Weeks #2017.31 on SébPhilatélie

Monday 31 July: Some news from philatelic societies.
The Royal Hispanic Philatelic Academy is publishing a special issue of his journal to mark its 40th anniversary.

On Thursday 27 July The Royal Philatelic Society London celebrated its library volunteers and employees with a special exhibition from their collections.

On Friday 28 July The Postal Museum finally opened in London, but know that the Mail Rail, the exhibition and travel through the former Post Office underground train will only be opened to the general public in September. Seems reservation for Mail Rail would be prudent.

In the middle of summer the New Zealand post office announced the Children's Health stamp series is discontinued due to sales being insufficient to donate enough to Stand ; 2016 would be the last one of a now complete collection.

The Swiss Postcrossing stamps (Postcrossing blog, 28 July 2017).

On 7 September the Swiss Post will issue three stamps - one per rate - about Postcrossing, the postcard blind exchange postcard website. Max Spring designed the humorous labels.

Friday 4 August: Being postal with Charles Bukowski.
Summer reading: Post Office by United States author Charles Bukowski who wrote quasi autobiography in some of his novels.

As it happened Bukowski, a free spirited man - spirit as the fumes of some beverages... -, was a postman and after a period of successful horse racing betting, a postal clerk sorting envelopes. Despite a reasonable efficiencies he wrote how some of the rules and regulations were alienating the staff.

A reflexion on inhumane modern fordism? Or an ode to laziness and easy pleasures?

Sunday 6 August: "175 proven stamp exhibiting tips" by Steven Zwillinger.
Another summer reading, but incomplete because of the nature of the book, this will guide a potential philatelic exhibitor into the preparation and the competition, hopefully, on "the path to gold".

The cover of The Path to Gold (American Association of Philatelic Exhibition website).

The very interesting and thought-inducing book by Steven Zwillinger was published 2016 by the American Association of Philatelic Exhibitors and compiled his chronics he wrote for The Stamp Dealer & Collector from 2009 to 2016, and the publications of the AAPE.

From a detailed example of a synopsis (the text provided by the exhibitor to the jury) to etymologicly iconoclast ideas... or simply reminders that one should enjoy oneself's and the public's when exhibiting.

After I wrote my article on SébPhilatélie, I found that Steven Zwillinger was awarded a large silver medal for this book at the international exhibition in Bandung, Indonesia this August and was elected President of the American Philatelic Research Board of Trustess, which pilot the American Philatelic Society's Library in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania.

Weeks #2017.27 and 28 on SébPhilatélie

Saturday 8 July: Difficulties with fiscal stamps for Malians in Algeria.
On 21 April 2017 MaliActu.net news website published a plea from Malian citizens living and working in neighbouring Algeria.

A 500 CFA franc fiscal stamp of Mali (via MaliActu.net).

The Embassy in Algiers hadn't had stamps for months and its personnel refused to explain the causes, while Algiers and Bamako are weekly connected by flights.

Tuesday 11 July: A philatelic month.

With my recent dive in Tweeter to discover the social network tool, here are some news I gathered there.

In London:

At the general assembly on Thursday 22 June,  members of the Royal Philatelic Society London elected Belgian postal historian Patrick Maselis as its new President. ont élu le Belge Patrick Maselis président de l'association londonienne.

Already President of the Club of Monte Carlo which organised Monacophil and of the Royal Academy of Philately of Belgium, whose website proposed a complete biography.

Collectors of Belgian personalised stamps who are members of the RPSL will be thrilled :)

In Oaxaca, Mexico:
The MUFI (its Twitter account) celebrated its birthday at the same time as the philatelic exhibition on the seas and their fauna. Medias and institutions of Oaxaca broadcasted both events.

Saturday 1st July, Lisbeth Mejla of newspaper El Impartial reported her visit of the museum's library, rich with studies by Mexican philatelists and old editions of famous catalogues.

Presentation of the MUFI by Fundation Alfredo Harp Helú, posted Friday 7 July 2017 on youTube. 

