Belgium (7th Post) Brazil (4th Post)

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To start this small post , I was thinking of presenting some King Leopold I stamps, but problems with the Wmk detection, led me to the necessity of presenting them in a future post... The truth is that I am not certain of the presence or not of a Wmk... there are 3 unperforated series with Wmk and 2 without it , but the designs in 4 of them are quite identical...without the presence of a clear Wmked stamp , I cannot extrapolate about the more or less difficulty of seeing the wmk without instruments, so I prefer not to present them...Last Wednesday I was minutes away from concluding the purchase of a modern Wmk detector, but my finances were advising me not to complete the deal... when I was reaching the final steps of the Internet process, the site crashed and I was unable to finish it... then I thought one more time and I decided that was not the right moment to buy this instrument... but I need it , badly..! I have hundreds of "small" definitive stamps (mainly from the Commonwealth..),waiting for a last look at the wmk's , and in most of the cases , it is keeping them to enter the collection...

This is the 1920 series dedicated to the Antwerp Olympic Games... the series was surcharged , each one of the stamps with 20c , in 1921...until that moment in time , this was the first incursion of ABNC in Belgium... previously , some influence of Waterlow took place with some famous pictorial series....the stamps are very well designed and engraved,beautiful frames also...

I want to highlight two small details , without any relevance (I'm sure...!), regarding the Surcharges... the 1st is related with the green 5c stamp, where a significant red dot appears at the right top of the stamp....the 2nd, a small break in the black line , presented in the red 10c stamp.... 

1921 "Surcharge on 1920 "Olympic Games, Antwerp"" (3) [Recess (ABNC)] Sc(140,....,142)

Here are two series where the charity efforts of Queen Astrid are well represented...in the top 3 stamps, the Royal Children are shown ( the middle brown stamp is damaged ) and in the others Queen Astrid appear holding Prince Baudouin( this last series was issued after her death)...

1935 "Queen Astrid's Appeal" (3) [Photo] Sc(B163,...,B165)

1937 "Queen Astrid Public Utility Fund" (8) [Photo] Sc(B189,...,B196)

here is a MS from the series where several views of the Koekelberg Basilica are shown...the tax  presented in these stamps was for aiding the building (Completion) Fund...

1938 "Koekelberg Basilica" (7+MS) [Des/Engr (Jean De Bast)][Recess] Sc(B221)

A series from 1941, with several representations of different statues...the series is incomplete , with one stamp missing (1.50F+25c), and the MS is also presented with the stamp in it's perforated form...

One important fact in the stamps of this and posterior periods is that the Country Label could be written as "Belgie/Belgique" or "Belgique/Belgie" , sometimes the two different forms coexists in the same series,as we can see in this and in the next series..

1941 "Winter Relief Fund / Statues" (10+MS) [Photo] Sc(B305,...,B309)(B311,...B315)

Here it is another incomplete series, with the 10F+30F stamp missing... the series has also a MS presented above... if we pick our last words from the previous series, we can see that the country label changes from one form to the other ,from stamp to stamp... but it isn't the only thing that changes .. with it,  the 'signatures'  of the Designer and engraver also changes from left to right  .. Another interesting fact is that the first 4 stamps (values less than 1F) are engraved and [Photo] printed, and the others are all [Recess] Printed...The MS seems to me ( and I have no data about it) like a [Photo] work...The portraits presented in these stamps are of famous Scientists...in the MS the Archduke Albert and Archduchess Isabella are represented...

1942 "Anti tuberculosis Fund / Famous Scientists" (9+MS) [Des (E. Renard)][Engr (M. Poortmaan)][Photo ( 10c to 60c)][[Recess (Others)]

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Now ,I have a last group of Brazilian Emperor D.Pedro II stamps to add to the collection...

in my last post with Brazil stamps, I have shown my first D. Pedro II stamps...I said I would be a dedicated collector of these stamps, so here are some more... from the first group, 3 of them (10r,50r, and 100r) are already in the collection and 3 others (20r,200r and 500r) are new entries...these are stamps from the 1st D.Pedro II series, a perforated one .

in this series , we have to highlight two types of 100r stamps:

As you can see by clicking the pictures,as always, the borders of the top left ornament are faint in type 1 and reinforced with a double line in type 2 ... we have also a faint  frame border line at the center , in type 1, and a reinforced double line in type 2... it is very clear in both pictures...these two types are valid for this series and in the next one , the first rouletted series of 1876/1877 ...

