https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/77482 2026-04-10T06:49:15Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/77760 Title: Journal of the Malta Philatelic Society : no. 49(1) : April 2020 Editors: Bonnici, Alfred Abstract: Table of contents: 1/ KACHAN, V. - Cosmopolitan butterfly painted lady -- 2/ KACHAN, V. - Colorful butterfly peacock -- 3/ SCHIRO, J. - A locked 'map letter' -- 4/ BONNICI, A. - Malta postal boxes -- 5/ BONNICI, A. - Defacing Malta postal pillar box, and how they were saved. 2020-04-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/77658 Title: Defacing Malta postal pillar box, and how they were saved Abstract: Way back in March 1974, I received a phone call from our late colleague Mr Tony Fenech, who told me that he had just been informed, that Government workers were sanding off, postal inscriptions on the red Postal Pillar boxes in Valletta, and that instructions had been given to sand off all British Period postal inscriptions on all Postal boxes including the Queen Victoria ones, and others, which were installed in the wall next to Police Stations in the villages. At that time I was a Member of Parliament (1962-1978), and immediately rang up The Hon Minister, Mr Wistin Abela, and told him that what the Labour Government of the day was doing was a repetition, of what Napoleon in 1798 had done, when he ordered to destroy all heraldic symbols on buildings belonging to the Oder of St John, which he had just expelled from Malta, and repeated by Governor Maitland in 1818, on the instructions of the Colonial Office to destroy the remaining Order's heraldic symbols, that were not destroyed by the French, history condeming both events later. [excerpt] 2020-04-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/77657 Title: Malta postal boxes Abstract: The Malta Post Office Notice of 8th June 1853 mentions, interalia, that boxes for the reception of letters and newspapers would be sited at the Post Office in Valletta and at Chief Police Stations throughout the Island. The boxes at police stations were only wooden receptacles inside the stations where there was also a glazed frame where letters for delivery were displayed. The Government of Malta in 1860 decided to erect letter boxes in different parts of Valletta. [excerpt] 2020-04-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/77604 Title: A locked 'map letter' Abstract: A cartographic curio which has a lot of philatelic interest has recently appeared on the market and is now in the collection of the author. The letter is written on the back of a carte a bordure map of Malta which was produced by one of the Brocktorffs, probably by Federico Brocktorff (1811-1877 or later). The earliest known carte a bordure or carte a figures map of Malta which was produced for the visitor market was issued by Luigi Brocktorff (1814-1857) in 1843. It was a detailed lithographic map of Malta, titled Map of Malta and its Dependencies, printed in black ink surrounded by 13 vignettes illustrating views and costumed figures. [excerpt] 2020-04-01T00:00:00Z