Chile [3rd Post] Austria [5th Post]

New Entries

Today I will show some of my new entries (some of them replacing others or just spare stamps...) from the Columbus series from Chile... As you all know the first group of series from Chile has different designs , all of them of Columbus...Unfortunately I do not own any stamp of the first series, the most valuable...

This is a period of great influence of foreign Printing companies ,as we will see rapidly...let us start with the 1867 series...

We can easily notice the influence of ABNC in this stamp...the ornaments and specially the inner circle background are very characteristic of their work...

You can also see the pen cancellation in the 5c stamp , but I don't understand it's influence in the cv (I don't now if we should consider it an extra factor and value it - and so increase the value of the stamp--- or if we should consider stamp+cancellation as "a all" and decrease the total value of the stamp...it is not clear)  ... 

I don't see it written in the catalogs but I think that a well centered stamp should have an increased value...

1867 "Christopher Columbus" (5) [Recess (ABNC,New York)] Sc(17,18)

Sorry for the deplorable state of these stamps , but ,for example the 10c (the worst of all...) is a new addition to the collection... the two following series have a similar design with some differences...
The main fact that differs this series from the following ones is the position of the Currency label, right at the middle of the Numeral...
These are rouletted stamps and are part of a 5 stamp series...
The engraving and printing work is again of ABNC,New York...I must say that in all the Columbus stamps I have today,I find that all the engravings are very good , except those that concerns the portrait itself... in most of the cases , that kind of engraving , with lines all over the face of Columbus,  is what we don't want to see in a stamp...it's a pity..!!  these stamps deserved better..!
1877 "Christopher Columbus" (5) [Recess (ABNC,NY)] Sc(20,22,23)

These are stamps from the 4th Columbus series... You can easily distinguish these stamps from the ones of the previous series by the position of the currency label,right below the numeral. 
The high's and low's of the engraving are still the same with a nice work on frame and ornaments and not enough attention to the portrait itself...
This series has a small section dedicated to the 1c and 2c stamps only...in fact ,these two values were re-engraved in 1894 with a small difference in a pair of details...

With Ornaments

Without Ornaments

the main distinctive fact is the presence or not of a small ornament in each side of the numeral...it is simple to find that the presence of the ornaments is enough to place that stamp in the Original series and it's absence place it as a 1894 Re-engraved stamp .... another distinctive mark , but linked with this first (they cannot exist except together in the same stamp) , is the top end of the Numeral 2...if You look carefully to the other stamps that presents values with the numeral 2, You will see that the numeral's top end with a small white ball,but this one looks like the picture at the right...so , after this talk about the two types of 1c and 2c we can conclude that my 1c stamp is original and my 2c stamps are from 1894...
in this series we could find different colors for the same value,differing only in the issuing date...this is the case of the 5c, with the dull rose, Ultramarine , Bright Ultramarine and Dull Ultramarine,of the 10c with the Orange and the Yellow and the 50c with the violet or mauve stamps...
In all of the stamps presented from this series , the only values that are new to the collection are the 25c and the 50c...the others are spare stamps...
1878/1899"Christopher Columbus" (12) [Recess (ABNC,NY)] Sc(25,38,38,38,27,28,28,28,29,30,31,31,32,35)

These are spare stamps from the 5th Columbus series...this series has a particularity.. the stamps from 1c to 10c could be of two types depending on the existence or not of a shading area just below the Country label... these reinforced shading area , creates an "Aura" effect ,almost turning Columbus into a Holy man...this effect is clearly visible in the 5c stamp presented, but the red 2c stamp has it also....if the "Aura" exists ,we have a Type A stamp and if it does not exist and the engraving is continuous, without reinforced shading , we have a type B stamp...none of these two stamps are type B...in practical terms , this difference corresponds to different issuing dates,being the type A stamps issued in 1900 and the type B in 1901, together with the higher values of the series (20c,30c,50c)....
This time , the engraver was H. Bourne and the printing work was from Waterlow and sons, London,but the portraits "Bad" engraving is more than ever visible.. I even don't know how was possible that a work  like this "came into the light"...it's really bad!!!
1900/1901 "Christopher Columbus" (7) [Des/Engr (H. Bourne)][Recess (Waterlow and Sons Limited, London)] Sc(40,41)

The only new entry is the 10c stamp , in a series where we return to the ABNC,NY work , now in a much more simple design and engraving work...the series show us a left profile portrait of Columbus and the point I wish to highlight is the cancellation on the green 1c stamp... it is the first time I see a square postmark like this...
1901/1904 "Christopher Columbus" (6) [Des (H.E. Arias)][Recess (ABNC,NY)] Sc(51,52,53,54)

I wish to show more stamps from another posterior series, but I had no time to classify them, so I will continue with a new section, just to show part of a beautiful series from Austria...

