Liberia [1st Post]

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A year ago , I bought a beautiful lot of Turkish stamps from the Ottoman period...to complete the lot , there were some Iranian stamps from the early days, and two small envelopes with stamps... I saw they were from Liberia,but I didn't pay them much attention...last Friday I remembered them and today I like to present You my first Liberia stamps...

Most of these stamps belong to large series, and so just two of the series I present today are completed...if you take a quick look to Your Liberia catalog ,you will find that there are many overprints and Surcharges, and a large part of these stamps are part of this group...

These are stamps from the first design issued by Liberia ... it was used in several issues from 1860 to 1879...I present them here and now , but I didn't classified them , so they are not part of the collection yet...I choose not to classify them because there are many important details differing from issue to issue...

1) the thickness of the papers decrease from the 1st to the 5th issues...

2) the brightness of the colors also decreases from the 1st to the 4th issues... the 5th issue(1879)  is a "New Colors" series...

3) we have to know that in the 2nd and 4th series, an extra line 1mm apart from the exterior frames, exist... 

4) all the 4 first issues have only 3 values and the same 3 colors(6,12 and 24c)(red, blue,green)

5) we should take a good look at some internet sites about this group of series... You will see that it is a complex job to distinguish these issues...after seeing some sites I decided to stop the classification, and wait until I have more stamps of each value... it is the only way..! I leave here a link to a good site about Liberian stamps...
6) all the five series are [Litho] printed...it is notorious that the last one has a very poor printing...

looking now to my 3 stamps, I know that the 3rd is from the 5th and last issue, because it is a 1c stamp (this value dont exist in any of the 4 previous issues), and I also know that the 2nd stamp belongs to the 2nd issue of 1864, because it has the extra line bordering the exterior frames, and because the blue doesn't seem to me like a pale or faint blue....

If we look carefully to the designs, we will find that they are all different...the face is different , the engraving is different , there are several details of the boat that are different, and even the exterior (to the vignette) background is different... for experts, all these differences are important..

In the end , I only have doubts about my 1st stamp... I prefer to wait for more of these 6c stamps...

this is a stamp original from a "Various Designs" series of 1896 ,overprinted in 1900 with OS...I must say that the spacing between the two letters could differ from stamp to stamp...

1900 "Overprint OS on 1896 'Various Designs'" (15) Sc(O32)

this is another overprinted stamp, this time from 1903... the stamp is original from 1903 and represents the Liberty ..it is a beautiful design and very good engraving from Perkins, Bacon &Co.,London... the Overprint OS was done in the same year, but the original stamp was black, so we have the same design but a different color ....

1903 "Overprint OS over 'Liberty' (New Color)'" (1) [Recess (Perkins,Bacon & Co., London)] Sc(O43)

Another group of overprinted stamps and I am glad to notice that the designs and engravings continue to be very good.. I like specially the 2c and 10c stamps .. very good stamps!.. the overprint is again a OS, but this time it was printed obliquely... the original and the overprinted series are both from 1906, but we should notice that some of the values of the overprinted series were issued with different colors (10c,25c,30c,50c, for example..)..

1906 "Overprint OS on 1906 'Various Designs'" (13) [Recess (Perkins,Bacon & Co., London)] Sc(O46,O47,O48,O49,O52,O53,O54)

Triangular stamp with a very beautiful design .... The engraving and printing is again of Perkins, Bacon ....the original colors of this stamp were the 1909 black and purple ...in 1910 this stamp was issued in black and blue with an overprint OS and a surcharge '3 Cents Inland Postage'...this stamp could appear with perforation 12.5 or 14 or just rouletted  13...

1910 "Overprint OS and surcharge '3 Cents Inland Postage' on the 10c '1909 Commerce(New color)'" (1) [Recess (Perins,Bacon & Co., London)] Sc(127E)

When we entered the WWI period in Europe (1914/1918) there was only one series issued with original designs...the rest of the issues in this period were only overprinted and surcharged series of original stamps of previous years...in 1915 a series of 2 stamps was issued and printed by the Imperial Printing works, Berlin... about this series , SG tell us that "the 2c and 3c were the only two values to escape the British Navy's Blockade. The supply of the rest of the set , being addressed to the German consul in Monrovia, was not released to the Liberian government until after the war".... we have to know that Liberia was surrounded by Territories of the French and British Empire's and the Naval Forces of both Empire's were enormous if compared with those of Liberia (remained neutral until 1918, when the Country declares War to Germany) , so the trade with Germany (very active before the War) was very affected by the start of the War... 
we will find the rest of this 1915 series , only in 1921... I have some of these stamps to show , but in their  overprinted format...
the stamps remained  well engraved and with good papers and printing...nothing to say about it..
1915 "Various Designs" (2) [Recess (Imperial Printing Works, Berlin)] Sc(135)