And since Friday 7, Fundation Alfredo Harp Helú is proposing a video about the museum, its permanent collections, its activities for the children, its library.

In Algeria:
Thursday 6 July, in his weekly philatelic column in El Watan, Arslan Selmane wrote down his questions about the last commemorative minisheet by the Algerian Post. It is issued the same week end alongside its five separate stamps about Algerian battles against the French invasion, occupation and colonisation of the country from 1830 to 1962.

The questionable minisheet, issued Saturday 8 July 2017 (via the forum PhilatélieDz).

To summarize: apart from difficult-to-watch paintings on stamps, how will thematical philatelist exhibit the minisheet whereas there are events of two different periods, a variety of locations and war actors and strategies.

Selmane is continuing his enlighted criticism of Algeria's 2017 stamp program, in which minisheets are numerous.

French medias haven't seemed to notice the issue... Surely a good thing for public appeasement. Not for a serious look on French history, and for philately.

The final part of the article in French are proposition of magazines for the Summer, including for parents (and grand-parents) how to manage video games with their children.

Friday 14 July: a 12th Indonesia birthday for Postcrossing.
Bastille Day is Postcrossing Day too!

The 3 Indonesian stamps: travel through postcards with open computer windows to the world (1) of monuments (2) and cultures (3).

The written postcard exchange website is honored by the Indonesian post with a triptyc because a Postcrossing event will be organised during the international exhibition in Bandung (3-7 August).

Of course The Sebphilately Postcrossing catalogue was updated accordingly.

Saturday 15 July: a new stamp for Liverpool.
In his latest issue on contemporary architecture Royal Mail added one stamp about the city of Liverpool, one of the specialities of Séb.

The new façade of the Everyman Theater in Liverpool... If the picture went more to the left, another architecture marvel would appear, but it was already put on a stamp in 1969 (Royal Mail).

The Everyman Theater, opened 1964, was completely rebuilt between 2011 and 2014. Its new front presents pictures of Liverpuldians.

The theater is located on the northern part of Hope Street, a touristic promenade of Liverpool by itself. You will find the two cathedrals at both ends (the Anglican to the South, the Catholic next to the Everyman), sculptures and many important place of concerts and plays, including musical pubs.

Weeks #2017.22-23 on SébPhilatélie

Ten days in June, before Summer hit the South of France (and the rest of Europe it seems).

Thursday 1st to Sunday 4 June: Interamerican exhibition in Saint-Pierre-and-Miquelon.
During four days, the Club de Saint-Pierre (with a refurbished website) hosted its third international exhibition in this French overseas collectivity, SPM Expo, with six countries of the American continent attending.

The poster of the exhibit designed by Jean-Jacques Oliviéro (official website).

To follow the event the website and its blog were of course useful, and were reinforced by the local radio and television public channel, SPM 1ère.

A list of reports and interviews to watch back:
- Club president Stéphane Fouchard presented the event, the importance of exhibiting and the value of collecting stamps during the radio news on Thursday morning ;
- On the Wednesday evening tv news the mounting of the exhibit was reported ;
- On Friday the camera followed high school students training their Spanish with Jaime Benavides, the Mexican representative (on this link look for the 2 June 2017 edition), followed by Fouchard explaining this was the sole continental competition for 2017 and the impact for the archipelago ;
- On Sunday (article on Monday) a report of the award ceremony took place with the 109th and 110th medal and Grand Prix for Jean-Jacques Tillard and a gold medal for Loïc Detcheverry for Cancellations of Nova Scotia on stamps of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon. Jim Taylor, President of The Royal Philatelic Society of Canada was interviewed too.

Sunday 4 June: 50 years of Machin, 10 years of philatelying in English.
A personal article on me and the English language. It dated well before I needing it for philatelic purposes, but since my first subscription to Stamp Magazine, English philatelic reading became quite addictive.

The June 2007 issue of Stamp Magazine that encouraged my continuing subscription.

The Machin series is to thank for too.

Wednesday 7 June: Were chocolate bar wrapping be recess-printed!
Warning: open class topic getting off-topic... but...

