New Zealand [3rd Post]

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Today's post is about some stamps I received last year from a "stamp friend" in New Zealand... I sent him some stamps from India and in exchange he sent me some beautiful and very famous New Zealand stamps... I already showed the "Peace" series in other previous post and now it is a good time to show the others... it will be the first of many , I hope, short posts  as I told you before..it is part of the new design of the blog , resulting from demands of my day to day life...

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AS we all know , the different Philatelies  of our countries are consequence of their strong or weak points... some of them are known for the beautiful Engravings,other from the Fantastic illustrations, others have famous pictorial series ,others portrait series, etc... New Zealand have for a long time something called the "Health stamps" and they are among the most famous New Zealand stamps...

The illustrations and design of the stamps are work of one of the most important Stamp Designers from New Zealand... James Berry started his work with stamps in 1933  and became rapidly one the great creators in New Zealand's  Philately...his design is very fluent and versatile and these qualities brought him some well deserved fame in our Hobby's small world...

1946 "Health Stamps" (2) [Des (James Berry)][Recess (Waterlow and sons Limited, London)] Sc(B28,B29)

Here is another work of James Berry, this time with focus on the Centennial of the Otago Settlement... The versatility of Berry's work became more evident in this series,where the design of buildings is side by side with landscapes ,ships,animals,etc.. we must have in mind that there are Artists specialized in landscapes or drawing horses,or painting Naval Battles,but sometimes in the Stamp Designing it is necessary to build pictures with many of these components working together to build a coherent  idea,easily understood by the final consumer ... Us. that's why I always fought  to build my other blog... just to bring , not only people like Berry , with an extensive work in Stamp Designing,but also the work of others who distinguish themselves in other branches of Art ,but who by necessity , curiosity or to answer a professional request, were one day also part of the Enormous Group of  creators of our Hobby...

1948 "Centennial of Otago Settlement" (4) [Des (James Berry)][Recess (Bradbury Wilkinson)] Sc(269,...,272)

Another beautiful series focused on the development and history of New Zealand...this time, another region of the Country is highlighted and this time Berry had help from other two Artists... one of them was also (together with Berry) very important in Stamp Designing in this particular time Frame.. I'm talking of Leonard Cornwall Mitchell , that started to design stamps in 1931... it is without any doubts another great Artist, perhaps one of my favorites...the other Artist from this trio was James Alexander Johnstone and the 3p  was the only stamp he ever designed ... Artist with a well established Art Life , he is a very good example of one of those Artist who one day contributed to our hobby,but never with the Excellency and Importance of many others who almost devoted their life's to these small pieces of Art... 

1950 "Centennial of Canterbury" (5) [Des (L.C. Mitchell 2d)(James Alexander Johnstone 3p)(James Berry / others)][[Recess (Bradbury Wilkinson)] Sc(274,...,278)

As You see, this is a considerably smaller post and the future will be like this , with some exceptions when we will be focusing in  large series with more complicated subjects to talk about...

Ok!that's it !! 

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Well, I'm starting this post a little early than I was expecting (here and now is Monday, 18:53).. it is the second time I decided to do the post by sections.. I have only classified 3 stamps,but they are clearly from a well defined early period of the New Zealand Philately,so I'm starting now to do the 'talk' part before I enter into other more advanced periods of time...

 These are Newspaper stamps... stamps with this design were issued from 1873 to 1892.. the several issues differ in the presence or not of wmk, in the wmk itself and in the perforation...  I have only one problem with these two stamps : 
[Left] this stamp has a Star watermark and the perforation nearly 12.. these two characteristics put this stamp in the 1875 issue..
1875 "Queen Victoria" [Des (John Davies)][Typo] Sc(P3b)
[Right] and here is the problem.. this stamp doesn't exist!! it has no wmk, so it only could be from the 1873 issue or from the 1892 issue... but in all the stamps issued from 1873 to 1892, there are no Non Perforated stamps...! some Horizontally non perforated or Vertically non perforated stamps exist in vertical or horizontal pairs but in the 1875 issue, with Wmk.. the stamp appears to be from the 1892 issue , because it has a bright rose color, characteristic of that issue , but I cannot explain the non perforated margins..

