VIII. PPCP meeting

The Hana and Edvard Beneš villa in Sezimovo Ústí and Hotel Nautilus in Tábor

Dear friends of philately, members of the PRESTIGE PHILATELY CLUB PRAGUE (hereinafter referred to as “PPCP or the club”) and visitors to the PPCP website, on September 12, 2022, an event was held at The Hana and Edvard Beneš villa in Sezimovo Ústí and at the Nautilus Hotel in Tábor. The majority of the club has been present for the eighth time for such a festive meeting of members and also important guests. The program of this work-educational meeting was various.

The meeting started informally at 3:30 pm on the premises of The Villa, which was built between 1930 and 1931 according to the design of the architect Petr Kropáček. The members of the club were present there together with the mayor of Sezimovo Ústí, Mgr. Ing. Martin Doležal, LL.M and the deputy mayor of the city, Mrs. Ludmila Svatková. The club in cooperation with Mr. PhDr. Pavel Carbol, Ph.D. – a historian, a leading specialist in contemporary Czechoslovak history and the chairman of the Edvard Beneš Society – was honored to visit the aforementioned villa and tour it with Mr Carbol’s expert historical commentary. What must be said is that this unique visit was preceded by long negotiations and the issue of a special permit from the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic. After light refreshments and a walk around the villa, the visitors moved to the close by Hotel Nautilus, where the VIII. club meeting started at 7 p.m. Due to the previous schedule, the traditional meeting of the PPCP Committee was not held.

The meeting was opened by the club’s president, JUDr. Tomáš Mádl, who introduced the members to the meeting’s program and also introduced the distinguished guests such as: Mr. Mgr. David Gabriel, sales director of JURIS REAL, Ltd., owner of a Prague construction company and potential new member of the PPCP, Mr. Jiří Stošek, owner of the philatelic store Philately‑Hobby Praha and auction house Filatelie-Stošek Ltd., the already mentioned PhDr. Pavel Carbol, Ph.D. and František Horniak, engraver of Slovak postage stamps.

Planned exhibitions

The first important point was PPCP’s participation in planned exhibitions.

The first of the exhibitions is the European exhibition LIBEREC 2022, which will be hosted by the Babylon hotel in Liberec from October 13 to 16, 2022. The exhibition will be attended by representatives from FIPA and FEPA, which has a congress planned in Liberec at the time of the exhibition. The congress makes the exhibition probably the most important philatelic event organized in the Czech Republic this year. For this reason, it is logical that members of the PPCP pay due patriotic attention and preparedness for the exhibition. In this regard, the club and its members – namely D. Kopřiva, V. Vaníček, T. Mádl, P. Valošek, P. Severín, Z. Filípek, J. Stuna and P. Flaška – provided the organizer of the exhibition with generous financial means.

However, at the beginning of the meeting, a discussion was stirred up by the members of the Czech Philatelists’ Association, who in the form of a letter expressed their disapproval of the PPCP having their exhibits in the original PPCP frames at the event. The conflict was resolved by the L22 organizing committee, allowing PPCP to exhibit in the frames. The club will also have its advertising roll-up at the exhibition.

Jiří Kraus assured the members that the entire exhibition’ spaces will be provided with a shadowy light that will meet the demanding philatelic requirements in terms of brightness and sensitivity to destruction of the rarities. Mr Kraus also added that members who are interested in visiting the exhibition and finding an accommodation, should contact his assistant for quick and smooth arrangements, using the e-mail address zuzana.kunaskova@liberec2022.cz.

Another discrepancy is the number of frames, which was 11at the end of the meeting. The club should have had more frames, given the content of the exhibits and the considerable financial donations (see above) the exhibition received from the club and its members.

