El Salvador [ 2nd Post ]

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Today I have a 'last minute' post with a small group of stamps from El Salvador...I had everything prepared for a post about my recent acquisition of a new Philatelic tool, but some questions have build up in my mind and they need answers before the post could be shared...so, El Salvador it is..!

Beautiful stamp, representing the San Miguel Volcano, surrounded by eleven stars , representing the eleven districts or Departments  of El Salvador...This is actually the 1st El Salvador stamp representing the role of Nature's Power in El Salvador History and Culture ,  always around with Volcanoes, Floods, Earthquakes, etc..
a Good work of ABNC,NY... 

1867 "San Miguel Volcano and Stars" (4) [Recess (ABNC,NY)] Sc(1)

These are stamps from the first of the El Salvador Seebeck Series... let's now remember that N.F. Seebeck was the director of Hamilton Bank note Company, NY, and he was able to make contracts with the Governments of Nicaragua, El Salvador, Ecuador and Honduras... the terms of the contracts were in theory very profitable for the Bank and from 1890 to 1899 (in most cases) the Seebeck Series of these countries were issued...I have done a post about Nicaragua's Sebbeck Series, where more can be found about the history of this strange Man and his dream...

Well these first 3 stamps are for me , a bad example of the Seebeck stamps... the design of frames is normal, but the vignette and the printing in general is not so good as usual, in Nicaragua,for example...in fact we are looking for the first examples I know of the already famous group of Undesired stamps : the PDSMID ('Please don't see me in detail') stamps...the face of the Young Central America deserved much better and much more work.. Yes, the Central Vignette of these stamps represent a Young and Beautiful(??) Central America carrying proudly the Flag and Shield of El Salvador.. this is of course an allegoric Figure that lead us to the Unity of Central American Countries, that from time to time reemerge : after the Independence in 1822, the republic of San Salvador joined the newly formed United Provinces of Central America, until 1838 when the Republic changed it's name to El Salvador...

1890 "Central America" (9) [Recess (HBNC,NY)] Sc(40,41,42)

Yes!!!. Great stamp!... this is a fine example of the Frame designs of the Seebeck series...they are not like something we ever have seen..! many ornaments and complex frames , leaving the vignette often emerged in very detailed backgrounds...the vignette itself it is beautiful in this specific case, again with the magnificence of the Volcano and the presence of a Train and a Boat ,possibly carrying mail...one thing is troubling me : why the 14 stars and not the 11 present in a earlier design.?? more provinces?? perhaps..

Very Well Done!! A Master Piece!!

1891 "Volcano,Train and Boat" (10) [Recess (HBNC,NY)] Sc(47,52)

This time ,a stamp of the "Landing of Columbus" series... it is the only stamp I've got from this series , where we can find again the well structured and complex frame design with vignettes with irregular shapes and nice designs...I'm aware that my opinion about the so called Seebeck stamps is clearly different from the general opinion of condemnation to perpetual exile in the Philatelic Hell of the collectibles that we should not collect...! I think we should collect all the stamps we like... that is the only opinion we need to buy or not a stamp : We like it or Not!..all the rest is to fill the space between the beginning and the end of Books and other opinion makers...(I'm also aware that I am now being one of those 'opinion makers'...)  I like some of these Seebeck stamps very much!

1892 "Landing of Columbus" (10) [Recess (HBNC,NY)] Sc(63)

General Carlos Ezeta was President of El Salvador from 1890 to 1894 and he is represented in this new series from 1893...I would like to have more stamps of each of these series ,but they don't seem so common as they should be...in this Seebeck stamp Universe,we could say that it is again a reasonable nice engraving work in a not so usual portrait design...

1893 "General Carlos Ezeta" (10) [Recess (HBNC,NY)] Sc(81)

Next to this Portrait series,there is a 3 stamp pictorial series ,also from 1893 ,where the Central Figure is again Columbus (2p / Founding of the City of Isabella 5p/Columbus statue, Genoa 10p/ Departure from Palos)  ; from what I see in the Catalogs they are again nice stamps,and I'm sure they will be very well received in the collection in a brief future...

never mind the apparent size of the stamps : they are identical ...