After many weeks of thoughts I finally opened and ate the Rococo Chocolates bar I bought last January in Chester (remember). A powerful taste for only 63% dark chocolate from Peru!

Okay, I admit, this item is damaged. I need to learn how to unmint chocolate packaging... Must be like carefully open envelopes.

Back to philately... Let's try at least.

The drawing outside and inside the cardboard wrapper are the same that of the shopping bags and could have been printed in intaglio.

The article was written to mark the day the Rococo Chester team opened its new premises: 118 Northgate.

Friday 9 June: Another souvenir of Frédéric Bazille's paintings.
Thank to Michel Soulié, President of the Montpellier Philatelic Association, I now held a 1980 souvenir edited by the association for the Day of the Stamp, inspired by The Pink Dress, another view of the Castelnau village by impressionist Frédéric Bazille.

Local Montpellier souvenir at the Day of the Stamp 1980, illustrated by G. Jeanjean, inspired by Frédéric Bazille.

Readers in the Americas could see paintings of Montpellier-born Bazille in Washington, D.C. until the 9th of July at the National Gallery of Art.

Sunday 11 June: The Postal Museum to open 28 July in London.
Finally - some almost waited 20 years - the Postal Museum is to open in London on Friday 28 July 2017.

More informations on the Museum's website and Twitter account.

Today, 21 June, there still some informations missing, especially how to book for the Mail Rail, the new attraction reactivating the former London postal underground train of the British Post Office.


After such ten days, Spring felt very well, the Winter children thought... But Summer was coming.

Week #2017.08 to .11 on SébPhilatélie

My apologies after a little - still on - overwhelmed job period doubled with the discovery of Nintendo's new title The Legend of Zelda: Breath of Wild.

The best French stamp ever!!!... Let's quiet down a bit (via Phil-Ouest.com).

Saturday 25 February: a French-British-Australian salad.
Since 2009 the Greek letter phi has been forced as the official symbol on French program stamps.

Truncated poster of Jean-Luc Mélenchon's campaign, entitled Disobedient/Rebellious Franceffiche. In stickers and posters it can be found on many urban public and private furnitures (campaign material website).

Since Autumn it's the symbol of the far right politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon in the current presidential election in France...

On the other of the world multimillionaire CEO of the Australia Post decided to leave its office... after years of philatelic and unions outrage concerning his salaries, months of failed Senate inquiries and weeks of suddenly great media attention.

Presented on Norvic Philatelics blog the new postal rates of Royal Mail seem to indicate the operator is following the Brexit tempo: moderate penny increase for interior mail, huge for international... Mail to Europe being the most punished: +10 pennies!

Sunday 26 February: promotion of philately at the Etihad Museum, Dubai.
The first temporary exhibition in the newly opened Etihad Museum of the United Arab Emirates history, in Dubai, is still interesting journalist.

On the 22 February The National presented the activity proposed to visiting children in order for them to discover postal service and stamp creation.

Monday 27 February: Royal Mail asks internauts their wish for the 2019 program.
The British operator is proposing a survey to the public to get opinions for the 2019 stamp program.

Introduction and first questio of the survey (Royal Mail website).

The ideas are proposed into three domains ; the visitor can tick three boxes per domain. A fourth part allows to add other proposals.

Concerning philatelic philately the 150th anniversary of the Royal Philatelic Society London is among the historic commemorations.

Tuesday 28 February: Continental exhibition in Saint-Pierre and Miquelon next June.
From Thursday the first to Sunday fourth of June 2017, the French overseas collectivity of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon will host a continental interamerican exhibition after the successful 2014 edition.

Logotype of SPM Expo 2017 (official website).

The website permits to read the list of the jury and watch the trophies offered by the insitutions and national federations.

Thursday 2 March: alternate history philately on the BBC.
Imagined in the 1940s, SS-GB, the alternate history serial of the BBC, shows many envelopes during the policeman hero's investigations in a Britain occupied by the nazi forces... if they had successfully landed in 1940.

An occupation stamp, very badly perforated, stuck on an envelope during the first episode (BBC One, Sunday 19 February 2017).

