WIPA 1933 Philatelic Exhibition

This piece of research began as a small article on the WIPA labels of 1933. But like ‘Topsy’, it grew! I was pleased to discover that the RSPV Library is fortunate in owning two of the very detailed WIPA catalogues (figs.2 and 3). These may well have been brought back by our very own Purves, who attended and displayed at the exhibition, details of which are presented below.

Fig. 2. WIPA Exhibition catalogue

The main catalogue (fig.2) runs to a few hundred pages! This article will look at some of the stamps and other material issued at WIPA 1933 and I have included some detailed eyewitness reports of the exhibition. Such primary sources are a very useful tool to the historian for they give us a contemporaneous view. Owing to space and other concessions, I have had to be quite ruthless in selecting the material presented.

Fig. 3. WIPA Exhibition catalogue

The first Vienna International Philatelic Exhibition had been held in 1881. Due to the First World War and confusions of the post-war period, over fifty years had elapsed before another could be held. WIPA 1933 took place from 24 June to 9 July and became an enormous social event. Vienna was at that time centre of the philatelic world. The opening of the show was personally made by Federal President Wilhelm Miklas (fig.1).

Fig. 1. Federal President of Austria Wilhelm Miklas

Visitors from numerous countries of Europe and even from America were brought in special trains and tour groups. Visitors from Germany were largely absent, as Hitler had briefly before imposed the tourist trade “Thousand Mark Barrier” against Austria. Nonetheless, in the 16 days it ran, 42,000 visitors saw the exhibition.

As I have already said, my initial interest in this exhibition derived from the splendid vignettes featuring postal transportation. These would enhance many a thematic collection! These issues were designed by acclaimed sculptor/stamp designer Ludwig Hesshaimer (1872-1956). He was a prominent stamp designer of the period and I include a couple of his essays for the Iceland Opening of Parliament in 1930 (fig.4) and example of one of his sculptures (fig.5), and painting (fig.6) to give you an idea of his work. It should be noted that he was also chairman of the exhibition committee.

Fig. 5. Ludwig Hesshaimer sculpture

Fig. 6. Ludwig Hesshaimer painting “Sarayewo 1910”

The vignettes are superb Art Déco examples of Hesshaimer’s craft. The first issue was in ten different colours: violet, claret, red, orange, light green, dark green, dark blue, light blue, brown and grey, but these soon sold out. A second issue was then released in ten colours: bright violet, lilac, vermilion, olive-green, emerald-green, azure, dark blue, black, red-brown and carmine brown. There are 10 designs:

Figs. 7a – 7j

1. Klapper post – postman on foot, with rattle (Fig.7a)
2. Postman on horseback (Fig.7b)
3. Horse drawn mail coach (Fig.7c)
4. Sailing ship (Fig.7d)
5. Ocean liner (Fig.7e)
6. Steam train (Fig.7f)
7. Motor charabanc (Fig.7g)
8. Flying boat (Fig.7h)
9. Zeppelin (Fig.7i)
10. Rocket – experimental mail carrying rocket flights had already taken place in Austria in 1931. (Fig.7j)

They were available at the price of 0.20 Austrian shillings per set and sold at the Office of the WIPA, with a number of WIPA propaganda offices abroad and larger towns of Austria. Approximately 1½ million copies were sold. A small number of sets were left in imperforate and used in conjunction with a special album designed by the artist to persons donating at least an amount .50 Austrian shillings.

There were three exhibition buildings: the Secession Hall (fig.8), the Artists House (Künstler Haus fig.9) and postcard with special cancellation (fig.10) and the Military Casino.  Eight hundred collections, at that time a very high number for such exhibitions, were shown. In addition, numerous congresses, society journeys, special flights (fig.11), special ship posts, etc. were organised.  Moreover 12 other philatelic congresses took place simultaneously and 17 postal administrations were present. Nine stamp printers placed printing machines and other documents on the premises.

