FIRST STEPS

Christmas 1954, my father introduced me to a new game to play on the kitchen table. It was called "stamps". We found a few envelopes, tore of the stamps, soaked them in a bowl of water, dried them ("John, please be patient!"), and then glued them carefully (thick wallpaper paste was easiest) in an old exercise book with lines. Ones with the Queen's head (Wildings) went at the beginning. Others (assumed foreign) went in the second part. A few days later, this lovely lady came into our house (in stamp form, I mean) and became the first foreigner in the collection. A princess, I thought. A year or so later, prised off to be rehoused in my first "Ace" stamp album, she kept the blue lines from where she had been stuck in her first temporary home. And so began a philatelic journey which may sound familiar.

Moving on to 6th-form days, I began a little dealing to augment my collection. I found the address of D. Rosen, wholesale stamps dealers, who offered sheets of c.t.o. stamps for packet makers. Mostly Czech or Hungarian pictorials with a strong thematic flavour, but once they advertised a batch of 50 different Austrian mint stamps, all in sheets of 100.

What a deal! With this face value, I might be a millionaire! Well, of course not, but a good lesson in inflation, junk currency, and economics.

Later, as a student, I rented a room in the house of John Heu, a painter, who had arrived with his mother in England as a refugee from Austria in the dark days of 1938. His father had also been a sculptor, and their house in York was well marinaded in the flavours of artistic Vienna of the pre-war years. A fascinating dark portrait adorned the hall; I later learned it was an early (original) Klimt. So, snippets of Austrian culture constantly slipped into my stay of two years and that background has really helped in studying the history of Austrian stamps.

Taking a dealer stand at the 1981 WIPA international exhibition in Vienna was another milestone with happy memories. So, Austria, like the "Riesenrad" wheel of "The Third Man" fame, has kept turning, and always adds an interesting part to my life. Something new to learn every year!

For those of you would would also like to learn more and meet other collectors of Austrian stamps, I suggest joining the Austrian Philatelic Society. Members receive a journal covering all aspects from prestamp to new issues, a library, meetings, and from time to time, an auction.
Membership Secretary there is Nick Coverdale, 38 Hillcrest. Whitehaven, Cumbria CA28 6ST. Email : membership@austrianphilately.com