Esteemed Canadian philatelist David Piercey, of Edmonton, Alta., was recently named the winner of the 2016 Collectors Club of Chicago (CCC) Robert Pratt Award.
The Pratt Award, established by the CCC in 1997, is awarded annually to the author of the best article, series of articles, book or electronic presentation related to Newfoundland philately. This year, Piercey was given the honour for the following articles:
- “Early Packet Steamer Services on Placentia Bay: 1888-1900,” which was published in the April 2016 issue of Maple Leaves, the award-winning quarterly journal of the Canadian Philatelic Society of Great Britain;
- “Late Letters and the Newfound Mails,” which was published in the Summer/Fall 2015 and Winter 2015/2016 issues of the award-winning quarterly Journal published by the Postal History Society of Canada; and
- “The ‘St. John’s East’ post office,” which was published in another award-winning journal—this published by the British North America Philatelic Society (BNAPS)—BNA Topics #546.
BACK-TO-BACK AWARDS
Along with fellow philatelist John Walsh, Piercey was also awarded the 2015 Pratt Award.
Piercey authored the following articles:
- “Newfoundland’s South Coast Mails 1892-1895” in the July 2015 issue of Maple Leaves;
- “Mail from Her Majesty’s navy in Newfoundland: 1893-1898” in the October 2015 issued of Maple Leaves;
- “The St. John’s Central Post Office” in BNA Topics #544;
- “The Montreal Steamers and the Newfoundland Mails 1885-1897” in the May/June 2015 issue of The Canadian Philatelist; and
- “Analyze This: Using Archival Research to Determine Postal History Significant of a Newfound cover” in the September/October 2015 issue of The Canadian Philatelist.
Last June, Piercey also received the Geldert Medal for the year 2015. This honour was awarded for Piercey’s aforementioned article, “The Montreal Steamers and the Newfoundland Mails 1885-1897,” which also helped him to earn last year’s Pratt Award.
The Geldert Medal selection committee, in a unanimous decision, spoke highly of Piercey’s article.
“It is an excellent piece of research, well-written, erudite, well footnoted and referenced. It constitutes original research on a maritime postal history subject not written about previously and is based on a careful research of secondary sources and contemporaneous newspaper articles. It is well illustrated with appropriate newspaper ads and postal history showing mail carried on this significant but undocumented postal service.”
PRATT AWARD SINCE ’97
The Pratt Award is named after Milwaukee, Wisc.’s Col. Robert H. Pratt—the pre-eminent Newfoundland stamp and postal history collector, researcher and author.
The Pratt Estate bequeathed funds to the CCC for the establishment of an annual award. The award consists of a $1,000 USD honorarium awarded annually in its entirety to one author (or pro-rated to two or more authors) for articles or other publications “related to the philately of Newfoundland as judged by the Pratt Award Committee as being significant and of academic merit.”
It is awarded in the year following the year in which the best-judged Newfoundland philatelic research work was published.
All submissions to be considered for the CCC Pratt Award must be submitted to committee chair George Fabian. For more information, contact Fabian at gfabian2@sbcglobal.net.