These are two pictures of the same stamp.. Yes, the right picture represents the back of the stamp... I have heard of these stamps with advertisements in the back but I didn't have one until now.. the stamp itself represents another Queen Victoria portrait  and belongs to a series with several different designs (different portraits and frames).. to classify correctly these stamps with advertisement , we have to know the perforation and then look at the advertisement in the back to see it's color and finally choose what is the correct type of the stamp..(there are 3 types : this one is type 3) ) in this case , we have a perf 10 , mauve publicity and type 3 .. there are many, many possible options so it is desirable that we have one of those colorful things that allow us to do know the right colors present in the stamps... I have to say that all these combinations between the stamp, type and advertisement are only present in the SG Commonwealth catalog.. the others I have , mention only the existence of publicity in the back of the stamps, but nothing more.. but, of course they are more generalist catalogs, not specialized versions...
1993 "Queen Victoria" [Typo] Sc(61) SG(218j)

This is a Insurance Department stamp...there are 5 main issues of this design , from 1891 to 1947... they differ in the perforation and/or Wmk... I cannot see the wmk in this stamp , but a closer look to the catalog narrow the possibilities, because until the 1913 issue (3rd) the 1d stamps were blue colored.. so we have no problems with the Wmk (it is the same in all the remain issues..) but we have yet different perforations.. this stamp has 14x15 , so the problem now is to find the right color.. this is definitely a Carmine Pink stamp... we have finally 2 options and they differ in yet another detail... the paper (the 1913/1937 issue was printed in 3 different papers, all chalk surfaced , but with other different properties.. this is for me very hard to decide, because I'm still not very experienced with papers...so I will give one Sc code and two SG possible codes...) 
1913 "Insurance stamp" [Des (W.B. Hudson)(J.F. Rogers)][Typo] Sc(Cy13) SG(L25a)(L31b [1925])

now I have some examples of one of the most famous New Zealand stamps.. it is known as the 'Universal Penny Postage'...the designs seem to be identical , but after a closer look we soon identify several differences...[Left] this is a [Recess] printed stamp (from 1901 to 1906 we have [Recess] printed stamps, and from 1908 to 1926 there were several issues of [Typo] printed stamps...) this stamp present no Watermark ...
1902 "Universal Penny Postage" [Des (G. Bach)(G. Drummond)][Recess] Sc(105)

[Right] the [Typo] stamps from 1908 are redrawn's and if the overall aspect of the design isn't enough for us to distinguish them from the original 1901 [Recess] stamps, we can look to the lines of the globe (they are diagonal instead of vertical in the original issues..) .. but our 3 stamps are from the 1909/1926 Design, that bring us a new upper label 'Dominion of ' .. the rest of the design seems identical to the previous ones but with the diagonal lines in the globe.. several papers were used (usually known as Typography papers) and different gums also, so to distinguish the different issues in these 17 years, You have to be almost an expert in papers, and as we know I'm not one of them (as a consequence I will not show the SG codes [much more specific ] and only give the Sc code...)
1909/1926  "Universal Postage" Sc(131)

let us start now a brief passage through the Days of King George V and focus on his [Typo] printed definitive's of 1915/1919...first I have to say that the Yellow Green stamp it is not from this series , but it is also [Typo] printed and the design is the same (with a different background) , so I included this stamp in the image...there is another 1915 series that use an identical design ,but it is [Recess] printed...
all the orange brown 1.05d and yellow 2d presented are colored with different shades of the main colors...the series is not yet complete, because there is one more Grey black 1.05d ( the one that is missing has 2 diamonds in each side of the king's crown.. the one presented has only one ...) and a brown 3d..
1915/1919 "King George V" (6) Typo (Government Printer, Wellington)] Sc(144,161,162,163)

