Lab items

New Entries

Today, I will start with some Croatian and Romanian stamps.

Croatia

[Left] in other previous post with more stamps from Croatia , I have presented the other two stamps of this series (3) 1943 "Famous Croats" ; the picture represents Catherine Zrinski.. The Zrinsksi were a influential noble Family from Croatia also very respected in Hungary.. The Power of the Family was due mainly to the Ottoman Wars in the Southeast Europe.. Catherine married a member of the Family and became also a Zrinski.. she was known to be a Poetess.

Perf: 12

[Des] Ivo Rezek (b 1898/d 1979)

[Engr] K. Seisinger

Sc(56)

[Engr]

[Right] some stamps from a series (19)  1941/1943 mainly with pictures of Cities and Landscapes from Croatia.. the stamps have a weak printing and the detail is very poor (sometimes we barely understand what we are seeing...) ; however , this series, presents us a delicate set of colors (Prussian Green, Carmine Lake, Deep Ultramarine or Dark Plum Violet...) .. it deserved a better printing , but those were the War days..!..

Perf: 11

Sc(31,33,35,37,41,43)

[Photo]

Romania

Here are some stamps representing King Michael I from Romania , first as a young Child and then as ruling King.. there are 3 series with the same design (as a child..)..the 2nd series is Wmk and the others don't..the 3rd series has perf. 14 x 14.5 and others have 13.5 x 14 and/or 13.5.

1st Group) from a series (9) "King Michael I (1928/1929) I series"

Perf: 13.5

Sc(324,325,326)

[Des] Ludovic Bassarab (b 1866/d 1933)

[Photo]

2nd group) from a series (3) "King Michael I (1928) II series"

Perf: 13.5

Sc(345)

[Des] Ludovic Bassarab (b 1866/d 1933)

[Photo][Wmk]

3rd Group) from a series (5) 1947 "King Michael I" 

Perf: 13.5 

Sc(649)

[Des] Ary Murnu (b 1881/d 1971)

[Photo][Wmk]

Saturday morning ,I was talking to a friend of mine and in the middle of the conversation, Romanian and Hungarian stamps appeared with something like "Oh.. everybody have lots of those.. I can't even exchange them.. "..Romanian stamps are indeed easily available and in most cases with low or very low prices... however , we should have caution with what we exchange.. because there are lots of variety's ,errors and other aspects that could turn a "easy" stamp in a "scarce" stamp.. ( with the correspondent change in value, of course...).. 

for example, in this series we must study carefully the Wmk's because there are a few varieties.. [ this aspects are only available with National Catalogs and specific articles...]

series (11) 1930 "King Carol II" 

Perf: 14

[Des] Ludovic Bassarab (b1866/d 1933)

Sc(369,373,376)

[Photo][Wmk]

[Left] series (4) 1961 "Romanian Scientists" ; the first stamp represents Peter Poni who imagined and developed same Chemical items.. ; the second show us C. Budeanu that developed a series of electrical formulas..

Perf: 13 x 13.5

[Des] V. Grigorescu (?/?)

Sc(1412,1414)

[Litho]

[Right] from a series (6) 1965 "Cultural Anniversaries" ; We have Ion Bianu , a Philologist and a Writer , Anton Bacalbasa

Perf: 13.5

[Des] S. Zainea (1907/1990)

Sc(1738,1739)

[Photo]

I have some 3 or 4 more stamps to show in this post  but I'm beginning to have a Headache ,so I will leave them to another post...

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The Stadium

New Entries

This time , I want to start with stamps from my own country.. two series that should be finished long ago..

Portugal

The reason why these are the last ones to appear is obvious after a quick look at a catalog.. these are the most expensive stamps of the series.. not a lot , but expensive..

stamps from the series (8) 1949 "Avis Dinasty" 

[Des] Pedro Guedes (b 1874/ d ??)

