Besides professional research, leisure time research is also an important, pleasant, and appropriate pastime for us who delve deep into science. A result of this is the recent achievement by Juha Hyttinen, our group member, who partook in the main philatelic exhibition in Finland, Tavastex22. It was organised at beautiful Aulanko, near Hämeenlinna, during September 9th-11th 2022. He did not present postage stamps at this time, instead opting to show a collection of old French picture post cards from ca. 1900-1920s. It shows firstly the general story of French gothic architecture (12th-16th centuries CE), and then the constructions of one of the greatest architects of that era, Martin Chambiges (ca. 1460 – 1532). He was surely the most original builder of his time in Northern France. The collection also presents the possible models and inspirations of Martin, as well as the impact he had in posterity. The collection comprises of some 220 post cards, some of which are unusually large-sized. The most spectacular eye-catcher is the 20-card puzzle from 1920s, presenting the west front of Amiens cathedral. In addition, many other rare cards are included. The data mining for the texts included much painstaking reading of sources in French language. Moreover, as an aspect of research, some novel suggestions of the impact of Martin Chambiges on the architecture in Northern France are proposed.
The collection got “grand vermeil”, or grand gilded silver, as the prize, which is the third highest class of medals conceded in philatelic exhibitions. Not a bad achievement for the first public presentation of this collection. The judges gave good suggestions on how to improve the collection further.
