German treat for stamp collectors
The Ayrshire Philatelic Society were recently treated to a veritable feast of early German philatelic material.
From the collection of Dr Stewart Gardiner, he started his display with little- seen stamps from German local town posts of the 1860s to 1900s when such arrangements were tolerated by their postal authorities.
His display from places such as Hamburg, Bergedorf, Berlin and Essen included proofs, forgeries, bogus issues and forgeries of bogus issues, and also a commemorative envelope of 1889 featuring Roland Hill and James Chalmers as inventors of the postage stamp. He continued with issues from the German colonies of Kamerun and Togo up to their occupation and loss after World War 1. This was followed by an section on forgeries and propaganda stamps from both Germany and the UK during WWII.
His second round display featured stamps from the various German states prior to the creation of the German Empire in 1871.
These included Alsace- Lorraine ( with dual postal arrangements with France), Baden, Bavaria, Bergedorf, Hannover, Heligoland ( British until 1892), Prussia and Saxony.
The group celebrated their 80th anniversary and enjoyed a talk by Andrew Dick on the Ayrshire mining industry.