[Heliogravure]

Perf: 11.5

SG(1026,1028) Sc(699,701)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Aviz

Now we have a complete series that should be classified since 2012, time when i bought it..!

series (8) 1945 "President Carmona" ; this series has a MS available.. a very expensive one..
All the printing work done by Curvoisier..
Perf: 11.5
SG(977,...,984) + MS984a  Sc(650,...,657)+657a
[Photo]

.......... / ..........

Greece

stamps from a large series (17) 1961 "Tourism Publicity"
It is a beautiful series , with lots of great designs and beautifully engraved.. Unfortunately  I cannot get any data from the Designers and Engravers (I have a National catalog, very good, but it lack's this kind of info...) [if any viewer of this post have some catalog with this data , please leave a comment...]
Perf: 12.5 x 13.5
SG(852,856,857,859,860) Sc(693,697,698,700,701)
[Engr] [Wmk]

stamp from the series (3) 1966 "Centenary of Cretan Revolt."
Perf: 12 x 13.5
SG(1008) Sc(852)
[Litho] [Wmk]

These are stamps from one of the most famous definitive series of Greece... in most part of the European countries  this series appeared in the 40's and 50's... the stamps are divided in two groups , because there are 3 different issues of this series : in 1972, 1973 and 1974..
The first series has only 8 stamps , the second 17 and the third 15 .. All the stamps have a multiple Crown Wmk  and the designs are very beautiful.
[Left Group] stamps from the series (8) 1972 "Greek costumes (1st Series)"
SG(1199,1200,1201,1202,1203,1204) Sc(1040,1041,1042,1043,1044,1045)

[Right Group] from the series (17) 1973 "Greek costumes (2nd Series)"
SG(1238,1240,1242) Sc(1079,1081,1083)

Perf: 12.5 x 13.5
[Litho] [Wmk]

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Tughra

New Entries

Today, I think the post will be a little bit shorter than the last.. I have stamps from Turkey, the Ottoman period and some President Ataturk stamps...

Sultan Abdul Hamid II has reigned in Turkey from 1876 to 1909.. what is common to all the stamps of this series (6) , is the Tughra and Arms of the Sultan.. the difference between them is the design of the frame...

Series from 1892/1898 "Arms and Tughra of Sultan Abdul Hamid II (Various Frames)"

Perf: 13.5

SG(142a,143,144) Sc(96,96a,97,98) [the first two stamps have only one code , in SG]

[Typo]

I already talked , and I will talk again about Tughra's... but what is a Tughra??

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tughra

stamps from the series (10) 1908 "Crescent Moon & Star over Sultan's Tughra"

Perf: 12.5

SG(237b,238c) Sc(135a,136) [Typo]

[Left] Complete series "5pa Surcharge on 1892 10pa 'Arms and Tughra of Sultan Abdul Hamid II (Various frames)' 1897"

Perf: 13.5

SG(144) Sc(98) [Typo]

[Right] I did not detected the blue overprint in a first look to this stamp..

this is a stamp from a series (5) 1909.. it is a stamp projected to external mail... in a time when Turkey Post Office had a ferocious competition from foreign Office's in Turkey (British, French, German,etc) , this Overprint offer's the merchants and Exporter company's a special discount , to improve the use of National stamps. 

This Overprint was made on stamps also from 1909 .. so we have : "Overprint on 'Crescent Moon & Star over Sultan's Tughra' 1909" ; the difference between the 1908 and the 1909 series is due to the position of the Arabic characters below the Sultan's Tughra... in the 1908 series , they touch the center circular frame and in the 1909 series , there is a space between the center frame and the characters (of course, if you know Arabic writing , perhaps the message is different....) 

Perf: 12

SG(290c) Sc(162) [Typo]

from a series (8) 1901 "Sultan Abdul Hamid II Tughra (Foreign Mail)"

Perf: 13.5

SG(178) Sc(105) [Typo]

This next group of President Ataturk stamps was in a little glassine bag, since the beginning of 2013 (someone brought them from Turkey..)

stamps from two different series...

1st) from a series (5) 1966 "Kemal Ataturk" 

Perf: 12.5

SG(2171) Sc(1725) [Litho]

2nd) from a series (7) 1978 "Kemal Ataturk"

Perf: 13

SG(2434a) Sc(2068) [Litho]

there is nothing more to say about President Ataturk, that already has not been said before  in other posts..so, I will just write the stamps data and nothing more....

