The Diamond Mountains

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Some stamps from Portugal and North Korea are today the in focus in this Post...

Portugal

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I will start by presenting a series from 1923 that in my opinion is very beautiful... the series is not yet complete , and I will present one of the stamps (The series has just one design..) in the left , for better appreciation , and the other stamps at the right..

I remember talking about 'empty stamps' as those who don't have a message or history 'attached'.. Here is a stamp that is the complete opposite of an 'empty stamp'.. This one has history and could be joined to various topics.. let us see..

The stamp is a commemoration of the Flight Portugal Brazil, that for the first time cross the South Atlantic by AirPlane. the Heroes of that voyage were Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral, both represented at the middle of the stamp by their portraits ..At the left side there is the portrait of the Brazilian President Artur Bernardes and at the right we have the Portuguese President Antonio José de Almeida ... At the Center we have the plane that made the voyage ('Lusitânia') and a Boat from another days (1500's)( The Caravela..).. At the left below the president portrait we have a view of Rio De Janeiro and at the right , the Tower of Belem in Lisbon.. Down at the Center we have the Coat of Arms of Portugal.. these are only some of the topics we could take from this stamps.. It is indeed a Rich Stamp...

1923 "Flight of Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral from Portugal to Brazil" (16) [Des (Unknown Designer)][Litho (Waterlow and Sons Limited, London)] Sc(300,301,304,305,306,307,308,309,310,311,313)

North Korea

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I have a small group of stamps from the 60's and 70's to present..

the design of these stamps is very characteristic of the stamps from the 50's and 60's from North Korea (very simple , but beautiful..).. I am talking just of the non engraved stamps, because there are few Engraved stamps of good or Very good level..(perfect and well elaborated designs and good engraver work..)..

1959 "Animal Preservation" (6) [Litho] Sc(195,196,197)

[Left] 1960 "Sports and Games" (4) [Photo] Sc(265,266,268)

[Right] 1963 "Flowers" (5) [Litho] Sc(452)

This is a beautiful series about a group of mountains in North Korea, called the Diamond Mountains.. there are several series with views and landscapes of these Mountains.. it seems that this Mountain chain is divided between the two Koreas...

1973 "Diamond Mountains Scenery (4th issue)" (5) [Litho] Sc(1151,...,1155)

I will leave here two examples of the North Korean engraved stamps... they have some really beautiful engraved series like the 1963 "Ancient Korean Buildings " or 1965 "Wading birds"...All the engraved stamps are printed in just one color.. (perhaps this was the real 'deficit' that lead to the use of other printing methods..) [I think that they are really good stamps...]

[Left] 1967 "Freighter Collima" (1) [Recess] Sc(796)
[Right] 1967 "North Korean Cities" (3) [Recess] Sc(819)

[Left] 1973 "Historical Sites of War and Revolution " (4) [Litho] Sc(1166,1168)
[Right] 1973 "Secret Camps by Tuman-Gang in Guerrilla War, 1932" (2) [Litho] Sc(1113)

1974 "Kim Il Sung during the Anti-Japanese Struggle" (4) [Photo] Sc(1278,1279,1280)

[Left] 1974 " Five Fronts of Socialist Construction" (5) [Litho] Sc(1185,1189)
[Right] 1974 "The Works of Kim Il Sung (2nd series)" (2) [Litho] Sc(1180)

1974 "Civil Aviation" (5) [Litho] Sc(1254,...,1258)


Now, and to end this post , two MS, one of flowers and other os Pre-History..
I don't present any data from these MS..

Seeyou

Maestro's

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Today I have some stamps from Berlin, Germany...

If you are a regular visitor of this blog , you should have noticed that in my last post , there were less words than usual.. I tried to make a post only with the stamps and the technical data.. 

I think that my "talk (!!..)" is sometimes excessive and I'm still trying to make 'the' ideal post...

So experiences are taking place ... 

The first stamps of this post are from a beautiful series from 1965... this series used some paintings of Artists from the XIX Century , that reproduce accurately the society and people from those times ...

 The 1st painting is from C.W. Allers and represent's a carriage pulled by horses, that was the common City transport... in the 2nd we can see a shoemaker, a rare profession nowadays , painted by Adolph von Menzel ; three Ladies , probably from medium or high class , are represented in the 3rd painting by Franz Kruger..

1965 "19th Century Berliners" (8) [Perf 14] [Recess] Sc(269,271,273)

This next group of stamps show us some important figures of German Society... they are all individual complete series ; here is some technical data (from left to right) :

• 1970 "150th Birth Anniv of Theodor Fontane (writer)" (1) [Perf 14][painting by Hanns Fechner][Photo] Sc(282)
• 1971 "150th Anniv of Hermann von Helmholtz (scientist)" (1) [Perf 14][Painting by K. Morell-Kramer][Photo] Sc(314)
• 1972 "125th Birth Anniv of Max Liebermann (painter)" (1) [Perf 14] [Painting by Max Lieberman][Photo] Sc(332)
• 1972 "150th Death Anniv of Karl August von Hardenberg (statesman)" (1) [Perf 14][Painting by Tischbein][Photo] Sc(333)
• 1969 "Anniversaries (Alexander Von Humbpoltd 1789/1859)" (1) [Perf 14] [Painting by Joseph Stieler][Photo] Sc(281)

If I were a topical collector, I would have today a new topic and three good acquisitions ; the next stamps represent 3 different Orchestra conductors or 'Maestros'...