These are stamps representing Liberty, and are from the group of the Normal Seebeck stamps... in this group we will find the general characteristics of the US stamp of those days...stamps with no frame lines ,elevated external frame, general display of different shadings in  labels, small number of ornaments,etc

[Left] USA 1894 series 
[Right] USA 1897 series

at this point , we can say that the printings and engravings were in general,Good, except for the 1st of the Seebeck series, with a bad work of engraving, design and printing...

1895 "Liberty" (10) [Recess (HBNC,NY)] Sc(91,94)

Now we have a interesting series ,with many pictorial stamps...

when there is no line of thought connecting all the illustrations, I use to call them "Various Designs" stamps...this series was issued in 3 different times...well,let's start from the beginning...

The original series was issued in 1896 ,with 12 different designs and Frames...this series was printed using a thin but hard paper ,and could have or not a watermark...This first group presented above has no wmk ,but the stamp below has the presence of wmk...

in 1897 a new series was issued with the same designs but different colors...the paper used was also thin and hard and the stamps could also have or not wmk... this time I only have two stamps with Wmk...

Reprints of these stamps could exist but on thick paper...

In my opinion , these are  'Must Have Series' due to their beautiful designs but above all because of the very inventive frames... Nice work.!

1896 "Various Designs" (12) [Recess (HBNC,NY)] Sc(157d,157i)

1896 "Various Designs" (12) [Recess (HBNC,NY)] Sc(149)

1897 "Various Designs / New Colors" (12) [Recess (HBNC,NY)] Sc(159,165)

The next 2 series are from the group of the Normal Seebeck series... the first series was issued still in 1896 and the 2nd in 1898....

As you can see, all the characteristics of a Normal Seebeck series are presented and the design ,engraving and printing are also normal... There is really nothing to talk about in this series...

1896 "Peace" (13) [Recess (HBNC,NY)] Sc(136,138)

This is a normal Seebeck series in it's conception, but far from it in the final result... the central vignette present us a bad illustration with lack of detail (also a PDSMID stamp!!!) ,but the frames are a little bit more inventive than the ones above....This was definitely not a Good Work!!

1898 "Union of Central America" (12) [Recess (HBNC,NY)] Sc(178,180,187)

Hello,Hello,We Have a Problem!! this nice stamp,already not from the Seebeck series is [Litho] printed and has the strange particularity of 'never being issued' ; the original stamps were overprinted with a wheel and only those stamps were issued ! "Stamps without the wheel Overprint were not issued" (SG Central America Part 15 1980)

Well, how can we classify a Never Issued stamp??

Let us now proceed with a portrait series, where the frames are much more impressive then the vignette itself...

beautiful frames in a group of stamps,where only the first two are from the original series...the 3rd and 4th are Official stamps and the 5th is a Postage due stamp...these are stamps from 1910 ,so we are talking of different times,but this is a case where we can say that the frames should belong to a Seebeck series ( the 'Man' has died in 1899) ...well,the only data I have don't specify who printed them ...it only says New York...!

1910 "General Figueiroa" (378,379,O294,O296,J86)

Just to end ,and for something completely different ,I have now 2 1948 MS commemorating the 3rd Death Anniversary of US President Roosevelt ...

Great work of Waterlow and Sons !!!

1948 "3rd Death Anniversary of US President Roosevelt" (6+MS) [Recess (Waterlow and Sons Limited, London)] Sc(612)

1948 "3rd Death Anniversary of US President Roosevelt" (6+MS) [Recess (Waterlow and Sons Limited, London)] Sc(C117)

Despite of all the improvisation needed to this post and the last minute classification of this small  group of stamps, I think that it will be an interesting post , specially for those of you who didn't know well these Seebeck series... 

Thank you for reading the Blog and for your continuous support..

