The final day was a quiet affair. Everyone was showing signs of weariness from the previous five days of work, as well as a sense of relief after many months of work that had gone into the preparation! Although my morning started with a mini adventure to the suburbs of Melbourne to pick up a great collection of Afghanistan, material which we don’t often have the pleasure of offering. Although people do consign with us without ever having met one of our philatelists, it’s always a pleasure to meet the collector behind the collection to have a discussion face to face about their needs and expectations.

Afghanistan almost seemed to be the theme of the week. We met five collectors, one of which had graciously allowed us to exhibit his rarities, and two of which consigned with us. And two people had even come from the “Afghan Treasures” exhibition at the museum opposite to ask questions about Afghan stamps!

We have to thank the collectors who so generously gave us their treasures to display on their behalf. The organising committee were even kind enough to give each exhibitor a medal for them to keep as a memento and thanks.

And of course thank you to the organisers and the many volunteers for their hard work which had made Melbourne 2013 such a fantastic show.

We look forward to seeing more clients and stamp collectors at Thailand 2013 on August 2-14, as well as showing more “Gems of Philately” on our stand.

Day 5 saw the climax of the show and the awards handed out for those with collections deemed worthy at the Palmares dinner. The $125 ticket price didn’t put people off attending the event which took place in the grand surroundings of the Crown hotel. The evening was kicked off by Malcolm Groom, the President of Australia 2013, followed by Olivier Stocker of Spink (who’s heavy sponsoring of the dinner was evident to all). Thankfully speeches were clear and succinct, and the medals were given to each winner at a fair pace in between courses.

During the meal we were entertained by a talented singer/guitar player. I was waiting for everyone to get up a sing when waltzing Matilda came on, but everyone was obviously too deeply engrossed in either conversation or their food. I was pleased that Australia’s 2nd most famous song “Land Down Under” by Men at Work followed shortly afterwards!

I was sitting next to one of the shows many volunteers who’d helped to mount the 54’000 exhibition frames. An interesting story was that in order to attach the strips of plastic that hold the pages into the frames, one of the volunteers had to hand-make a machine to do so!

And so to the most anticipated moment of the night, the Grand Prix awards for the National, International and Championship classes. With a staggering 97 points out of 100, Arthur Woo’s collection of Western Australia won the Grand Prix National ahead of Michael Blake’s South Australia and Stephen Browne’s New South Wales. The collection that had caught my eye the day before, the Cape of Good Hope rectangular issues took the Grand Prix International also with 97 points, ahead of stiff competition from William Gross’ USA 1847 issue and Jan-Olof Liungh’s Eagle Shield issue exhibit. Fittingly for this Australian international show, it was Koichi Sato’s collection of Tasmania that deservedly won the prestigious Grand Prix d’Honneur.

The night finished with the ceremonial “passing of the torch” to Thailand 2013 and the traditional “Auld Lang Syne”.

Today I was able to study further the extensive exhibition collections on display. It was fantastic to walk around and see the names of many clients on the displays, and even recognise covers that we had sold in them! Seeing them put to good use is certainly one of the more rewarding parts of the job I have to say. I noticed several items from the famous “Severn” collection of GB including the £1 brown on a diplomatic parcel bag tag (pictured), as well items of Egypt, Persia, India, Singapore and Australia we had sold in recent years. And as I walked around in the afternoon, it was pleasing to see that many of these collections had won Gold or Large Gold medals.

Alan Holyoake’s collection entitled “Secured Mail leading to the Registration of UK Mail” featured a few items I recognised. However it was the six registered penny black covers that truly caught my eye as there are only a dozen or so known. Congratulations to him for his Large Gold.

Another Large Gold medal went to Ah Ee Tan for his fantastic Straits Settlements collection which featured pre-stamp postal history including a unique Waghorn cover from Singapore, through to India lithographed stamps used in Singapore on cover, later India bisects, before going on to the overprinted issues with covers, specimens, multiples, die proofs etc., finishing with covers sent from abroad.

Simon Greenwood’s collection of British Guiana won a Gold, however it contained items I’d only seen in books, and some items I never knew existed including mixed frankings with GB used to pay the internal postage on incoming mail.

Another jaw-dropping collection was that of John Griffith-Jones with “The Missionary Stamps of Uganda 1895-99″. With the first few issues created by Reverend Ernest Miller of the Church Missionary Society, Mr. Griffith-Jones puts it perfectly in his introduction when talking about their appeal: “The missionary stamps are primitive and lack elegance, but are wonderfully atmospheric and evoke the difficult circumstances of their production”.

