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| The Muted Celebration |
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At Earls Court, London from May 22 to 28, 2000, there will be held once again the London International Stamp Exhibition, this time called The Stamp Show 2000, or TSS2000 in short. These 'once a decade' exhibitions were started in 1940, and repeated every ten years since then, always getting bigger (and better?). The 1940 event was to be a major exhibition, but of course was dampened by the fact that we were at war. Ironically, exhibitions were held throughout mainland Europe, and the most held during the year were those in Czechoslovakia and Hungary. One may ask why? The reasons given include that meetings of groups of people were illegal, according to the Nazi regimes, but people were permitted to attend exhibitions. Accordingly, a large number of exhibitions were organised and probably were very well attended. Some of the exhibitions were even held in restaurants, as we shall see later!
Similar to many exhibitions, souvenirs were produced, postcards, postmarks and Cinderella, partly to finance the exhibitions, but also to be collected. For Hungary the numbers to be collected were significant - three stamp exhibitions in Budapest, three publicity exhibitions plus a Travelling Exhibition organised by the Young Philatelists' Association, as well as advertising material. Much of the details of the souvenirs produced, more than 250, have been compiled by the International Stamp Centenary Association who published a book Stamp Centenary 1840 - 1940 in 1982. We will be illustrating the majority of the Cinderellas that were produced. |
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| Schooldays |
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| Fig 1: Blue-grey miniature sheet |
The first exhibition was held from February 2 to 4, 1940 in Eötvös Józaef Gymnasium, Budapest. The exhibition was organised by the School Stamp Collectors' Club. A miniature sheet was issued, printed in black on blue paper (fig 1) which depicts the coat of arms of the School, and the 'seal' of the Club. In addition, three vignettes, in red, yellow, and green, all with the same design, the coat of arms of the School. Figure 2 illustrates the three
stamps used on cover with the special cancellation (note: the '000 Filler' metermark indicates that the cover was philatelically cancelled and did not go through the post);
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| Fig 2: Cover showing three vignettes |
the cover was reused in 1965 for the 125th Anniversary of the Gymnasium. A constant variety can be seen on the green vignette - a white flaw through 'the word 'BUDAPEST', stated to be positioned in the right lower corner of the sheet. |
| IX FILPROK |
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Fig 3: Pink and black
embossed vignette |
The Hungarian Association of Stamp Collectors held a publicity exhibition called IX FILPROK in Budapest from March 24 to April 7. This exhibition was the main one to celebrate the Centenary of the Penny Black; it should be noted that celebrations were about the Penny Black and not on the Introduction of Uniform Penny Postage, the real reason for the Penny Black. In 1890, the important celebration in the UK and in Austria was the Uniform Penny Postage. An embossed vignette was issued for this second exhibition. The vignette can be found black on pink paper (as figure 3), black on blue paper, red on white paper, red-brown on blue paper, deep blue on yellow paper, yellow-orange on silver foil, red orange on silver foil, red on silver foil, green on silver foil, and blue on gold foil. |
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