Diana Left For Work,

just after 09.00AM

for myself after my exercises, shower and breakfast, it was stamp time! today I was starting on my collection of stamps that were printed for the yearly philatelic congress as souvenirs, also for some individual exhibitions, many of the stamps were unique to that particular congress, some of them showcased the engravers art in the design, above the 1897 souvenir stamp,

these from the 1899 congress looking like the artwork was used for the Rover car badge, the prow or bow of the ship heading straight towards you, or perhaps it was the other way around and the congress copied the car badge?

in any event I owned a Rover many years ago, and most unreliable it was too, but that's another story!

on to the 1910 congress, unusual for no other reason that this is the only stamp or souvenir that shows Queen Victoria facing to the right, all other issues show the Queen facing to the left,

I have a few sheets of each colour from the 1911 congress,

these triangular stamps from the 1912 Margate congress I particularly like, some years after collecting a sheet of card with 18 stamps on it, I became curious, the stamps were printed in purple and gold, for some reason I kept thinking about the stamps in purple being some how a royal colour, also despite looking at all of the shops and shows I could find, every other colour combination was common enough, but I was never offered a gold and purple stamp, so I sent a scan of the card to Colin Searle, who is a judge for the Association of British Philatelic Societies,

and above is the reply I received,

the letter referred to from Bellamy and Darlow, where it states, "The proof in gold and purple has been specially printed for His Majesty's use, and is the only impression made in this form",

and a copy of the letter from Buckingham Palace, no mention of 18 stamps printed in purple and gold, how exciting, as Colin mentioned in his email, "Maybe the item never got to the King and you have the copy destined for Him while he just had a pair!. Who knows?"

here is the sheet, who would have thought all of those years ago when I bought the card it would have such a history? by now it was late in the afternoon and I was getting brain fade, also it was nearly time for my evening meal,

for tonight salmon, with chicken pate and dry toast, I spent the evening watching 2 Midsomer Murders,

just before 10.00 in the evening Diana called so down to the 162 bus stop,

and back home for our walk past some of the houses in the park, next for us, feet up for a New Tricks before we were off to bed.