A collection of Cape of Good Hope Rectangular issues by Emil Buhrmann had also caught my eye. Although the Triangular issues are more sought after, the beautiful presentation and the progression of the display helped it to earn a Large Gold.

With over 49 Large Gold medals and 121 Gold medals awarded, I would love to have mentioned more fascinating exhibits, but as a GB and Commonwealth specialist, these are the ones that struck a chord with me the most from what I saw today.

The third day proved less sunny and less busy than the previous two days, which have me the perfect opportunity to view some of the exhibits. It seemed like a good idea to begin with the Court of Honour and the Royal Philatelic collection.

The Royal Collection is largely based on the collection of J. R. W. purves, and bought by King George V intact in 1930. I’m sure there have been many envious eyes passing over the selection of Kangaroo stamps on display. Several items in the collection are unique, including essays and marginal examples showing the highly collectible JBC and CA monograms and the Harisson imprints. The official app for mobile devices provided a brief and interesting audio accompaniment and talked of the controversial history of the stamps. Also on display in the Court of Honour was a unique sheet of the £2 Roo and the master steel die for printing the stamp.

Close to our stand was the Championship Class exhibits. Entry for this class is only open to those who have won three Large Gold medals in previous exhibitions, with the honour of the Grand Prix award going to the winner. It comprised of a diverse group of exhibits including Canada, Ireland, Spain, Samoa, Russia, Tasmania, Aden, Philippines, Japan, Australia, USA and a thematic exhibit on Agriculture. Everyone will have to wait until tomorrow afternoon to find out the all important results.

Day 2 and the weather was fantastic again which made the picturesque hall all the more pleasant. The day proved to be just as popular as the day before, as visitors took advantage of their Saturday to come visit, with many set to meet at one of the many stamp club meetings of the day.

Again much of the day was spent chatting with clients. Some even brought stamps for consignment or valuation which were most welcome. Including a nice group of Russia covers which will go nicely in our planned specialised catalogue of Russia in September.

I was even able to offer advice to a young collector about collecting Afghanistan, as well as talk to him about the Afghan rarities we have from Arif Balgamwala on display. These include one of only two known sheets of the 1873-74 Shahi (used as a last will and testament hence it’s preservation!). The other one being in the Tapling collection in the British Library. As well as the largest multiple of the 1 Abassi on cover, and a three-country franking featuring Kashmir, India and an Afghan stamp.

We even had the pleasure of a visit by Michael Sefi (the curator of the Royal Philatelic Collection) to the stand. Mr. Sefi had brought with him Australian rarities from the Queen’s collection for display in the Court of Honour. However discussions quickly turned to the unique British Guiana 2c error of colour on cover on display on our stand, and the history of these primitive stamps. Mr. Sefi admitted that he still harbours hopes that there is a 2c on cover out there somewhere…

Much interest was also shown in our GPC books (particularly the collection of India formed by Dr. Sita Bhateja) and our Encyclopaedia of Rare stamps (with no fewer than 6 stamps on our display are featured in the book). For those that are interested, you can buy them on our online shop.

The first day of Melbourne 2013 took place on a sunny day in the beautiful Royal Exhibition Hall. Over 90 dealers, auction houses and philatelic bodies took to their stands to welcome the crowds to the first of three FIP (Fédération internationale de Philatélie) accredited shows. Not only that, but around 54’000 frames of stamp exhibits were on display, including some of the best collections in the world.

I had a little time myself before the show kicked off to have a quick look, and as I walked through the National Exhibits, the Western Australia collection of Arthur Woo caught my eye, which featured no less than 3 of the 13 known of this famous stamp, as well as the vertical strip of three with a partial example and a forgery that had duped many experts and collectors for years until the 1980s! I look forward to seeing more of the fabulous exhibits throughout the week.

Before the show started, speeches by the Lord Mayor, the Chairman of the Organising Committee, the FIP and the FIAP presidents welcomed all the stand holders to the show, before the crowds poured in (obviously undeterred by the A$10 entrance fee)

Even before the doors opened, a queue had began to form at the Australia post stand. And it wasn’t long before it was extending down one of the wings of the hall! The personalised stamps and special postmarks proving to be a big success. An exhibition of horse racing trophies and memorabilia dedicated to the famous racehorse Black Caviar took centre stage of their stand as their new stamp issue celebrated the horse’s retirement

The rest of the day was spent meeting and greeting other dealers, clients and collectors, both new and old faces. And it was good to meet many clients I had known by name but had never met face-to-face before. It was also good to finally meet Tommy, who runs our Hong Kong office and get the low down on the latest in the China and Hong Kong markets, as well as his administrator Doris who had helped us out in a previous auction in Geneva.