RMS BULLETIN NO. 574 May/June 2015 by Mike Prero Well, right off the bat, I‘m at a disadvantage here because these photos don‘t demonstrate what a Filigree actually is. The scanner can‘t capture the relief surface of the matchcover—the ups and down—and that‘s what a filigree is: a cover with a random, plastic-bubbled surface. Aside from the bubbles, themselves, these covers have the same feel as a Uniglo—a soft, plastic, almost ―oily,‖ feel. The bubbling is random, which I stress because when you find the bubbling channeled into designs, you‘ve crossed over from a Filigree to a type of Florentine. In any event, it‘s the feel of a Filigree that tells you right away that this is not an ordinary cover, that it‘s something special. And, special it is, which is why it‘s collected as its own category. Uniglo and Florentine are both Universal trademarks, so it‘s not surprising to see, then, that Filigree, itself, was a Universal Match Corp. trademark for such covers. Universal produced them from 1969 to 1987. They were quite a popular type of ‗Fancy‖ cover, judging from the numbers that exist— and from how many of the competing match manufacturers copied the process. Lion had its Stipple Finish; Maryland had its Rhapsody; Monarch/Superior had its Orleans; etc. continued on p.3 2 RMS Bulletin May/June 2015, No. 574 The President’s Message Greetings to all. I have just returned from the FUN IN THE SUN! JOIN US IN SAN DIEGO! Southern Swapfest in Altamonte Springs, FL. I think that I can safely say that it was a great April 30 and May 1, 2015 success. Certainly, there were plenty of covers to be had; and the auctions were active. Coming up next is the Trans Canada Swapfest being held in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario on April 30th, May st nd 1 and 2 . By the time this bulletin comes out, this event will be over. I would ask that perhaps you would consider attending this swapfest in 2016. Our Canadian friends attend so many swapfests and conventions, it would be nice if we could attend their event next year. Coming up, also, is the UES swap in Hagerstown, MD. The dates are June 3-6, 2015. RMS President, THE RMS BULLETIN Carry Van Tol The RMS Bulletin is a bimonthly publication of the Rathkamp Matchcover Society. RMS dues are $20 (single), $25 (single) for Canada and $35 (single) for WANTED TO BUY overseas. Add. family members are $4 each. Dues are to be submitted to Treasurer. All articles, I want to buy Broadway Play plastic advertisements, comments, and letters should be sent to the Editor. Publication dates are: Sept., Nov., Jan, boxes from my want list to fill out Mar., May, and Jul. Deadline for all submissions is 30 days before the publication month. This publication is my collection. owned by the Rathkamp Matchcover Society and is made available for public distribution through first Please contact me and I will send you class (Canadian and overseas) and bulk mail rates. my want list by regular mail. RMS WEB SITE: http://www.matchcover.org RMS OFFICERS (2014-2016): President: Carry Van Tol, 402 Cowan Dr., Elizabeth, PA 15037 E-Mail: [email protected] 1st V.P.: Marc Edelman, 8822 Hargrave St., Philadelphia, PA 19152-1511 E-Mail: [email protected] 2nd V.P.: Nancy Smith, 3810 Edinburg Dr., Murrysville, PA 15668-1060 John R. Blackburn, Jr. Secretary: Shirley Sayers, 1290 Corporation St., P.O. Box 28 Beaver, PA 15009 [email protected] Membership/Treasurer: Terry Rowe, 1509 S. Dugan Bedford, PA 15522 Rd., Urbana, OH 43078-9209 (937) 653-3947 E-mail: [email protected] 814-623-6229 Editor: Mike Prero, 12659 Eckard Way Auburn, CA [email protected] 95603 E-mail: [email protected] RMS Bulletin May/June 1996,2015, No. 460574 3 3 I‘m a Filigree collector, myself, but I believe I first became familiar with them when working on my Bank covers. There are lots of Fancies to be seen in any Bank collection, and that includes Filigrees. And the variety of Filigrees is very satisfying, indeed—20s, 30s, 40s, Filigree Jewels and Jewelites; even Filigree American Ace boxes; all in singles and in beautiful sets. I don‘t remember ever seeing any Filigree 10s, though. Can‘t see any in my own collection. There is a listing of Filigree covers, but users should definitely be aware that it includes Filigree- like covers—IF you only look at the term ―Filigree‖ as meaning the Universal covers. The listing, then, is actually a ―Filigree-like‖ listing, wherein any cover that is an actual Filigree or like a Filigree is included. The original listing was initiated by Jim Moffett and then taken over by Evelyn