AIRPLANES
AND
AIRMAIL IN SOUTH AFRICA
1911 – 1925
Part Two of Danie van Zyl’s contribution on the origins of airmail concentrates on the development of this service in South Africa. It is an uplifting display of a well-covered subject. Short and succinct, it takes off effortlessly and lands some 48 sheets later carrying no dead weight. Covering the first flights of 1911, the “Our Day” Red Cross Aerial Post of 1918 and the Airmail Experiment of 1925 and complete with photos, ephemera and anecdotes, this punchy display is simply pretty perfect.
FORUM
AIRMAIL
POSTAL HISTORY
As a complement to Danie van Zyl’s display above, there is now a Forum, AIRMAIL COVERS OF SOUTH AFRICA, where you can post your own covers and comment on Danie’s display.
BE A ….
SHOW-OFF!
We have started a monthly cover competition. Winners will receive a “Show-Off of the Month” Certificate. Congratulations to December’s winners, Johan Bezuidenout and Yiannis Lazarides, the first recipients of the rarest award in Philatelydom.
Click here for full details.
NOW SHOWING ON A SCREEN NEAR YOU
UPDATED 13th January 2021
NEW DISPLAYS
If you think that the Post Office Pietermaritzburg Postmark is awesome, the PAID mark is the only one recorded!
THE RARITIES OF
PRE-STAMP NATAL
Unable to show his Natal display to the Royal Philatelic Society London because of the Corona virus restrictions, Keith Klugman kindly offered it to the South African Philately Club. This is a huge honour. Keith’s display is said to be the finest of its kind in the world. You can see it here in two parts, the Rarities of Pre-Stamp Natal, followed by Victorian Natal, below. Keith recently posted a new cover that predates Piet Retief in Natal. Incredible!
Look on his work ye mighty and despair.
The unique ‘Goodricke’ cover with its block of
four embossed 1/- adhesives.
THE STAMPS & COVERS
OF VICTORIAN NATAL
1857 – 1899
The wonderful feast of the “Rarities of Natal” is a mere appertiser for this sumptious 120 page spread of unbelievable philatelic and postal history delights! If you wear a hat, hold onto it. If you do not, hold onto your hair or what is left of it! Hold onto something.
This display is a Knockout!
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
If you want to comment on this website, or have some suggestions for its improvement, please do so via Letters to the Editor.
KING’S HEAD POSTMARKS & CACHETS USED IN SA & SWA
This is the first major update of this Club Collective display. It now includes some new material as well as advice and corrections from a raft of members who have helped to keep the Club boat afloat through these difficult times. My thanks in particular go to Robert Hill, Tony Howgrave-Graham, Hugh Amoore, Alex Visser, Ian Paterson, Roger Porter and Dave Young. Thanks also to Jamie Smith in the backroom.
In producing this display I have drawn on Ralph Putzel’s lead in defining the more common datestamps found on King’s Head stamps. My choice of postmarks and my listing of them may not be to everyone’s liking. Please look on this as an honest first attempt to enter into what is without doubt a postal history minefield. As ever, your advice, corrections and contributions are solicited and welcomed.
NEW RDPSAs
Last month we congratulated Andre du Plessis Chris Board of the SA Collectors’ Society on being invited to sign the “Roll of Distinguished Philatelists of SA”. Perhaps feeling that Chris’ achievements had been under-stated, Paul van Zeyl wrote glowingly of them in his email. “Chris”, he emphasises, has “become part of us. No other foreign RDPSA (except the OFS Study Circle and the A-B War Study Circle doyen, Richard Stroud) can make this claim. May the philatelic deities bless you!”