SeeYou

Monaco Stamps [3rd Post]

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Today I have some new stamps from Monaco, with some additional 'spicy' taste brought by the presence of Czeslaw Slania among other engravers... the lot is very small, so I decided to increase the number of stamps, by joining 4 or 5 more Slania stamps , I already have in the collection...

let's start our Monaco stamps by Chronologic order, as usual..:

 This is a 1970 stamp, from a group of series dedicated to the Red Cross.  These single stamp series began in 1968 ,showing Various Saints and Religious helping the poor and sick,  and ended in 1981 when a very nice and new Bi-stamp Red Cross series began , illustrating  the twelve labors of Hercules .. (Very nice, and we will see two of these stamps from 1982..) There is another curiosity in this group of stamps... almost all of them are designed by Pierrete Lambert , a French Artist of great importance in Monaco, with many , many stamps designed... her Stamp designer career started in 1962 and ended in 1997 , with hundreds of stamps designed for France,Monaco, and French colonies and territories...
1970 "Red Cross" (1) [Des (Pierrete Lambert)][Engr (Claude Haley)][Recess] Sc(767)

Now a 4 stamp series about the seasons of the Peach Tree... beautiful designs , again work of Pierrete Lambert and engraving of one of my favorite Engravers , Jean Pheulpin...his work for Laos, for example , is without doubts a passport to fame and eternity...do you know Laos stamps??

1982 "Seasons of the Peach Tree (Precancelled)" (4) [Des (Pierret Lambert)][Engr (Jean Pheulpin)][Recess] SG(1555,...,1558)

 A very nice stamp with great emphasis in the logo of a Philatelic Exhibition...very well accomplished stamp...
1982 "PhilexFrance : International Stamp Exhibition, Paris" (1) [Des (Claude Haley)][Engr (Claude Haley)][Recess] Sc(1335)

This is the first of the Slania stamps, and in my opinion it does not have nothing to talk about.. it is a nice engraving, and a not very much appealing design... I think the problem is really the Design of the stamp...

1982 "Creation of the Archbishopric of Monaco" (1) [Des (Pierrete Lambert)][Engr (Czeslaw Slania)][Recess] Sc(1338)

Ohhh..!! this one is very , very Good..! a stamp representing St. Francis of Assisi , with so many details to highlight, specially the great complicity of the Holy Man with the birds.. Extraordinary!!...The beauty of the design is well complemented by the Excellency of Slania's Work... Great stamp!!

1982 "800th Birth Anniversary of St. Francis of Assisi" (1) [Des (Pierrete Lambert)][Engr (Czeslaw Slania)][Recess] Sc(1339)

One more portrait stamp of Lord Baden-Powell , the creator and mentor of the International Scout movement..the importance of this movement is rapidly apprehended  by the collector ,who see's stamps from the most various Political regime's and Religious Systems , commemorating the genesis of the movement itself, the life of it's mentor or the ideas behind it...

1982 "125th Birth Anniversary of Lord Baden-Powell" (1) [Des (Jean Pheulpin)][Engr (Jean Pheulpin)][Recess] Sc(1341)

here it is the 6 year series about the 12 labors of Hercules... for each year, Monaco issued two of the 12 works , starting in 1981...these are the 1982 stamps, and we rapidly see that these are "MUST HAVE STAMPS"..! nice designs , good engravings are the only requisites for a good buy..it will only increase the already Big list of MUST HAVE SERIES from Monaco...

1982 "Monaco Red Cross / Twelve Labors of Hercules" (2) [Des (Pierret Lambert)][Engr (Claude Haley)][Recess] Sc(B102,B103)

beautiful City Landscapes of Monaco on the "Belle epoch" Days...the design is beautiful, as I said but not the easiest to engrave...the work of Slania was difficult but the result is Good or even very good.

1982 " Monaco during the "Belle Epoch" (1st Series)" (2) Des (H. Clerissi)][Engr (C. Slania)][Recess] Sc(1344,1345)

 Before ending this small post, and as promised , I have to show some of my Slania stamps, that are already in the collection..