These are stamps from a pictorial series from 1935... some of the stamps like the 1d and 3d (and others that I don't have yet...) are really beautiful stamps... the brown 3d is for me one of the most well accomplished stamps, representing a Maori Girl.. (spectacular..!!) ..
there were two main issues of these designs.. the 1st in 1935/1936 and the 2nd in 1936/1942 ... they are different mainly because of the Wmk but some perforation details are also different.. both the series demand a lot from the collector to achieve a good classification of the stamps... New Zealand stamps are demanding for the collector.. if you have New Zealand stamps from the early days ,and you don't think yourself as an expert in things like Wmk's and papers,please think ,that perhaps it is better to leave the stamps for a future classification ,when you have achieved a higher level of 'stamp' experience..
Now I want to talk about the group of 4 stamps representing that strange bird, known as Brown Kiwi..the first representation of this bird in NZ stamps was in 1898, but these 4 stamps are from 1935/1942... there are 2 types of this design : 

 [Type I (Left)] the limits of the white 'Cumulus' cloud only 'descend' a bit at the right of the Palm tree, immediately above the middle of the Kiwi's back..(for a better appreciation, please see the 4th stamp...) ..some of the design details are somehow blurred..
[Type II (Right)] the boundaries of the white 'Cumulus' cloud almost touch the Kiwi's back and some of the palm tree leaves..all the design details are well visible...
As I said before the wmk is a decisive detail for the classification of these stamps.. I cannot see clearly the wmk's so the codes stay for another time and the stamps remain as "Need Wmk Detection' ...

to finish this post ,we are now entering King George VI reign and I have a stamp from the Coronation issue and 14 stamps from the Definitive series with the portrait of the King...as we know the coronation issue is similar in most of the Colonies and Territories of the British Crown, but it is always a very well engraved stamp and the printing is always very , very good..the definitive series is very beautiful and the engraving work is very well done by someone of Bradbury Wilkinson...the king appears in a military uniform, with several Military orders and honors in his jacket.. Inverted Watermarks are possible in this issue ( the series was issued in two different times... the low values until 3d , except 2d , were issued between 1938 and 1944...the other values between 1947 and 1952..)... in the scarlet 1d stamp,could exist something called "broken ribbon flaw" (if You see the cross that descend from the King's neck , imagine that the link immediately above the cross is missing [and the lines from the uniform's background appear..] , so the first white part of the necklace is not connected to the cross...)
in the larger high values stamps there are two types [Type 1) there is always a white 'Aura' present. where the background lines disappear -like in a small value stamp-  Type 2) the white 'Aura' is still present ,but faded and the background lines do not disappear... the two stamps I present are type 2..].. the [Recess] printing work in this High value stamps was done by De La Rue 1937 "King George VI Coronation" (3) [Recess (Bradbury Wilkinson)] Sc(223)
1938/1952 "King George VI portrait" (17) [Des (W.J. Cooch)][Recess (Bradbury Wilkinson) small values (De La Rue) high values] Sc(226B,227,227A,228B,258,228C,259,260,261,262,264,265,266)
well , this is the end of the post... in a future post I still have some health stamps and I want to enter the reign of Queen Elizabeth II...Without doubts, New Zealand stamps are very demanding and this was a post where several of my 'stamp' frailties came to the light...I have to dedicate myself to the study of papers... I have already a large quantity of the Portuguese "Ceres" stamps to initiate this study, but it will take the proper time ... 

Thank You again for your patience and.....

                                                                                  SeeYou

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Last Wednesday I received some stamps from New Zealand.. A new stamp Friend sent them to me in a swap .. the last 3 times I have tried to exchange some stamps I've been robbed ... so my expectations were low, but the final result was much better than I was expecting.. beautiful stamps, and above everything someone I can count on to future exchanges... I felt so happy by having the "Peace" series from New Zealand that I have to show it to you today, so a post with stamps from different origins was in order... 

let us start Chronologically as usual, with some stamps from Iraq...

