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Malo-Les-Bains Bookmark Swap Meetings 1999 - 2016

13/6/2019

By Georg Hartong

[Editor's note: See more examples of bookmarks from this series of swap meets in our Gallery of Bookmarks on Bookmarks]

Bookmark collecting is rather popular in France. French ladies especially do collect them, and most of them have at least one collecting theme: CATS!

There are several swap meetings in France during the year, for example, at Paris, Nancy and Grignan. The most frequented one is the weekend swap meeting in the Townhall at Malo-Les-Bains near Duinkerque at the Canalcoast, in the beginning of April. In 1999 the sisters Jocelyne and Lysiane Denière started the swap meeting and it became a famous, international event, with collectors from France, Belgium, The Netherlands and occasionally Germany and Spain. In addition to the swap meeting, the sisters arranged a thematical exposition every year and all participants got a special bookmark of the related exposition theme. The number of participants remained stable, 30 to 40 every year, so this swap meeting seemed to have a long future. But then several serious terroristic attacks took place in France and the government decided to demand severe security measures at public events, at heavy costs. Because of these costs the swap meeting had to be cancelled in 2017 and as far as I know has not been restarted.

The first 4 years the sisters published a small book every year, related to collecting and bookmarks:

1999 - Je collectionne ... les signets; 42 pages in full color, dealing with all kinds of bookmarks and their materials; to the buyer a special bookmark was presented;
2000 - Je collectionne ... les marque-page et les coupe-papier; 42 pages, dealing with stiff cardboard bookmarks/paper cutters (11 pages) and paper cutters of other materials; again a special bookmark was presented to the buyer;

Bookmarks from 2000 and 2001

2001 - Je collectionne tout ... sur les roses; 50 pages, dealing with bookmarks (several pages); again with a special bookmark;

2002 - Je collectionne tout ... sur le carnaval; 40 pages, dealing with bookmarks (4 pages); with a special bookmark.

Then the sisters started a new series in a new format: oblong (18 x 23,5 cm) - stiff paper - double-sided art photography, at the right end of every page a detachable bookmark - 10 by 16 folia.

Detachable bookmark on right

At their website all 9 available titles with bookmarks and the prices are listed.

Examples of bookmarks illustrating bookmarks for swap meets at Malo-les-Bains

I have visited the swap meetings from 2005 until 2014 and greatly enjoyed my visits to Malo-Les-Bains and the contacts with other collectors!

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Bookmark Swap Meetings In The Netherlands

12/6/2019

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By Georg Hartong

[Editor's note: See more examples of bookmarks from this series of swap meets in our Gallery of Bookmarks on Bookmarks]

There is no long history of bookmark swap meetings in The Netherlands. On 17th September 2005 Margreet du Pui, from Gent, Belgium, librarian at Sluiskil in the Dutch province Zeeland near the Belgium border and of course collector of bookmarks, organised the first swap meeting for collectors from The Netherlands, Belgium and France. Her library was a very suitable place and about 30 collectors were present, hoping a tradition was born. The swap meeting was continued in 2006 and 2007, when even a British collector, Joe Stephenson chairman of The Bookmark Society and editor of the TBS Newsletter, was present. But Sluiskil is situated very inconveniently in The Netherlands and the library didn't facilitate the meeting any longer, so nothing happened in 2008.

Library at Sluiskil where bookmark swaps were held, 2005-2007.

Then a couple from Eindhoven, Dick and Dineke Kolsté, both avid collectors, took over the organisation and arranged in 2009 the next swap meeting at Leusden near Amersfoort, in the centre of The Netherlands. Dineke's brother was librarian at Leusden, so again a nice location was found for collectors from The Netherlands, Belgium, France and even Germany. But just like at Sluiskil, in 2013 the Leusden-library stopped facilitating, so a new location was to be found. Dick and Dineke succeeded in finding a nice, new location at Nuenen near Eindhoven. Nuenen is a small town, but famous as birthplace of the painter Vincent van Gogh. Over the years the number of visiting collectors has been very stable, always about 30.

In 2017 Dineke died very suddenly, but Dick did continue to organise the swap meetings until now. He is not quite sure whether to continue because of his age and the reduction of the number of collectors in The Netherlands, many of whom are elderly. So 2020, the 15th swap meeting, is still an open question.