[Left][Right] Poland stamps, where Slania appears not as engraver but as the Designer of the stamps...these two stamps belong to a 6 stamp Air Mail series of 1954 where 5 of them are designs of Slania...[Top] this is a major example of the Art of engraving... very nice stamp,also from a 1954 (30 Nov) series with 3 stamps, being this one the only with Slania signature...[Bottom] just to say that it is a MS from Denmark with engraving work of Slania... NO WORDS!!

in two weeks time, I will have a new post about something I bought that was wanted for a long time...

SeeYou

[South Vietnam (1st Post)][North Vietnam (1st Post)]

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Some time ago, perhaps 2 or 3 months, I spent some time buying small lots in the Portuguese market... I found out this group of stamps from Vietnam and I immediately thought in doing a post about it... some stamps are from the North and others from the South, and we will see that they are very different , not only in the main subjects of the stamps but also in all that is related to the printing process...

It is usual to think that we must not loose the North, so let us begin by our guiding reference point...

This is a stamp from the 2nd series of North Vietnam...but , before start our "stamp talk" , I think that a little bit of the region history is necessary to understand the differences between the two countries... during WWII,the ruling France military forces were defeated by the Japan invasion, and the Emperor Bao Dai was nominated to rule the new Autonomous state of Vietnam...during Japanese "ruling" an indigenous resistance group has taken form and rapidly became a new player in the regional War/Power Games...this so called Viet Minh Nationalist Resistance was founded by Nguyen Al Quoc,that rapidly changed his name to be recognized and remembered only by Ho Chi Minh ("He Who enlightens") ...in September 1945 Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, and in 1946 France recognized the new country as a autonomous part of the French Indo-China...in the same year, the relations between the two powers became more and more difficult and from the end of 1946 until 1954 , Ho Chi Minh withdraw his forces to the North and from there he declared war to France...the stamps from this period (1946/1954) are now part of the first North Vietnam group of stamps... 

This series has 3 stamps and could appear in both  not perforated (1951) or perf 11(1955) form .. when I had the stamp in my hand I immediately noticed that the paper is very,very thin and almost transparent...This is a relatively expensive stamp, so a stamp in this condition is always welcome..!

1951/1955 "Ho Chi Minh and Vietnam Map" (3) [Des (Bui Trang Chuoc)][Litho] Sc(2)

From the appreciation of these first stamps of North Vietnam we will see that Lithography was the chosen printing process and we can also find that in this period , most perforations are difficult to measure and there are cases where they are almost not recognizable... This series tell us something about the Battle of Dien Bien Phu...
1956 "Victory at Dien Bien Phu" (3) [Des ((Bui Trang Chuoc)][Litho] Sc(17,18)

The "Shaking hands" design with two Communist leaders involved , is repeated in several countries under a Communist Regime.. we saw it in the Soviet Union , in Mao's China , in Kim Il Sung's North Korea and we  are now finding it here in North Vietnam, with Ho Chi Minh and Russian President Voroshilov...We can now say that this is another of the differences between North and South Vietnam Stamps... in the north, Politics and the Communist achievements in China and USSR are constantly represented in the stamps, while in the south, as we will see , a much more western view of the world is represented, with the World Organizations, Human rights, Child welfare, etc... 

As I said before , poor printings and poor overall quality of the stamps (colors,perforations, etc) are characteristic of these first issues of North Vietnam...

1957 "40th Anniversary of Russian Revolution" (3) [Des (Ta Luu)][Litho] Sc(61)

The 1st of May is considered to be an important date for the working class and a massive achievement for the International Syndicalism...
there is no doubt of the familiarity of some of these North Vietnam stamps with the North Koreans, with the presence of flags and cheerful crowds...if there was doubts about the alignment of Ho Chi Minh's regime with the Soviets and Chinese powers , they were destroyed by the presence of the Communist Party Logo...
1958 "Labour Day" (2) [Des (Nguyen Van Khanh)][Typo] Sc(69,70)

Now , I have here two stamps commemorating the 22th Congress of the Russian Communist party in Moscow (Right) , and the 3rd Congress of the Vietnam Workers Party (Left).. 

