Philexfrance 99

PHILEXFRANCE 99

PHILEXFRANCE 99
Intrnational Philatelic Exhibition
By Bruno Bouveret (of France).
Translation from French by G. Constantourakis.

The international Phiatelic Exhibition PHILEXFRANCE 99 took place in paris from July 2nd to 11th, and was devoted to Postal History in particular to Mail Transportation by Land, Sea, and Air. The Exhibition coincided with the 150th anniversary of the first French stamp Ceres for the occasion the French Posts issued their first stamp with a hologram Ceres 1849-1999 (see Figure 1).

The French Post began to publicise this Exhibition in Sept. 1998 with a strip of 5 stamps depicting the fictional character "Petit Prince" by Antoine de Saint Exupery (see Figure 2). In March 1999 they issued a souvenir sheet of 3 stamps depicting works of art from the Louver museum. These were:

1. The famous painting of "Mona Lisa", with her intriguing smile, by Leonardo da Vinci.
2. The painting of "Liberty guiding the people" by Eugene Delacroix.
3. The reknown ancient Greek statue of "Venus de Milo", one of the earliest works of female nudes.

Many countries issued stamps specifically for Philexfrance-99. The American stamps on arctic animals and those on the Sonoran desert were very popular among the public.

Figure 1
Ceres

Figure 1: Ceres, personification of the Roman goddess of Agriculture which first appeared on the first french stamp of 1849. On the occasion of its 150th anniversary this stamp was reproduced in its original form and as hologram. Issue: July-2-1999 on the opening day of Philexfrance. Cacel: F.D. special with the logo of Philexfrance 99.

In this philatelic gathering there were numerous exhibits. In the class of Maximaphily, 17 world level collections were presented, of which 8 were French. There was not any exhibit from North America. However we can say that indirectly America was represented with the exhibit "Selection of Cards of USA" by Mr. A. Sanders, the president of the "Maximaphiles Belges".

The Maximaphily Exhibits were all of a high quality. In particular the exhibit of Mrs. Margaret Kotopoulis, the president of the Greek Maximaphily Association, drew a lot of attention and was greatly appreciated for the very old and rare maximum cards that her collection contained.


Figure 2 The Little Prince	Figure 3 Liberty Guiding the People

Figure 2: The Little Prince from the popular children's fable by st. Exupery an airman and author. Issue: Sept. 12, 1998. Cancel: F.D. with the logo of Philexfrance 99.

Figure 3: Liberty Guiding the People by Delacroix (1798-1863). Allegorical painting recalling the popular revolution of 1830. Issue: Mar. 29, 1999. Cancel: F.D. special for Philexfrance 99 & works of Art.

The list of these Exhibits in order of their achievement is as follows:

1. "Sites and Monuments wHich contributed to Human Culture and History outside Europe, untill 1940". Frames: 8. Points: 90. Award: Gold medal (for the 6th time), by Margaret A. Kotopoulis of Greece.

2. "Les Discover Belgium". Frames: 8. points: 88. Award: Large Vermeil medal, by Marie Louise Henriet of Belgium.

3."Iconographie du Pouvoir" (Iconography of Political Power). Frames: 5. Points: 87. Award: Large Vermeil medal, by Gianfranco Poggi, vice president of the Italian Association of Maximaphily.

4. "Cyprus: Cross-road of Three Continents". Frames: 5. Points: 80. Award: Vermeil medal, by Nicos Ragos, president of the Maximaphily Association of Cyprus.

5. "Tourism across our provinces". Frames: 5. Points: 80. Award: Vermeil medal, by Anny Boyard of France.

6. "Techniques and art of the Yarn". Frames: 5. Points: 80. Award: Vermeil medal, by Mrs. Andree Raynaud of France.

7. "A Selection of Cards of USA". Frames: 5. Points: 77. award: Large Silver medal, by Andre Sanders of Belgium.

8. "Navies". Frames: 5. Points: 77. Award: Large silver medal, by Denis Brana of France.

9. "The Virgin and the Child Jesus by the Painters". Frames 5. Points: 75. Award: Large Silver medal, by Jacques Bertin of France.

10. "The Middle Ages in France". Frames 5. Points: 75. Award: large Silver medal, by Henri Catanier of France.

11. "Maximum Cards of india". Frames : 5. points: 73. Award: Silver medal, by Ajay Kumar Mittal of India.

12. "Homage to Picasso". Frames: 5. Points: 73. Award: Silver medal, by Georges Noel of France.

13. "Color in the Animal Kingdom". Frames: 5. Points: 71. Award: Silver medal, by Jacques Loisel of France.

14. "Tourism Across the French Regions". Frames: 5. points: 70. points: 70. Award: Silver medal, by Danie Barbe of France.

15. "A Selection of Old Maximum Cards". Frames: 5. Points: 70. Award: Silver medal, by Judith Szekely of Hungary.

16. "The Conquest of the Air: From Icarus to the Apollo Project". Frames: 5. Points: 68. Award: Silver Bronze medal, by Paulo Jorge Pinheiro Da Silva of Portugal.

17. "Maximum Cards of Luxembourg". Frames: 5. Not Judged, by Mr. Gilbert Pansin of Luxembourg.


Figure 4 Venus de Milo	Figure 5 Mona Lisa

Figure 4: Venus de Milo Hellenistic statue finest of nude female statues. Cancel: F.D. special mention "Musee du Louver" place kept.

Figure 5: Mona Lisa one of the most celebrated paintings by Leonardo. Cancel: F.D. concordant (triplee).

During Philexfrance exhibition the association of Maximaphiles Francais organize a series of conference on Maximaphily. This was quite successful, as it gathered about 70 maximaphilists (both French and forein) on the following programs:

1. Stamps with multiple subjects and "Variants" by Rene Brana, president of Maximaphiles Francais.
2. Some faulty M.C. of France by Jacques Thenard, president of the F.I.P. commission for Maximaphily.
3. Maximaphily in the service of Philatelic Truth by J-P. Mangin of the French Academy of Philately.
4. Concordance and Humur in Maximaphily by Anny Boyard, editor of the journal of Maximaphiles francais.
5. The Size and Shape of Postcards in Maximaphily by Dniel Barbe, vice president of Maximaphiles Francais.

From all these presentations Mr. J-P. Mangin's was the most captivating. Mr. J-P. Mangin is an eminent philatelist who recently embraced Maximaphily, as he discovered that our discipline can be excellent instrument for his true passion of discovering errors on stamps. Maximaphily permits him to prove visually through the postcard the errors that do exist on the images of certain stamps. He recently published a catalog listing some 4000 stamp errors, that become a hit at Philexfrance. One of his example refers to the American stamp "Best Wishes" of 1988, Scott nr. 2396 that portrays a rainbow. On the stamp the color of the rainbow are reversed than those of the actual primary rainbow. any of our members that possessed this M.C. can verify this.

I would like to use this opportunity to send my friendly greetings to all my maximaphilist friends of MACSU and to ask them to make known in Europe their American M.C. by either participating in exhibition or by exchanging M.C. with European maximaphilists.

Editor: George Constantourakis | Webmaster: Itzhak Shdemati
Former Editor: Jesse F. Knight
Last Updating: Feb-06-2000