Adapted from the spy novel by Len Deighton, published in 1978: Douglas Archer, one of the best inspectors of Scotland Yard, is forced to make his service works, hoping for a better future, while under the scrutiny of the SS ; the dreadful organisation having begun the census of jews.

The cover of the novel already used alternate philately to strike the potential reader (amazon.co.uk).

An investigation into a murder by gun shot imposes Archer to work for a German military intelligence officer, sent in urgency by Berlin... Who was the victim? What is he so important? At the same time, London is preparing to host a visit of Soviet dignitaries: what will become of Operation Barbarossa in this timeline?

Sunday 5 March: museums and their mail: the Merseyside Maritime Museum, Liverpool.
Many museums exhibit postal history items because they fit the topic of the place. For exemple, this 1941 postcard in the Battle of the Atlantic Gallery in the Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool, England.

The reproduced two sides of a Christmas card sent by a prisoner of war to Liverpool in December 1941.

The illustration gave the place of origin: Stalag X-B near Bremen, north west Germany. The article of the Wikipedia in English helped discover this prison camp: Marlag und Milag Nord.

Marlag stands for Marinelager, a camp for all kind of seamen, both Royal Navy captured and merchant marine civilians, hold because they could help the war effort by manning ships sailing to North America to get supplies.

But the civilians got their own camp, Milag for Marineinterniertenlager, after members of the United States and Switzerland's Red Cross Committees visited Marlag.

Tuesday 7 March: Netherlands philately summarised on one postcard.
Thank to philatelist Postcrosser, I received a card franked with three kinds of stamps that NL Post is proposing these past years.

Thank you Shelly!

On the left side, make-up stamps in the design approach the Netherlands are famous for now. In the center the lower stamp of a 2006 illustrated minisheet on Schoonhoven, a historic center of silver craftmanship.

An inspired card printed by editor Greetz, the same as the personalised stamp on the other side of the card. Liverpool and Beatles lover will notice...

Finally, on the right side, a personalised stamp promoting stamp collecting, mimicking the unused war moral poster of Britain: Keep calm and collect stamps.

Saturday 11 March: French colonies' challenges to postal historians.
Two British publications proposed ideas that could motivate collectors to search the French colonies again. First, in the January issue of Gibbons Stamp Monthly, Michael Round ended his stamp studies of the French Territory of the Afars and Issas (1967-1977) with the goal to find cancelled items from all five post offices of the country to become independent Djibouti, including illustrated "flammes" of Djibouti.

Five in a desertic rocky region: too easy?

HMS Vanadis by Jacob Hägg, around 1900s (via Commons by Wikimedia).

In the February issue of The London Philatelist, Staffan Ferdén studied three covers to a Swedish naval officer cancelled in Stockholm and who found him in Tahiti, in the Society Islands, during the 1883-1885 world tour of the HMS Vanadis.

The author is known for his classic Swedish maritime mail collection and studies (to became a book in 2019 - a summary of a recent presentation is available on the Stockholmia 2019 exhibition website: click "Read more" on the 17 December 2016 article).

Why those Tahiti cover among all mail received and sent by the crew, including Prince Oscar Bernadotte? Because Papeete was, with Egyptian Port Said at the entrance of the Suez canal, the only places where there was no Swedish consulate to take care of the mail.

The article is dense, but succeeds to give information on the cruise, the geopolitial situation of this part of Polynesia under French rule since 1880 (after a protectorate period), and all the maritime routes that existed in the 1880s in order to guess which ones the three letters had taken to find Lieutenant Fredrik Peyron.

Still looking for a challenge?

Let's try genealogy: Peyron as in Loïck Peyron, the French sailing champion? Is there a cousin connection is one could climb their respective trees up until the first French Bernadotte King of Sweden?

Conclusion for the week end.
The author of a Sower specialised blog proposed yesterday something surprising and a personal rendition of what may have happened to a countess living in Lorraine when she sent a registered postcard to a friend in Edinburgh, Scotland. Étiquette.

