Sudan [3rd Post]

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For today's post I have reserved some stamps from Sudan...some Air Mail's from the 30's and 50's and a Commemorative series from the 60's...

Curiously , the first thing that called my attention when I first saw these stamps in detail , was the resemblance with the Chinese "Junk" series  with those tiny filaments gently drooping from the top label frame....in this case and after a closer view , I rapidly saw that these line are just engraving lines, not designed with that particular purpose like in the "Junk" series...

This is an Air Mail series with 12 stamps, and just one design... we can see that there are values in "m" and "p" ....in fact there are 4 values of "m" and 8 of "P" (Piastras)...the illustration show us in a first plan the statue of General Charles George Gordon ,and the desert and some palm trees in the background. it is a beautiful design with a nice engraving work...it is surely a series I want to have completed,some day in the future...

1931/1935 "Air Mail" (12) [Recess] Sc(C7,C9,C13)

Following this first 1931 series, in 1935 and 1938  two groups of Surcharged stamps were issued...the only stamp I have is from the 1938 series...I just show this stamp, to the viewer could have a better insight of the illustration and specially of all the desert landscape behind the Gordon's statue...very nice , indeed.!!

1938 "Surcharge on the 1931/1935 'Air Mail' series" (4) [Recess] Sc(C31)

I personally recommend you that this time, please click the pictures for better appreciate the illustrations and the engraving...the 2p and the 4.50p are simply beautiful..!! the illustrations and the frames are different for each value and the 2p,4p,4.50p and the 20p are drawings made with base on photographs...they were designed by someone from the printing company, and I even don't know what was it ....the 3p was designed by an Artist called G.R. Wilson ad the 2..50p (not presented here) and the 6p were created by Col. W.L. Atkinson... I have an incomplete post about him in the Artinstamps blog , but I think that with time I will discover more of his Biographical data... he is also the designer of  9 beautiful illustrations of the 1951 pictorial series already presented in the blog...I will dedicate part of today's afternoon,searching for data about his life...sometimes it is a very rewarding activity, not financially speaking,of course,but in the end it usually is time well spent....
1950 "AIR MAIL / Various Designs" (8) [Des (G.R.Wilson 3p)(Col. W.L. Atckinson 2.5p,6p)][Recess] Sc(C35,C37,C39,C40,C41,C42)

To end this small post I have a series about the efforts of UNESCO to protect some of the very old Nubian Monuments....similar series were issued by many countries, always with different designs of course...Nubia was once located in today's Northern Sudan and South Egypt...

1964 "UNESCO World Campaign to Save Nubian Monuments" (3) [Litho] Sc(164,...,166)

I think next time I will have some George VI Hong Kong definitive stamps...

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The Duck And The Pelican

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Our post today is a small one , but full with beautiful African stamps from Ethiopia, Sudan and Mauritania... Let us start with Ethiopia..

Ethiopia

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before I start to talk about the stamps , some Historical review is necessary...

The 2nd War between Italy and the Ethiopian Empire in 1935/1936 was important because it ended with Mussolini's Victory and it led to the International Isolation of Italy , with the abandon of the League of Nations in 1937... This Isolation contributed to the progressive 'Join Forces' with Hitler's Germany , first in the Spanish Civil War and them in WWII... The map above represent what we could call the Italian Ethiopia 
Why is this relevant to Our Ethiopian stamps?? let us begin by presenting the stamps..

I had these stamps already in a Stock Book for several years, but they were not classified.. At the time I bought them , I cannot find the correct data for their classification.. Two days ago, when I was preparing the Sudan stamps I will show today, Ethiopia appeared in the same equation has Sudan (as you can easily see in the map...).. So I pick Scott catalog and I found what was missing...
These stamps are 'Never Issued stamps'.. only was issued in 1945 a Overprinted Version of these stamps, after the country's Official liberation in 1944.. These stamps were send to print in Switzerland (Curvoisier SA , La Chaux de Fonds), but didn't managed to return to Addis Ababa because the country had been invaded by the Italians..so , only in 1945 , the Overprinted stamps were issued and these particular series only exists to tell us this Story.. These are in Fact Examples of Stamps with History..!
The SC codes for the Overprinted stamps are (268,...,272)....

SUDAN

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Sudan was jointly administered by Egypt and Great Britain , until 1954.. Then , Some autonomy was given and in 1956 the Country achieve it's Independence...

Now, the stamps... there is no need of talking when we are seeing this series... They are really beautiful stamps!!!

We have here 17 stamps, 17 different designs and 17 different frames ! In my opinion, these stamps had much to gain if they were printed in 'Taille Douce' (Intaglio)... 
The smaller values have smaller formats..

1951 "Various Designs , motifs and Frames" (17) [Des (Col. W.L. Atkinson - 1m,2m,3m,4m,5m,10m,3p,3.50p,20p - )(Col. E.A. Stanton - 50p -)(others from photographs)][Typo] Sc(98,...,114)

   

MAURITANIA

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just to present 3 stamps :

1963 "Birds" (16) [Des (Raoul Serres)][Engr (S. Betemps)][Intaglio] Sc(J28,J29)

1961 "Traditional Activities" (14) [Des (J. Bandes)][Engr] Sc(119)

I think some of you already noticed that the time gap between posts is increasing... Well , I've been somehow 'distracted' by another Stamp project I am starting to develop... It is a new project about stamp designers... It is yet very incomplete [it will never be complete!!!] , but if You want to see it , well it's here...

                                                                 

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