This is a 18 stamps series from Iraq 1934/1938..there are some stamps missing including the 3 higher values, of course... This series present us King Ghazi in 3 different designs , with unknown designer...one more time the Artists lose their identity in these Big Company's , starting to be seen as mere parts of a complex machine... I understand this strange phenomena , but what I really don't understand is why all these hidden data about Engravers and Designers is kept away from the general public, years after the Artists are dead and buried... These company's or those who have all the Archives, should have Digitized all the information... Why can't they do this ???  Why is it so important to hide this information?? Is it a secret? The world is in Danger?? Please, let this info help others to be happy and some of the Artists to have a place of their own in our hobby and in the Art World in general..

Iraq 1934/1938 "King Ghazi" (18) [Recess (Bradbury Wilkinson & Co.,London)] Sc(61,...,69)(71,...,75)

This is a very famous series from New Zealand , designed by James Berry, a Great Stamp Designer.. in my other blog I had the opportunity of making one post about his work for the New Zealand Postal Service , that covers only the years from 1933 to 1951 .. perhaps one or two more posts are necessary to cover all his work...
It is a series where [Recess] and [Photo] stamps coexists, and the engraving work and printing was at charge of 3 of  London Main Printing Company's ...
Well, we were in 1946 and Celebrations were taking place all over the world , because WWII has ended... this series is a commemoration of the end of the War, the survival of the Institutions and the Participation of New Zealand Armed Forces in the War... there are here several great stamps , some of them beautifully designed and engraved...
New Zealand 1946 "Peace" (11) [Des (James Berry)][Recess (Bradbury Wilkinson & Co.Ltd 1d,2d)(Waterlow and Sons Limited, London 0.5d,3d,4d,5d,6d,8d,9d)][Photo (Harrison & Sons 1.5d,1s)] Sc(247,...,257)

One more series from Iraq, now an Air Mail series...the values are divided by 4 different designs and 2 size formats..it is the 1st Air Mail series from Iraq and in the pictures we can see it is commemorating the Air Company Service of the country...the designer and engraver are again unknown...
Iraq 1949 "Air Mail" (8) [Recess (Bradbury Wilkinson & Co. Ltd)] Sc(C1,..,C8)
















These are stamps from a group of Series of France , called "Heroes of the Resistance"..I think they are only 4 series in the time frame 1957/1961... I have the 1st and 3rd series completed , but only one stamp from the 2nd and none of the 4th series... This group of series is result of the work of many designers and engravers, some of the stamps are joint efforts of two Artists, and others are designed and engraved by the same Artist... in the 3rd series , all the Design work is at charge of  Raoul Serres and each stamp is engraved by a different artist... again the main focus is the WWII and some of the main Martyrs of the French Resistance to the German Invasion...
France 1957 "Heroes of the Resistance (1st Series)" (5) [Des (Cottet 8F,Albert Decaris 10F,Lemagny 12F,Spitz,18F,Robert Cami 20F)][Engr (Cottet, Albert Decaris, Mounier,Henry Cheffer, Robert Cami)][Recess] Sc(826,...,830)

France 1958 "Heroes of the Resistance (2nd Series)" (5) [Des/Engr (Albert Decaris)][Recess] Sc(879)

France 1959 "Heroes of the Resistance (3rd Series)" (5) [Des (Raoul Serres)][Engr (Raoul Serres)(Pheulpin)(Robert Cami)(Charles Mazelin)(Munier)][Recess] Sc(915,...,919)

This is a series from Dubai 1968... it is a beautiful and out of the ordinary butterflies series, with some aspects to highlight.. the designs are very beautiful, the background is original ,  but the printing is poor , with some displacement of the colors and lack of detail in some cases...I should not have scanned these stamps with this resolution ( because they are not engraved...) but I decided to have all the stamps scanned with the same 600ppp...
Dubai 1968 "Butterflies" (8) [Litho (Format International Security Printers, London)] Sc(??) SG(277,...,284) [ Caution, because my SG Middle East is from 1986... the codes could have changed..)

Hope you like this improvised post...

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