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A few weeks ago, Rainer von Scharpen presented a second, enlarged edition of his Handbook and Catalogue.

In 2010, the author published the first edition of his work under the title Perfins of Bavaria, and even then the figures were impressive. The 555 pages contained images of around 650 perforations, showing both the front and back, as well as more than 1,000 documents. The texts were in French, English and German. At IPHLA 2012 in Mainz, the major international exhibition of philatelic literature, this work was awarded a Large Vermeil Medal with special prize.

Now, 15 years after the first edition, which has long been out of print, a second edition is available. According to the author, it has been extensively revised and enlarged to 477 + III pages, is now completely in colour, again in A4 format, and contains over 650 perfins with illustrations from the front and back, and also features over 500 documents (cards, envelopes) with letterheads.

The secret behind the remarkable increase in information despite the reduced number of pages is easy to discover when you take a closer look at both books: the new edition was professionally typeset and designed by an expert (Dietmar Schmitz). This not only made it possible to significantly reduce the number of pages required but also to include new content. The French translation of the introductory chapters also fell victim to the red pen. In return, two new chapters were added: postal stationery cards with embossed addresses as perfin forerunners, and company address cancels applied to pre-cancel square-number stamps as perfin precursors.

However, the most significant innovation is probably the elaborate integration of lexical data and facts on the history of the companies that created the perforations, with which the author aims to establish a link to contextual (social) philately. This is undoubtedly a truly valuable improvement, especially since thanks to partial funding by the ArGe Bayern (classic), the new reduced retail price of €89 for the book, now produced as a hardcover, makes it affordable not only for collectors of (Bavarian) perfins, but also for local history collectors with an interest in history. Access to the contents is made easy by detailed German and English indexes for names and companies, places inside and outside Bavaria, topics and stamp issues. This work can be recommended without reservation and is also likely to be a handbook catalogue that will play an important role in future exhibitions and/or literature awards.

Key details: DIN A4 format, 480 pages, colour, hardcover, retail price €89 plus shipping costs. Orders should be sent to the author, Rainer von Scharpen, Tucholskyweg 5,
55127 Mainz, tel. 0 61 31/7 17 27, email: rainervonscharpen@t-online.de.

[text by Wolfgang Maassen RDP]

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