[Left] 1) series (5) 2006 "Kemal Ataturk"

Perf: 13 x 13.5

SG(O3696) Sc(O247) [Litho]

2) Complete series 2007 "Kemal Ataturk"

Perf: 13 x 13.5

SG(O3820) Sc(O255) [Litho] [Wmk]

3) series (4) 2008 "Kemal Ataturk"

Perf: 13 x 13.5

SG(O3892) [Litho] [Wmk]

[Right] from a series (13) 2009 "Mustafa Kemal Attaturk Commemoration"

Perf: 14

SG(3899,3900,3906) [Litho] [Wmk]

in this post there was no information about stamp designers... it was not possible to gather it..it is dificult ( and  I have a National stamp catalog.!!.)

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The Ship

New Entries

My recent attempt to highlight the designers names and biography's , allowing them to have the notoriety they deserve when we speak of postage stamps , transformed all the time schedules for the posts... preparation is delayed with much more time spent in research...however , there are times when the research in the Internet is not sufficient. ; today's post is representative of this problem.. I could not find almost anything about the designer's of today's stamps ... 

when I have some money to spend , I will start "digging" and buying books and catalogs about these thematic. I think this is a part of our hobby, that has been neglected for too long.. different countries have their own data about their stamp designers ( when it is available..) , but there isn't a centralized place with all these information  about the different countries.. 

Cuba

the stamp represents Queen Isabella II of Spain.. ; there were 3 different emissions with  this design, in 1855, 1856 and 1857..they differ in the paper used .. I managed to classify this stamp only because it is the only blue stamp on white paper.. the other one present in this 3 emissions is "Greenish blue" on blue paper ( the 1st stamp of Cuba..)..so , there is yet no possibility for me of distinguish some papers by touch or by another more "advanced" knowledge, that only appears with the pass of years.. 

from a series (3) 1857 "Queen Isabella II of Spain"  

Perf: N/A

Sc(12)

[Typo]

[Left] Coat of Arms of Spain

from a series (4) 1875 "Spain's Coat of Arms"

Perf: 14

Sc(65)

[Typo]

[Right]

 from a series (6) 1878 "King Alfonso XII of Spain"

Perf: 14

Sc(79c)

[Typo]

In my opinion , King Alfonso XIII of Spain was poorly represented in Cuba's Philately (fortunately , for the Cuban's...) ... these are two of the "less accomplished" Alfonso XIII stamps , if we compare them with the type "Medallón" or Vaquer" series from Spain..  

[Left] similar in design to the "Pelón" series of "King Alfonso XIII" (Spain) , the stamp belongs to a series (24) "King Alfonso XIII (1890/1897)"

Perf: 14 x 13.5

Sc(144)

[Typo]

[Right] from a series (20) 1898 "King Alfonso XIII".

Perf: 13.5

Sc(163)

[Typo]

South Africa

I will start with some stamps from a period where successive repetitions of the same designs , sometimes differing only in small or very small details, difficult the classification of the stamps..

First aspect we have to consider is that South African stamps of this period can have labels either in English or Afrikaans; sometimes the stamps were issued in pairs , one for each language.. catalogs always deal with these stamps differently : as pairs, single English or single Afrikaans stamps ( with different catalog values for each one of these possibilities..).

1st) this stamp represents a 'Springbok" , that is a gazelle very common on South Africa.. the importance of this animal is highlighted by the fact of it's presence in several of the watermarks of South Africa.

