Two years ago - in 2007, I found orders from the Philatelic Service for the design of postcards and aerogrammes by Shamir Brothers Studio. These orders were found in files of Shamir Studio kept by Gideon Shamir. The orders contained no information on the themes of these designs.

At the Philatelists Association I learned the term “postal stationery” and its Hebrew equivalent: “divrey bulim”. The Philatelic Service Catalogue has a list of these items without images or the names of their designers. Another catalogue of Israeli stamps by a private company includes pictures of these items which clearly demonstrates their high quality of design which is no lower than the level of design of stamps in Israel. This catalogue also does not name the designers.

Last year, when I went to the Philatelic Service to discuss the topic of First Day Covers (FDCs), I encountered some hostility. At the end of the day, the intervention of the Director of the Post Office, forced the production manager of the Philatelic Service to research the issue (the research was done by his predecessor) and I received a report from them on the FDCs. At the same time I felt that they should investigate the postal stationery question and they refused.

The Philatelists Association issued a catalogue of Israeli stamps for the International Stamp Exhibition of 2008, held in Tel Aviv. Designer names did not appear in the catalogue. I wrote a letter to the Association's magazine in which I protested about the omission of designer names and called on the Philatelic Service to investigate and publish who were the designers of the postal stationery. The editor, Moshe Rimer, promised to publish my letter and said that they will also publish any comments on the letter. Unfortunately, the letter was not published. Was he instructed not to publish such criticism?

In June 2009, I found an ad in the Jerusalem Post from 08/05/59 publishing a series of four albums of Israeli stamps. The fourth album was dedicated to “Postal Stationery”. The advertisement stated that every stamp or spostal stationery that was issued in Israel is included in the catalogue with its background story. The albums can be obtained from Ernst Stepak, Allenby 64, Tel Aviv and in New York in the Department of Stamps and Coins at Gimbels.

I looked for Ernst Stepak - 50 years after the ad's posting - and I found an "Ernst Stepak, stamp dealer, Huberman Street, in Tel Aviv. I called him and he said that he had left the business and had no collections of the things he sold in the past. I called his son, Zvi Stepak the owner of a stamps and souvenir shop at the Sheraton. He also had no collections and no archive (I learned from him that his father was 88 years old). He suggested that I try a company called “El Habul” (To the stamp).

A quick web search showed that “El Habul” merged with “Meiram” 20 years ago. The company sells a large variety of products, including stamp albums. I saw on their website that their Israeli stamp albums included all the stamps that were issued. I phoned their store in Givatayim and asked one of their salesmen to open an album and see if it included the names of the designers. The answer: “Not included”. Moreover, the stamp albums of the 50s to the 70s – were sold out. The salesman said that they had many queries for the stamp albums from these years. I guess postal stationer items are also not included in these albums. From their headquarters I discovered that they do not have an archive of products from 50 years ago.

Yoram Shamir 2007