AUSTRIA

Picking up one of the topics of this post , a portrait engraving,I like to say that the engraving of the faces in the 3rd stamp is also a bad work (in my opinion)... 
The Excellency prize goes to the green 30+10g stamp... beautiful!! Great Engraving!!
The series is not complete but it is very nice and I thought that it deserved to be showed now...
1947 "National Art Exhibition" (10) [Des (E. Schrom)][Engr (R. Zenziger 3+2g,20+10g)(R. Franke 10+5g , 35+15g,48+12g)(H.T. Schimek 18+12g)(H. Woyty 30+10g)] [Recess]

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Austria [4th Post] Netherlands [4th Post]

New Entries

This time I am going to focus on the Emperor Franz Joseph 1890 series and in the 1899 Queen Wilhelmina series...some new entries of these series and a few stamps from great Stamp Designers will complete this post...Last Sunday I bought a small World collection ,with a few thousand stamps, most of them from early days...the price was good , and I would regret deeply if I didn't buy it....most of the stamps are not in the best conditions, but as I said many times before , I rather have a mildly damaged stamp in the collection than it's empty place..! 

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Before starting to talk about the main theme, let me update you, with some more info about the Mouchon Subject...

I found another work of Mouchon, where a similar background was used... it is a stamp of the Sultanate of Anjouan ( issued in many other French colonies... it is part of the common designs...) issued from 1892 to 1899 and designed and Engraved by Mouchon...

pic 1

[2] 1892 Anjouan stamp [3] 1895 Luxembourg stamp

[4] 1895 Portugal stamp [5] 1896 Greece stamp

pic 2

pic 3

pic 4

pic 5

I

t was for me a surprise the appearance of this stamp so early in time...the background of this stamp is much more similar to the Greek Olympic stamp of 1896 , but the idea of the background of small stones remains...it is of common knowledge that the French stamp of 1900 "Type Muchon" doesn't present this background, so I have to continue searching  the period from 1892 to 1900 to find more of these examples...

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The 1890 series of Emperor Francis Joseph I of Austria is in fact a group of 4 series...the emperor's portrait is the same in the 4 series, but colors and currency define new series...These series have no Wmk , but the perforation is decisive... here is a small transcription of an old SG catalog from the 60's...
"There are about 40 different perforations or combinations of Perforations in these issues.."

The first series of this Group present us stamps with the values in "Kreuzer" (k) Currency....The values appear printed in black at the four corners of the stamp...The small values in k are [Typo] printed and the high values in g (Gulden) are [Recess] printed...
if You are a good stamp observer you will see that most part of them show us some black thin filaments at the surface of the stamp... I don't know what are these "things", but I had already stamps of this series in the collection,from other lots and they also show this filaments... below , at right, I show You an amplification of this "strange event"...
In my opinion the right profile portrait presented in the High "Gulden" values ( pic 7) is not at the same Good level of the other 2 designs of this series... it doesn't seem right to me, we just see a bad engraving, it is just .... bad..!!

pic 6 (1st Series)

Black Filaments in the 3k

pic 7 (1st Series)

1890/1896 "Emperor Francis Joseph I of Austria Portrait [Kreuzer values]" (18) [Typo] Sc(51,51,53,54,55,56,57,59,60,61,62,63)

pic 9 (2nd Series)

pic 8 (2nd Series)

In the 2nd series, the values continued to be printed in black and at the four corners of the stamp, but the currency used is the Heller (h)...please not that the values also continue to be printed above  non solid background... I've got just a small number of these stamps to show, but I want to say that in this Group of series the existence of many shades is possible... a good example of this fact is pic 9 , where we can see a much soft and light carmine, almost a color from the "Rose" family and not from that of the "Carmine's"...in this pair, we can see also a beautiful 1900 Vienna Postmark in its complete form...we have to understand that there is a small crease between the two stamps, and the perforation is hidden below it...the pair has still some some paper attached, but I didn't want to damage in any way the postmark by emerging it in water...

1899/1902 "Emperor Francis Joseph I of Austria Portrait [Heller values]" (15) [Typo] Sc(72,77,80)

I have to highlight now that from the time when the 2nd series was issued (1899) , a new security measure was taken in some printings, with the form of diagonal Varnish bars ; so the 2nd and posterior issues exists with and without these Bars...just for clarity of purposes , I must say that in this post we are talking only of series without these Varnish Bars. 

