The Collecting Section of the Humanitarian Association of Voluntary Firefighters of Vila Real de Santo António will promote, between the 2nd and 30th of August, a Philatelic Exhibition at the premises of the Fire Brigade with the theme “The Canned Industry in Vila Real de Santo António”.
The exhibition, advance the promoters, «will have collections of Faro, Portimão and Vila Real de Santo António dedicated to the themes of fishing and the sea and where there is an issue dated 31 October 2016 dedicated to the “Portuguese Conserving Industry”, the date on which, for the first time worldwide, they were published sell postage stamps “served” in a tin can».
This issue can still be purchased at any CTT store.
Although it does not contain any image of Vila Real de Santo António, «this city, then town, was one of the most important nuclei of the Canning Industry in Portugal, where more than a dozen factories worked simultaneously, in a locality that has a hundred and forty years old, it had just over six thousand inhabitants».
According to the VRSA Firefighters Collection Section, «the first factories that were established here were the Santa Maria Factory (by Ângelo Parodi & Roldan), the S. Francisco Factory (by Francisco Tenório) and the Domenico Migone Factory».
Fábrica Ramirez, on the other hand, «which we can almost consider a partner in this issue, as it was at this factory, but in Matosinhos, where the packaging in cans was made, had its origins in this city of Vila Real de Santo António».
To mark this philately exhibition, organized by the Firefighters Collection Section, Correios de Portugal will issue a commemorative stamp, dated 10 August 2021, alluding to the Canning Industry in Vila Real de Santo António, «in the year in which they pass 140 years of the First Industrial Survey, carried out in 1881, which refers to three factories operating in this location, whose beginning of production is referred to as 1879».
Comments