Joining hands

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Today I have a very small post with some stamps from France...very small because I didn't have the time to classify more stamps...there is still a large lot of French stamps to be classified, but there was no time ...

A Curious thing about these earlier stamps from France (Ceres and Napoleon III Issues) is the immediate relation of the stamp itself with the the Postmark (or cancel, cancellation, etc).. French catalogs always give us different values for identical stamps with different cancels...it is something that in other countries is only recognized if the collector enters the world of the Postmarks, commonly known by Marcophily ... in these issues it is something that is intimately related to the final value of the used stamp...in this 6 stamps I have examples of two of the main postmarks used in those days. : the Lozenge with large numbers (80c) , and the Lozenge with small numbers.(others).

The stamps present us the portrait of Napoleon III that ruled over France from 1848 to 1870, first as President of the 2nd Republic and later as Emperor of the 2nd French Empire...there were 4 different issues with this design...the first one , of 1852, is a non perforated issue and present in the upper frame the label "REPUB FRANC"... the 2nd , also non perforated, present the label "EMPIRE FRANC" ... the 3rd, perforated and with the same label... the 4th was perforated and with the label "EMPIRE FRANCAIS"...

these six stamps are all from the 2nd issue of  1853/1860...

In this series there are two types of this same design, depending on  

a detail of the emperor's hair..

The type 1 stamp show us at the left of the ear  some hair (curled hair) that present us 1 , 2 and 3 lines .. the 2nd line is divided into two lines , the left one (of these two..)  is almost non existent .. so in the end we could consider to have just 3 lines .... 

The Type 2 stamp has 4 well defined lines .. even after reading the catalogs I remained with some doubts because it not so clear this difference between this two types...

We must have in mind that there are some known color variations in each one of the stamps, and sometimes the value of the stamp could be very different from one shade to the others..

1853/1860 "Emperor Napoleon III" (10) [[Die engr (J. J. Barre)][Typo] Sc(13,14,15d,15b,15d,19)

These are stamps from the 3rd series, having "Empire Franc" in the upper label and being perforated....It is clear to all of you that some of the stamps I present are in very bad shape, some of them are (0) value stamps, but I decided to show them and one more time to keep them until better one's arrive...in this small group we can see two new cancellations, the "Larger postmark with date" and the "Star with large numbers"

1862/1871 "Emperor Napoleon III" (7) Typo] Sc(22,26,27)

stamps from the 4th series with the label "Empire Francais"...all the stamps appear to have "star" Cancels ... I like to highlight a small "problem" with the last stamp of this group...right ahead of the emperor's mouth there is a small non painted spot.. I think it has no importance but the color of the small spot is identical to the Emperor's face color and to the external background color (from the frame to the vignette itself...) ... I repeat one more time that these are all stamps in bad conditions ( the most part of them..) and they do not correspond at all to the their cv's..

there are also two types of design in this series, depending on the dots immediately after and before the word "Postes" in the inferior Frame... if the dot is small we have type 1 and if it is a large dot it is type 2 ... the 30c stamps (2nd and 3rd) are type 1 and the 40c (last) is type 2..not all the values have both the types (only the 2c and 4c have them both..) ..

1863/1870 "Emperor Napoleon III (with laurel Crown)" (9) [Typo] Sc(32,34,34a,35a)

Now we have some type Merson stamps.. As You know the designer of the stamps was Luc Olivier Merson... this design was issued for the first time in 1900 and stamps continued to be issued , with new values , colors, etc , until 1926 ...the stamps that I am now presenting are in most part spares , but some new ones are only now entering the collection (the violet/yellow 2F and the two 3F stamps..)...the 2F  Gray violet  & Yellow was issued in 1900 and it's one of the 'stars' of this group with a cv of € 90.00.... another stamp that I want to comment is the 50c stamp, the brown/lavender blue , just to say that the lavender is a very fugitive ink and sometimes it seem's that it isn't there , but it is or it was..! ( it is the case of the first 50c I present ...)

1900/1926 "Type Merson" (24) [Des (Luc Olivier Merson)][Engr (Auguste M. Thévenin)][Typo] Sc(126,128,129) [only the codes of the 3 stamps that entered the collection..]

Now I have a small section of this post with some commemorative stamps from 1936 to 1986..

this is a stamp from 1934 that I didn't find in my 3 catalogs.. there is not a single issue of the Anti Tuberculosis Fund in 1934, and the stamp itself don't present any value label or extra tax... I don't understand this stamp, but it is probably a "Cinderella" stamp..the stamp also don't present  the "Republic Francaise" label ,  but it is engraved by Henry Cheffer , one of the French Masters.. it is a [Typo] printed stamp... 

another one of the 7 stamps of this series from 1936 , commemorating the 1937 Paris International Exhibition.. the first 4 stamps are from a smaller format and have a different design.. 

