Greece [ 10th post ] Egypt [ 7th Post ]

New Entries

From time to time , a post appear where there is no need for conversation about technical details, Artists or other catalog pleasantries...today's post is one of those, with small talk and many stamps...

Excellent engraving work of Bradbury Wilkinson & Co. Ltd. The series commemorates the Centenary of Lord Byron's Death...in 1974 there is another series about Byron,and we could ask "why 2 series about an Englishmen in Greece??".. well, he is remembered by the Greeks as a Hero of one of the Wars against the Ottoman Empire...  there is another small detail I want to talk about ,and it is related with the background piece of cardboard that I use in my scans... it is usualy a piece of light kraft brown cardboard, but in this group of Greek stamps, I have made some experiences with one of those black stock cards we sometimes use to store our stamps and keep them away from the excessive moist and sun light..

1924 "Death Centenary of Lord Byron" (2) [Recess (Bradbury Wilkinson & Co.,Ltd,London)] Sc(316,317)

In this second series we have some representations of Greek Mythology «1st) Narcissus 2nd) Apollo and Daphne [Laurel] 3rd) Venus and Adonis [hibiscus] 4th) Pan and Pitys [Pine Tree] 5th) Iris 6th) Tulip 7th) Cyclamen 8th) Crocus» label in my " Hellas 2014" catalog..it seems that the plants shown represent also Mythological entities...
Something I want to tell you is that this series is just one of many others ,work of Anastasios Alevizos , commonly known as Tassos,one of the Greatest Greek Stamp Designers .
1958 "Nature Protection" (8) [Des ( Anastasios Alevizos (Tassos))][Litho] Sc(624,...,631)

now we have a series about a Spanish painter, called "El Greco", due to his Greek ascendance... it is known that I really don't appreciate this kind of series , with paintings of great Artists,because they are not the work of any "Stamp" Artist,there is no real creativity in the stamp unless that of the painting represented...but ,this series is from a period of time that I like and want to have completed in my collection... well , here it is..
1965"El Greco" (5) [Litho] Sc(813,...,817)

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

it is now time of showing some of the Egyptian new entries to the collection...

This is a beautiful Express Mail Stamp from 1926/1929.. there are some details to talk about in relation to this stamp...there is a first issue [Photo] printed and then appeared this one in 1929 that it is [Photo (frames)][Litho (Vignette)] ,with some modifications in the Arabic inscriptions...
in 1943/1944 there was another issue with the label "Postes Express" also [Photo][Litho] printed...
1929 "Express Mail" (1) [Photo][Litho] Sc(E2)

1953 "Electronics Exposition, Cairo" (1) [Photo] Sc(365)

This is a 1963 stamp with a topic very used in that year...it is a commemoration of the UNESCO Campaign to Save Nubian Monuments and they were issued many,many series about this subject by numerous different countries... 
Nubia was a region of the Ancient Egypt ,close to the source of the Nile and its fabulous monuments and temples had to be moved away from the expected rising waters of the Nile due to the construction of a well needed dam in the Nile... the monuments would be submerged  for ever , if this kind of procedure was not taken in that precise moment ...it was a huge task , removing stone by stone entire buildings of Pharaonic proportions.., and reconstruct them at another place ,again stone by stone... Fantastic!!!

Rescue of Nubian Monuments
1963 "UNESCO Campaign SAVING Nubian Monuments" (3) [Photo] Sc(591)

1964 "Olympic Games, Tokyo" (4) [Photo] Sc(646,...,649)

This is a commemoration of the 1400th Anniversary of the Koran... it is a beautiful stamp that it is issued together with another stamp with the same design  but with fv of 30M..."both stamps were issued together se-tenant in sheets of 4 ,separated by a half stamp size label" [transcript from 1986 Stanley Gibbons Middle East]...

1968 "AIR MAIL / 1400th Anniversary of the Holy Koran" (2) [Photo] Sc(C119)

This is the Post Day series of 1968,with 3 beautiful Pharaoh Dresses present in pictures that survived time in temple walls and ceilings of Ancient Egypt Monuments and buildings... of course,it is not necessary to say that a good engraver work would turn these stamps into real Art items...who knows what could have taken form in the skilled hands of Schirnbock, Mouchon, Slania or other Great Engraver..1968 "Post Day : Pharaohs Dresses" (3) [Photo] Sc(728,...,730)

The idea of showing Pharaohs Dresses was repeated in the following year of 1969 in other Post series ...