After a first analysis of the perforation (15 x 14) , we could exclude the first emission of the stamp (1926/1928)(14.5 x 14 [Typo][Engr]).. so it is a redrawn [Photo] for sure ; now we have to distinguish between the (1930/1945 and 1933/1954) emissions [ same Wmk, perf, labels] .. the 1933/1954 stamp has 28 horizontal lines in the center background and a smooth white horizontal line inside each of the superior and inferior green bars.. these are indeed , small details..!(each of these aspects is clearly visible in a single image of the stamp.. I do not upload this image , because I would be repeating it and to avoid possible confusion to the viewer...) 

from a series (23) 1933/1954 "Various Designs"

Perf: 15 x 14

Sc(46a) [issued in 1937]

[Photo]

   2nd) it is a 'Rose Carmine & Grey Black' stamp from the same series..the stamp represents the 'Drommedaris' , Jan Van Riebeeck's leader ship from the fleet that arrive to Cape in 1652 , with the purpose of establish a station for the East India Dutch Company.

Perf: 15 x 14

Sc(49a) [issued in 1940]

[Photo]

3rd) from the same series, we have a pair , with both languages, 'Carmine & Black"

Perf: 15 x 14

Sc(50) [issued in 1951]

[Photo]

4th)5th) the last two stamps represent a Gold mine.. mine's are one of the
great resource's from South Africa , not only from Gold but from other minerals and metals with high economic value.

the two stamps differ in it's size..

Perf: 15 x 14

Sc(51b,52b)[issued , respectively, in 1936 and 1941]

[Photo]

the search for the designer of this series has taken me a great amount of time... and in the end , I've got no results ; even now I spent the last hour or so , in a last attempt to find a name.. many pages about this series, and nothing...(but it was useful in many other ways...).. perhaps , the artist belongs to the Postal service , or the name is in front of everybody who have a South Africa Catalog...! well, I give up..
This is a famous series, known to every fan of the "Wildlife" topic..it is one of the classics...this five stamps are all from the original 1954 series..in 1959 a new Watermark was used and the currency is the same... in 1961 , the new Wmk was used again and also some of these designs (together with some designs from 1960 series..), but a new currency was used...
The first 4 stamps of this (14)  series have Perf: 15 x 14 and the others 14 ; the 3d stamp is damaged and waiting for substitution.
Perf: 1)2) 15 x 14 3)4)5) 14
Sc(201,203,204,205,208)
[Photo][Wmk]

 

[Left] Complete series 1964 "75th Anniv of South African Rugby Board."

Perf: 14 x 15

Sc(301)

[Photo][Wmk]

[Right] stamps from two series: the first 2 stamps are from a series (3) 1966 "Verwoerd Commemoration." (Hendrick Verwoerd was Prime-Minister of South Africa , from 1958 to 1966 , when he was assassinated... He is currently seen has the mind behind the Apartheid System...) 

Perf: 14 x 15

Sc(314,315)

[Photo][Wmk]

the remaining stamp is from a series (3) 1992 "Environmental Conservation"
Perf: 14.5 x 14
Sc(816)
[Des] Johan Van Niekerk
[Litho]

To finish this long post, more wildlife stamps have joined us..

1)2)from a series (19) "Endangered Fauna (1993/1995)", with Scientific labels in Latin..
Perf: 14.5 x 14
Sc(853,857)
[Litho]
3) it is a 45c stamp, but with no currency label.. it is a stamp projected for standard mail.
it is from a series (19) "Endangered Fauna (1996/1998)" , with the same designs , but with Scientific labels in English

Perf: 14.5 x 14
Sc(867f)
[Litho]

[Des] Denis Murphy : (b 1935/ d 2012) Wildlife painter ,received numerous Honors and Awards for his Art work and for his work in Philately.. Designed stamps for several countries in the South of the African continent.

The last stamp is from a series of (40) "Endangered Fauna (1998/2000)" ; the stamp itself has no currency label (Standard mail 1.30r) and no frames.. 
Perf: 14.5 x Horiz. 14 One Side
Sc(1039)
[Litho]

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Dancing in the Festival

New Entries

In my last post I said that some attention would be given to the designers and engravers of these new entries of stamps in the collection..Why this sudden interest in this aspect of our hobby?? Well, the other day I was thinking about the reason people like more some stamps than others... In my case , the answer is easy...there are stamps that are more beautiful than others.. who is responsible for this.??.. Yes , the Artists that always lies behind every great work.. so, I decided to give them the attention they deserve , because the real Art is theirs , not from any other aspect of the production...