1936 "Paris International Exhibition" (7) [Des/Engr (Daragnés)][Typo] Sc(320)

Beautiful stamp commemorating the visit of the Great Britain Monarch's to France...The Peace and Good Relations between the two Countries is clearly symbolized in the Medal at the Center.. Great Design and engraving by Henry Cheffer..

1938 "Visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth to France" (1) [Des/Engr (Henry Cheffer)][Recess] Sc(352)

We can see clearly that the personality represented in this stamp is the same of our "Unknown" stamp at the beginning of this section...it is Dr. Leon Charles Albert Calmette...

1948 "1st International Congress of the Calmette-Guerin Bacilus Vacine" (1) [Des/Engr (Henry Cheffer)][Recess] Sc(B232)

A Great work by Raoul Serres and Albert Decaris...another stamp with the same design was issued again in 1954 but  with several shades of blue and with the face value of 12F...

1952 "Marshal  Jean De Lattre De Tassigny" (1) [Des (Raoul Serres)][Engr (Albert Decaris)][Recess] Sc(675)

this stamp is part of a series honoring several famous French Inventors and Scientists.. the personality represented is Cammile Flammarion  ...

1956 "French Scientists and Inventors" (4) [Des/Engr (Raoul Serres)][Recess] Sc(792)

a work by Albert Decaris, with his usual Excellent Engraving...the stamp commemorates the early days of the French Maritime Postal Service...

1957 "Stamp Day : French Maritime Postal Service" (1) [Des/Engr (Albert Decaris)][Recess] Sc(B311)

1957 "Bicentenary of the Porcelan Works of Sevres" (1) [Des/Engr (Pierre Munier)][Recess] Sc(820)

A work from Pierre Bequet, celebrating the life and work of Leonardo Da Vinci... it is a stamp from the Artistic Series of 1986...

1986 "Artistic Series" (5) [Des/Engr (Pierre Bequet)][Recess] Sc(2007)

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A Ship in the Canal

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Today I have some Greek series I bought recently ...before starting to show these stamps I want to focus a little in one of my favorite stamps from Greece... I am talking of the 'Corinth Canal' design, issued for the first time in 1927 in the 1st "Landscape" Series.. first I had one stamp of each value ,but with time more of them appeared, with new shades... I began to stock them and classify them correctly , so I have now about 25 of these stamps... a Year or so ago, I bought a small lot with several Overprints and surcharges, one of the 'delicacies' of the Greek Menu... among them came these 8 stamps from this design , that had the particularity of showing all the 3 values and the 3 overprints and surcharges, and 2 shades...

The first issue of this design in 1927 is known as the "Mcdonald Issue" because the plates were manufactured by the Printing Company "Thomas Mcdonald Ltd"...the 2nd issue (only in the 50l value..) is known as "De La Rue issue" for the same reasons...

As You can see it is an interesting small group...the 5l and 80l stamps are from the 1927 "Mcdonald Issue".. other thing that is very clear to the observer is that the quality of printing is not linear... in the same 1927 printing , we have the 5l stamps, generally with a good printing and the 80l with good and bad printings (the one I present is one of the worst i have...) The printing was in charge of a Greek Company named "Aspiotis Bros" .

I have here 3 stamps from 50l that could be from the 1st or 2nd issues... to distinguish them we must look carefully to the front of the ship...

 [Left] 1927 "McDonald Issue" : the 2 anchors ( right and left) are visible

[Right] 1931/1935 "Se La Rue Issue" : the right Anchor is clearly visible but the left one is invisible...

I must highlight that this distinction should be made "at naked eye" or with a magnifying glass...

All of the designs used both in the 1st and 2nd issues have points that allow us to distinguish them...

Let us now talk about the Overprints... The Surcharge of the 5l stamp (5l+10l)[ 1943] , is for  a Anti Tuberculosis Fund and the 50l overprints are Red Cross stamps [1937] ... one of the overprints is in Red and the other one in Green...

Many more could be said about this design.. I will keep trying to stock some more stamps , just to find new shades..

Let us start now to present the other stamps...