1969 "Post Day : Pharaohs Dresses" (4) [Photo] Sc(752,...,754)

From 1969 we have still these two series, the first related to Cairo's Millennium , where some of the Capital city Art achievements are exhibited and the 2nd (single stamp series) is related with the opening of the Cairo Opera House...1969 "Cairo Millennium" (4) [Photo] Sc(807a,...,807d)
1969 "Centenary of the Opening of the Cairo Opera House" (1) [Photo] Sc(813)

a beautiful stamp where the subject is the inauguration of the  of the Solar Bark Museum in Giza...
it was constructed near 1985 (??..)(why this stamp in 1974.. I don't get it..!)  with the task of displaying the Khufu ship for use of  King Cheops in the Afterlife...
1974 "Air Mail / Solar Bark Museum" (1) [Photo] Sc(C164)

Well , I hope you liked the post... I will make another one , this time with Turkish stamps, briefly..

SeeYou

Greek Stamps [9th Post]

New Entries

This will be a post dedicated to something that happened to me recently... so , it will be a very different post. I have divided the post  in two sections about two different subjects.: An upgrade of the already usual " Muchon Subject "  and a curiosity....

...................................................................................................................................................................................................

The Mouchon "Subject" :  as we all know , Eugene Mouchon was one of the most known engravers, with many works for many different countries from the 1860's to the end of the Century...in previous posts , I have shown that in two of his stamps from the 1890's , the same background appeared...

I am talking of the 1895 King Carlos I stamp from Portugal and the Grand Duke Adolph of Luxembourg 1895 stamp...both share the same Vignette's background... well, at this point it could be only a coincidence ( strange coincidence...) , but recently I was classifying some of my recent Greek stamps, and another piece of this puzzle appeared... 

Some of the Greek stamps of the 1896 "Olympics" series , also engraved by Mouchon, show the same particular background.. I think that we are seeing a pattern emerging...!! the problem is that in two of these stamps, the illustrations were made by different designers... (Knoop in the Luxembourg stamp, and A. Guilleron in the Olympic stamp).. the question is : why does different Artists keep designing vignette's with similar backgrounds..???. the only common link is the presence in the Technical staff of our friend Mouchon....the data about the Greek stamp seems indisputable , but I need to know much more about the Luxembourg stamp...Mouchon created the steel dies in every one of the 3 stamps , but he could not have altered the designs... if so , why this strange coincidence..??? I do not have the means right now to have a more detailed view of this subject, but I am now particularly interested in other Mouchon stamps of 1894, 1895,1896 and 1897...I will continue this research and I will keep you informed about the latest developments , as I always do...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Normality vs Abnormality : (don't forget to click on the pictures) it seems that my last period of time spent classifying Greek stamps was full of strange events... first I saw this Mouchon "Coincidence" in one of the Olympic stamps (Yes, I know it is damaged, but it is beautiful, isn't it??!!!) and then when I least expected, something much more "invigorating" occurred.. I was just finishing my 'Small Heads' new entries when ....

Yes, I found all these "things" that we should not find in a 'small head' stamp... the most interesting thing is that I found all these "mistakes" in just one stamp !!!

After seeing all these "wrong" stuff in just one stamp, I felt reinvigorated and above all I thought "Finally , I have a Rare stamp!!! I immediately started to research the catalogs and making some questions, and SURPRIIIIZE!!! it seems that in the end all of this is normal...normal because it isn't listed in the catalogs, because they are not plate flaws, because it is just a printing error...but not all are bad news... I Have a Genuine Rare Example of Normality !!!! At this moment , and from this point of view, I could say that I have a stamp that all my viewers until today and all of those who are about to visit my blog in future years, simply don't have !!! I do now own a Rare Stamp... is "Rare" ="Expensive"???  no, not for me , anymore..!

Seeyou

                                                                              

the Old and the New

New Entries

I decided to continue with the presentation of some US stamps, but this time mixed with some other new entries...

Two beautiful stamps from Greece, representing "The Tragedy of War"... there You can see a soldier dying in battle and a Feminine figure, that I think represents "Mother Greece", carrying out  the task of taking care of the young Orphan and his mother... it is also significant that the figure presents a large Cross in her chest, and this could represent the role of the Orthodox Church both in the state and in the Social cohesion of the Country... it is a series from 1914 and the stamps present a very good and clear [Litho] printing.... 