Until now ,we have talked about those things that separate the North and South of Vietnam, but now lets name the two philatelic aspects that are identic in both of them...We can talk about the fact that most part of the series have just one design repeated 3 or more times with different colors and the other is the perforation that remains the same during long periods of time (I asked myself many times why does this not happen in our countries.?. why must the perforation change so often??) ... of course, with time (beginning at the middle of the 60's) this aspects also changed...
1960 "3rd Vietnam Workers Party Congress" (2) [Des (Nguyen The Vinh)][Litho] Sc(137)
1961 "22th Communist Party Congress, Moscow" (1) [Des (Trinh Quoc Thu)][Litho] Sc(176)

SOUTH VIETNAM

From the introductory lines about the History of this region, we can extrapolate that the South of the country remained under the influence of France... I do not wish to celebrate the presence of the French culture in the region, that is not my task and not part of my needs as simple collector and commentator of stamps, but I think that the engraving of stamps will be always a major positive aspect that increase it's Artistic value ... if we accept this simple thought , we must conclude that the work of Combet, Piel , Aufschneider , Pheulpin , Fenneteaux  and others is a joyful aspect to commemorate in South Vietnam stamps....

After we see some of these engraved stamps from South Vietnam, we rapidly conclude that they are not among the best works of the respective illustrious engravers... this is a fact to be expected if we notice the simplicity of the designs of the Vietnam Artists... the engraver, in most cases have stamps where a major part of the design is just emptiness, the engraver just have to fill the empty space , and that is much different from the complex designs of other artists where the engraver skills are much more at sight... when I say simplicity, I am not criticizing or diminishing the designs or the work of the Artists , in fact some of them are really very good in the field of Marketing and/or  Design... This one is a very good illustration where the Artist wish to commemorate the Trans Vietnam Railway.. nice..!

1959 "Re-Opening of the Trans-Vietnam Railway" (4) [Des ( Huynh Van Phung)][Engr (J. Combet)][Recess] Sc(116,118)

A beautiful Air Mail series where the simplicity of the illustration mislead us some how because there is advanced design behind all this idea...For those of you that are collectors of Air Mail series, I could say that there are very few of these series in South Vietnam Philately...before this series we only had the extremely beautiful Phoenix stamp of 1955 [SG (54)]...
1960 "Air Mail" (4) [Des (Do Hoang Ke)][Engr (J. Pheulpin)][Recess] Sc(C11,C13)

A Charity series from 1961 where children are seen has flower buds that if well cared will blossom and in the end be fruit and seed of a new beginning...nice and simple design..
1961 "Child Welfare" (4) [Des (Nguyen Tan An)][Engr (Jean Pheulpin)][Recess] Sc(154,155)

Here we have a much more elaborated illustration with a higher degree of difficulty for the engraver...As you can see the similarities between the two types of illustrations are not many.... in the first and much more common type , the human body and face are not used and not represented in detail and most of the illustrations themselves are at the final stage like logos or images that represents something...in the 2nd type, we have this illustration of President Ngo dinh Diem, with lots of Human body's , even the architecture of the ceiling is well detailed , a very nice and difficult illustration...this is a work of one of the Greatest French engravers, Jules Piel..
1961 "2nd Term of President Ngo Dinh Diem" (4) [Des (Nguyen Tan An)][Engr (Jules Piel)][Recess] Sc(159)

nice sports stamp celebrating the Sports among the youth...One important fact to highlight is the great regularity of all the issues, with series of 4 stamps , just one illustration and perforation 13...it is an easy period for a collector, if we compare it with the strange and somehow inexplicable  complexity of other Philately's of other countries...however , we can see all this 'need' of  detail as part of a machine idealized to prevent dubious utilization or just to please the collector, all these infinite combinations of papers, wmk's, perforations, printings, etc , just for the collector to have something to do...! if these difficulty levels didn't exist , all the fun around the act of collecting, research, patience, relaxation, observation, attention to detail, all of this would vanish and our life's as collectors would be more predictable and collecting would be just the Hobby of Prince's..!!..
1961 "Sports and Youth" (4) [Des (Truong Van Phat)][Recess] Sc(162,163)

interesting illustration! the stamp show us a young man carrying a torch [symbolizing the sport activity (we can see it in the previous stamps..)] , but beneath that, an ancient figure of some kind, perhaps Confucius or other Philosopher from Antiquity, and behind these two drawings, the Temple, or the place where people went to get some real education...and now the combination of these 3 drawings (the ideas they represent , of course..) would lead us to ??? Yes, to the subject of the series , that is Youth Moral Rearmament....here ,in a simple stamp we could see all the ideology of a regime, democratic or not ...Education , Religion and Physical Activity would make better Citizens...other Regime's , other Ideas..

