Quality time

New Entries

Several of my last posts were about large or even huge Series of definitive stamps..there is always something to tell about those stamps, that in a first view are all equal , with identical printings, same designer and engraver, etc.. but in the end there are,  since the beginning of our hobby ,people who devote their time to these series, searching and digging , always waiting for a new detail or a new and fresh perspective ...We must be very grateful to all of these people , anonymous in their major part , for the advancements in the hobby and in the construction of the history of Postage stamps and development of printing and other 'lateral' techniques ... Now , computers will not let all this knowledge be forgotten, and in some years time , with just a click we will know everything we want about the various disciplines of our hobby... there is still many to be done!!! many old stamp magazines and literature to be digitized ,  the work of many important people who remain still unknown , etc... All this work should already be done  , and done by the Major Post office's who have all the data involved... but no, the collector must do it , and sometimes in the hard way.. 

To collect stamps is to have some moments for your own , thinking just in stamps and working with them , whatever that could mean..When a collector is working with it's stamps, it is in peace, relaxed, letting all the other influences for moments , in the other side of the door.. there are no money problems, no wars, no... just for moments , of course..! I think that it is because of this relaxing and individual time that all of us start to collect.. it is quality time!!!

The other day i presented some Chinese Commemorative's , and now i have some beautiful stamps, also commemorative's from France 20 's, 30's and 40's.. Let's start..

Well, here is another finished series.. this one is from 1924 and it is about the Olympic Games.. the first stamp was already presented in the blog , and there are two of the  25c because the Background red is definitely different...( so , there are color variations..).. I want to apologize , because today some of the stamps have problems with the perforations (one day i will replace them..)

1924 "VIII Olympique Games" (4) [Des (E. Becker)][Engr (G. Daussy)][Typo] Sc(199,199 200,201)

The 25c and the 1st 75c are replacements for others, but the series it is not finished yet ..I must say that I don't like particularly these stamps, they don't have the 'Master touch' of many other stamps in French Philately...

1924/1925 "International Exhibition of Modern Decorative Arts" (6) [Des (L. Ruet 15c, 2nd 75c)(E. Becker 25c, 1st 75c)][Engr (H. Rapin 15c, 2nd 75c)(Abel mignon 25c, 1st 75c)][Typo] Sc(221,222,224,225)

This is a stamp commemorating the St. Michel Mountain, one of the most know places in France ..  there are two types: type I [Left] , more valuable, with some details of the uppermost part of the tower, somehow faded, with divisions in the brown lines limiting the tower... the single line that tops the tower is also divided ( it is difficult to see in this image , because of the Postmark...) Type II [Right] presents us very well defined brown lines , limiting the tower and the top line is not divided, and this is clearly seen in the image... from the appreciation of those three stamps above We can conclude that stamps with greater presence of the background white in the design of the mountain, are those of type I, that is to say , those stamps with a lighter brown in the mountain... stamps with a dark brown mountain should be type II...

1930 "Sites Et monuments / St. Michel Tower" (1) [Des (Fernand Bivel)][Engr (Abel Mignon)][Intaglio] Sc(249,250) [type I (left stamp)][Type II (others)]

One more finished series.. 

1934 "4th Cent of the Arrival of Jacques Cartier to Canadá" (2) [Des (Achille Ouvré)][Engr (Achille Ouvré)][Intaglio] Sc(297)

I had this stamp in the collection.. these are green variations...

1935 "Sites Et monuments / Brittany River" (1) [Des (Laboreour)][(Antonin Delzers)][Intaglio] Sc(299)

another color Variation.. Unfortunately , not the Greenish blue! this was the first stamp designed by Albert Decaris, one of the Masters...

1935 "First voyage of the liner Normandie" (1) [Des (Albert Decaris)][Engr (Albert Decaris)][Intaglio] Sc(300)

One more stamp of the fabulous French series "Sites Et Monuments".. it is a series spread through a large time frame (I don't know if it continues or not in our days...) with magnificent designs and beautiful engravings , as usual in French stamps.. this time a monument is the focus of the stamp...
1935 "Sites Et monuments / Saint Trophime D'Arles" (1) [Des (Albert Decaris)][Engr (Albert Decaris)][Intaglio]  Sc(302)

1935 "Opening of the International Bank Savings Congress" (1) [Des (R. Gregoire)][Engr (Antonin Delzers)][Intaglio] Sc(301)

This stamp commemorates the life and achievements of Andre-Marie Ampere, known to us in the field of electricity...
1936 "Death Centenary of André-Marie Ampere" (1) [Des/Engr (Antonin Delzers)][Intaglio] Sc(306

