Report of Meeting September 10 2006 Recent acquisitions or queries

As Peter Andrews, our new Chairman, was unavoidably delayed, John Sears, the President opened the meeting by welcoming a total of 19 members, and in particular David Sedgwick, attending his first meeting, and overseas visitors Vahe Varjabedian and Herb Cowley (guest). The good attendance pre-empted any discussion on whether future autumn meetings should be held at Stampex. The President noted the anniversary of the sad death of Robin Bertram and announced that his collection would come under the hammer at Grosvenor in The Strand on December 9: all members will be provided with a catalogue of the sale. He also paid tribute to the sterling work carried out by Richard Wheatley in organising the very successful joint meeting with the Sudan Study Group in August, and there was discussion of further provincial meetings, either in Bradford or Birmingham. More research will be carried out. Under the guidance of the Chairman, the programme for 2007 was decided, as follows: January 13 Victory Services Club Cyril Defriez, Delta area Postmarks March 3 at Stampex All Members - Ten Sheets May 5 Victory Services Club All Members - AGM and Bourse July 14 Victory Services Club Dennis Clarke, Airgraphs, and David Sedgwick, British Forces September 22 at Stampex All Members - Acquisitions and Queries November 17 Victory Services Club Tony Schmidt and Mike Murphy - Rural Postal Service The Secretary announced that, according to a poll of members, the Macarthur Award for the best QC article had been won for the second successive year by Anatole Ott, of Sweden, for his remarkable work on collating and explaining the workings of the Overseas Parcel Card system. The meeting congratulated Anatole warmly, and wished him all success in overcoming his latest illness. A further six membership applications were submitted, all of which were accepted, taking membership back over the 200 mark, and it was noted that all of the approaches came via the website - two from UK, and one each from Egypt, Australia, USA and Switzerland. Member No 489 reported that he is well advanced with his catalogue of Egyptian postcards, which will be published in Alexandria, and generously offered the Circle the facility of a full-page advertisement at no cost. For the meeting proper, a lively affair on the topic of Acquisitions and Queries, there were probably more of the latter than the former, providing a good deal of animated discussion, and much benefit was drawn from the presence of two native Arabic speakers in Mostafa El-Dars and Vahe Varjabedian. A brief listing of topics covered included: Peter Andrews and John Davis (purely by coincidence), two aspects of the Sonnini correspondence - documents and letters respectively; Brian Sedgley, classic-period postmarks; Mike Bramwell, passports and fiscal stamps; member No 266, new discoveries in the Registration labels of the French Offices; John Sears, a mysterious Air Mail card from Port Tewfick to Stockholm (a QC article will follow); Alan Jeyes, the Helio Vaugirard tamp reproductions detailed by Vincent Centonze in QC 218; and Mike Murphy, the Postage Paid CDS markings of Alexandria and Cairo (again one for the QC). The meeting closed with the hope that next year's autumn Stampex will provide another good turnout and another lively and wide-ranging afternoon of varied topics.