For stamp collectors all over the world, just the thought of a Blue Mauritius is enough to set the pulse racing – and even for the casual audience, it symbolises everything that makes a stamp special: an astronomical price, rarity beyond compare and a fascinating story that has inspired myths and legends. There are twelve blue and fifteen red Mauritius 'Post Office' stamps known to exist today – each of them with its own history of how it was found and its various owners down the years.

This exhibition, which brings together around three-quarters of the 27 Mauritius 'Post Office' stamps known today, is a truly remarkable event. The Museum for Communication Berlin, itself the proud owner of a Blue and Red Mauritius, is presenting the largest number of these philatelic gems ever shown together anywhere in the world.

The stamps now to be admired in Berlin were issued over 160 years ago by the British Crown Colony of Mauritius and have been generously loaned by the Royal Philatelic Collection of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the British Library, the Postal Museums in the Hague and Stockholm, the Blue Penny Museum in Port Louis, Mauritius, and a number of private collectors.

An accompanying exhibition and a catalogue provide an insight into the historical background of the 'Mauritius legend' and document the particular history of the reception of the most famous stamps in the world.