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Jonas Hällström, editor-in-chief of the Swedish Nordisk Filateli, has sent us details about two new publications (special issues 10 and 11) recently produced and released by the magazine.

Christer Brunström writes:

Special Issue 10: The Mouritsen Family Collections

In today’s world, we often strive for synergies which simply explained means that collaboration between different activities can be of mutual advantage for all parties concerned. Perhaps this is a suitable term when describing the way Iva and Henrik Mouritsen have been so successful in building first class philatelic exhibits through collaboration and common use of knowledge and economic resources.

Synergy is furthermore the key word when describing Special Issue no. 10 of Nordisk Filateli. It was produced with the dual purpose of serving as a handout to the audience of the couple’s presentation of their collections at the Royal Philatelic Society London on 30 March 2023 and as a publication in its own right. This explains why this special issue of the Swedish magazine is in English.

Special Issue 11: Stamps in Love

Using the post to court someone has a very long history and particularly so in the Anglo-Saxon world. Already towards the end of the 18th century, guides were published to help writers of Valentine cards to compose suitable poetic messages. It has been reported that in England in 1835 no less than 60,000 Valentine messages were distributed by the GPO despite the rather high postal rates at the time. The 1840 postal reforms with cheap penny postage led to a considerable increase in the amount of Valentine cards. In 1841 all of 400,000 such cards were handled by the British Post Office. After 1840 it was possible to mail cards with amorous greetings completely anonymously which of course was a great advantage for the shyer letter writers. Starting around 1890 picture postcards became enormously popular and sending and collecting these cards soon developed into a cheap and popular activity.

It was in connection with this that Swedish philatelist and deltiologist Per Gustafson (PG) decided to make a special study of the romantic “Language of Stamps”, something which attracted many followers during the pre-World War I picture postcard craze. The results of his collecting activities form the basis of his five-frame exhibit suitably titled Stamps in Love – The Secret Language of Stamps on Pre-WWI Postcards which is also the name of Special Issue No. 11 of Nordisk Filateli, a major Nordic philatelic magazine.

More by Christer Brunström on the special issues and details on how to order:
https://fepanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Filateli_sp_issues.pdf