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Message:: [QUOTE="gsalexan, post: 1255043, member: 24274"]Union convention booklet My latest souvenir card acquisition arrived over the weekend and I can't stop looking at it! It's actually a collection of cards bound in a small folio. This was produced for the 1951 convention of the International Plate Printers, Die Stampers and Engravers Union of North America (IPPDSE) and it's extremely rare. A little background: The IPPDSE union produced souvenir booklets or cards for most conventions going back to about 1898 when it was called the International Steel & Copper Plate Printers Union. These became more elaborate as the years went on, sometime they were bound with ribbon, sometimes the cards were loosely inserted in a folder. But they were always showpiece examples of the plate printers and engraver's art. Conventions were held most frequently in New York and Washington, DC, where the most union work was done. Booklets from these conventions tended to illuminate the friendly rivalry between the union members at American Bank Note Co. (NY) and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (DC). This booklet is from a D.C. convention and six of the nine the intaglio works are by BEP members. I wish I was able to make flat scans of all the pages, but I would have to crease the cards or disassemble the book. Though the cover is a little ragged it did a good job protecting the cards, which are all in good shape.[/QUOTE]