These are some of the stamps we were talking about above...The designs are the same of the original series .but there are new colors to some values...we have again overprinted stamps with OS...
1921 "Overprint OS on '1921 Various Designs'" (14) [Recess (IPW,Berlin)] Sc(O116,O117,O118,O121)

To end this post , I have another complete series of Overprinted stamps...if you remember , the two first stamps were those issued in 1915, now with new colors... the 20c stamp was issued in 1921 , but also have new colors...
1921 "Overprint 'OFFICIAL' on stamps of 1915 and 1921 " (3) [Recess (IPW,Berlin)] Sc(O113,...,O115)

there is no doubt that Liberia has beautiful and well engraved stamps in this period of time...but what really called my attention was that first group of series with the vignette of Liberia...I think it is a demanding and "detail friendly" series.. I will try to get some more of these stamps ...

SeeYou

Germany [4th Post]

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today I have some stamps from early 1900's and 2 or 3 series from the III Reich...

the first group of stamps I want to show today is from the 1st German Pictorial series...there are 4 or 5 main designs that are repeated until 1920 with some light differences... in 1899 these designs were issued for the first time with values from 1M to 5M... in this first issue we have the label "REICHPOST" in all this high value stamps...in the stamp above , You can see that the label is "DEUTSCHES REICH"... there are differences among the stamps issued in 1899 , but let's focus only on the stamps I have to show... in 1901 we had another issue of this designs, and in both these first 2 issues, the stamps don't present wmk... fortunately , in these stamps the wmk  is clearly visible and so we can see (in the examples abobe)  a net of lozenges ...we can now conclude that this stamp is the deep blue or Bright Blue  2M and the Violet black 3M stamps of 1905...we can now  list a group of procedures to classify these pictorial stamps that were issued along with the famous Germania Definitive series...

A) search for the "REICHPOST" or "DEUTSCHES REICH" labels...

B) search for the presence of wmk's

C) search for correct perforation 

I just want to say one more thing about these pictorial series... in general I don't walk around through auctions to find the most beautiful stamp, in perfect conditions;  the stamps appear right in front of me, and in most cases are part of larger European or World stamp lots... so , the only ones I can get are these stamps full of Postmarks... it damage the visibility (always remember to click the pictures)  but in the end I like them...!! they are beautiful stamps and beautiful postmarks... to finish with these two stamps, I like to say that the designs were made following paintings of the Allegory of the Union of South and North Germany (2M) and the William I Memorial in Berlin (3M).....

1905 "Germania and Pictorial High Values" (16) [Engr (Prof. W. Roese)][Recess] Sc(93,94)

This is the complete 1920 issue...the first 3 values (1M,1.25M,1.50M) present us the same design representing the General Post Office in Berlin....all the 2 designs are re-drawn and present some differences from the original.. but I don't want to talk about them , because I think there is no need...this is an offset Printing , so any resemblance with the original [Recess] issues is pure coincidence... the printing is far less detailed (I had to take 300ppp scans instead of the usual [Recess] 600ppp)..The stamps are Wmk with lozenges...

1920 "Pictorial High Values" (4) [Offset][Sc(111,...,114)

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Let's now enter the domain of the III REICH stamps...

A beautiful Train series for the Topical collectors... very nice work of Design and engraving...

1935 "Centenary of the German Railway" (4) [Des (Karl Diebitsch)][Recess] Sc(459,...,462)

these are two of the stamps from a series of 9... I could say that I became very surprised with this series, specially with the simplicity of the engraving.... very , very beautiful stamps..!!

1936 "Winter Relief Fund" (9) [Des/Engr (G. Fritz)][Recess] Sc(B95,B98)

Another beautiful series, commemorating the National Games in Breslau...

1938 "16th German Sports Tournament, Breslau" (4) [Des (G. Fritz)][Recess] Sc(486,...,489)

a stamp commemorating the Zeppelin's inventor...

