Handbooks

The New Handbook by Evert Poel

Systematically listed according to their usages in the different Cantons

Anyone who has read the 564 pages of this extensive work - presented in the style of an EDITION D'OR volume – will know why history and especially postal history fascinate so many people today. Although this book is based on the author's own collection, what he has made of it thanks to the Köhler/Corinphila publishing team breaks all the constraints of previous EDITION D'OR and EDITION SPÈCIALE volumes. The result is a perfect mixture of comprehensive information, richly combined with interesting, valuable and attractive covers from the period covered. But Schindler does not stop there. He also takes the next step with regard to what is often referred to today as "social philately". He includes contemporary illustrations of all kinds, reproduces original texts, maps, paintings of people, photos and much more, which brings to life the otherwise "dry" historical material.

Schindler treats the complex subject-matter chronologically. He begins with the early development of the Levant up to the Congress of Vienna, then shows the developments on land and sea and discusses the early postage rates as well as the introduction of stamps. This alone takes up almost 300 pages and it is fascinating to read how the progress of industrial development was in tune with the expansion of postal routes, the available means of transport and destinations served. Of course, the Austrian Post Office's position in the interplay of powers at the time is not neglected either, as it - like so many others - always endeavoured to increase the Habsburg claim to expansion as far as Asia and Egypt. International postal links to Europe and overseas, postal treaties along various routes were the result and here it is also fascinating how the author deals with these important aspects on an almost global scale. The last 50 years of these developments - from the General Postal Union to the beginning of the First World War - are dealt with more briefly in comparison, but show the new stamp issues in different currencies and new postal services as well as the renewed economic changes.

This book is not a compendium, that is, not a concise textbook, it is an encyclopaedia of the Austrian Post and the Habsburg claims in the Levant - an encyclopaedia which has not existed in this form and with this content until now. The author is up to date, as is made clear by the sources he has evaluated and the state archives used, which today are gradually digitising their holdings. As a competent postal history expert, however, Schindler knows how to put facsimiles of old postal treaties in their overall context instead of reprinting them page by page, as is often the case, and he describes documents in such a way that one can learn from them. He is aware of and interprets the correspondence of large companies and trading houses, he knows about treaties and their backgrounds, but he does not simply leave them isolated in space, but interprets them against the background of previous and subsequent historical events, so that an overall picture of this complex matter emerges.

The author and publisher can only be congratulated on this book. It is a reference book in the best sense of the word, a monograph, not a documentation of a collection. But the book shows what you can do with a collection and what you can use it for. In short: philately meets history. The two are no longer separate!

— Wolfgang Maassen (AIJP)

564 pages, hardbound with dust jacket, in German and English

For Corinphila it's an Honour to present the new handbook written by the well known Swiss collector Richard Schäfer sen. After the release of his first Handbook on Swiss Cantonal Stamps in 2014, Mr. Schäfer's Handbook is an usefull addition concerning the research of number of printed stamps, postal usages and rates, cancellations and rarities, including valuation based on auction results of the last decades. Written in German with plenty of usefull information.

1. Federal Post Constitutional law and tariffs


2. Ortspost and Poste Locale


3. Rayon Issues


4. Cancellations


5. External Mail

Each issue is systematically listed relating to the following scheme:

• Historical background


• Circulation figures


• Prevalence, number of printed stamps


• Usages and rates


• Frankings and Rarities

For Corinphila it's an Honour to present the new handbook written by the well known Swiss collector Richard Schäfer sen. After the release of Corinphila's Handbook and Catalogue in 2011, which is already sold out, Mr. Schäfer's Handbook is an usefull addition concerning the research of number of printed stamps, postal usages and rates, cancellations and rarities, including valuation based on auction results of the last decades. Written in German with plenty of usefull information.

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208 pages, of which 87 are full-colour plates showing pages from the collection, hardbound, in German

Collectors of Brazil's famous "Bull's Eyes" of 1843 may well have seen Bernd Juchert's first edition of this book which was a 150-page study which listed, described and illustrated, in black and white, all the "Bull's Eyes" covers that were known to him at the time.

The second edition of this book, to be published on 14th May 2015 by Wolfgang Maassen, is a world apart from the first edition. This new, high-quality and lavishly presented book now has 360 pages and it shows almost 50 per cent more covers which have come to light over the intervening years. There are also listed some 38 faked or forged covers and 18 covers on which no expert opinion has yet been given and which must be regarded as "questionable". The author and publisher make it clear that 'questionable' does not necessarily mean that these covers are faked; they might be perfectly genuine, but all the relevant questions are not yet answered and/or the author, Bernd Juchert, has not yet seen these covers at first hand.

Three characteristics in particular distinguish the new edition. The circa 300 illustrations are, for the most part, shown in colour for the first time. More than one hundred of the illustrations are new. Secondly, auction records, including prices realised, are given for almost every cover. All this is presented in an attractive, full-colour format, and trilingually, with German, English and Portuguese text. For the first time all the covers are given numbers that can, in future, be easily referred to and quoted. To date just 217 genuine "Bull's Eye" covers are known. The author and publisher have spent two years preparing this book and I have no hesitation in recommending that if you have any passing interest in either Brazil or classic first issues covers then this book should have a place in your library.