This is a beautiful Ultramarine blue stamp, representing the windmill that was immortalized in the book of Alphonse Daudet , published in 1866, "Letters from my Windmill" ... this is another of those stamps with possible 'bonus'.. Yvert 2013 tell us that if the sky background is white , the value of the stamp increases considerably.. the problem is 'what we should consider as white' (?) if we see the pictures below the stamps , we will find small lines that could be more or less colored... in the first stamp, with a 400ppp scan we can only see some darker shades at the right side of the sky...the lines to the middle and left are almost invisible to us...in a 720 scan, we can see that in those places , there are still many small lines but very faded.. of course none of these stamps , could be listed as one of those with white Sky, but I show them for You  to see all the work necessary to imagine and build something that in the end has almost no value at all...it is necessary to the designer to know what are the capacities and limitations of the engraver, always thinking in a good product when it will arrive at the printing... this is one of the reasons why some of the best stamps are production of just one men , designer and at the same time engraver or as a  result of joint efforts of the same two men (designer and engraver..)  during many works and many time... To 'give life' to a Good stamp was ,without doubts, complex...

1936 "Daudet's windmill" (1) [Des/Engr (Jules Piel)][Intaglio] Sc(307)

another series that ended...
1936 "22nd Anniversary of the Death of Jean Jaurés (Politician)" (2) [Des (Gregoire)][Engr (Jules Piel)][Intaglio] Sc(313)

An air Mail stamp commemorating the crossing of the South Atlantic by Airplane..
1936 "100th Airmail flight Across the South Atlantic" (2) [Des (G. Barlangue)][Engr (Pierre Munier)][Intaglio] Sc(C16)

This is a very nice design from Antonin  Delzers.. it celebrates Peace, everyone is enjoying the moment , laughing and crying of happiness...  but Peace is like the Rain, we only truly enjoy it , after a long drought...
1936 "Peace" (1) [Des/Engr  (Antonin Delzers)][Intaglio] Sc(321)

 A Sport stamp , about the Ski Championship in Chamonix..
1937 "International ski Championships, Chamonix" (1) [Des/Engr  (Georges-Leo Degorce)][Intaglio] Sc(322)

There are two versions of this Descartes stamp... in one of them, the book's title is "Discours sur La Methode" and in the other, the correct one, "Discours De La Methode"...
1937 "Tricentenary of the 'Discours De La Methode'" (1) [Des/Engr (Henry Cheffer)][Intaglio] Sc(330)

Commemorates the life of the Writer Anatole France
1937 "For the Intellectuals" (2) [Des/Engr (Antonin Delzers)] Sc(B49)

Very beautiful stamp, with a girl dressed with the local costumes of the Champagne region...This stamp commemorates the life of one of the main innovators in the production of  Champagne.. I'm talking , of course of the Famous Dom Pierre Perignon 
1938 "Tercentenary of the Birth of Dom Pierre Perignon" (1) [Des (André-Spitz)][Engr (Antonin Delzers)][Intaglio] Sc(350)

1940/1941 "Marshall Petain" (4) [Des/Engr (Jules Piel)][Intaglio] Sc(415,...,418)

stamp representing the D-Day , marking the beginning of the Decline of Hitler's dream.
1954 "10th anniversary of the Liberation" (1) [Des/Engr (Raoul Serres)][Intaglio] Sc(718)

1958 "40th Anniversary of WWI Armistice" (1) [Des/Engr (Pierre Gandon)][Intaglio] Sc(895)

With this magnificent work of Pierre Gandon , I will end this long post, hopping that it contributes to a renewed will to collect stamps, 'Where Ever You Are and No Matter What Stamps'....

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World or Country

New Entries

As I said last week , our focus today is on the Italy 1906/1927  King Victor Emmanuel III Series.. first I just want to write some words about the quality of the stamps I use to present in this blog.. I know sometimes the stamps are not in the Best condition, with perforation problems, heavily canceled or just in General 'Bad shape'..this happens because of two main aspects: 1st) I really don't have the money to buy MNH in any kind of  auction, because as you all know classical and semi classical stamps are sometimes expensive or very expensive (in this condition..)..2nd) and this is the main reason : I am a world collector of stamps.. I do not wish to enter in excessive detail about any of the stamps I have and care.. I leave that for those who collect  just one or two countries.. It is that their main task.. to dig, search and know more and more about their election Countries Philately...I only want to have the stamps ( if in good condition, better!.) and have a general idea of the main issues of that country, it's printing preferences, the main series, the history, all of this to get an approximate idea of the "Big Picture" for the various periods of Time ...I could say that at this time I prefer quantity to quality, because in the future I can replace those stamps who are in bad condition .. and now You could ask, "Why don't you end , like everybody, this period of World collecting.. this way You will not end anything!" Yes, I could not end , entire countries, or even the periods I like the most in each country, but just from the start, I just wish to end series..! that's my main goal.. to end series! since the beginning, this all idea of World collecting was so serious that even the way I place the stamps in the Stock Albums is for you chaotic.. there is no countries, no years, no ideology, no boundaries , just ended series, one after the other, from different countries, all together... If I wanted to finish this way of seeing things , I would have an enormous work ahead of me..! so , I just continue..!

