BOOK REVIEW

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HISTORY OF POSTAL AGENCIES (POSTOVNY) IN THE TESIN REGION

by Oldhch Tovacovsky, Jan Sikora, and Vladimír Schodelbauer

Volume 71 of philatelic handbooks published by the Society for Territorial Philately of the Union of Czech Philatelists offers a look at one of the more fascinating details of collecting Silesia. The 80 page heavy paper bound book issued in just 350 copies (in Czech) and covers the time period between 1900 and 1958, which includes the "SO plebiscite" period. The historic portion builds upon what has been published in Monografle 5 and explains the role of postal agencies in contrast with post offices.

The postal agencies of the Teýin region lying in the portion ceded to the Czechoslovak Republic up to 1958 are listed alphabetically. Those ceded to Poland are listed only up to 1920. Two agencies established during German occupation (1939 - 1945) are also listed.

The appearance of the postmarks are comprehensively described as to dimensions, time of use, color and type. The text with each description also indicates if and when the agency was taken over by Polish or Protectorate Governments, and each postmark is illustrated. The post office to which each agency is assigned is given. When known, the names of the heads of the agencies are listed. In many cases covers from which the Information was obtained are illustrated. The difficult conditions under which mail was delivered - particularly to remote villages having no postal agency are described in the concluding chapter of the book. Finally, the book lists and values (by point count) covers with agency postmarks based on rarity. This is done for both Czech and Polish agencies for the time periods mentioned earlier. The catalog listing includes the names of the village, agency postmark number, type, color and point count for cut-outs as well as full covers.

The book, though unpretentious in terms of printing and illustration quality, represents a lifetime of research and effort by numerous contributors acknowledged in the introduction. As such it is an indispensable source of information to the serious student of Silesia and is highly recommended to English readers with just a smattering knowledge of Czech.

Henry Hahn