The Lower Canada / Bas Canada Regional Group meets periodically in different areas of the region. The meetings provide an opportunity to meet fellow collectors who share similar interests, ask questions, learn more about the stamps and postal history of Canada and the provinces, and perhaps find something to add to your collection.

Here are reports of previous meetings.

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Photo: Grégoire Teyssier

Participants à la réunion du groupe régional / Attendees of the Regional Group meeting

Our fall meeting was a great success with 34 attendees, our highest number since we started our regional group meetings in 2018. It began with a breakfast and was followed by a conference.

Our speaker, Yan Turmine, presented the history of the Montreal Telegraph Company through the evolution of its stationery. Indeed, the quality of printing, stamps and paper varied according to the financial results of the company between its creation in 1847 and its merger with Western Union in 1881. In times of prosperity, envelopes were made with paper of high quality on which fine prints of the logos were affixed. When it faced fierce competition, profits declined and the Montreal Telegraph Co. used low quality paper and printing. To illustrate this overview of the company, Yan presented a typology developed from the envelopes he has identified over the years.

Two meetings are scheduled for the spring:

• Friday, 25 April at 4:00 PM in Montreal (Royale 2025 FILEX)
• Sunday, 25 May at 8:30 AM in Quebec City (Quebec City Stamp and Old Paper Show)

Notre rencontre d’automne a remporté un franc succès avec la présence de 34 participants, notre plus haut taux de participation depuis la création du groupe en 2018. Avant la conférence, un petit déjeuner a été servi comme lors des trois dernières années.

Notre conférencier Yan Turmine a présenté l’histoire de la Montreal Telegraph Company à travers l’évolution de ses enveloppes. En effet, la qualité des impressions, des tampons et du papier a varié selon les résultats financiers de la compagnie entre sa création en 1847 et sa fusion avec la Western Union en 1881. En période de prospérité, les enveloppes ont été fabriquées avec du papier de haute qualité sur lesquelles étaient apposées des impressions fines des logos. Lorsqu’elle a fait face à une compétition féroce, les profits ont diminué et la Montreal Telegraph Co. a utilisé à ce moment du papier et des impressions de faible qualité. Pour illustrer ce tour d’horizon de la compagnie, Yan a présenté une typologie développée à partir des enveloppes qu’il a recensées au fil des années.

Deux rencontres sont à l’horaire pour le printemps :

• À Montréal, le vendredi 25 avril à 16h00 (Royale 2025 FILEX)
• À Québec, le dimanche 25 mai à 8h30 (Salon du timbre et du vieux papier de Québec)

Photo: Hugo Deshaye

Le conférencier Yan Turmine / Presenter Yan Turmine

13 members attended this virtual meeting devoted to “Show & Tell”. Adri Veenstra from the Netherlands showed us a unique usage of a Canadian Pacific Railway Vancouver Hotel post card (Webb’s CPR 81). Normally used for communicating the financial results of the company or for freight notices, this card was sent by a Montreal seedman to a merchant in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Some Victorian CPR cards have been found with a message that did not originate from the CPR, but the card shown by Adri is the first known from the Admiral era.

Then Jean-Pierre Forest presented his book Québec 1864-1964 / Un siècle de timbres de loi et d’enregistrement / A Century of Law and Registration Stamps published by BNAPS in its Exhibit Series. He talked about two documents included in his exhibit. From an 1817 deed of sale, he explained how we can trace the history of the property back to the early settlement of Quebec City. Jean-Pierre also described how Paschal Taché, Seigneur of Kamouraska, distributed his goods and property among his heirs as noted in his last will written in November 1832, six weeks before his death.

Our newest member, Denis Lecompte, showed an outstanding complete misperforated sheet of the 1995 Elberta Peach 90¢ definitive stamp (Sc. 1374i). This new find seems to be unique. His presentation included a 50¢ Admiral stamp with a nearly vertical line to the right of the 50 in the right numeral box. The line could be an engraver’s slip or a plate scratch. More research is required to make the final call!

