Thematica - John Hayward reports on Thematica.

Thematica was held over the last weekend of June 2008 at the usual venue, the Carisbrooke Hall, London , with Stuart Henderson, Chairman of the Friends of Thematica cutting the tape to open the event on Saturday.   The organisation on the dealers’ side was by Thematic Exhibitions and the Friends of Thematica organised the exhibits and displays.   These included the BTA Cup, Fosbery Trophy, Inter-Federation Competition and Barclays Cups Competition for Young Collectors housed in the El Alamein Room.   Jeffery Matthews MBE, stamp designer, once again produced a fine souvenir sheet to mark the event.

  It was noticeable that the number of entries in the first three competitions was down on previous years although the numbers in the children’s competition was about the same.   Thematic Society tables were not so many, with only the Scouts & Guides Stamp Club, Ship Stamp Society, Guild of St Gabriel, London & Provincial Stamp Club, National Philatelic Society and the BTA present.   Attendance looked to be the same as in previous years with perhaps more on Sunday than before.   A good number of the public took the opportunity to view the exhibits. 

  The awards presentations took place on Sunday apart from the BTA Cup.   Jeffery Matthews presented the awards in the adult classes and Eric Friedman of Rushstamps Ltd presented the junior awards.   Without Rushstamps’ support the junior competitions could not be staged.   Before the commencement of the BTA’s Annual General Meeting, Brian Sole, fulfilling his last duty as President, presented the Franceska Rapkin Memorial Bowl to Ian Paton for the best article in Themescene 2007, The Peculiar Institution, Ian winning the Bowl for the second time.   During the Annual General Meeting Brian Sole was made an honorary life member of the BTA, the fifth member so honoured, with Margaret Morris giving the citation and presenting the diploma.   (Full details of the Annual General Meeting are reported separately in this issue).    After the Annual General Meeting Barry Stagg  presented his winning display from 2007 (see below).

  There were five 32 page entries entered for the BTA Cup judged to national thematic class rules with John Leathes’ “QARL” the winner with a large silver-gilt medal.  The BTA Cup was presented to him by the President during the Thematic Workshop on 26^th July.   I was intrigued like everyone else with the title “QARL” until it was explained as “Quick All Round Look” – obvious really as the exhibit was about submarines.  It was the deserved winner showing considerable improvement from last year.   It displayed a fine range of material, countries and period of time.  I particularly liked the WW I items and the submarine mail.    Whale Worlds from Peter Miller showed a very popular theme and was nicely presented.   However, to my mind it needed more different philatelic material to improve.   I found Reading Biscuit by Malcolm Hawkins somewhat confusing.   Expecting to see Huntley & Palmers strongly displayed I found the exhibit was all about the Reading spoon cancel (biscuit shaped) of the 19^th Century, more suitable to a postal history or even social philately exhibit.   It was not well presented, but did contain some excellent GB Queen Victoria embossed stamps on covers.   Alan Randall-Jones exhibited Fire Protection & Prevention which showed a good range of material including handstamps.   Travels of Pope Paul VI was Reginald Lyon’s first entry for the BTA Cup.   There seemed to be plenty of material available for this theme from countries other than Vatican City , but there were too many specially produced covers for my liking where special handstamps need only have been shown.  I do hope Reginald exhibits again next year as his entry is capable of improvement.  

  There were also five entries of 16 pages for the John Fosbery Trophy which is a totally open thematic class with no formal rules judged by the public attending Thematica.   I was quite impressed by three of the entries which told very good stories and had some good material.   These entries alone fully lived up to the late John Fosbery’s expectations when he donated the Trophy 20 or so years ago as the event’s founder.  The winner was David Alford with Let me introduce myself; my name is Cocos.   This is the story of the Cocos coconut, the sea journey it takes and its various uses.   It borrows its title from a well known international exhibit from London 1990 and subsequently, but the story is nicely done nonetheless.   I thought there were some very good stamps included.   My Family by Dr Bill Sammons was a good original idea to present family history philatelically.   So we had Sudan to the present day where various members of the family were involved and the philatelic material to compliment it.  Menace of the Mantle by Peter Miller conveyed a simple but very serious message about our world’s fragility – vulcanology and its terrifying effects.   Peter Duck’s Aftermath of War: Boy Scouts in Displaced Camps had some lovely material, some of which I suspect is very rare.   Welcome to Crufts by Gary Green showed dogs, dogs and more dogs, all very pretty, but it did not get my vote.

