THE BIBLE

Hi Jaul, interesting that you are in Dubai and have such a thematic interest.  

Below is a nice German postal card you might be able to find to include, from 1984, this one in my own exhibit.

Hi Jaul, you have openly asked for suggestions on a Thematic Exhibit, so I do hope this will not be misunderstood.

Exactly for which audience is this Exhibit ? Is it simply personal for your pleasure as a creative work ? Or is it for entry in a show one day where it will be seen by visitors? Or finally is it intended as an exhibit in a National exhibition where it will be scored by judges ?

These three objectives will have different criteria.

I have created exhibits with all of the objectives above but in each case the one simple rule is “let the stamps tell the story” . In other words keep the extra text to a minimum.
Viewers will look and admire the stamps and the presentation , they Seldom read the text, judges in particular do not have time or patience when judging an exhibit.

So from my perspective , too many words!

Avoid repeating. For example if you have a souvenir sheet or a mini sheet , you do not need print “ Souvenir Sheet “ beside it , I can see that.
If you have a “set of 4 stamps from Antigua” you do not need to tell me in your text. I can see that already.

If your page title says “The Nativity or birth of Jesus Christ” you do not need to repeat all of that again in the descriptive paragraph ....there are other examples where you repeat a phrase where just a word will do .

I do not want to be too critical , if this is purely a personal collection you are to be commended,
If however it is a competitive exhibit my own experience suggests you prune the text , keep it simple, add only such information as you need .

A thematic exhibit should tell a story , too much detail and the viewer loses the thread.


This is meant as friendly advice , I am not a judge, but my own exhibits have been judged ,

Thanks for sharing your exhibit, mypsco. I would have to agree with what others have said. Too many types of the same sheets from certain countries. I would like to see more covers. Also material from Europe, U.S., and Asia. I would also consider rearranging as some items are not in chronological order of Bible. Like Daniel is before parting of Red Sea.

I would like to see more on the life of Jesus Christ and also from New Testament. The set from Switzerland with the four saints would be a nice addition, for example.

Jaul (mypsco ),

Let me begin by commending you for your effort in putting this exhibit together and congratulating you for the awards that it received.

Having never attempted to put an exhibit together, I would be the last individual to offer advice.

I can, however, provide links to some of the resources that I would consult if I ever decided to try my hand at a thematic exhibit.

APS Manual of Philatelic Judging and Exhibiting  (detailed information on thematic exhibiting is in Appendix 2)

SPECIAL REGULATIONS FOR THE EVALUATION OF THEMATIC EXHIBITS AT FIP EXHIBITIONS

ATA Exhibits (selected pages from award winning thematics)

No “harshness” intended, and just straightforward suggestions for improvement and advancement to a higher grade for exhibit.
if Michael reads harshness in the three comments, then he has never been involved in a critique session after judging when one competitor doesn’t get the grade he expects.

we all commend Jaul mypsco in placing an entry for scrutiny both in a Stamp show and online here. Many many collectors do not!
Those who have commented have each been there on several occasion.

it is one thing to show “my pages”  to be admired, it is quite a different and much braver collector who shows and “invites suggestions”

I suspect this "exhibit" would not fare well under the guidelines of the American Philatelic Society thematic exhibit guidelines. I won't go into details and leave that to the exhibitor to peruse on his own.

Suffice to say in general the "exhibit" contains much needless information for a thematic exhibit such as stamp production information. The duplicated headings are egregious, and the presentation is lacking in using a variety of philatelic elements - postal stationery, archival material or related postmarks. The text of what would be a story line appears to be wording copied from stamp issue publicity materials.

A factual error - on Frame 2, Page 23 the exhibitor seems to state that Mary Magdalene (misspelled therein as Magdalen) was the mother of Jesus. A correction is in order, or at least clearer wording if that is not the intent.

I offer this as an exhibitor with 45-years experience, including international and as a retired APS judge.

Hi Jaul.

It is great you started to put an display together, most people never get to it.

In the thematic class of exhibiting, you need to 1) tell a story linked from start to finish 2) show a wide range of philatelic material from all time periods 3) highlight philatelic knowledge through your write up and material shown, as several of the key things to improve the scoring of the exhibit.

In Australia we now have a "subject" class as well (which is the old thematic class of decades ago in a way, but better).  Your current exhibit would fit more the subject class (but most countries at present do not have this, but Australia is pushing for it at international level).

We all need to start somewhere, and basic.  My first Award for a thematic exhibit was a Large Silver and best novice.  I have improved that original exhibit over a period of almost 30 years to eventually get an FIP (international) Large Gold.  It does not happen overnight as you can see.  It does take a lot of time to find the right material, and in particular to also find rarer items as rarity also forms part of the judging criteria (as does importance of the material on a world philatelic stage).

Below is a 1975 printers plate proof on blue paper with multi-colour proofing bars and guidelines in my exhibit.  The proof was in 8 1/2p while the issued air letter was 10 1/2p.  From the McCorquodale Archives.

This could be used for multiple different thematic points, I use it for the announcement of Christ's birth to the shepherds.

Hi Jaul,

Another important thing is you need to start to include postal history into the exhibit.  You can be very creative in this respect.

For instance, when Jesus was on the cross, they took a sponge and DIPPED IT IN VINEGAR (John 19:28-29;Psalm 69:21).

For this I use disinfected mail from 1856 that was dipped in vinegar.

Hello again Jaul, glad to see you posting again.

You were very brave asking us for comments, I salute your efforts in exhibiting. I am going to enter my 80th year on Thursday and I have 60 years of collecting and 30 years since I first exhibited. My first exhibit on Volcanoes got Bronze level only . The judges were kind in their advice and two years later I got large silver grade .

Since then I have displayed frequently to my club and other clubs, I have exhibited Classic Denmark , early Samoa, and social philately on Tobacco and antismoking , at National and International shows to large Vermeil,large Silver gilt , standard. ( never quite getting Gold by one point) . Exhibiting has rules, judges have to use them and we have to accept criticism and advice when seeking improvement. We may not always agree with the judgement, and I have witnessed some exhibitors arguing angrily with the judges.

That is the price of showing our efforts for public comment. We may sometimes not like it , sometimes comments hurt but hopefully we can learn and improve.

I realise your pages are “work in progress” and you will probably be heading for a major re-write. ( a daunting task, but worth starting with a fresh eye)

Keep it simple, not too much text and avoid repeating what can be seen on the stamp.

Your stamps are the important story, the text just adds USEFUL information. 

best regards Alex

30 years is a good age.  I did my first multi-frame Thematic exhibit at age 24 and am now in my 50s.  Plenty of time.  Bible has been my main theme since the 1980s, so can offer help in plenty on that theme.  I also published philatelic literature on it in the 1980s/90s.