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Brasiliana 2013 in Rio de Janeiro was a show like no other David Feldman had been to in over 40 years of going to international exhibitions!

But mostly for the wrong reasons including the constant rain…

The show was hosted at Pier Mauá, a pier now converted into two large exhibition halls although partially still used by cruise ships. The first hall featured the various philatelic bureaux from around the world as well as the Brazilian Post Office and the interactive displays produced for the many school children in attendance each day. This hall also held the Court of Honor (pictured), which featured the David Feldman “Gems of Philately” display of rarities of The Americas kindly loaned to us by their owners. This section also held the FIP Championship class exhibits, rarities from members of the Grand Prix club, and Everaldo Santos’ collection of Brazilian postal history.

The second large exhibition hall hosted the dealers and auction house stands. Unfortunately due to people having problems with customs, only a handful of dealers decided to make the trip to Rio. Which was just as well for them; we had posters and roll-ups stuck in customs for 3 weeks which finally arrived on the fourth day of the show after we forked out €115!! All the exhibit collections were shared between these two halls, with over 420 collections covering Traditional Philately, Postal History, Postal Stationery, Astrophilately, Thematic and Revenue classes, as well as over 50 Youth exhibits!

 

The reception dinner sponsored by David Feldman for the National Commissioners, Jury members and Exhibitors was probably the highlight of the show! It took place at Porçao’s churrascaria restaurant, which is a Brazilian style of dining where various meats and cuts of meat are served to you on large skewers. Around 200 people were in attendance to enjoy the evening’s entertainment: a Brazilian band with accompanying dancing couple, who brought the evening to life by slowly dancing their way around the diners and picking people at random to dance with. In fact on no less than two occasions conga lines broke out!!

 

The final moment of the exhibition was the Palmarès awards dinner for the exhibitors. Our special congratulations go to George Kramer who won the Grand Prix d’Honneur for his collection of US Domestic Mails 1776-1869, and to Walter Britz who won the Grand Prix International for his collection of Uruguay Early Issues 1852-1862. Our commiserations to the other nominees.