 Morocco 

First I will start with some stamps from the French period.. this 1st series, obligates me to divide my thinking into 3 different steps, for viewers who don't collect French Morocco stamps could have all the information..

A) in 1902 , stamps from 3 different French series were emitted with the label "Maroc" and Surcharge in Spanish currency and labels ; these series were : Blanc, Mouchon and Merson series...

B) in 1911 , the same stamps were emitted with Surcharge in Red and Blue..

C) in 1914 the stamps from B) were Overprinted with the label "Protectorat Français" ; these 4 stamps we have here , are part of this C) step.

The first two stamps are from the Original France "Blanc" series, named in honor to its designer Paul-Joseph Blanc and the last two from the "Mouchon" series (with the name of the Designer/Engraver  Eugéne Mouchon) ; both these series were originally issued in France in 1900 [Blanc (1900/1924) Mouchon (1900/1901)].

So, we have stamps from the series (17) "Overprint 'Protectorat Français' on «Surcharge on ««France 'Blanc','Mouchon' and 'Merser' series (1911/1917)»»» (1914/1921)".

Perf: 14 x 13.5
[Des] Paul-Joseph Blanc : (b 1846/d 1904) painter and designer of Historic Scenes. Grand Prix de Rome in 1867.. Professor of design in the School of Arts in 1893.
[Engr] Emile Thomas (d 1907)
SG(40,41,45,49) Sc(38,39,43,47)
[Typo]

these are 4 beautiful stamps of a Air Mail series (11) "Flight over Casablanca" (1922/1927)" ; the stamp of 80c was issued in 1927 while the others are from 1922. for the enthusiasts of aviation , I can tell that the picture represents a 'Breguet 14T Biplane'..

[Des] Joseph De La Néziere (b 1873/d 1944) French painter.. during his travels through North Africa , he became an Orientalist Artist.. in 1910, was commissioned to illustrate the stamps of the North Africa French Colonies. Died in Casablanca.
[Engr] Printing Helio-Vaugirard,SA (b 1897) since 1917 to 1951 the company has specialized itself in stamps , with the commission of works in Morocco, Lebanon,Syria, Madagascar, Vietnam, etc (SAAR protectorate also).
Perf: 13.5
SG(114,117,118,121) Sc(C4,C6,C7,C10a) [ I am considering the 2F stamp as 'Deep Violet'(Sc 10a) and not only 'Violet' (Sc 10)]
[Photo]

Complete series 1950 "Stamp Day and 25th Anniv of First Mail Flight from Casablanca to Dakar"
Perf: 13
SG(374) Sc(CB35)
[Engr][Typo]

from a Air Mail series (3) 1955 ; the picture represents a small village in the Anti-Atlas Region.

[Des] A. Delphy
[Engr]  Raoul Serres : (1881/1971) "Grand Prix De Rome 1906" and numerous other Honors during his life ; Book Illustration and Stamp Engraver...60 postage stamps in France and others in North Africa French Colonies.
Perf: 13
SG(465) Sc(C53)
[Engr]

Complete series 1960 "World Refugee Year"
[Des][Engr] Albert Decaris : (1901/1988) Grand Prix de Rome 1919 ; illustration of books, designer and engraver of more then 170 stamps in France and about 400 in North African Countries.. Also make several large formats Art works with 1 meter large.. numerous honors by France and French Postal Authority.
Perf: 13
SG(73,74) Sc(36,37)
[Engr]

Complete series 1960 "900th Anniv of Marrakesh."
Perf: 13
SG(75) Sc(38)
[Engr]

Here we have stamps from the two first series of King Hassan II of Morocco ; these two series have similar designs 
[Left] from the series (10) 1962 "King Hassan II (1962)" [1c,15c and 80c are missing] SG(112,113,114, 116, 117,118,119) Sc(76, 77,78,80,81,82,83)
[Right] stamps from the series (5) "King Hassan II (1964/1965)"  SG(116b,117a,117b,118a) Sc(111,112,113,114)