Luc Frève shared with the group a non-philatelic cover franked with a 2007 Jasper National Park imperforate stamp. The stamp was scissors cut and showed no trace of a die cut. The presence of scoring at the right of the selvedge proved it originated from position 1 of BK356. He also showed two postcards of the Canada Stamp Co. from Montreal: one sent to New York in 1876 and the other to Romania in 1880. Luc has not been able to identify the owner of the company. Any help would be appreciated.

The next meeting of our Regional Group will be held in Quebec City during the Quebec City Stamp and Old Paper Show, 26-27 October.

Photo: Grégoire Teyssier

Le petit déjeuner offert par le groupe régional / Breakfast offered by the Regional Group

Comme l’an dernier, le groupe régional du Bas-Canada de la BNAPS a offert le dimanche matin un petit déjeuner aux membres de la BNAPS présents lors du Salon du vieux papier de Québec. L’événement a été un succès avec une participation d’une vingtaine de membres, dont quatre membres de l’exécutif de la BNAPS!

Les conférences ont débuté à partir de 9h00. Il est à noter qu’elles portaient toutes sur des collections présentées dans le cadre de la compétition nationale « Une ou deux pages », une belle manière d’approfondir le sujet au-delà de la collection.

Jean-Pierre Forest a été le premier à se lancer avec Un pli mortuaire de 1856 de Limerick à Québec. Il nous a parlé de sa recherche sur les routes postales qu’a pu suivre le pli. Ensuite, Dave Schurman nous a offert Two simple “covers” yielding two different stories in 1861 and 1865 qui traitaient d’un circulaire au tarif de 5 cents de 1865 et d’un pli interprovincial envoyé de Montréal à Arichat, au cap Breton, en 1861. Luc Frève a conclu les présentations en nous décrivant sa démarche pour documenter la carte d’Émile Nelligan qu’il a présentées dans la section « Documents historiques » de la compétition.

La rencontre s’est terminée sur des échanges concernant des pièces que des membres avaient amenées pour les partager. Durant cette partie de la réunion, on a pu tenir dans nos mains des documents fiscaux du Bas-Canada et un catalogue d’un marchand de timbres de 1868 publié à Québec.

La prochaine rencontre du groupe aura lieu au printemps 2024 dans la région de Montréal.

Photo: Hugo Deshaye

La bienvenue des coprésidents, Mark Berner and Luc Frève
Welcome by the Co-chairmen, Mark Berner and Luc Frève

Like last year, the BNAPS Lower Canada Regional Group offered a breakfast on Sunday morning to BNAPS members attending the Quebec City Old Paper Show. The event was a success with the participation of around twenty members, including four BNAPS executive members!

The presentations began at 9 AM. It should be noted that they all related to exhibits displayed in the national “One or Two Pages” competition, a great way to delve deeper into the subject beyond the exhibit.

Jean-Pierre Forest was first at bat with Un pli mortuaire de 1856 de Limerick à Québec. He told us about his research into the postal routes that the mourning cover might have taken. Next, Dave Schurman discussed Two simple “covers” yielding two different stories in 1861 and 1865 which dealt with a 5-cent circular from 1865 and an interprovincial cover sent from Montreal to Arichat, Cape Breton, in 1861. Luc Frève concluded the presentations by describing his approach to documenting Émile Nelligan's postcard that appeared in the “Historical Documents” section of the competition.

The meeting ended with “Show & Tell”. During this part of the meeting, we were able to hold in our hands tax documents from Lower Canada and a stamp dealer's catalogue from 1868 published in Quebec.

The Group's next meeting will take place in spring 2024 in the Montreal region.

Photo: Hugo Deshaye

Le conférencier Jean-Pierre Forest / Presenter Jean-Pierre Forest

As the COVID-19 pandemic still restricted members from meeting in person, the Lower Canada/Bas Canada Regional Group held its spring meeting on 20 April 2021 via Zoom. 19 members attended.

Members had been invited to do a short presentation (5 -10 minutes) on a subject related to Lower Canada (Quebec). Jean-Pierre Forest showed an 1856 mourning letter from Limerick to Quebec, and described his research on this cover. Mike Street let us know about the history of St. Hubert airport and its postmarks. Jacques Poitras concluded this section of the meeting with a description of two recent acquisitions of 1776-1778 covers, a period quite interesting due to the U.S. invasion.

