Klagenfurt Symposium for Traditional Philately organised by German speaking countries 6.- 9.10.2005

 

Introduction 

The German speaking countries (Austria, Germany and Switzerland) organised a Symposium for Traditional Philately in Klagenfurt, Austria October 6th – 9th, 2005. The symposium was organised in connection with a Rang III exhibition. This was belonging to the 75th anniversary program of twin cities Klagenfurt – Wiesbaden. The exhibition had a very high standard.

 

The goal of the symposium was to find means to make traditional philately more attractive, to work out new forms and substances for traditional philately, especially modern philately. The modern issues require much more appreciation, understanding and knowledge. The fifty participants included all prominent collectors and opinion-leaders in Traditional Philately from Austria, Germany and Switzerland. There were several FIP Jurors and RDPs. I was invited as the chairman of the FIP Commission and was the only one from outside the German language countries. The language of the symposium was strictly German and to understand all with the help of 45 years old school German was some times quite exhausting. In my comments I used English but was answered in German. Anyway we managed to overcome the language problem very well.

  

Program 

The program was very demanding. Three and half days from nine o’clock in the morning to six o’clock in the evening we had an intensive program. In honour of the participants I must say that everybody was actively working the whole time.

 

Having had enough time the various subjects could be handled thoroughly. The introductory speech was given by Kurt Kimmel-Lampart. He pointed out that one has to understand the past in order to forecast where the Traditional Philately might be going. He discussed widely the various threats of philately like the policies of the postal administrations, the problems of consumer protection towards dealers, auction houses, investment programs, experts, jurors, forgeries etc. He took up the problem that catalogues quote high prices for printers waste and delete or change numbers without asking the relevant experts. He proposed that FIP should start a rating service for postal administrations, dealers, auction houses, experts, jurors, catalogues, books, journals, federations, clubs etc. He suggested that the experts and jurors should be more positive in their statements. He wanted that more training, symposia about the various printing techniques etc will be organised for traditional philately, more postal historic information in the catalogues, more appreciation for philatelic studies. He covered so many aspects in the philatelic field, that it simply is not possible to mention all the important themes which he tackled during about three hours.

 

The introductory speech was followed by eleven commentary speeches (Referat). They were not short comments but full philatelic papers treating the traditional philately from different angles. One was proposing innovatively new types of traditional collections/exhibits, one was analysing the difficulties of modern issues. Requirements were given to the activities of clubs, federations, exhibitors, FEPA and FIP. The registration labels were presented as an example of a new traditional exhibit, youth activities, essays, proofs, so called printers waste, the importance of the exhibit, time periods etc. were discussed. Very seldom it has been seen such an exhaustive variety of themes.

 

I have made my own summary of the symposium. The organisers will make their own, which naturally will differ from mine. After getting that I’ll update my summary. Here I’ll try to describe the main points as I saw them. I’ll also try to see, what this can mean for my Commission and FIP.

 

 

Regulations 

The symposium underlined the necessity for new and modern ways to collect and exhibit. New types of material and fresh ideas were welcomed. The question was asked, whether we need changes in our regulations. The answer was clear no. We already have all needed regulations. We only need a change in the behaviour for our exhibitors, jurors and organisations.  We may add more examples of new material and ways to build an exhibit.

 

 

Flexibility and tolerance 

The second point was that we need more flexibility and tolerance. We should not immediately condemn if in the exhibit there is one deviant object, which normally belongs to postal history, thematic or open class exhibit. If this object is proper to contribute to your story in the traditional exhibit, it should be accepted. To the flexibility belongs the positiveness. We have emphasized that the Jury work starts from the positive features of an exhibit, not negative. The same applies also to the expertising. Also the positive features of the object should be mentioned in statement, not only the faults.

 

 

Philatelic information 

Third clear point was that even on a traditional exhibit one should present all the necessary and even interesting philatelic know-how and information. This applies especially the philatelic facts normally connected to postal history. My Finland model 1917 - 1930 (Saarinen) was as an example in the back of the meeting room. I was told for instance that I should tell very comprehensively the story of cancellations of that period, not only show the different cancellations. I should have told also something about model 1918 (Vaasa), because they were issued only when all the Saarinen stamps were left on the red side of the front. This kind of treatment requires more from the collector, but gives much more to the spectators. In Traditional we already have accepted that the rates are explained, but the symposium wanted to go much further.

 

The traditional collectors must learn to tell their stories with their exhibits. Both the postal historians and thematic collectors have always understood how to tell a story. It might be more difficult to a traditional collector who should study and explain the printing methods, cancellations, rates etc which are related to the stamps he shows. It is not sufficient just to follow a handbook or catalogue, but he must really understand his material and let us know in his exhibit.