A beautiful series with plates,engraving and [Recess] printing by Bradbury Wilkinson...This series is commonly known as "Aerospresso Issue" , due to its connection with the firm "Aeroespresso Italiana"... according to a contract between this firm and the Greek government , 3 issues of Air Mail stamps were planned , starting in 1926 with the "Patakonia issue" ... the 2nd series was the famous "Zeppelin Issue" also in 1933.. the contract states that these stamps were to be used in letters from Greece to Italy and Turkey... Unfortunately, the series is incomplete , with the 50D stamp, the most expensive, missing...

1933 "Aeroespresso Issue" (7) [Recess (Bradbury Wilkinson & Co., Ltd)] Sc(C8,...,C14)

Now we are in the 60's with a series about the effort of Electrifying all the country with the construction of Dam's and Power plants...some of these key buildings for the Power management are represented in these stamps... this and I think all the other series from the 60's I have to show are work of Anastasios Alevizos , better known as Tassos... from 1954 to 1967 he designed most part of the Greek stamps, becoming one of the most prolific stamp designers of all time...

1962 "Electrification" (7) [Des (A. Tassos)][Litho] Sc(728,...,734)

This is another of the works of Tassos , representing several of the most famous Greek Painters... The Artists are respectively : 1)Theodore Vryzakis 2) Nicephorus Lytras 3) Constantine Volonakis 4) Nicolas Gysis 5) George Jacovidis ... there is a small variety of the first stamp of the series , depending on having or not the last letter of the upper labels... if the letter is nonexistent then we have an increase in the value of the stamp... 

1966 "Greek Painters" (5) [Des (A. Tassos)][Litho] Sc(840,...,844)

series nicely engraved and [Recess] printed by De La Rue... the series presents us the founder of the Greek National Bank, Jean Gabriel Eynard and the first director George Stavros... A view from the Headquarters of the Bank and a Bank Note are represented in the two large format stamps... it was again Tassos that designed this series and for the examples I have shoen until now we can see that he was an extremely versatile Artist, designing not only portraits, but also Landscapes, buildings, bank notes, etc...

1966 "125th Anniversary of the Bank of Greece" (4) [Des (A. Tassos)][Recess (De La Rue)] Sc(845,...,848)

This series commemorates the birth of the first daughter of the Greek Royal Couple , King Constantine II and Queen Anne Marie... it is a good Engraving and printing work by De La Rue , and the design is again by Tassos , but this time I have a small remark to make about the face of King Constantine II... the smile is not well designed and gave a 'unnatural' look to the picture...

1966 "Princess Alexia's First Birth Anniversary" (3) [Des (A. Tassos)][Recess (De La Rue)] Sc(876,...,878)

I have also some isolated stamps from the Olympics 1896, that I continue to buy whenever they appear... They still have the blue card ,because , as isolated stamps,they receive a different treatment.(I immediately proceed with their classification)... well, the only stamp that is really a new entry in the collection is the 40l and the first 1D stamp is really in bad condition but it came as an extra...

I will end this post saying that if you want to know more about Greek stamps, feel free to visit  the Karamitsos site where You can buy the great catalog «Hellas» (3 volumes) .. it is one the best catalogs I have , and I have lots of them..!

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The violinist

New Entries

This has been a tough week for me , with many deviations and delays of what I had initially planned ... however I was relatively lucky because i have started to classify the Belgium stamps I have to show today, early on Tuesday, so most of the work was already done when I reached the Weekend where many things happened.. 

Well ,never mind what happened or not because I have to start the post, and i will start it by saying that in my previous post with Belgium stamps I have showed other stamps from the same large lot...I have stamps from 1885 to 1958 and this time a large part of the series presented are not completed...

Another thing I must highlight is the fact that a new Background Card is used starting today... the old blue one was left and a new one 'kraft brown' colored is used.. it has a small story that someday I will talk about...

These are king Leopold II stamps from the 1884/1891 series.. this series has lots of different frames and if You watch clearly, You will see that none of the papers presented is white... in the first case we have a Red over «soft/pale blue», in the 2nd olive Green over Green , 3rd Blue over Rose ( and here in the 25c stamp,we could have also the blue over pale rose.. they are clearly different shades of rose..) and the ocher over buff....

You will also find Mouchon's signature in the bottom right of the stamp (specially clear in the 10c stamp..).. I don't have in my catalogs the information about the designer of this stamp,but in the Net the info is that the designer was Henri Hendrickx... only two of the stamps are new to the collection (20c and 50c) .. the others are spares...

1884/1891 "King Leopold II" (11) [Des (Henri Hendrickx)][Engr (Eugene Mouchon)][Typo] Sc(52,53,56,58)

This design represents a coat of Arms ... from 1893 to 1914 all the stamps that were issued had this label attached,that basically says "Do Not Deliver on Sunday" ...I present here the 2c in it's 2 colors and the 5c stamp with two different shades ( I already got other two yellow green stamps in the collection...)..however the blue green is still missing...the 1c is the slate/dark  grey, but there is another variety with grey only...

