For the second consecutive year, Newfoundlanders John Walsh and Robin Moore have co-received the Pratt Award, presented annually by the Collectors Club of Chicago (CCC).
On Feb. 1, the CCC announced Walsh and Moore as the 2022 Pratt Award winners for their co-authored article, “Newfoundland: Further Exciting Discovery and Findings in Design Sizes of Perkins Bacon & Co.” The duo published the article in the October 2022 issue of Maple Leaves, the official publication of the Canadian Philatelic Society of Great Britain.
The Pratt Award committee judged the article to be comprehensive, pictorial, informative and a collector’s resource, according to a statement issued by the CCC.
According to the CCC website, the Pratt Award is named for Col. Robert Pratt, of Milwaukee, Wisc., the pre-eminent Newfoundland stamp and postal history collector, researcher and author. Initiated in 1997, the award consists of a $1,000 US annual honorarium 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 committee as significant and of academic merit.
Walsh and Moore also won the 2021 Pratt award recipients for two articles, “Newfoundland: Discoveries in the Design Sizes of the 1933 Gilbert; 1937 Long Coronation and 1938 Royal Family Issues” in the January 2021 issue of Maple Leaves, and the follow-up article, “Newfoundland: Discovery Design Sizes Found on the 5 Cent, 2 Cent Die ii, 4 Cent Rose Lake and 8 Cent Values of the 1932 Perkins Bacon & Co Issue. (Further Proof of Their Different Printing Press Uses and Capabilities)” in the July 2021 Maple Leaves.
In 2017, the CCC board granted Walsh’s website, nfldstamps.com, approval to display the digital slides of the Robert H. Pratt stamp collection.
Pratt had photographed his collection and saved them as slides, about 4,300 of which he donated to the CCC, of which he was an active member. The CCC is allowing the use of the slides for all viewers without charge, but the images remain the property of the CCC.
Pratt was also named a Royal Philatelic Society of Canada Fellow in 1978.