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Collecting British Exhibition Postmarks
The very first exhibition postmark can also claim to be the first special event postmark ever produced in Great Britain. The trouble is there is some doubt as to which exhibition can properly claim to feature the first special event postmark.
A postmark dated June 12th 1851 is known to exist marking the Great International Exhibition in London that year but there are severe reservations among collectors and experts regarding it's authenticity. As no other examples have yet been confirmed to my knowledge it is generally accepted by me and most other collectors that the single circle, duplex and killer postmarks used at the International Exhibition which ran in London from May 5th to November 28th 1862 is actually the first. Examples of these postmarks can fetch many tens of pounds and full, clean covers can easily run in to the hundreds.
Since victorian times there have been many exhibition postmarks produced to cancel mail, parcels and registered items sent from exhibition post offices. More often than not these take the formats of normal postmarks but several pictorial postmarks have been produced although they are much fewer in number. Examples of earlier special larger format exhibition postmarks to look out for include the Royal Naval Exhibition London 1891, Gardening And Forestry Exhibition 1893, Festival of Empire Exhibition 1910/11 and the Shepherds Bush Coronation Exhibition of 1911 to name a few.
Postmark used at the Festival of Empire Exhibition, Crystal Palace 1910/11
Building collections by specialising in a category of postmark was once a difficult and slow process as collectors often had to rely on infrequent mailings by dealers and auction houses to locate items of interest. However the advent of the internet and the vastly improved communication between collectors, sellers and dealers created by sites like eBay has made finding postmarks to fit a specialised collection is now very much easier in my experience.
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