  There were seven entries of 16 pages in the Inter-Federation competition judged to national thematic class rules for the Friends of Thematica Healey & Wise Salver.   Four entries were awarded silver-gilt medals amongst which was the winner, Gary Green (Wessex Federation) with Bee Keeping & the Life of the Honey Bee.   He exhibited a lovely range of material interwoven nicely throughout the pages though I was not sure of his use of yellow pages.   100 Years of the Teddy Bear from Pam Hiscock was a charmingly presented exhibit.  It properly starts with Theodore Roosevelt and demonstrated what a popular theme this would be to take up.   Peter Denly’s Man’s Marine Adventure is not new to us as it is a cut down version of his good national exhibit.   It contains some fine material including a USA 1869 plate proof and a lovely touch with the St. Kitts design error of a telescope being used by Colombus several years before its invention!   Waterbirds by Linda Page was too full of stamps for my mind and needed other material.   However, it kept all the birds nicely in their categories.   Michael Thompson exhibited History of Archery – The Sport for All.   Shades of Christine Earle here I think.   It justified its silver-gilt medal and I loved the “Target” handstamp from the USA .   Country in Crisis by Sheila Foster exhibited threats to the countryside from land, water, air and energy.   I thought this was a very good idea and nicely put together for a big subject.   Giraffes by Peter Kirk looked too much like pages from an album, but some nice older items from Northern & Southern Rhodesia were included.   It could do with different philatelic items, eg postal stationery, where there is plenty from South Africa .

  Barry Stagg won the BTA Cup in 2007 with The History, Development and Uses of Parachutes and therefore his lot was to give a display to BTA members after their 2008 Annual General Meeting.   What a delightful presentation he made.   Parachuting is his hobby, hence his collection, but he is clearly a raconteur and he provided us with plenty of parachuting anecdotes during his display.   One such story saw him landing on a football pitch whilst a game was in progress.   Of course the display started with Leonardo da Vinci and his famous drawing of a parachute, then on to the 19^th Century with the first recorded successful descent jumping from a tall tower – jumping from balloons was apparently unsuccessful.   There was some material from WW I when parachuting really got under way particularly with the Americans.   In the 1920s Billy Mitchell an American pilot led the way followed in the 1930s by a Romanian lady who became the mother of parachuting.   Examples of parachute training were shown and then plenty of material as one would expect from WW II.   The invasions of Norway , Belgium and Crete were included.   On to the D Day landings which were illustrated by various issues.   Agents dropped by parachute behind enemy lines were not forgotten.   The Israel stamps of the late 1940s depicting parachutists were interesting.   They were authorised for issue locally.   Barry had acquired them relatively cheaply from auction and had not realised until last year what they were and their worth.   The Judges had consulted an Israel catalogue in the RPSL library and noted they were authentic and more keenly noted two or three noughts after the values in the catalogue!   He showed examples of people coming out of planes without parachutes and surviving and others not so lucky like the Russian cosmonaut, Kamarov.   There were examples of members of the Caterpillar Club, whose lives were saved by parachutes.   These included Lindbergh and President Bush senior.   There were also examples of space ship descents to Earth and other planets assisted by parachutes.   One stamp contained a design error of 4 parachutes when there had in fact only been three.   In recent years there has been much use of parachutes for leisure and sporting purposes and Barry showed us examples of these including freefall, paraskiing, paragliding and hitting the plate on the ground which demands great accuracy.   Parachutes are also used for emergencies such as fire fighting and dropping supplies, so we had examples of these too.   This was a fine display and Richard Wheeler, our new Chairman, and John Hayward, our new President, congratulated Barry and thanked him for entertaining us so well.

Created July 08