Museum Stamp Room To Open On August 22

Press, Volume C, Issue 29517, 19 May 1961, Page 13

Museum Stamp Room To Open On August 22

The Canterbury Museum will open its new Rhodes stamp room on August 22 to concide with the New Zealand National Philatelic Exhibition to be held in Christchurch. This was reported to the Museum Trust Board yesterday by the acting-director (Mr E. G. Turbott). The stamp room, at the rear of the upper floor of the centennial memorial wing, overlooks the McDougall Art Gallery. In it would be displayed series of stamps drawn mainly from the notable collections which had come into the possession of the museum. Mr Turbott said. In addition to the wellknown collection of New Zealand and Pacific islands stamps formed by the late Sir R. Heaton Rhodes, these included the Wilfrid Peers air mail collection, the Mallouk collection on Syria and Lebanon, and the Ferrier loan collection on Great Britain. Preparation of the museum exhibitions had long been planned by the honorary custodian of stamps (Mr S. R. Dacre) and he was now drawing help from members of the four philatelic societies in Christchurch, said Mr Turbott. Mr Dacre said afterwards that the plan for a stamp room at the museum had a long history. Enthusiasts had always hoped for a secure centre where special collections could be housed and displayed for study by philatelists and examination by the public. After the Canterbury Philatelic Exhibition in 1950. a profit of about £4OO was given to the Museum Trust Board as a fund for’ such a room. Mr Wilfrid Peers and the Rhodes estate each provided another £lOO. and Mrs A. W. Cousens gave a stamp case worth more than £lOO as a memorial to her husband. I The i display cases would be

a feature of the room. Mr Dacre said philatelists believed they would be the finest available anywhere in the world. The principle was that stamps would be displayed in vertical glass slides contained in security cabinets. The British Museum had vertical wooden slides. Mr Dacre said. The novelty’ about the Canterbury pattern was in a locking device which prevented any slide being left out and the stamns exposed unduly to perishing light. Each cabinet would take 80 slides each holding eight standard sheets of stamps. Mr Dacre said Christchurch philatelic societies knew of collectors overseas planning visits to New Zealand to coincide with the exhibition in August. The comprehensive and valuable Rhodes collection of 15 volumes was internationally known. The Peers collection included air mail covers signed by many of the world's greatest pioneer aviators and included a complete collection of Kinesford Smith covers. The Mallouk collection covered issues in the area where New Zealand forces served at the end of the First World War. The Ferrier loan collection on Great Britain, in effect, traced the whole history of stamps. Mr Dacre said'all philatelists would be delighted that the Rhodes stamp room was soon to be opened.