[Des][Engr] Charles Mazelin (1882-1984) studied at the decorative arts school in Paris and received the Prix de Rome twice, in 1906 and 1908. He began engraving in the field of philately only in 1939.He worked also in collaboration with other painters in the illustration of numerous books. Mazelin's style is considered to be sober and classic.
Perf: 13.5 x 13
[Engr]



Two complete series 

[Left] 1978 "National Folklore Festival, Marrakesh."
Perf: 13.5 x 13
SG(504) Sc(420)
[Right] 1979 "National Folklore Festival, Marrakesh."
Perf: 13
SG(519) Sc(434)

[Des] Jean Marie Louis
[Photo]

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A Sailing Ride

New Entries

Starting with today's post,the designer's names will be highlighted (whenever it is possible..) , and some of their work will start to be followed in future posts..

Austria

It is of common knowledge that Austria has beautiful landscapes .. this fact have great importance in the country's Philately... there are many landscapes series through out the time, and today I have some stamps from one of them... really beautiful stamps ...

I will show these stamps individually , for your personal enjoyment..

It is a series of (20) "Views of Austria 1973/1978" (18 stamps from this series will be presented..) ; there is a 2nd emission with new designs and values in 1978 (I also present 2 stamps of this series..)

[Designer: Otto Zeiller] The beautiful designs of this series are from Otto Zeiller (b 1913/ d 1988).. For what I could see in the Net , Zeiller's work in Austrian Philately has not yet been perfectly recognized.. he was the artist behind most of the very famous Austrian definitive series.. ; some lines above , I was talking about Austrian Landscapes... Otto Zeiller was, above everything a landscape designer and much of his importance , is linked to this particular richness of Austria.. however he also designed some of the beautiful buildings stamps ,that are also a distinctive mark of Austria stamps.. 

[Designer and Engraver : W. Pfeiler] He worked both as stamp designer and engraver.. started his work around final 60's and worked (very active in the 70's , 80's and 90's..) until the beginning of the 2000's.. therefore, we could say that this is one of his first works..

Perf: 14 x 13.5

SG(1675,1676,1677,1678,1679,1680,1680a,1681,1683,1684,1684a,1685,1685a,1686,1687,1688,1688c,1688d) Sc(958,959,960,961,962,963,963a,964,966,967,968,969,971,972,973,973a,974,975)

[PhotoGravure][the 4.50s and 14s are missing]

from the 2nd emission of the series (8) ; issued from (1978/1983) the designer , perforations and other technical specifications remain the same...

SG(1686a,1688a) Sc(1107,1108)

[

Netherlands

Queen Wilhelmina reigned from 1890 to 1948.. 

in this space dedicated to Netherlands , I will have some stamps from two series of Queen Wilhelmina..

These are stamps of what could be considered the 5th Queen Wilhelmina Definitive series.(the 4th and 5th series have similar designs, the fourth from 1924/1926 and this one from 1926/1939)..
[ all values presented have perforation 13 x 12.5 except 71/2 that has 12.5]
it is a beautiful series (21) 1926/1939

[Designer: Prof. J. Veth] this series is also known as Queen Wilhelmina "type Veth" Series.. Jan Peter Veth ( b 1864/ d 1925) was a Dutch painter, poet , art critic and university Professor.. the fact that his death occurred one year before the issue of this series is consistent with the date of the original design  from 1924.(date of issue of the 4th series..).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Veth

Sc(172,173,175,180)
[PhotoGravure]

from another Queen Wilhelmina series (14) 1940/1947 .. the 1st and last stamps are not in good conditions, but It will have to do..!

[Designer: W.A. Van Konijnenburg ] Willem Adriaan van Konijnenburg (b 1868/ d 1943) Was a dutch Artist, professor of Arts of the Queen ... great variety of works, including designing stamps, book illustration's , some works in monuments, etc..

This series was, like the last one, named in honor to its designer "Type Konijnenburg"...

Perf: 13 x 12.5

Sc(216,217,218,221)

[PhotoGravure]

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