1893/1894 "Coat of Arms" (4) [Des (Eugene Mouchon)][Engr (Albert  Doms)][Typo] Sc(60,61,63,64,64)

This is a series of 1896, publicizing the Brussels Exhibition of 1897...as you can see the series is complete but the last stamp of 10c (there are two 10c stamps), don't present the attached label, so it's value is reduced by half (if it had any significant cv) ...the colors are slate violet, purple brown and light brown (Terra-Cotta , in SG catalog...)..

1896 "1897 Brussels Exhibition" (3) [Des ( Gerard Portieltje 5c)(Alfred Van Neste 10c)][Engr (Eugene Mouchon)][Typo] Sc(79,...,81)

These are stamps from  the 1st King Albert I series... this series has 5 different designs... A numeral, a Coat of Arms, the Belgium's Lion and the King's Portrait (with Minor and Large Head..).. the two portraits present are from the Normal or minor Head series...

1912 "King Albert I" (11) [Des (Edward Pellens)][Engr (Evely)][Typo] Sc(92,94,95,96)

these are examples of the Large Head series... I must say that there could be differences in this series , because the stamps could have the name of the designer in the bottom or not...the 2nd 10c stamp has the name and the others don't... if You have difficulty seeing the difference between "Large head" and "small head" stamps ,just look fort two small squares in the upper frame corners of the vignette... they only exist in the "small Head" stamps...

1912/1914 "King Albert I (Large Head Design)" (7) [Des (Edward Pellens)][Engr (Evely)][Typo]  Sc(103a,103,105,105)

A Complete series from 1938 about the 1939 Liege International Water Exhibition... it celebrates the finishing of the works to open the «King Albert Canal»...the stamps show us four different views of that Canal, and in the last stamp, the Ultramarine one, we can see a picture of the King wearing an Army's Helmet ( immortalized in a series of stamps from 1919..).. This was an Exhibition about the Water in Our planet...

1938 "Liege International Exhibition" (4) [Des (Jean Malvaux )][Photo] Sc(318,...,321)

Another complete series honoring the Centenary of a Mail boat Service , that for sure has connected all the colonies with Belgium.. this is yet another example of this period, with all the stamps printed mainly in [Photo]... in these cases, to have more detail is to have less resolution in the scans... that's why the pictures appear ( when You click them..) with a smaller format...I have showed another 1.35F stamp in a previous post,but I present this one to have the picture of the complete series...

1946 "Ostend-Dover Mail-boat Service Centenary" (3) [Photo] Sc(368,...,370)

Series about the Belgium main Products and Industries ... a particularity of this series is that it has stamps in [Photo 1st,2nd,3rd], [Typo 4th,5th] and [Recess / others] printings...the 2.25F ( very damaged stamp) and the 3.15F  (bad overall aspect..) stamps are in bad shape.. sorry ..

1948/1949 "Production & Industry" (12) [Photo][Typo][Recess] Sc(375,...,380)(383,384)

Series celebrating a Congress of the UPU in Brussels... the pictures are from members of the House of Thurn and Taxis... the designs are work of William Goffin and the Engraver was Jean De Bast.. in the 4F stamps this order was inversed... We can clearly see this by the signatures at the left and right sides of the designs (part of the design itself..)... Jean De Bast Engraving works are always of extreme quality,so we have here a nice group of stamps... the series is not complete,unfortunately...

1952 "13th UPU Congress, Brussels" (12) [Des (William Goffin)(Jean De Bast)][Engr (Jean De Bast)(William Goffin)][Recess] Sc(435,436,438,439,440,441)

series commemorating the 50th Anniversary of Rotary International.. the symbol of the Organization appears in the 3 stamps that complete the series...

1954 "50th Anniversary of Rotary International / 5th Rotary Regional Conference, Ostend" (3) [Des (Jean Van Notten)][Engr (Leon Janssens)][Recess] Sc(479,...,481)

The talent and virtuosity of  the violinist Eugene Ysaye  is celebrated and honored in this stamp..

again a beautiful Engraving work and Design... the frame is [Typo] printed and the vignette is [Recess] printed...

1958 "Centenary of the Birth of Eugene Ysaye" (1) [Des (Jean Van Noten)][Engr (Leon Janssens)][Typo][Recess] Sc(525)

We reach the end of the post with this musical stamp ...

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