Hovious. Ruth Richmond handled the list from 1981-1989, taking the list up to 6,063. Margo Houser added a supplementary list of older issues not yet listed. Today the list is dormant. There are still many unlisted covers, but no one has stepped forward to continue the listing. The first listed 150 Filigrees were made by Universal. However, by June 1970, Atlas Match, using a similar process, issued its first Filigree-type match, #152 on the Filigree list. This matchcover has a much different pattern, but is still of the Filigree type. Atlas also issued 3 covers from the China Doll in San Diego. These covers are perhaps the hardest to obtain of the early filigrees. Monarch Match, joining Atlas and Universal, issued its first Filigree-like cover early in 1972. This cover is #564 on the Filigree list. By then, Atlas had issued 5 covers and Universal, who owned the trade name Filigree, 458 covers. Soon, most of the major match companies had climbed on the band wagon and issued Filigree-like matches. There have been many sets, 31 single jewels and many 10 strikes. One of the earliest dated Filigrees is dated ―1881-1971‖. Many banks had Filigree sets consisting of from 2 to 16 covers to a set, with captions or information about the bank‘s services on the inside. The Marines and the Navy also issued Filigree Jewelites in their recruiting campaigns. The early Filigrees are scarce (only a caddy or so was issued with a case of regularly ordered matches). Unfortunately, and to my way of thinking, inexplicably, collecting interest in all of the Fancies has drastically dwindled since the late 1980s. But, I have a theory as to why. I believe that collectors are more concerned with cover subject matter than cover beauty or quality....hmmmmmm. The largest collection I know of was that of Helen Hollmann, PA, who reported having 11,318 in November 2010, so this is a big category! This would be a good time to start collecting Filigrees; they should be easily available. 4 RMS Bulletin May/June 2015, No. 574 Editorial An Exercise in Heresy I happened to be talking to Loren Moore, CA, the other day (oh oh!), and he brought up a subject that, in all my 31 years in the hobby, I had never be- fore heard seriously broached—changing the name of our organization. I have to admit that over the years it had certainly occurred to me that ―Rathkamp Matchcover Soci- ety‖ was probably not the best of names for our hobby organization, but listening to Loren‘s arguments for a name change put it all into a meaningful perspective. Already I can hear the legions screaming, ―WHAT!!! Change the name after all the time, effort, and expense we‘ve put into establishing name recognition?!‖ Well, that was the main point..We have no name recognition. There are some 320 million people in the U.S. How many do you think have ever heard of the Rathkamp Matchcover Society? They haven‘t even heard of the hobby, much less our spe- cific club. RMS has had a publicity budget for years, but it obviously is not working. Most new mem- bers are brought in by our web site [and, thus, we should be advertising on the internet]. Library dis- plays, newspaper and magazine articles about collectors here and there are nice, but they reach an in- finitesimally small number of people. Name recognition of any hobby organization is miniscule, but RMS doesn‘t even register on the meter. Loren brought up another good point in that our current name may actually deter people from join- ing! There is no other hobby organization, certainly no major one, named after an individual. Doing so immediately makes the organization look provincial instead of all-encompassing. When Bill Retskin started his own club, for example, he knew what he was doing when he named it the ―American Match- cover Collecting Club‖ instead of ―Bill‘s Matchcover Club‖. Point three: The word ―Society‖ implies a social theme, and, while some may rejoice in that, that‘s not what we‘ve banded together for. Although, I admit it could be worse. The original name of our or- ganization was the ―Rathkamp Memorial Society of Match Cover Collectors‖. At least we dropped the ‘Memorial‘, but notice that we also dropped the ‘collecting‘ aspect! ―Society,‖ even ―Club,‖ also implies responsibilities when one joins, Loren pointed out, and I doubt if anyone could characterize today‘s society as being as socially responsible as that of our father‘s and grandfather‘s. People don‘t want to be locked into club meetings, schedules, demands for volunteer work, etc. ―Changing the name just to change the name won‘t do much.