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King Victor Emmanuel III was born in 1869 and died in 1947..He had a long Reign (1900/1946) , and during all that time many things Happened.. Two world Wars, The rise and Fall of Mussolini's Fascism, The invasion of Ethiopia and Albania, etc...We could say that the series we will focus today was the 2nd series of designs with the King's Portrait...

This is a long series, if we are look at  it's time frame (1906/1927).. The series is composed of 5 different designs...

1st Design) 1906  "Right Portrait of King Victor Emmanuel III" (1) [Des (Francesco Paolo Michetti)][Engr/Recess (L'Officina Calcográfica Italiana, Rome)] Sc(93)

I present here 3 stamps from this individual series (just with one stamp) , just to show that there could be some differences in the shades of the background sky and sea colors..

In the classification of this design, we must have caution, because there will be another two, very similar, a redrawn issued in 1909/1916 (Typo) and a 2nd redrawn in 1911 (also a Recess Printing) and we will need to find major differences between them... The first thing we must analyse when he have several of these two similar Recess stamps is the perforation... this first and Original issue has Perf. 12..(it is a distinctive fact...only the 1906 issue has this perforation..).. these stamps could appear printed in thick or thin paper..

[Left] 1906 [Right] 1911

at the [Left] we have a picture focused on the Uniform's Collar of 1906 .. we can see that in it's right side (closer to the viewer...) it presents us a Star and in the other side something other than a star..

At the [Right] we can see the 1911 Uniform's Collar with two stars , one in each side of it..

At a first look , the crown seems identical in both issues, but in  a closer view we can start detecting differences..the 1906  Crown presents a very well defined and beautiful cross above the Crown; the Crown's design is much more detailed and perfect...the design in it's general is different in both cases..  

At the [Left] again, I want to highlight the number of lines that we can see departing from the back-most  part at the top of the white shirt...if we count the lines upwards we see 6 visible and well defined lines until we reach the ear..

in the 1911 issue , at the [Right] we see 8 clearly visible and well defined lines..

1st Design 1st Redrawn) 1909/1916 "Right Portrait of King Victor Emmanuel III" (2) [Des (Francesco Paolo Michetti)][Die Engr (Alberto Repetatti)][Typo (Officina Carte Valori, Torino)] Sc(112)

I don't have specific data about this , but in this small sample of 1916 stamps the paper is thin.. Unfortunately i don't have any stamp of 15c from 1909, because I would have all the Printings of the Slate 15c(1906,1909,and 1911)... Now to distinguish these typo stamp from the other two , it is very simple...

This typo issue have a very distinctive mark , and it is related with the Sun and the Crown... in this case , The sun touches the Superior frame, and in the other two cases , as you can see above, there is always a space between the sun and the frame...The Crown is also different from the other two, very similar to the 1906 issue but without the beautiful Cross in the top ( it has just a small cross, like in the 1911 issue..).. The Perforation is 13.5 or 14 ; the design is slightly smaller than the original (23mm instead of 25mm)

1st Design 2nd Redrawn) 1911 "Right Portrait of King Victor Emmanuel III" (1) [Des (Francesco Paolo Michetti)][Recess(Officina Carte Valori, Torino)] Sc(123)

These are some of the 1911 stamps , with background sky and sea with different shades and luminosity... Perforation could be 13.5 or 14 [ the design has 24mm instead of 25mm of the original]

2nd/3rd Design) 1906/1919 "Left Portrait of King Victor Emmanuel III" (3) [Des (Alberto Repettati)][Typo (Officina Carte Valori ,Torino)] Sc(94,95,96)

With this series , we return to a more classic approach , with the stamp again divided into Portrait and Frame ( a very classical one..).. These are both designs of Alberto Repettati, one of the major Italian Engravers...I am talking here of 2 designs because as You can see the 5c and 15c have one design and the 10c another one, differing in several points of the frame.. I have to say that the 5 and 10c were issued in 1906 and the 15c in 1919..

you can see by these pictures, that the frames differ in the upper corners, in the space connecting the two labeled interior frames, and in the Currency label, with the 10c closer to the exterior frame line  

Here are some of the color varieties in the 5c and 10c stamps.. in the 5c , we clearly see the light Green, the yellow green , the blue Green( a dull blue green..)  and the Normal Green and perhaps some intermediate colors.. in the 10c , we can see the claret, the rose, perhaps a red rose, and others.. I had more stamps to present but I only choose the more representative of something near a color variety...

4th/5th Designs) 1908/1927 "Left Portrait King Victor Emmanuel III" (14) [Des (Francesco Paolo Michetti)][Typo (OCV,Torino)] Sc(99,100,101,...,107,109)

The difference between these two designs is documented in the 2 pictures above..  The upper frame of the stamp has colored solid background and letters in white, or the upper frame has solid white background with letters of the color of the stamp...There are some stamps missing , but I also have some color variations..

Well, it is the end of this post...I've got nothing more to tell about these stamps.. sorry if there is any imprecision ... please comment if  You want.. Comments are always welcome..!

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