A stamp for Montpellier's own Frédéric Bazille

This article summarises in part articles of SébPhilatélie in French: the maximum cards preparation, comments on the wonderful organisation, and a sort of illustrated conclusion.

Yesterday, Monday 20 February, the French post issued an artistic stamp in honor of impressionist painter Frédéric Bazille, born 1841 in Montpellier. The chosen artwork is View of village of 1868.

The stamp on a maximum card I made at the first day sale in Montpellier, Friday 17 February (postcard edited by the Fabre Museum, Montpellier municipal museum).

Bazille was a talented painter, born in a rich trade family of Montpellier, in Southern France - a family we met already on this blog thank to Kenneth Nilsestuen with a letter between a wine trader in French conquered Algeria and the Bazille-Castelnau branch of Frédéric's family.

The family owned a domain on the outskirts of 19th century Montpellier : the domaine of Méric, where the garden overviews the small Lez river and the nearby village of Castelnau-le-Lez. On Vue de village, Bazille depicted the daughter of a domain's worker with the village in the background.

A high definition picture of the painting and school activities to discover it are available on the Réseau Canopé website, the French public education information service.

The sad part of the story is that Frédéric Bazille, while volunteering the army, died during the 1870 war between France and Prussia, only aged 28.

A part-walk part-tramway route from the place of the first day sale to the Domaine of Méric, passing in front the Fabre Museum, in Montpellier (Google Maps modified with free software Paint.NET).

The first day of sale was proposed in Montpellier, in an uncommon place for the city and its federated philatelic club. The Association philatélique de Montpellier generally organised such event in a municipal hall ; the Fabre Museum was thought too late.

The merry postal team of the Préfecture post office, the President of the Montpellier Philatelic Association (in blue) and one of the deputy mayor (Midi libre, Montpellier local edition, 18 February 2017).

The sale ended in the historic main post office of the town center, near the Préfecture, the official residence of the French State administrator. I thought the place too tiny and crowded at peak let-me-get-my-registered-or-parcel hours...

... But the post office team was efficient and happy to oblige in such short notice. The postal clark specialised in philatelic matters was there with stamps and the first day datestamp ; his boss all smile with the offered coffee machine and cookies. The Association got space enough to propose René Maréchal's collection of impressionist paintings through stamps and pictorial cancellations.

Let me say that, for the past decade, despite the French post's delusional try to profitability of the philatelic sales, the Montpellier Préfecture post office has kept the status of an actual philatelic post office whereas the philatelic subscription were centralised on order by Phil@poste and that post offices were forced to time the seconds spent by each employee with clients... Letting some post offices with the idea that philatelic consumers were a waste of time!

Montpellier Préfecture never surrendered and is proven right: for the past year and a half, Phil@poste and the Post Office Direction are reintroducing philatelic counters in chosen post offices!!!

This improvised first day of sale is a wonderful gift for a wonderful philatelic friendly team.

For amateurs of how baby are mad... stamps are printed: the right part half sheet of the Bazille stamp, with all colour verification dots and the marginal identifications.

A question remained: why a stamp for Bazille now?

The Rose Dress, 1864, shows a cousin watching the same village accross the small river (postcard edited by the Musée d'Orsay, Paris).

Because Frédéric Bazille has got an international exhibition on the run: Frédéric Bazille and the Birth of of impressionism was inaugurated in the Fabre Museum during the Summer 2016, is currently finishing in Musée d'Orsay, Paris, before cruising to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. from April 9^th to July 9^th.

Enjoy!

Postal history: Etihad Museum's inaugural exhibition

Saturday January 7th 2017 the Etihad Museum opened in Dubai, a national museum on the history of the United Arab Emirates before and after their unification in 1971.

Managed by Dubai's Culture Authority, its contemporain architectural building is a neighbour of the one where six emirates signed their union (the seventh joined the next year) putting an end to the British protectorate.

Visit the postal exhibit and zoom in the introductory text in English and Arab thank to Dubai360.com. Many items can be seen by wandering the room: click on the green marks (beware: flying inside the pictures with a computer mouse is ultra-sensitive. Airsickness in view).