• 1969 "Anniversaries (Joseph Joachim 1831/1907 Violinist, composer and conductor)" (1) [Perf 14] [Painting by Adolph Von Meizel][Photo] Sc(280)
• 1980 "Birth Centenary of Robert Stolz (composer)" (1) [Perf 14][Photo] Sc(456)
• 1985 " Birth Centenary of Otto Klemperer (orchestral conductor)" (1) [Perf 14][Recess] Sc(502) ;

Yesterday I spent hours searching the Net for the data related to these stamps... I found almost 'nothing' .. It was a big surprise for me , used as I am to the usual order and efficiency  of the German way of 'doing things'... there is nothing, nothing at all... I have to solve this insufficiency of data ( not only in this case..) by other way , because I am seeing that the Internet isn't rich enough in this kind of information..not only the info is disorganized but it is really missing in some cases - remarkable..!! - ..

This complete series is from 1965 and it is called "New Berlin"... 

• 1965 "New Berlin" (12) [Perf 14] [Des ( Hiller )][Litho/Engr] Sc(223,...,234)

Two beautiful stamps....

[Left] 1978 "Birth Cent of Walter Kollo (composer)" (1) [Perf 14] [Recess] Sc(415)

[Right] 1983 "150th Anniv of Berlin-Coblenz Optical-Mechanical Telegraph" (1) [Perf 14] [Recess] Sc(484)

1972 "Paintings of Berlin Lakes"  (3) [Perf 14] [*][Photo] Sc(328,329,330)
* [1st] painting by A. Von Riesen
* [2nd] painting by Max Lieberman]
* [3rd] painting by Walter Lelstikow

and now  , to end , two MS from Japan :

I usualy work with 3 World catalogs ( 1 online and 2 in paper..).. in this particular case these two MS don't appear in two of them and the other only tells that they were given as prize in the New Year lottery (1974 and 1977) , giving them no codes..[perhaps I win the "Euromilhões" I played today...] ;
It is very useful to work with all these catalogs because I can cross information between them....; when it is possible I prefer to work with a National catalog and two of the others... in this case I have a Japanese Catalog and I left here the page where these two MS appear... 

SeeYou

Mercedes Benz

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some Vatican FDC's and MS's from North Korea, Afghanistan, Cape Verde Islands and Belgium Congo are part of today's "Menu"...

MS's are part of the Philatelic item's that have increased importance during last years, and we have reached a point where almost every series that is issued come with a Souvenir Sheet...

I don't give great "attention" to these items , but I recognize that some of them are very beautiful and collecting them could open "New Worlds" to Philately... I think that the appearance of this items in postal issues is normal and only represent an additional field of interest to the collectors (Postal Services have recognized this fact and they bet , some early than others ,in this new product..); so, we can say that SS's are part of the normal flow of things [The Economic perspective of the Postal company's, and the collectors needs and like's...].. What I consider to be "against" the flow , are two recent (the 1st beginning in the 80's until now and the 2nd beginning in the last decade...) Philatelic events : the "Explosion" and growing of "Empty stamps" (My last post...) and the incomprehensible appearance of Photography as main source of pictures , instead of the old, correct and desired bet in Art ... both of them are killing Philately by killing the collectors interest in collecting ...

How can We understand this Global Suicide of Postal Services??...[an analogy can be made with the sad pictures we often view of large groups of wales that suddenly direct themselves to land.. and die..!] ..I think that to reach objectives totally extra Philately, Postal Services are being obliged to follow this way ...( they should know that Today's Good Economic Result could lead to Tomorrow's Bankruptcy if not consistent with the market's demands ..) It is imperative that something is done to change this... 

two FDC's from 1978 "Pope John Paul I Commemoration" ; the FDC's  present the 4 stamps of this series..

SG(708,...,711)

Two FDC's, one SS and one Large Envelope of the 1972 series " UNESCO "Save Venice" Campaign "

SG(574,...,579,MS580)

Two FDC's with complete serie 1964 "UNESCO Campaign "Save Nubian Monuments""

SG(423,...,426)

Now we have 3 MS from the Afghanistan 

1) from a series (3+MS) 1985 "115th Birth Anniv of Lenin"

SG(MS1015)

2) from a series (7+MS) 1985 "Birds"

SG(MS1069)

3) from a series (7+MS) 1984 "World Aviation and Space Navigation Day"

SG(MS957)

MS with complete series 1992 "Birds from Korea" and Extra stamp [Left] SG(N3154,..,N3160)

SG(MS3160) [Right]

MS of the series (5+MS) 1986 "History of the Motor Car (2nd series)"

SG(MSN2567)

from Cape Verde, a MS from 1993 "Brasilliana 93 International Stamp Exhibition, Rio de

Janeiro, and union of Portuguese-speaking Capital Cities." SG(MS717)

MS from the series (4+MS) 1991 "Tourism. Ruins of Ribeira Grande, Santiago Island"

SG(MS678)


Now , from Belgium Congo:

[Left] MS with block 4 of the stamp of 4F50 from the series (6) 1937  "Promotion of National 

Parks" ... these stamps from the block 4 are printed in Black and Red  [SG(MS219a)]

[Right] MS 1938 with complete series (6) 1937 "Promotion of National Parks" ; all the stamps 

are printed in Blue and Brown .

This MS was presented at the " Tourism Congress, Costermansville." . [SG(MS225a)] 


                                                                       SeeYou