List of exhibits (2+9):
1. 2 frames in the court of honor: Tomáš Mádl – Mauritius’
1. Tomáš Mádl – British Guiana
2. Petr Valošek – Glasgow Error
3. Zdeněk Matějovský – blocks of stamps
4. Postal Museum + Zdeněk Filípek – 80+100 Block Mercury
5. Pavol Lazar + Friedrich Winter – 1st issue of the stamps in the world
6. Miloš Hauptman – butterflies
7. Stanislav Havlíček – 1st correspondence card
8. Lubor Kunc – legionnaires
9. Peter Severin – Postal history of Slovakia

Replacement Exhibits:
1. Martin Němeček – German colonies
2. Pavol Lazar –Nitra

The second of the exhibitions is the “Bratislava” BRATISLAVAFILA 2023, which will be held between June 1 and 4, 2023. It is a national philatelic exhibition with international participation. Pavol Lazar reminded the members again that the exhibition will be especially suitable for exhibitors who would like to confirm or increase the qualification of their exhibits, as all exhibitor groups and classes will be open. However, it still applies that foreign participation is only for invited exhibits after prior agreement with Pavol Lazar. The deadline for submitting applications for exhibition is January 31, 2023.

Mr Lazar stated that the exhibition will be organized under the patronage of the Ministry of Transport and Construction of the Slovak Republic and that it will take place in the Slovak National Museum. Apart from Slovak Post, one of the main partners of the event is the Czech entrepreneur, philatelist and PPCP member, Petr Flaška, who will be in charge of organizing a hall auction with 300 to 400 auction items during 2.5 hours. The number of 20 exhibits that Vindobona will deliver to the exhibition’s court of honor is also new. The club is considering lending Vindobona the PPCP’s representative frames, therefore they can exhibit their rarities more neatly – it is currently under negotiation.

Pavol Lazar also announced the launch of the exhibition website at the end of September, where an overview of possible financial contributions will be listed, which will be welcomed by the organising committee. PPCP will exhibit its rarities, as not all people had visited the world exhibition PRAGUE 2018 or BIENNALE 2020, so the imaginary “recycling of exhibits” will not be a problem. The club also tentatively agreed that during the duration of the exhibition another club meeting could take place.

Another very important point of the meeting was the preparation for the Biennale 2023. The date of the event was preliminarily set for October 27 to November 3 (max. 7-10 days). Mr Jiří Střecha is intensively negotiating with the management of the National Museum about the possibility of holding the exhibition in this building. In contrast to the first year, the exhibition would be held in the darkening courtyards or lecture halls of the National Museum, as permanent exhibitions have settled in the exhibition halls. Tomáš Mádl pointed out the fact that the National Museum can charge energy fees and general fees in the event of lower exhibition attendance, which would logically be paid by the club. PPCP is interested in creating new promotional material, however, creating a new catalog would be very difficult – therefore, for example, an addendum to the mentioned catalog and a new “version” of the popular black print would be preferred. The ambition to sell the remaining promotional goods, i.e. catalogues, stamps and commemorative sheets, is still ongoing. The club is also considering the establishment of cooperation with Slovak Post or Club de Monte-Carlo. For the moment, it is important to propose a financial plan and budget, specify the name of the exhibition, which for the time being is Treasures of World Philately II/ 2023, and specify the exhibits which would be exhibited.

 

Life of the Club

The final talking point of the meeting concerned the information about PPCP’s activities. Tomáš Mádl proposed a continuation of the collaboration with the Edvard Beneš Society, in the form of organizing a smaller 3-4 day-long exhibition in the Lobkowicz Palace at Prague Castle.
Vít Vaníček invited the members of the club to his professional seminar on the topic of the FIP Philately Competition and the European Postage Stamp Exhibition Liberec 2022, which will be held on November 3 from 4 p.m. in the 00-15 Club.

The members were invited by Jiří Střecha to a charity concert to support the restoration of Ukrainian historical sights destroyed by Russian war-aggression. The concert takes place on Thursday, September 29 in the Municipal House in Prague from 8:00 p.m. One frame with Petr Valošek’s exhibit could be displayed in the foyer of the Municipal House.
PPCP members also agreed on the date of the Christmas party, which will be held on Thursday, December 15, 2022 in the Alchymist Hotel (Prague Hall) with musical accompaniment by Martin Vaverka and Markéta Bednářová.

The members of the club have a lot of work to do, in regard to the approaching exhibitions which will be held in Liberec, Bratislava, or of course in Prague (Biennale 2023). It is not only about making the PRESTIGE PHILATELY CLUB PRAGUE more visible, but above all to properly promote philately itself, which has always been a natural link among all citizens in the world, in good times and bad.

for the PPCP website Mgr. Petr Jezdinský with notes by Hana Fenclová