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

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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)

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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..

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Transkei [1st Post]

New Entries

Some weeks ago,I decided to take a look at the Portuguese market , to some small sellers I know for long in the Net...so I bought some stamps, and among them two lots captured my attention... they were from Transkei and Bophuthatswana... I have heard one or two times about Transkei , but the other Country was completely new to me...You can say that's a sign of ignorance, and I accept it , but I really was not aware of the existence of Bophuthatswana... We will talk a little about the background history of Transkey, but for now I need to say that most of these stamps have common subjects and interests to other of some of the Countries of the region,such as Tanzania, South Africa, Gambia, Zimbabwe, etc...

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Transkei : I will transcript entirely the paragraph about Transkei, that is on my South African Stamp Catalog (I'll leave you here also a photo of it..)

" Transkei was granted internal self government in 1963. According to the Native Land Act of 1913 , property should be reserved entirely for Native Occupation and Ownership.

The Republic of Transkei was established on 26 October 1976 , being the first of the so called 'Homelands' ; internationally , this process was not recognized (..) but the stamps were valid on International Mail... the region was re-incorporated into the Republic of South Africa in 1994. "

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well, let us start the presentation of some of these stamps I bought , chronologically as usual...

This first group of 6 stamps belong to the 1st Definitive series of stamps from the Republic of Transkei.. as you can see , the illustrations show us some of the industrial and/or Cultural activities of the country... the stamps are [Litho] printed, and below the vignette ( we can see easily that there is an absence of frames in the stamp...) there is at the left a label reminding us what is the illustration representing and at the right the name of the Designer, that will turn to be very familiar as We continue our post...the name is A.H. Barret and as we will see , this Artist is almost Omnipresent in Transkei Philately , with a very diversified work....
1976 "1st Definitive Issue" (14) [Des (A.H. Barret)][Litho] Sc(5a,6a,7a,9a,12a,14a)

Very nice piece of work..! 3 stamps beautifully engraved by someone , perhaps by our A.H. Barret , that it is the designer himself...as we can see this a much more difficult work than the previous ones , the hands are beautifully designed and it is a difficult topic to design (that is what experts say...) and all the many details are quite good... very nice work.!!!
1977 "Help the blind" (3) [Des (A.H. Barret)][Engr ()][Litho] Sc(38,39,40)

Here is another series designed by A.H. Barret...this time, the stamps are focused on Waterfalls... if You see the stamps carefully ,we will find that 3 of them are based on paintings from another Artists,and just one of them , the 10c stamp, is a genuine painting by A.H. Barret...I want to pick this small detail to talk a little about the theme 'What is a stamp Designer??'... in this case, for example , why is A.H.Barret considered to be the stamp Designer if the paintings are not made by him...?? the answer is that the stamp designer is the man that idealize the stamp,where to put the vignette, is the stamp going to have frames, what will be the color of the labels, where to put them, etc...in the early days of the XX century , the labels were designed, the vignette was made for the stamp itself, illustration, frames and labels were hand designed carefully to build the idea that we wanted to share...now , we have photos and computer generated labels, but we still have to idealize the stamp ,, to know where to put all the items to make it coherent... This is in our days the work of the Stamp Designer (In my opinion...).
1979 "Waterfalls" (4) [Des (A.H. Barrett)(paintings by Boum 20c and Coogan 4c,15c)][Litho] Sc(62,...,65)

Another point that I want to emphasize is the high quality of these [Litho] printings... this is visible in this series , with very nice designs again of our friend A.H. Barrett.. it is evident that we are facing a very good stamp illustrator with ability to design almost whatever he wants to ....
1979 "Child Health" (3) [Des (A.H. Barrett)][Litho] Sc(66,...,68)

now we have a tourism series that is completely focused on the Oceanic coast of Transkei...it has without doubts, and seeing by these pictures, many places to see and a very nice coastal region to visit... this is again work of Barrett and we can see more of his ability to painting landscapes, already showed in the Waterfall series...very nice..!
1980 "Tourism Series" (4) [Des (A.H. Barrett)][Litho] Sc(83,...,86)

This is a series about the headdresses of the native people of Transkei ,the Xhosa...if you look to the stamps with attention to the detail you will easily find that the printings are, again, very good and You will find a 2nd name after the known A.H. Barrett.. in this case I think that it is the name of the man who took the photos that became models for the illustrations of Barrett... 
I didn't find much about Barrett's life in the Internet (and that is the main reason of the nonexistence of a post about him in my Artinstamps blog..) , but many about his work , stamps, paintings and illustrations...however I found a piece of text with some Biographical interest that I leave here for a better comprehension of the man behind the Artist....


«Known in the art world as A H Barrett, Barry was a talented fine artist. Born in England, he immigrated to South Africa as a young man. He earned his living painting portraits, illustrating books, calendars, postage stamps and taking almost any commission that was offered. Birds, ships, fish, snakes, city-scapes, people  whatever he painted, Barry did it to perfection. He used a plethora of reference books, photographs and skins of birds and other creatures borrowed from museums, to ensure his paintings would stand up to scrutiny by pedantic scientists. He spent endless hours ensuring that measurements, colors and minute details were accurate. In three consecutive years, his work won third, second and finally first prize as Best Stamp Design, judged worldwide.»
https://www.openwriting.com/archives/2007/05/the_story_of_ba_1.php
1981 "Headdress of Xhosa Women" (4) [Des (Aubrey Elliott)(A.H. Barret)][Litho] Sc(87,...,90)

this is the only series I have in this group of stamps , that is designed by other Artist, and it is focused on Famous personalities of all times important for the development of Medicine... the series is called Heroes of Medicine and was designed by John Meyer...
I must say that all these stamps from Transkei are in my opinion top quality stamps,with good designs and printings.. 
1982 "Heroes of Medicine" (4) [Des (John Meyer)][Litho] Sc(97,...,100)

These are stamps from the 2nd Definitive Series of 1984/1990... beautiful stamps again, with scenes from the day to day work, ceremonial dances and other cultural events... A.H. Barrett is again the designer...
1984/1990 "2nd Definitive Issue" (22) [Des (A.H. Barrett)][Litho] Sc(129,...,132,133,...,135,139,140,141,142,143,144,145,146,147)

We are just ending the post , but I will not leave without saying that I was very happy to have found these group of stamps from Transkei that introduced me to the work of yet another Great Illustrator , painter and Stamp Designer...I'm just beginning to see some of his work and I am already thinking in the thousands of stamps he must have designed...  
Well,  I hope Your time was well spent , seeing these stamps, and travelling with me to another remote part of our Beloved Stamp World.!!..

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