1961 "Youth Moral Rearmament" (4) [Des (Luu Tan Phuoc)][Engr (R. Fenneteaux)][Recess] Sc(174,175)

[Left] a stamp commemorating UNESCO and it's achievements in ASIA and particularly in South East Asia ...it is again interesting to see that the illustration is based in the actual UNESCO's logo [Right] ...the original logo represent some degrees of a stair that lead to a Greek temple, for us in the West, the symbols of Culture and Philosophy...the stamp itself translate the Greek temple to a Vietnam Temple, also the place to learn and to be educated... very well done, beautiful idea..!!
1961 "15th Anniversary of UNESCO" (4) [Des (Nguyen Ai Lihn)][Engr (J. Miermont)][Recess] Sc(178)

 to end this small presentation of South vietnam stamps, I have a beautiful one designed by Jacques Combet and engraved by George Betemps... I do not bring here this stamp to give emphases to our western religion or something like that...! I only show the stamp because it is beautiful and due to it's difference relatively to almost all the others presented (exception made for the Air Mail series)...they are all illustrations made with just one color and are called Monochromatic stamps...the diversity of the illustration is based in the utilization of different shades of the same color and even the labels obey to this scheme...A great part of the collectors that dedicate themselves to the classics from 1850 to 1900 , only know and work with these single colored stamps.. let us remember the first commemorative stamps from France, the US, for example, and we will find very beautiful stamps designed and idealized in this single color World.. however , this stamp we are now facing is clearly Bi-colored , but in my opinion it would be equally beautiful if it was single colored...The illustration of Jacques Combet brought the stamp to a higher level,much more influenced by the French Quality and style..

1962 "St. Mary of La Vang Commemoration" (4) [Des (Jacques Combet)][Engr (George Betemps)][Recess] Sc(193)

I hope you have enjoyed this group of Vietnamese stamps, and briefly I will be back with some more stamps of another country or origin...

SeeYou

Portugal [8th Post], Angola [6th Post] Cape Verde [3rd Post]

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Lately I have spent many time with a part of my collection that has became increasingly important..the first stamps my father left me , were from the Portuguese Colonies, but with time I became deeply involved with stamps from all over the world, learning many things from many different Philatelies...now I am back to my roots and this part of my stamp collection had a great boost with the small collection I bought last October, I think... It had stamps from all over the world but with a special emphasis in the Portugal and colonies Philately... today I have some new entries that came from that collection..let us start with Portugal..

These are the stamps from the 1st Independence Series... there are 3 of these series that are mainly focused in the vast History of the Country..it is perhaps one of the group of series with more representations of fierce battles taken place somewhere between the XII and the XVIII centuries..[ if You are a fan of War stamps,You must have these.!.. Libyan stamps (there are many of them..) from the end of the 70's and 80's are also very good in this particular thematic and I think there was a annual series about famous Libyan Battles.. Great stamps...!]...

the stamps were engraved by two British Artists, George Harrison and Norman Broad and the printing was work of Thomas De La rue , Co, London... the AFINSA catalog tell us that only the frames are originals of this series ,while the vignettes were not designed with the purpose of being used in these stamps...in the end , we have here a nice series with good design and engraving details...