1938 "Birth Centenary of Count Ferdinand Von Zeppelin" (2) [Engr (Axster-Heudtlass)][Recess] Sc(C59)

1942 "73rd Hamburg Derby" (1) [Des (L. Holhwein)][Recess (Vienna)] Sc(B204)

1942 "Brown Ribbon of Germany" (1) [Des (R. Klein)][Recess (Vienna)] Sc(B205)

well,I talked a little about the first stamps, but the 2nd part was almost a display of the REICH stamps... Hope you like them!!

SeeYou

France [11th Post]

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For some of You , a post dedicated only to Portrait stamps could be an excess and easily lead to a state of profound "boredom" ... I do not include myself in this group and so I can say that it is with great pleasure that " I have today 3 French Portrait series"..I like this kind of stamps,because they always have an history behind, they are the reflex of the Artist skill and  they are the best  indicator of the Engraver's "Mastery" ... 

These 3 series are from 1956 and 1957 and as most of the French series of those days , they are a privileged window to the work of famous stamp designers and engravers... 

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After having classified these series, I concluded that all the 19 stamps were designed or engraved by the same group of great Artists (some have participated in several stamps..) ... so I will just give here a 'letter' to each one of them and use it in the sections where are given credits to the Artists involved in the creation of the stamps...

A) Raoul Serres
B) Paul Pierre Lemagny
C) Albert Decaris
D) Charles Mazelin
E) André Spitz
F) Jean Pheulpin
G) Louis Muller
H) Charles Paul Dufresne
I) Henri Cottet
J) Jules Piel
K) Michel Ciry
L) Claude Hertenberger
M) Maurice Lalau
N) Robert Cami
O) Pierre Munier
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 Left] Guillaume Boudé


                          
                              Right] Jean Goujon

Left] Samuel De Champlain



                              Right] Jean Baptiste Chardin

Left] Maurice Barrés



                                    Right] Maurice Ravel






I have remembered many times the viewers to click the pictures to get a more detailed image because a suitable appreciation of each of the stamps can only be made with such larger images... the details of a good engraving often escape to our appreciation but a good image 'free' all that is hidden from our sight...this way we can see many particularities of each of the Artists, and above all the different techniques of the great Art of Engraving...
Personally, I think that the most accomplished of these 6 stamps are without any doubts the 4th and 5th...the 4th stamp is based in a auto portrait of the painter himself , but in my opinion the engraver work is one of the the best of the 6 stamps...both these two stamps have the most realistic designs, almost like photos while the other 4 seem to me like more distant from the reality (they don't look like real persons, but more like paintings or like in Ravel's stamp, caricatures..) if I had to choose the better stamp of these series I would choose the 5th... (Great Design , Great Engraving..)...
1956 "Portraits of French Famous People" (6) [Des/Engr (B/D)(G/H)(C/C)(B/L)(E/F)(K/I)] [Recess] Sc(B303,...,B308)
                                            

Left] Jean De Joinville



                                     Right] Bernard Palissy

Left] Quentin De La Tour



                                   Right] Robert De Lamennais

Left] George Sand 



                                    Right] Jules Guesde






It is somehow curious to note the amount of information we can gather with time about the engraving techniques of some Artists.. for example if we pick the stamp nº4 of this series , designed and engraved by Charles Mazelin, we can notice some similarities with other works he have done, in this case for Morocoo.... I have here two stamps I want to share with You (they were already shown in the Blog) that present some similar characteristics with this one...

Now,if I had to choose one stamp in this series  it would be the Mazelin's stamp or Nº6...but in the end the Nº6 is much more complex , and it is a marvelous work... so, it is , Nº6..!!
 1957 "Portraits of French Famous People" (6) [Des/Engr (M/N)(G/A)(B/F)(D/D)(B/B)(I/I) [Recess] Sc(B312,...,B317)

I think that in this series there are two Excellent stamps... the Rembrandt and the Mozart's ...both are great works,each one with it's style, but I would choose the Nº6 (Mozart)
1957 "Portraits of Foreign Famous People" (7) [Des/Engr (J/J)(M/D)(C/C)(L/L)(M/O)(E/A)(B/L)][Recess] Sc(857,...,863)

well, it was not a very diverse post ,but I think it was the time to show these series... it was more a contemplative post, without many words but in the end I think it well worth the time...

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