The 7th stamp is a new entry from the rouletted series of 1876/1877 that share the designs with the first perforated series of 1866/1868 ( the previous 6 stamps were from this series..)

the last two stamp are from  the 2nd rouletted series of 1878/1879 , with new designs of an older Emperor, with white beard... SG talks about two varieties of this stamp,one with mauve color and the other with lilac color... if we see the two stamps in detail, we will find that the first is darker than the 2nd ,but I don't think that they are different colors, just different shades from the same color... it is another of the great things about this group of series, the diversity of colors and shades...Today is one of those days when I feel sorry for not having neither a watermark detector or a Color Selector... this last one is very cheap and I will buy one briefly...

I think the next post will be again about a South or Central American country...perhaps a "debut" in the blog... I don't know yet..

SeeYou

The violinist

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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 ...

Seeyou

The PostMan

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I would like to talk a little about some experience I am gaining with time with the research I am continuously doing for my other blog...stamp designers could be sometimes very furtive and could live lives as unknown people... other times ,they were great Artists that one day have designed some stamps, just to gain some money... The real problem came when they are great Professionals, with sometimes hundreds of stamps designed, and there is almost nothing about them, no biographical data... this happens frequently with designers of many countries from South America, Africa and some countries of the Middle East ... there is much to do , many information about Artists in general , not only designers ,  must be made available by State Organizations or by the unknown citizen , and in this field I think many research has to be done by Philatelists of those countries...And Now You should be asking "But 'Who the Hell he think he is??' ; Well, I'm just a person who need that info and can't get it, because it isn't where it should be ...  We have to Globalize a little more... and Globalization must not be an empty word used by Politicians to ornament their speeches... Globalize is to offer, made available info, even when it is not requested.. The main tool , in our days  to Globalize is the computer and in my opinion the Language to use , should be the English..

Today I will present some stamps from Belgium , some difficult stamps to present , because there isn't much to say or talk about them...I will not follow the usual chronological approach , and i will start by the 50's and 60's and with a series first issued in 1957  that I think continues today.. The "Stamp Day" series is common among many countries and is used sometimes for disclosure of cultural events or interesting aspects of the Postal Activity through time...I have several of these stamps , and I decided to show them today...they are beautiful works of design and in most cases also engraving... Let us start in 1957..

this stamp represents Emperor Maximilian I receiving a letter...

The stamp is work of Charles Leclerqz , both Designing and engraving..

1957 "Stamp Day" (1) [Des (Charles Leclercqz)][Engr (Charles Leclercqz)][Recess] Sc(504)

the stamp show us Emperor Charles V and Jean Baptiste de Taxis (Grand Master of the Posts) , who is giving a letter to the Emperor.. This is a solo work of one of the Great Masters of engraving.. Jean De Bast. it is without doubts a beautiful stamp, and at this time we should notice that his signature (JD) is presented in the stamp 

1959 "Stamp Day" (1) [Des (Jean De Bast)][Engr (Jean De Bast)][Recess] Sc(530)

the stamp represent the Countess of Taxis...The signature of De Bast is presented..this is a reproduction of a tapestry...

1960 "Stamp Day" (1) [Des (J. Van Noten)][Engr (Jean De Bast)][Recess] Sc(539)

The stamp show us a XVI Century Post man riding a horse .. this was the first of three stamps of the series "Stamp Day" , designed by James Thiriar and engraved by Jean De Bast.. notice that in this stamp there were no signatures..Another detail we should highlight is the fact that the Background is [Photo] printed and the main design [Recess] Printed..

1962 "Stamp Day" (1) [Des (James Thiriar)][Engr (Jean De Bast)][Recess][Photo] Sc(578)

This is a XIX Century Stagecoach , and the two processes of Printing are merged together again... Jean De Bast signature is again presented (small letters JD at the Downright).. I don't know what was the criterion for him to sign his stamps, but the fact is that some of them are signed and others don't.. 

1963 "Stamp Day" (1) [Des (E. Verboeckhoven)][Engr (Jean De Bast)][Recess][Photo] Sc(591)

these are two spectacular works from the partnership James Thiriar/Jean De Bast... To choose James Thiriar (1889/1965)  to do the design of these two works was obvious, because he was best known for his ability to design Military Uniforms.. During the WWI he worked as a designer in the War Front , for both Belgium and British Magazines.. 