The first temporary exhibition until April 30th is the postal history of the emirates and their first stamps from 1909 mail to the 1971 independence.

A beautiful achievement for Abdullah Koory, President of the Emirates Philatelic Association, created 1996, who is sharing his impressive collection.

Week #2016.39 on SébPhilatélie and on the web

Monday 26 September 2016: Oh les timbres ! blog's back.

After a long pause, the French well-written topical blog Oh les timbres ! is back with daily articles inspired by the (numerous) new issues of the French Post and the news - even sad ones as the first article is about Nice after the terrorist attack on Bastille Day.

Monday again: new banknote, new generation in Britain.

Since Tuesday 13 September, the Bank of England is introducing banknotes in polymer: stronger, waterproof, cleaner because washable.

Can you spot the publicly known security features on the Winston Churchill 5 pounds note? (Flikr account of the Bank of England).

Be careful though, the Daily Mail journalist (?) James Smith lost 10 pounds: one fiver melted into the microwave, the other into the water tubes from a washmachine. Never play with money.

Friday 30 September: Remembrance of the Channel Island occupation by the Germans.

On Thursday 29, the Royal Philatelic Society London hosted a conference by Ron Brown on "The German Occupation of the Channel Islands 1940-1945". The first half was a traditional philatelic history on how the local authorities of Guernsey and Jersey managed the needs for stamps, with some liberty from the occupying forces.

On the other half, the paper became tragic with the stories of the arrest, captivity in French occupied prisons and even deportation to Nazi Germany camps of some Islanders for crimes of food stealing, listening to the BBC or for only being Jew. These lifes were recalled by Mr Brown with letters and cards sent to or by them.

The paper is available for all on the RPSL website (pdf file). Members (directly) and non-members (write the RPSL secretary) can access the video on youTube.

Sunday 2 October: British Museum's collection of Middle East postcards.

Last Monday 26, Maev Kennedy for The Guardian met St John Simpson, archeologist and British Museum curator for the Middle East collections, to be presented with the collections of postcards and thoughts on the future of this particular mean of communication.

Simpson has been putting some postcards into the exhibits to add views of the daily life of the countries involved, correspondence of European travellers. A new way to study history for today's historians, hence the 5000 card boxes the Museum is keeping.

But, the digital age is hard for postcard collectors and researchers: Tehran youth who doesn't know where the post office is, Bahrain shops not stocking postcards, a new generation of academians who never wrote and sent one...

Merry visit of the GPO in Dublin

Until mid-April, you can watch the episodes of a documentary about the daily life of the Dublin Greater Post Office, its current employees, clients and operations on RTÉ, the public television of Ireland.

Logotype of RTÉ.

The branch is located in the rebuilt GPO, partly destroyed during the Easter Rising, during which the building housed the independentists' headquarters. Nowadays, the façade and the underground levels dated from the original construction between 1814 and January 1818.

During Tuesday 15th March episode, the GPO employees are presented from the counters to the nightshifters, including the helpful calling center. Costarring some colorful clients.

With Tuesday 22th episode, the documentary took surprising roads following the artistic events that take place in the hall of the post office during open door nights with concerts and the opportunity for visitors to post a special postcard. The clients and their happy life or their difficulties brought the first episode into perspective: homeless people getting shelter under the façade, a mother sending a bag of clothes to her migrant daughter unable to go further than France. Hopefully, a meeting of Postcrossers introduced the inventivity of An Post and its communication service.

The third episode, broadcasted Tuesday 29th March, Christmas and the Centenary both approaching, illustrated the importance for the Irish society of the GPO building: it's the rally point for demonstration in the capitale, a place for an association to offer hot meals and warm clothes to homeless people, and for refugee father to have a bank and begins saving money for the future of his children. Behind the counter, while Baby Jesus is difficult to find among the Christmas decoration put in storage last year, an employee tries to catch a pigeon... Finally, the construction site of the new centenary attraction, Witness History, are completed enough for six female dancers to prepare their interpretation of the Eastern Rising.