1914 "National Welfare Fund" (2) [Litho (Aspiotis Bros)] Sc(RA1,RA2)

As we know Geopolitics of the Balkans region is very complex, full of wars , disputes and Political and Religious Instability until our days ... all the countries of this region had invasion stamps, stamps of the invader, etc, and these stamps in particular are from a region that in our days belongs to Albania...Historically North Epirus  was heavily populated by Greek people and was under Greek control from 1912 to 1914...History is something that never stops and the events of 1914 in that  region led to the uprising of the Greek Population of North Epirus, who became an Autonomous Region in November 1914...curiously ,this series is exactly from that time and reflects all these changes that were taking place...the first two stamp issued (10l and 25l) have the Label "Epirus" and all the other 6 values have  a different label saying "Autonomous Epirus"...I only have 3 stamps of the 8 available, but fortunately we can see this difference... These are undoubtedly stamps full of history and to a better comprehension of all that was happening , I can advertise a little and say to you that if you collect Greek stamps You should have the 3 volume Greece Catalog of Karamitsos ... it is one of the best Catalogs I have and all these events are explained with great detail and clarity....

I could not find the Scott codes for "North Epirus" (they are there, just don't know where..) ,so I don't present them...

    1914 "Infantrymen" (8) [Litho (Aspiotis Bros,Corfu)] 

What can I say about these engraved series from Russia..??."I Love them..!!" .. the subject is a little over used during the years,but it is a comprehensible effort to maintain the cohesion of the complex map of what was Russia in those days..these stamps belong to the 1961 2nd and 1962 3rd series of  the Main series "Capitals of Autonomous Republics"... they were all designed by N. Krugov, but Engraved by several different engravers....

1961 "Capitals of Autonomous Republics 2nd Series" (7) [Des (N. Krugov)][Engr (I.Mokrousov 1)(V.Smirnov 2,5)(I. Sapronov 3)(T.Nikitina 4)][Recess] 

Well,let us start to show the US stamps I promised in the beginning of the post... I like very much these portrait series, and even more when they are designed by several Artists...these are stamps from the "Great Americans" series from 1980/1985... You don't have to be a US collector to know that there were across time , several President Issues, some of them really precious stamps, not only Artistically but also Economically..these series we are now talking about are basically the some thing but with people that one way or another distinguished  themselves during their life... 

there are various aspects we should note in this series... some of the values have perforation 11 and others 10.5x11... it is possible that some stamps appear without "tagging" , but this aspect is clearly detailed in all catalogs...the complete series has 26 stamps,so You know that 5 of them are still missing (I think that now that the classification is done, I will end these two series next month...)

1980/1985 "Great Americans" (26) [Des (Bernie Fuchs 1)(Bert Silverman 2)(Ward Brackett 3,12,20)(Richard Sparks 4,7,8,17)(Paul Calle 5)(Dennis Lyall 6,14)(Robert Anderson 9)(Brad Holland 10)(Bradbury Thompson 11)(Jim Sharpe 13)(Christopher Calle 15,16,18,21)(Roy H. Anderson 19)][Recess] 

stamps from the 1986/1994 "Great Americans" series...

1986/1994 "Great Americans" (28) [Des (Ron Adair 1,2)(Christopher Calle 3,4,5,11,12)(Juan Maldonado 6)(Robert Anderson 7,15)(Jack Rosenthal 8)(Dennis Lyall 9)(Richard Sparks 10)(Bradbury Thompson 13)(John Berkey 14)(Tomm Broad 17)(Arthur Lidov 18)][Recess] 

Great, Great engraving....

1973 "Harry Truman Issue" (1) [Design (Bradbury Thompson)][Recess] Sc(1499)

Great Art work to represent a Great Man...

1979 "Albert Einstein Issue" (1) [Des (Bradbury Thompson)][Recess] Sc(1774)

These are stamps of individual series, so they do not belong to the same series.. I show them together because I think they are intimately related... 

The place of "old People" is with their families and not in places prepared to segregate them..We all must live together..! We all have a place in life, even in old Age....

1979 "International Year of the Child" (1) [ Des (Paul Calle)][Recess] Sc(1772)

1982 "Aging Together" (1) [Des (Paul Calle)][Recess] Sc(2011)

Next time I'll have stamps from Venezuela...

SeeYou

A Ship in the Canal

New Entries

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..!

SeeYou