[Left] in this stamp we find a Liege Postilion from the XIX Century.. A postilion was a Stagecoach driver who, instead of be seated  in the coach itself , was riding one of the Horses that pull's the coach... these workers do not use military uniforms but the Postal Office had a Uniform for them... 

1964 "Stamp Day" (1) [Des (James Thiriar)][Engr (Jean De Bast)][Recess] Sc(609)

[Right] A Postmaster of the XIX Century is represented with his more distinguish look...

1965 "Stamp Day" (1) [Des (James Thiriar)][Engr (Jean De Bast)][Recess] Sc(629)

both the works are excellent , great engravings and have the particularity of being both signed by the two Artists in very visible places, as it to say "This Was a good work.. I like it!"..this partnership was for sure to continue with some more beautiful works but was interrupted by the death of James Thiriar in 1965..

Two more works of De Bast for this series [Left] the stamp represents a rural Mail Man from the XIX Century... it is not a particularly good stamp , and we must not be surprised for the absence of signature from De Bast...the [Photo/Recess] Printing returns...

1966 "Stamp Day" (1) [Des (O. Bonnevalle)][Engr (Jean De Bast)][Recess/Photo] Sc(664)

[Right] At the right we have a Mail Horseman warning the population of it's presence with the famous Horn, presented in so many stamps...You can see the De Bast signature below the horseman's boot , in the ground...

1967 "Stamp Day" (1) [Des (O. Bonnevalle after the work of an Unknown engraver)][Engr (Jean De Bast)][Recess/Photo] Sc(686)

To end this small section about the "Stamp Day" series and Jean De Bast , I have a stamp from 1985 , issued as an homage to Jean De Bast and his work for the Belgium Post Office...

1985 "Stamp Day" (1) [Des/Engr (Paul Huybrechts)][Recess] Sc(1193)

Now I will start a new section about Parcel and Railway stamps... As we know Belgium has a rich history with this kind of stamps.. I have made a first approach to railway stamps in other previous post and i will continue now, but other future posts will be needed to have a more complete look to the several series of these stamps...

Here is a complete series from 1921..the stamps itself represent a coat of Arms...

1921 "Coat Of Arms" (7)  [Recess ( Enschedé & Sons, Haarlem)] Sc(Q132,...,Q138)

The first of two Railway stamp series..

1934 "Locomotives" (3) [Photo] Sc(Q182,Q183)

This next series is from 1949 and the stamps represent the evolution of the locomotives through the XIX and XX Century... in order to satisfy the many 'Train Stamps' Collectors, I will present the stamps individually.. 

there are some values missing: I have the 3F stamp, but it is heavily damaged , so i decided to do not present it..the 300F is missing and the last stamp (60F) is from another issue.. two stamps of the 4F and 30F were presented because they are different shades of the main colors...We should pay some attention to the stamp frames ; they are very beautiful and well designed..the engraving troubles me... it is very good , but  the presence of a Pure white Background should prevent and disable the appearance of white spaces also in the design of the locomotives .. I don't understand it.. in some of the designs , the engraving leaves white spaces where they shouldn't exist.. ( you can see this in the 9F,20F,40F stamps, for example...)

 As You can see in this 40F stamp, we have something that appears to be a sun reflex, but the ending result is identical to the white Background.. it should not be this way...

  in this 20F stamp, all those metal pieces should not be plain and pure white...

 the same happens here in this 9F stamp, with to much empty white space...

in the same 9F stamp we have a complete Printing failure...
The question is.. Are all of these white spaces some kind of bad work of the engravers?? Was the Background originally intended to be White?? are they simple printing failures?? 

1949 (0.50F to 100F) "Various Locomotives" (17) [Recess (Brussels Engraving Institute)] Sc(Q310,...,Q325) 

1949 (60F) "Electrification of Charleroi-Brussels Line" (1) [Recess (Brussels Engrving Institute)] Sc(Q327)

1950/1952 "Parcel stamps" (8) [Recess] Sc(Q328,Q330,Q331,Q332,Q333)

Well, we reach the end of this already long post...Hope you like it..!

SeeYou