We were pleased to have a full-house twenty entries in the 2014 One Frame Exhibition. As is usual, the entries covered the gamut of philately, from the very best of one frame exhibits seen in any competition, to presentations by members illustrating areas of their interest without regard to being serious contenders for the top awards. My sincerest thanks are given to all of the exhibitors and members for making this another overflow event. A full list of the exhibits is shown at the end of this report. Steve Reinhard, who managed to find time in his extremely busy and complex schedule, chaired the judge’s panel with the most able assistance of Bill Schultz and Alan Warren who joined us from the depths of Pennsylvania. Once again the judges were presented with a complex conundrum in assigning the awards, and once again they did a most admirable job. In addition to the Grand and Reserve Grand Awards, five Awards of Merit were presented attesting to the strength of the exhibit. The membership voted their choice for the Friendship Cup, which was established a few years ago by member Alan Holyoake of the United Kingdom to celebrate the enduring friendship between the Royal Philatelic Society and the Collectors Club.

Larry Lyons won the 2014 Collectors Club One Frame Exhibition Grand Award for his outstanding exhibit entitled America’s First Stamp Design, The United States City Despatch Post: August 16, 1842 – November 28, 1846. The City Despatch Post is the first adhesive stamp used in the United States, and the first used under the authority of the U.S. Post Office Department. Put simply, this exhibit has every attribute that a one-frame exhibit should have, and rates at the top in every one. Importance, treatment, research, rarity, presentation, etc. are all there and exceptional in every case. As a starter the exhibit begins with the absolutely beautiful and unique first-day cover of the adhesive on August 16, 1842 (Figure 1). That level of strength is maintained throughout the exhibit. Well done Larry! The full title page of Larry’s exhibit is shown in Figure 1a.

The 2014 Reserve Grand Award was received by Alfredo Frohlich for his exhibit entitled Ecuador: SCADTA’s Definitive Airmail Issue of 1929 – 1930. This exhibit represents THE initial (i.e. first ever) study of Ecuador’s definitive airmail surcharge issue. Only fifty covers from this issue have survived and eighteen of the twenty-seven covers in Alfredo’s collection were shown in this exhibit. Again, all of the key attributes necessary for a successful one frame exhibit are present in strength in this exhibit. A First Day Cover from Guayaquil to Barranquilla on August 28, 1928 was show on the first page of the exhibit (Figure 2). The entire first page is shown in Figure 2a.

Don David Price won an Award of Merit for his exhibit The “Jenny”: Evolution of the First U.S. Air Mail Stamp. This is the first time we have seen the inverted Jenny and the new uninverted Jenny sheet shown at the Club (Figure 3). Only one hundred of the latter were printed and many remain to be discovered. Needless to say, the exhibit attracted a lot of attention, and was awarded the Friendship Cup by vote of the membership in attendance. For those who missed seeing this most exciting and exceptional exhibit on American air mail history, I am pleased to note that in will be in the Court of Honor at the Westfield New Jersey Show on March 7, 2015. Additional pages from Don’s collection are shown in Figures 3a and 3b.

Also receiving an Award of Merit was Ron Lesher, The Grand Master of Fiscal Philately, for his exhibit 3.2 Wine – The “Midnight” Compromise: A Fiscal and Commercial History. This exhibit details the history of the payment of the special tax rate for the 1933 compromise 3.2% wine or fermented fruit juice, something that most of us have never heard about. This was a follow-up to 3.2% beer, and Ron has carefully brought together all of the key philatelic fiscal, political and historical elements in this wonderful presentation on the topic. An example of the Fermented Fruit Juice stamp is shown in Figure 4.

Eddie Bridges, one of our newer members who has been working very hard on various Club activities, presented his first Club One Frame Exhibit this year, and received an Award of Merit for Union of South Africa: The Darmstadt Trials of 1929. The exhibit is built around the development of the Union of South Africa’s new 1/2d, 1d and 6d stamps, and their printing on the Goebels Model KM 11 printing press. Figure 5 shows examples of the imperforate ship frame cylinder trials. Clearly Eddie created a very strong impression with his first Club exhibit. As a follow-up, he will be speaking at the Club as part of the 2015 – 2016 program.

Carol Bommarito, one of the members of the Club’s Board of Governors, also received an Award of Merit for her exhibit entitled Trans-Atlantic Treaty Mail From Great Britain to the United States: 1849 – 1867. This exhibit illustrates the many ways the treaty rate was prepaid, and the various routes used for packet mail to the U.S. It also explores the various added fees, penalties and markings applied for added postal services in each country. Figure 6 illustrates one of the two adhesive stamped covers known from the first sailing under the treaty. With this exhibit and the multiframe exhibit which she showed at Hartford, Carol is clearly becoming a formidable force in philately. She will be one of the two Collectors Club of New York speakers at the Collectors Club of Chicago during the 2015 – 2016 philatelic season.

The final Award of Merit was received by Kees Adema for his exhibit Dutch POWs and Internees in Japanese Camps During World War II. This exhibit traces the history of the Dutch Prisoners captured during the Japanese occupation of the Netherlands East Indies via the postal history that has survived from the period. Figures 7 and 7a show an example of a Dutch POW card from Camp Moulmein in 1943, and Figure 7b shows the entire page on which the card is mounted. In his verbal summary presented during the meeting, Kees noted that he hopes that this exhibit will serve as a reminder to especially the younger generations about the tragedy and futility of war.

Clearly we have a group of outstanding exhibits as winners for the 2014 Exhibition. All would be worthy of consideration for a One Frame Grand at a national level show. The program showing the list of all of the entries in the 2014 One Frame Exhibit is shown in Figure 8. And finally, a view of the audience at the Exhibit is shown in Figure 9. It is time to start thinking about the 2015 One Frame Exhibit!