On Saturday, 24th July 2021, after a gap of seventeen months, fifteen members and two guests attended the first Member’s meeting following easing of Covid restrictions at the Royal Philatelic Society London.
The formal meeting started with our usual room auction, which consisted of 68 lots. In all, two-thirds of the lots were sold with the best item, a 1941 letter from Von Schmettow, Commander of the German forces in the Channel Islands, selling for £110 from a starting price of £30. The auction was then followed by members’ displays, with the theme being “The Smaller Channel Islands” or “Any recent acquisitions”. Ten members provided displays. Due to limited space only brief details of each display will be given. David Laurillard provided three frames titled “Views of the Channel Islands” including Herm, Jethou and Brechou. Mark Bailey showed further examples from his George Campbell collection, including a neat item from Newfoundland to Jersey. Steve Wells provided eight sheets of new acquisitions, including an item from Herm to Austria bearing Herm ‘stamps’ and a 5d Guernsey ‘regional’. Nick Stuart provided three sheets of Alderney, including a 3-barred 965 ‘numeral’ handstamp alongside an ALDERNEY/A/OC 1/90 double-circle datestamp. Gerald Marriner also provided us with recent acquisitions, which included a scarce civilian feldpost 1942 cover from Jersey addressed to Clermont Ferrand in Vichy France with INADMIS cachet and a handwritten pink label stating ‘Zone not occupied’ with boxed ‘RETOUR / A L’ENVOYEUR’ handstamp beside, returned to Jersey. Richard Flemming then showed items of mail to and from the occupation forces based on Alderney 1940 – 1945, including a registered letter from the 4th Battery mixed-flak unit bearing Feldpost No. 46048. Alan Whittaker followed with some interesting ‘recent acquisitions’ including an early Red Cross Message Form to Sark signed by Bradshaw and an envelope bearing a previously unseen, BRITISH RED CROSS SOCIETY LISBON handstamp. David Gurney provided four sheets including an attractive hand painted 1933 illustrated envelope to Texas enclosing a 1931 card of Sark Tourist details signed by the Dame of Sark, both shown on these pages. A similar scarce hand painted Sark cover is in the next CISS postal auction shortly.
Following lunch David Winnie provided a comprehensive 88-sheet display of Alderney from 1847 – 2006 including the rare ALDERNEY undated double arc and, maybe the even rarer, ALDERNEY ‘skeleton’ datestamp on postcard also shown in slightly reduced format on this page.
Finally, Jon Aitchison provided a ten frame colourful display of Herm material including artwork, proofs, rejected designs and postally used examples of the Herm 1954 Flora and Fauna triangular stamps, but how many collectors actually have the Perkins Bacon Co. envelopes they came in?