To correctly distinguish the 3rd and 4th series, we must have a catalog, because some of low values of the 3rd series could be wrongly placed in the 4th.. only the catalog will tell us which are the value that belong to each one of the series...
The 3rd series could present us : 1) black values in white ground 2) White values in colored ground 3) colored values in white ground (some of those confusing stamps could exist here...remember the catalog!!.)

pic 10 (3rd Series)

pic 11 (4th Series)

pic 10 show us some of the stamps from the 3rd series, stamps that fulfill the 3 conditions stated above, while pic 11 show us two stamps of the 4th series, that presents only stamps with colored values under white background.

As you know , In this blog I use Sc World Catalog and SG catalogs...in these particular group of series I used the SG catalog that divided it in 4 series, but if you use the Sc Catalog ( with a more simple and general approach) it is divided in only 3 main series (the two last one's are part of a single series..)...

1905/1906  "Emperor Francis Joseph I of Austria Portrait [Heller values]" (14) [Typo] Sc(88,89b,91,97b,104)

1906/1907 "Emperor Francis Joseph I of Austria Portrait [Heller values]" (6) [Typo] Sc(90,92)

pic 12

Here are some stamps of the series commemorating the 60th Anniv of Emperor's Accession... it is a work of a pair of Artists that is know to these blog, with several of their works already shown... I'm talking, of course, of Koloman Moser in the Design and Ferdinand Schirnbock in the engraving...They are perhaps the most prolific and famous Team of Stamp Workers of the Beginning of the XX Century...
All the talking about this series was already done by other collectors , so I just want to focus my attention for a minute on the 1k Violet stamp... Yes, it should be a violet stamp but this exemplar is much more a blackish violet or a violet black stamp... I have already in the collection a beautiful clear Violet stamp, so one more time we are dealing with shades, the " salt and pepper" of so many of our series..!

1908/1913 "60th Anniv of Emperor's Accession " (18) [Des (Koloman Moser)][Engr (Prof. Ferdinand Schirnbock)][Typo (low values until 35h)][Recess (from 50h on)] Sc(111a,112,113,114a,115,117a,118a,119a,120,122,124)

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It is now time to look at some new entries of Netherlands, particularly some stamps from the 1898 Queen Wilhelmina series...

pic 13

Do you know that the Vignette was designed and engraved by Mouchon ?.. Yes, it is another of his great works... A Beautiful one, a delicious left profile of the Queen...this time I used the simpler approach of Scott catalog, considering just one series, but in fact there were new values  or just new colors or shades issued until 1923. Among the stamps I present there are some shades and I want to focus on the 10c value , with the two existing ones, the gray and the lilac gray stamps...
All the values are beautiful, the monochromatic and the others with two colors... but these last ones are simply a "joy to the eyes".!.. Great stamps..!. I should say that I asked too much detail to the scanner... they are [Typo] printed stamps, and the scans should have a smaller resolution... but , this time, I am currently scanning all the stamps of this new collection I bought with the same high detailed view and this allowed me to find some interesting details , even in these famous and well studied series... 
I used a higher magnification for you to see them...

pic 14 (Broken Line)

pic 16 (A dot )

Pict 15 (Broken Numeral)

Pictures 14 and 15 are taken from each one of the 12.5c stamps.. in Pic 14 , there is a broken line in front of the Queen's nose (nothing unusual, except for its great visibility..) ; pic 15 show us a broken numeral in the other 12.5 c stamp...nothing drastic, I'm sure! In the last picture, pic 16, we have a small dot that is where it should not be!! it refers to the 7.5c stamp , and I think that this one  I will keep as a "different stamp"...I don't know if this is some kind of known "difference" or not, because my catalogs don't talk about any abnormal situations within this series...

1898/1923 "Queen Wilhelmina" (21) [Head Des/Engr  (Eugene Mouchon)][Frame Des (Knuttel)][Frame Engr (H. Raeder)] Sc(62,62, 65,66, 67,67,68,68 70,75,77)

Just a few words in the end of this post , for the Blog Background... as You surely noticed i have changed the background because I have decided to show each month a new cover from my small collection.. it is something I have started to collect two years ago, and I like very much illustrated covers .. not much for the stamp , but more for the illustration... This one is from the "400th Anniversary of the Discovering of The Maritime way to India" Series... it is a series of postcards issued in 1898 to commemorate the historical event, with engravings of famous Portuguese Artists...this time the Artist is Carlos Reis and the picture represents the Royal Palace of Sintra... 

well, I've done all the "talking" for today, so I better stop....

SeeYou

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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