 

 

Medium and modern periods 

In order to get more appreciation and justice to the modern issues it was seen necessary to apply the different time periods and also to judge the modern issues by different jurors than for instance the classic issues. The size of the jury and the expenses related to that is naturally a problem. The speaker had done a very interesting analysis of logical time periods in different countries. The result was that the time periods are mostly a European problem. Historical facts would support five time periods, but that is not possible.

 

Another problem of the modern issues is the pure knowledge of those issues. Literature doesn’t exist and even in the philatelic press they are not treated adequately. Especially the knowledge of the issues from foreign countries is poor. We should encourage articles, which could be distributed by FIP Commission round the world. Philatelic press has always a shortage of good material. As a marginal note I can say that my Saarinen model is so modern that it will have after two years the 90th birthday.

 

The literature is essential. All handbooks should also have the basic text in English. Our Saarinen handbook has the whole text in two languages, the left page in Finnish and right page in English. This seems to be a good solution. It was interesting to hear the recommendation to German exhibitors to have their exhibits in English, even if German is an official FIP language. Exhibits in other languages than English unfortunately suffer due to the fact that  most FIP judges understand English but not more than one of the other FIP languages..

 

 

New collectors 

One of the most difficult questions always is how to encourage new collectors and to encourage all the collectors to build exhibits. How can we get the daily press more interested? We must submit continuously small exciting news to them. Why collecting the art or antiques gets so much more space. We must make our exhibitions more attractive to the public. We must have such material that a normal spectator knows or has, so he/she can ask, why not me. The World Championship is a great idea, but why not Nation’s Cup or National Cup like in Switzerland or Sweden and get publicity for those. The local papers are many times easier to handle and they even are well read.

 

 

Miscellaneous items 

During three and half days many details were discussed, some excellent, some good, some less good. The printed album sheets were considered to be suitable for first time exhibitors as a new easy way to participate and to get advise from experienced jurors. However no special rules should be created for such exhibits. The courses in printing techniques are necessary for serious collectors. Literature prizes should be given both internationally and nationally and not only in exhibitions. The school administrations must be encouraged to include some voluntary philatelic courses or clubs in education programs. In many countries there are good examples of that.

 

Much time was used to the Title Page, Introductory Sheet or the Plan, how it might be called. In German speaking countries two sheets are normally used. Also the Thematic type of division is used like 1.1.1,  1.1.2,  2.1.1. Personally I find this kind of sheet too technical. I prefer to tell what is my goal, what I want to tell with my exhibit and then the plan itself can be concise. All the information must not be on the title page; it can be divided to the following pages, when the story goes on. One title page should be enough. Many times the other sheet is occupied by an impressive coat of arms and it is totally unnecessary.

  

Kotal list of new types of exhibits 

To conclude my report I want to add here a list by Dr. Kotal. Everybody can use his imagination and add new types to this list. Dr. Kotal is dividing his list in two parts, the vertical exhibits and the horizontal exhibits.

 

  Vertical exhibits 

- Exhibits, which are built according some other criterion than value or issuing date,

for instance paper, gum, printing technique, colours, perforation, graphic   appearance. The new printing techniques are not any more giving so many       possibilities. The use of printer’s waste is problematic but sometimes necessary to tell the story of an issue. (In the symposium the use of printer’s waste was widely discussed and the general opinion was that it should be allowed regardless how it has come to the market. However, such items should not be priced in catalogues and an exhibit should not be downgraded if it does not include them).

-         Exhibits where the material is included because of the stamp design, stamps, postal stationary, forms etc, all in one exhibit.

-         Exhibits, which are presenting the margins of the sheet or empty spaces used for different notations or advertising

-         Exhibits, which are telling the story of the stamp from essays, printing and colour proofs to the end product

-         Exhibits of forgeries also made for the loss of collectors

-         Exhibits of registration labels

-         Exhibits of perfins

-         Traditionally presented air mail, cancellation, rate, home district exhibits. (The last three created contradictory comments as they now are typical Postal History exhibits. However, Dr. Kotal wanted to ask if even these could be treated in a traditional way. Actually one such home district exhibit was presented in the exhibition.)

  

Horizontal exhibits 

-         Exhibits presenting stamps from several countries organised according the graphic design, printing technique, stamps for rates of some specified period, etc.

-         Exhibits telling for instance how postal administrations have fought against forgeries or reuse, watermarks, special papers, special printing techniques.

-         Exhibits built by the UPU colour definitions.