PRAGA
Stamp Exhibitions
Lubor Kunc (lubor.kunc@seznam.cz)
Everybody knows, that world
philatelic exhibition PRAGA 2008 is coming in quite short time. To be concrete,
it has been scheduled for Sept.
12 – 14, 2008 at Vystaviste Holesovice. To is excellent opportunity to remember
all the previous PRAGA exhibitions. Don’t expect a lot of text and memories, I
enjoyed only two of them, and my goal is not to provide you with a lot of
information describing each and every of the events. I tend to show you stamps
and covers relating to the individual exhibitions to show differences in
Czech/Czechoslovak philately in various periods and of course also different
stamp collecting attitudes.
The PRAGA exhibitions were
not the first one occurred in on Czech territory. The first exhibitions come to
19th century, where the general exhibitions contained a philatelic
corner, where the first stamp collectors displayed their treasures. This
situation lasted almost up to the first war – in 1914 the first competitive
stamp exhibition was open in
Fig.
1
The first PRAGA exhibition
was organized in 1938 (fig. 2). This was the largest stamp
event of all the history of Czechoslovak first republic (1918-1939) attracting
a lot of attention not only in
Fig.
2 – registered letter sent from PRAGA 1938 exhibition
The second war interrupted
the chain of PRAGA events. At that time nobody knew, if any future PRAGA stamp
show will be organized or not. The German occupants allowed a philatelic life
during the first years of war only, but immediately when a shortage of material
arose, the philately was one of the first areas, where the specialized
newspapers were stopped to save paper. Many of collectors disappeared or were
killed in concentrations camps, the Jewish collections were nationalized by
Deutsches Reich and the normal collectors usually tried to get food and textile
for own families, so the philately was not topic of the day. Also first
post-war years were not right time for organizing large stamp shows – but some
exhibitions were organized, e.g. 1946 stamp show in
First in 1950 the PRAHA
exhibition was organized. It was a bit curious event, because the communist
regime supported philately as hobby for working class, therefore only the
joined exhibits of trade union philatelic clubs were allowed for PRAHA. This
change was not accepted by the visitors and stamp collectors, so it was the
only event where such rules were valid. From the next exhibitions, the exhibits
of individual collectors were displayed again. Feeling of that time nicely illustrates
transition of “PRAGA” to “PRAHA” to “translate” the exhibition name from Latin
to Czech language. The official reason was fact, that PRAHA 1950 was only the
national stamp exhibition open for Czech and Slovak exhibitors.
Fig.
3 - Block of four of Czechoslovak stamps
celebrating the PRAHA 1950 exhibition
The change of international
political situation after Stalin´s death in 1953 followed by end of the Korean
War was accompanied with organization of new PRAGA 1955 exhibition. The name of
the exhibition was changed back to PRAGA, it was again organized as
international stamp show
Fig.
4 - A registered letter franked with PRAGA souvenir sheet of 1955
The PRAGA 1962 was totally
different event changing not only history of the Czechoslovak philately, but
influencing the world philately. This was the first exhibition awarded with
title “world philatelic exhibition”. Collectors coming from the entire world
really took part in the exhibition showing many rarities. In frame of the
exhibition, the Association of Philatelic Journalists (A.I.J.P. ; see also
http:www.aijp.org) was created. This organization does exist still now and
unites philatelic writers and journalists without respect to their origin
country or way, how they
publish their articles. And finally, the exhibition had huge impact on
Czechoslovak philately, because the first philatelic commissions were
established within the Union of Czechoslovak Philatelists. The commission cared
for development of area of their interests and they were quickly followed by
establishing of philatelic sections uniting collectors researching the same
philatelic area (e.g. the Polish stamps, stamps of the UNO and USA etc.). The
first commissions established in 1962 were the Postal History Commission
followed soon by Traditional Philately Commission and Topical Philately
Commission.
Fig.
5 – Envelope cancelled at the PRAGA 1962 exhibition
The next PRAGA 1968
exhibition was organized in year, which influenced the Czechoslovak history in
large extend because of Soviet
occupation of our country. The politically hot atmosphere of that time had
no negative impact on the exhibition (organized 2 months earlier), which was
visited by many foreign exhibitors and visitors incl. group of members of Society
for Czechoslovak Philately. Quality of displayed exhibits was very high,
excellent exhibit was introduced by
Fig.