Christmas is approching in the fourth episode launched Tuesday 12th April. Aerial dancing show on the columns outside, music and singing in the hall, and carolling for charity under the portico, while specially prepared letters and parcels are being franked with the Christmas illustrated machine stamps at the counters. In the back office, Santa's secretaries are working to ensure all children will get their answers before the great day. And after a rare theft in the hall and the desperate very final client at closing time, Santa visited the GPO!

A lot of works are going on in the building in the fifth episode on Tuesday 19th April: the continuous renovation of the historic part of the place, the crane pilot who had got the best view on Dublin for eight months, and the mysrery of the "little house on top of the Post Office". Inside, the sixteen stamps of the Centenary issue are prepared by meeting the descendants of the stamped people, especially when they can provide pictures that Zinc Design put in form (example of the Malone brothers: the first killed in the Army at Ypres in 1915 ; the other while fighting the British Army in Dublin the next year). Finally, the Tanzanian mother, filmed in an earlier episode, comes again to post a laptop to her daughter, trapped in Paris by immigration laws.

In the last episode, on Tuesday 26th April, the  GPO Witness History is finally opened after two years of building. The final artworks, especialy the sculpture to the children killed during the rising, are placed and an original poster of the 1916 Easter Proclamation is hung there. Outside, groups of pupils and of tourists discovered the history of the place with their teachers or their guides. With a debate: are the holes in the columns really bullet holes?

This documentary series is part of RTÉ's programming for the centenary of the Irish insurrection.

The GPO building is also Ireland's public operator An Post's headquarters, and its postal museum and archive.

When contemporary art reminds of philatelic studies

Translation of part an article published on SébPhilatélie, Friday 20th of February 2015.

Despite I profoundly never understand a large majority of what's exhibited in those places, I still try to visit museum of contemporary art when I visit a new town... Often for nothing, but once in a while.

In June 2014, as I discovered Toulouse, I entered the Abattoirs, former slaughterhouse in action from 1825 to 1988, refurbished as an contemporary art museum in 2000.

Two excerpts from Silvia Regenbogenreihe by Franz Gertsch, 2002, under glass at the Abattoirs, Toulouse.

The museum team understands that to catch unwilling people like me, you should show less and change the collections regularly. So, after a disturbing and noisy underground art video experiment, non sense works and reimagined African arts, I quickly found an interesting thing other than the architecture of the building.

A room with nive large panels reproducing the same picture of a woman, Silvia, in a formal pose. The only difference: nine different colors. Considering art alone, neither the French Wikipédia article on the Swiss artist, nor the empty note at the museum, helped me understood...

Franz Gertsch's artwork note as proposed by the Abattoirs Museum.

Let's get to my philatelic emotion inspired interpretation: the repetition of the same picture, reproduced in the most detailed way possible, and trying to find the finest nuance of color: three of outremer blue... or - more evocative for a French philatelist: vermilion.

Isn't that artwork what postage stamp printers have been working on since 1840? What drive specialised collectors and philatelists since James Lindsay, Earl of Crawford, compiled intelligence on anything related to the issuance and printing of stamps? A question of finding and understanding why there are different shades and accidental colors.

As I observe the nine printings, I remember how a mistaken Prussian blue change the history of some very low value French Sage stamps of 1880, or the lengthy debate about the denomination of the British Machin palette, etc.

After some thoughts, humour arrived with a first season scene from television series Ugly Betty that caricatured the snobbishness of naming every tone of red - a scene replayed in the fourth season. And no, I did not think of the fifty shades of grey at the time...

And as I didn't understand the artist's motivation to mutitply the shades of a photographed portrait, I found it marvellous to the French green/red/blue-violet gradings of the Marianne series to distinguish the weight rates... because we don't light ourselves no more by candlelight and surely wouldn't confuse a five cent stamp very light brown of shade with a 250 gram priority letter one in a redder brown tone, worth three euros more in February 2015.

Conclusion of this contemporary art trip: one hour philatelic contemplation, followed by a two hour walk along the Garonne River. I've known worse with that kind of art. And for free as it was an art festival week-end in Toulouse.