1926 "Independence (1st Series)" (21) [Des (Frames (Eduardo Avelino Ramos de Sousa)][Engr (George Harrison)(Norman Broad)][Recess (Thomas De La Rue Co., London)] Sc(377,...,397)

Here is the 2nd series, now a smaller one , with just 15 stamps...The work of De la Rue is very good with the engraving work at charge of Harrison and Broad again...The design of the stamps was work of Alberto de Sousa , Roque Gameiro and Alfredo Morais.. Sousa was a Monster of Portuguese Stamp Designing with hundreds of stamps from Portugal and Colonies... Roque Gameiro, one of the Greatest Portuguese Illustrators and Painters and Alfredo Morais an important Illustrator...
This time the stamps show us the Guimarães Castle, the Knight in Battle is Gonçalo Mendes da Maia (O Lidador) , the lady with a wood stick is the Aljubarrota Baker Lady, the man with the Law Book is Dr. João das Regras and the man in the Yellow portrait is Dr. João Pinto Ribeiro...the battle also represented is the Battle of Montijo...
1927 "Independence (2nd Series)" (15) [Des (Alberto Sousa 2c)(Alfredo Roque Gameiro 3c,32c)(Alfredo Morais 5c,40,4$50)][Engr (George Harrison)(Norman Broad)][Recess (Thomas De La Rue, London)] Sc(422,...,436)

Starting now with the Angola'n stamps,we stumbled into one of those series that repeated itself for every single one of the colonies....it is the Marquis de Pombal Series...

These are Postal Tax due stamps, and we will find here again the work of foreign Artists... The design was from Hugo Fleury , an employee of  Waterlow and Sons...The engraving was at charge of J.A.C. Harrison (1st and 2nd stamps) and G. Fairweather (3rd stamp) and the Printing was made by Waterlow...


Angola 1925 "Marquis de Pombal / Tax due stamps" (3) [Des (Hugo Fleury)][Engr (JAC Harrison)][G. Fairweather)][Recess (Waterlow and Sons)] Sc(RAJ1,...,RAJ3)

This is a series from 1938 and it is about the President's visit to Angola, but the design of the stamp itself represent something we, Portuguese call "Padrão" , that is a marble or Stone Column with the Cross in the top and Portugal's Coat of Arms just below... these signs were left behind whenever the ships arrive to a new land,just to mark the presence of Portuguese Navigators...it is a beautiful stamp ,this time Designed , engraved and printed by Bradbury Wilkinson....

Angola 1938 "1st visit of Portugal's President to the Colonies" (3) [Recess (Bradbury Wilkinson)] Sc(292,293,294)

I had already almost all the 10 stamps of this AIR series but some years have passed without the missing 8$50 and 12$50 stamps appear in my World...recently I the entire series ,just to have those two stamps... it is a very beautiful series, now clearly [Litho] printed,like almost all of the Portuguese Colonies stamps of the 50's 60's and 70's....

Angola 1965 "AIR MAIL" (10) [Litho (Casa da Moeda)] Sc(C26,...,C35)

Now I have another AIR MAIL series, this time from Cape Verde... it is also another of those common designs repeated in the colonies...

A series from 1938 where we return to the foreign British influence in the printing and engravings... The illustrations are from Arnaldo Ressano Garcia, a Career Military that when had the time , published many illustrations and caricatures in several Magazines ... it is a beautiful design with printing of Bradbury Wilkinson...
Cape Verde 1938 "AIR MAIL / Portuguese Colonial Empire" (9) (Des (Arnaldo Ressano Garcia)][Recess (Bradbury Wilkinson)] Sc(C1,...,C9)

Another of those series where just 2 or 3 stamps were missing.. well,they appeared and finally it is a new entry to the collection...a fact we must have in consideration is that the printing of these stamps is not the best ,because there are several problems with the correct position of the colors that often appear misplaced in the design...
A interesting thing I have to say is that in the group of stamps that my father left me , there were 2 envelopes full of stamps of the $50 and 2$50 values... I never understand the real reason of this fact and I don't find anything special in the catalogs,so I remain in total ignorance about the real intentions of this strange stock of stamps...maybe one day I will find something interesting... 
Cape Verde 1968 "Products of Cape Verde" (10) [Des (José de Moura)][Litho] Sc(345,...,354)

Well, we reached the end of this small post... hope You like it..!

Goodbye

SeeYou