answers and this years winner was our President, Clive Jones with 17 out of the 25 correct.
Marc Oxley then showed a few rare examples from a large collection of freefronts which he had recently acquired. They were put together in the 1830’s and contained a number of rare pieces as well as a previously unrecorded and unique 3d post hand stamp from Fritton near Richmond, London. Peter Webb showed some recent acquisitions, including rare items of mail sent from a requisitioned East African paddle steamer and John Scott ‘s display was a reposte to a recent erroneous Antique Roadshow valuation of paper from the 1850’s which was misattributed to the early 1840’s by the ARS expert . Claire Scott then gave a display of Brunei covers from the 1922 Malaya Borneo exhibition which appeared to show inconsistencies in the accuracy of the date stamps used . Finally Julian H Jones showed a cover with a Liverpool accountancy mark on a Transatlantic cover from the 1850’s which he had been waiting to buy for a considerable time. Sadly due to the length of this years competition there was not enough time to see Daphne Macmillan’s display which focused on Queen Marys family in the 1880’s, but there will be plenty of time at a future meeting to give it the time it deserves.