Fig.8. Sezession (The Succession Hall)

Fig. 9. The Künstler Haus (Artists House)

Fig.10. Postcard with special cancellation

Fig. 11. Souvenir card for Kronfeld Glider Flights

The Austrian State Printers set up printing machines in the Secession. There before the eyes of the visitors they produced and distributed to the public reprints of the first Austrian newspaper stamps, the famous “Merkure”, in panes of 16 stamps and nine different colours (fig.12).

Fig. 12. Half-sheets of all nine colours of the “Merkure” reprints

Austria Post issued a special semi-postal stamp for the Exhibition, once again designed by Hesshaimer, reproducing part of a famous painting by Moritz von Schwind, to the postal value of 50 groschen was added the same amount for charity, plus 1.60 shillings for admission to the exhibition. The stamp was printed on both ordinary paper and fibre paper. In addition the stamp was issued as a souvenir sheet containing a block of four stamps, which differ from the ordinary stamps in their perforations (fig.13). This has always been a highly sought-after item and has been re-printed in recent times.

Fig. 13. Souvenir sheet containing a block of four

There is a first-hand report of WIPA by Sir John Wilson, the Vice-President of the Royal Philatelic Society, London at the time.

I think it is worthwhile reproducing sections of the lengthy report as it is an eyewitness account of the exhibition and primary sources are always valuable.

“In attempting a report on the Vienna Exhibition, it is only right to open with the observation that anything that appears in these notes is purely a matter of personal opinion, and does not pretend to express any collective view, and in particular the view of the jury, of which I was a member.

The organisers of the WIPA had prepared their way with possibly the biggest publicity campaign, which has ever preceded the actual opening of an exhibition, and with this campaign they were successful in attracting to Vienna an extraordinarily representative body of collectors, dealers and experts, and an equally representative series of the world’s best collections.

I was unfortunately unable to arrive early enough to attend the opening century, but I have the authority of our American friend Mr. Alfred Lichtenstein, for stating that it was very effectively carried out. The President of the Austrian Republic and many other notabilities delivered addresses. There was a splendid programme of music and the WIPA exhibition opened with a “bang.”

The mounting of the exhibits could scarcely have been improved. All the frames were set up vertically in bays in the middle of the rooms, and in line around the walls; the glass fronts were screwed home and in many incidences apart from the pages mounted in the frames there were glass-topped cases attached to the exhibits which were capable of holding extra pages or volumes. In any view this was a new idea of great value to the Jury, and, provided the expense is not prohibitive, I recommend it confidently for future adoption. It is possible for members of the Jury to consult material in the cases at the same time as the material in the frames and it avoids the objectionable practice of having to refer to a possibly distant storeroom, instead of dealing with the whole collection at one given moment. The cases were closed and could only be opened by a member of the Jury. I think it was the general view that the organisation had been very successful of their frames. None of the stamps were mounted too high or too low for examination; the lighting was a near perfection as one could hope, and at the same time it was never permitted to be strong enough to involve stamps in any risk of fading or damage.

The order and arrangement of exhibits was, with a few exceptions, quite first class and each room contained special arrangements of stamp designs mounted on the walls above the frames to illustrate what country or group of the exhibits was in that particular room and one could obtain in general, a very good idea of what was contained in any given room by a quick glance at these enlargements. The last-moment withdrawal of a few mid-European collections occasionally involved the authorities in a series of empty frames, which had been reserved for their display. These frames were filled with other material as far as possible to avoid blanks but this was practically the only exception to the general scheme of perfectly ordered and continuous arrangement.

The exhibits in the competitive exhibition were arranged on two floors of the Künstler Haus, and the Government exhibits were arranged in a separate building, the Sezession; this section of the building also contained the special prizes which had been donated, of which there were a large quantity, and in addition, the Post Office of the Exhibition, and the plant for printing the sample stamps were housed there.”

Wilson goes on to describe numerous exhibits. However, I thought it would be of particular interest to our readers to read of the Australasian exhibits.

“In the Australian section Mr. Bernhard helped the Exhibition authorities not a little. His specialised collection of New South Wales was in the honour class. Mr. Bernhard does not specialise the plating, so that this collection can hardly be considered for the highest award, but it contains very fine copies, pairs, etc., of the early stamps. His New Zealands, Queenslands, South Australias, Tasmanias and Victorias were grouped for one award.