Dave Schurman gave an in-depth presentation on the Montreal Transcript early 1860s covers. They are the first known use of a reply envelope in Canada.

The next meeting is scheduled for the fall.

After its spring meeting was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Lower Canada/Bas Canada Regional Group held its first virtual meeting on Saturday, 7 November 2020. There were two dozen attendees.

Yan was followed by Mike Street who spoke about recent and upcoming BNAPS books. We concluded with a Show & Tell that allowed members to share with others unique stories about covers from their collection.

The next meeting is scheduled for March or April 2021.

The Lower Canada / Bas Canada Regional Group held its semi-annual meeting at BNAPEX 2019 Ottawa on Friday, 30 August. Eleven BNAPSers were in attendance, two of whom were attending a Regional Group meeting for the first time.

Dave Schurman, our guest speaker, gave an animated presentation entitled "Federal and Quebec Revenues: A (very) brief overview" which was supported by many interesting legal documents. He has graciously made his presentation available to all (4.6 MB pdf file).

Next meeting will take place in Spring 2020.

Meeting in Cote St. Luc on 7 April 2019
Left to right, seated: Dave Bartlet, Mark Berner, Robert Haslewood, Hugo Deshaye, Dave Schurman, François Brisse, Luc Frève
Standing: Richard Baxter, John Cooper, Michel Gingras, Ron Coughlin, Laurent Bélisle, Richard Gratton, Mario Chevrette, Cimon Morin, Dudley Nash, Jean-Pierre Paré, Réjean Coté

The Lower Canada / Bas-Canada Regional Group met on 7 April 2019 in Cote St. Luc, a west central suburb of Montreal. This was the day after the Lakeshore Stamp Show in Dorval.

The morning was lively with an Audrey Berner Tim Hortons coffee run followed by show and tell. Mark had some duplicate books for sale, and Hugo had two cases of general postal history covers. Other members presented stampless letters requiring rate explanations, and Dave Schurman showed some very nice Quebec revenue stamps on documents.

Attendees with morning coffee anticipating the show and tell

Since it was the first full-day meeting of the Regional Group, each member had the opportunity to introduce himself and his collecting interests. Everyone had their own unique specialties! Lunch was provided by a catering service.

Discussions over catered lunch

The meeting featured two guest speakers. In the morning, we had Dave Bartlet who journeyed all the way from Calgary. His presentation on "The Automation of Postage Dispensing" described the sale of postage stamps from vending machines from the Admiral era to the current day.

Dave Bartlet and a slide from his presentation

Our speaker in the afternoon was member Laurent Bélisle who gave a talk on Montreal Letter Carrier and Free Mail Delivery. Laurent's exhibit on this topic won him a Gold medal at BNAPEX 2018 in Quebec City.

Laurent Bélisle, his audience and a slide from his presentation

Activities wound up around 3 PM. There was much camaraderie, inspired discussion, sharing of a great wealth of philatelic expertise and a whole lot of fun! If you live in Quebec, you are missing out if you don’t join us.

Next meeting will be at BNAPEX 2019 in Ottawa.

Photo credits:
Group photo at top: Audrey Berner
Remaining photos: Hugo Deshaye

Photo: Adri Veenstra

Inaugural meeting of the revived Lower Canada / Bas Canada Regional Group.
Standing: Hugo Deshaye (left), Mark Berner, and David McLaughlin.

The revived Lower Canada / Bas Canada Regional Group held its inaugural meeting on Saturday, 22 September, at BNAPEX 2018 in Quebec City. The meeting was attended by 27 people, 20 of whom are potential attendees of future meetings.

Discussed were such topics as frequency and location of meetings. The next one is tentatively scheduled for Montreal around the time of the Lakeshore Stamp Club spring exhibition in April 2019.

Attendees provided contact information to receive emails about future events organized by the Regional Group. David McLaughlin then gave a well received presentation on Householder Mail, an area he has studied and collected for many years.