6 – Souvenirs from PRAGA 1968: postal envelope cancelled at congress of
postal historians and card carried by postal balloon flying on route Milin -
Prague
After the exhibition it was
decided to keep the traditional approach to organize the PRAGA exhibitions each
decade in the year finishing with 8. The rule is valid until now giving us
chance to enjoy the PRAGA exhibition this year. The next was PRAGA 1978
exhibition, which tried to continue in success of the previous exhibitions.
This goal was not fully reached, but the exhibition still showed the good
exhibits.
Fig.
7 – A registered and express cover
addressed to Mr. Svarc, chairman of the organizational committee of PRAGA 1978
Fig.
8 – Philatelic souvenir of FIP day organized during PRAGA 1978 exhibition
The next PRAGA 1988 exhibition
was not a normal stamp show, but a mega event. It was the largest PRAGA
exhibition of all times showing many, many philatelic rarities of world
philately. The reason for this size was the state support to philately following
the election of Mr. Dvoøáèek to the FIP
President. FIP was the only international organization consisting of both
Western and Eastern countries, where the chairman comes from an Eastern block
country. It was something special also
because of its atmosphere – the exhibition was the main reason for my decision
to become a stamp collector … .
Fig.
9 - Postcard sent via balloon mail on
route
Fig.
10 – Pictured postcard sent by visitor of the PRAGA 1988 exhibition to the
Fig.
11 – Official envelope of PRAGA 1988 organizational committee properly franked with Czechoslovak postage due stamp in
function of definative one
It was obvious, that the
communist regime is not so strong, because the exhibition was very open also
for Western collectors. Something unbelievable was trading with UNO stamps
issued by its
Fig.
12 – An exhibition ticket with affixed
Finnish stamp and special cancellation prepared for PRAGA 1988 by Finnish
postal administration
The world PRAGA 1988
exhibition was accompanied with a smaller event introducing the best exhibits
in
Fig.
13 – Envelope sent by organizational committee of
The last PRAGA exhibition was
prepared in 1998. It was totally different to the previous ones – especially
because the change of regime meant that state didn’t pay special subsidies to
the Czech philatelic movement and the exhibition costs must be shared among
stamp collectors and postal exhibition. Therefore the stamp show was much
smaller in its extent in comparison to the PRAGA 1988 one, but it was very nice
celebration of philately. This was a real exhibition prepared by philatelists
for philatelists. The exhibition was
accompanied with Congress of Collectors of Czechoslovak and Czech stamps (fig.
15).
Fig.
14 – Postcard prepared for a coach mail
delivery service organized within PRAGA 98
Fig.
15 – Postcard promoting the collector’s congress
And finally, our PRAGA 2008
exhibition is here! However the exhibition has not been yet opened, there is plenty
of philatelic material we can illustrate it.
First, the commemorative stamps and postcards issued by Czech Postal
Administration (fig. 16 / 17) are nice promoters of the show. Second, the Main
Post Office at Jindrisska ulice in
Fig.
16 – Ledeburska zahrada souvenir sheet issued in 2008 with signatures of its
authors
Fig.
17 – Postcard showing the Veletrzni palac, where the PRAGA 2008 to be held
Fig.
18 - Letter to
More details about the coming
PRAGA world exhibition to be found at www.praga2008.cz .
You can also combine the trip with visiting the WIPA 2008 (European exhibition;
see www.wipa08.com) scheduled for the second half
of September to easily compare, which of the exhibitions shows better exhibits.
The PRAGA exhibition is accompanied with large Sberatel / Collector European Fair
organized on the same site. This is a traditional event existing since 1997,
which open for deals of stamps, phone cards, coins and minerals. The detailed
information about the fair are displayed at
www.sberatel.info .
By using the business
vocabulary: YOU GET THREE FOR ONE!
In normal words I would say: you enjoy two exhibitions + one fair within one
trip. This is beautiful, isn’t?!
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