Mr. Bernhard would be the first to admit that none of these have quite reached the standard where they can compete for a gold medal on their own, but they are becoming very important collections. In New Zealand he has a mint pair of the 1d. London Print, and the 1s. blue-green, unwatermarked, unused, with a fine lot of used stamps. In Queensland, pairs of the imperf. stamps and the finest mint 1d. clean cut, known to me. His South Australians and Tasmanians are both full of rare and fine stamps. In Tasmania the penny 1d. blue is represented by a strip of four, and he has the 4d. on laid paper. The Jury intended a note to recommend that these collections which were grouped for an award were not intended for the future to be excluded from the honour class. His Western Australians have reached a standard of completeness where they may stand on their own. His finest pieces are the complete sheet of the 4d. lithographed, and the famous inverted frame.

Mr. Theo. Steinway showed New South Wales very complete for plating in a high standard of condition. The collection is possibly weak in unused for supreme award purposes but I particularly admired some of his classic issues and noticeably his 8d. diadems on covers.

Mr. R. Wedmore has a small but very select exhibit of South Australia. He only takes the stamps in superlative condition, nearly all used, and if one does this in South Australia the exhibit must necessarily be small. He has a very noticeable piece in a strip of six of the 1d., imperforate, Colonial printing, on an envelope.

Mr. Owen C. Limmer showed a collection of Cook Islands, including a plating study of the first type and some new work on the setting of the provisional overprints. He proved himself a very good philatelist in the way in which he handled this little country.

In the research work on the Australian stamps, Mr. J.W.R. Purves of Australia had exhibits of New Zealand Pictorial issue of 1898-1907; New Zealand Postage Due stamps of 1899-1902; Tasmanian Pictorials, 1899-1912, and Victoria, 6d., 1862-65 and the issues of 1863-64. Mr. Purves’ work on these surface-printed stamps is widely known and universally admired in this country, and as most of his results of his researches have been published I do not propose to deal with these collections in detail. It only remains for me to add that his collections are on par with his research.

Mr. Geo.Ginger. showed his well-known specialised study of the New South Wales postmarks on the Sydney Views.

Finally we must not omit M. Théodore Champion’s exhibit of the rarities of the British Colonies in Australia; with very few exceptions, all his stamps were in mint condition. His New Zealands included the London prints, the thick unwatermarked papers Star and N Z papers in complete sets and the finest set of pelures in brilliant unused state, including the 3d. value, that I have ever seen. His Queenslands included the 2d. imperforate in mint condition with sheet margin, his Victorias, a good representative lot of the half-lengths, and his South Australias a very complete series, including the classic early stamps, the high values of the middle issues, and a really beautiful lot of the Departmentals. His Tasmanias included perfect mint copies of the early Perkins Bacon types and a 4d. on laid paper.

Some difficulty appears to exist on the Continent with reference to the London Prints of New Zealand on white paper; when most experts are satisfied that the 2d. value only exists on white paper through atmospheric or chemical action; it is not possible to show the stamps in unused condition, and even M. Champion has slipped up on this stamp. The same applies to the 1s. value.”

I hope this have given you a birds-eye view of the WIPA and its many points of interest.

Bibliography

The London Philatelist – July 1933

Stamp Collecting – 17 June 1933

Alphabetilately – www.alphabetilately.com (Developed William Senkus)

HOG Kronstadt – http://www.hog-kronstadt.de/l_hessh.html (Uwe Konst)

Siebenbürgische Zeitung Online – http://www.siebenbuerger.de/sbz/sbz/news/1017134995,69409,.html (Wilgerd Nagy)

Allegro – http://idg.allegro.pl/show_item.php?item=71062505

The Rail Philatelist – http://www.railphilatelist.com/cinderellas.htm

New York Chapter of the U.S. Philatelic Classics Society – http://www.nystamp.org/Intertwining%20Part%208.html

Internationale Postwertzeichen Ausstellung Wien 1933 (Handbook)

Internationale Postwertzeichen Ausstellung Wien 1933 (Katalog)