A Review by Ernst M. Cohen
Catalogue de l'Exposition des 100 Timbres et Documents Philatéliques parmi les plus rares du monde (Catalogue of the Exhibition of 100 Stamps and Philatelic Documents Among the Rarest of the World), Anon., Monaco 2000, 184 pp., 8½ x 12", all color ills. (with English and French commentaries), hardbound, gold imprinted green velvet cover, French Francs FF250 + FF70 postage and handling, (Visa, Master, Am. Express or Eurocard), from Club de Monte-Carlo, c/o Musée des Timbres et des Monnaies, 11 Terrasses de Fontvieille, 98000 MONACO.
For the third time, Monaco has hosted an exhibition of invited philatelic rarities in its Museum of Stamps and Coins - "Museum of Wonders," according to a news release. The show, at the start of December 2000, occasioned the release of a third catalogue featuring singular exhibits in color, with owners' French explanations underneath and a section of English descriptions in back. Whereas the second show featured only covers and documents, the third one reverted to a mixture of stamps (including proofs and essays) and covers.
After some introductory text, the order of presentation is one item each belonging to the Prince of Monaco and Queen Elizabeth II; to sixteen organizations, mostly postal museums, in alphabetic order of their countries' names in French (Vatican counts as a stamp-issuing entity), with the United Nations and the Olympic Museum, both in Switzerland, bringing up the rear; followed by material belonging to 96 members of the Club of Monaco in alphabetic order of last names.
In a quick survey, which makes no claim to precision, I counted just over 90 ordinary members' exhibits at each of the three shows, with about 30 names differing between the 1997 and 1999 catalogues. Thus, with the number of ordinary members limited to 100, the turnover was considerable, at least at the beginning of the club's existence. That should be good news for those on a waiting list for admission.
The extraordinary material, from all over the globe, as usual, ranges from old newspapers through a post-office notice to propaganda matter and old as well as modem philatelic souvenirs, of which one or at most a few are known. I have arbitrarily picked two of them, both about postal history, that caught my interest.
The first of these is a cover from Arlon, Belgium, to besieged Paris during the 1870/71 Franco-German War. It carries a common 30-centimes Belgian stamp and an Arlon cds of 30 December 1870. The next day it was on a train to Erquelines and, somewhere on its way, it acquired a French small, framed PD, showing postage was paid to destination. The address is Monsieur Klipffel, examiner for admission to the school of St. Cyr, HôteI Corneille, Paris, Par Moulins Allier. Along the top and upper left side of the cover are five 20-centimes stamps of France, all canceled with the French numeral cancel 2565 in the usual rhombus. That last line of the address and the 1-franc French postage show that the letter was intended for the first underwater mail route, i.e., for one of the hollow zinc balls, stuffed with letters at Moulins-sur-Allier and thrown into the Seine upstream of Paris. None ever got to Paris during the war. But how to account for the franking and its cancel? The writer must have gotten the French stamps somehow, perhaps by picking them up in France. They were untouched by the Belgians, but the numeral 2565 was used at Moulins, of course!
One of the interesting facts about the Moulins mail is that the Government Delegation specified the postage simply as being '1 franc,' forgetting that announcement of this mail would be made abroad as well, and how foreigners might pay that postage from abroad. One Swiss writer simply used a Swiss 1-franc stamp, which was accepted. The Monaco cover indicates that the Belgians had a method of getting French stamps. Mail from Britain is known to have been sent via U.S. and French diplomatic means to consulates in France where it was franked. I owned one cover sent under cover to people in Switzerland who forwarded it, again under cover, to people in France who franked it. Thus, despite the oversight in the announcement by the French post office, foreigners found ways and means of using the world's first subfluvial mail.
The second cover, also small, is addressed to Colonel Paravicini(?) at St. Elisabeth's, Here; postmarked with a red cds Basel/Vor-Mittag/19 FEVR 52 (mixed German and French!); and franked with two Basel 'doves.' The exhibitor was apparently told that St. Elisabeth's was a town near another town called 'Here.' Actually, St. E.'s was some sort of institution at Basel, perhaps a hospital or a home for old soldiers.
But the peculiarity that struck me was why a single-weight, local letter should be franked with two Basel stamps (one of which is badly cut into), said by the exhibitor to be of two different printings. Inquiries in Switzerland revealed that the postal history of these Swiss locals is still in the process of being discovered. Double postage may, indeed, have existed for a single weight, local letter, though this is not yet certain for Basel. It might, e.g., have paid for the difference between delivery on foot or by a mounted postman. The two printings of the Basel 'dove' are said to be distinguishable by their light and dark colors, but for that one would have to see the original and compare the stamps with known ones from each printing.
Paper, printing, and binding are excellent as usual. Minor errors in the text appear to be quite few, such as wrong month in French (p. 45) and wrong year in English (p. 142) for the very same item, evidently printer's errors and easily corrected.
The catalogue is highly recommended to everyone fascinated with exceptional philately from all over. Like the illustrations in its predecessors, the new ones are of great interest and worth studying (apart from recurring hyperbole), not just to admire items but also to follow up on whatever questions certain pieces may raise in the viewer's mind. The more unusual the cover - and it is usually covers that raise questions - the more likely it is to lead the inquisitive student into uncharted territory that few cataloguers and collectors ever entered. Charting such trackless wastelands of philately can be even more fun than chasing after rarities.
See also Monaco 1999 Exhibition Catalogue
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