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Today I have a very small post with some stamps from France...very small because I didn't have the time to classify more stamps...there is still a large lot of French stamps to be classified, but there was no time ...

A Curious thing about these earlier stamps from France (Ceres and Napoleon III Issues) is the immediate relation of the stamp itself with the the Postmark (or cancel, cancellation, etc).. French catalogs always give us different values for identical stamps with different cancels...it is something that in other countries is only recognized if the collector enters the world of the Postmarks, commonly known by Marcophily ... in these issues it is something that is intimately related to the final value of the used stamp...in this 6 stamps I have examples of two of the main postmarks used in those days. : the Lozenge with large numbers (80c) , and the Lozenge with small numbers.(others).

The stamps present us the portrait of Napoleon III that ruled over France from 1848 to 1870, first as President of the 2nd Republic and later as Emperor of the 2nd French Empire...there were 4 different issues with this design...the first one , of 1852, is a non perforated issue and present in the upper frame the label "REPUB FRANC"... the 2nd , also non perforated, present the label "EMPIRE FRANC" ... the 3rd, perforated and with the same label... the 4th was perforated and with the label "EMPIRE FRANCAIS"...

these six stamps are all from the 2nd issue of  1853/1860...

In this series there are two types of this same design, depending on  

a detail of the emperor's hair..

The type 1 stamp show us at the left of the ear  some hair (curled hair) that present us 1 , 2 and 3 lines .. the 2nd line is divided into two lines , the left one (of these two..)  is almost non existent .. so in the end we could consider to have just 3 lines .... 

The Type 2 stamp has 4 well defined lines .. even after reading the catalogs I remained with some doubts because it not so clear this difference between this two types...

We must have in mind that there are some known color variations in each one of the stamps, and sometimes the value of the stamp could be very different from one shade to the others..

1853/1860 "Emperor Napoleon III" (10) [[Die engr (J. J. Barre)][Typo] Sc(13,14,15d,15b,15d,19)

These are stamps from the 3rd series, having "Empire Franc" in the upper label and being perforated....It is clear to all of you that some of the stamps I present are in very bad shape, some of them are (0) value stamps, but I decided to show them and one more time to keep them until better one's arrive...in this small group we can see two new cancellations, the "Larger postmark with date" and the "Star with large numbers"

1862/1871 "Emperor Napoleon III" (7) Typo] Sc(22,26,27)

stamps from the 4th series with the label "Empire Francais"...all the stamps appear to have "star" Cancels ... I like to highlight a small "problem" with the last stamp of this group...right ahead of the emperor's mouth there is a small non painted spot.. I think it has no importance but the color of the small spot is identical to the Emperor's face color and to the external background color (from the frame to the vignette itself...) ... I repeat one more time that these are all stamps in bad conditions ( the most part of them..) and they do not correspond at all to the their cv's..

there are also two types of design in this series, depending on the dots immediately after and before the word "Postes" in the inferior Frame... if the dot is small we have type 1 and if it is a large dot it is type 2 ... the 30c stamps (2nd and 3rd) are type 1 and the 40c (last) is type 2..not all the values have both the types (only the 2c and 4c have them both..) ..

1863/1870 "Emperor Napoleon III (with laurel Crown)" (9) [Typo] Sc(32,34,34a,35a)

Now we have some type Merson stamps.. As You know the designer of the stamps was Luc Olivier Merson... this design was issued for the first time in 1900 and stamps continued to be issued , with new values , colors, etc , until 1926 ...the stamps that I am now presenting are in most part spares , but some new ones are only now entering the collection (the violet/yellow 2F and the two 3F stamps..)...the 2F  Gray violet  & Yellow was issued in 1900 and it's one of the 'stars' of this group with a cv of € 90.00.... another stamp that I want to comment is the 50c stamp, the brown/lavender blue , just to say that the lavender is a very fugitive ink and sometimes it seem's that it isn't there , but it is or it was..! ( it is the case of the first 50c I present ...)

1900/1926 "Type Merson" (24) [Des (Luc Olivier Merson)][Engr (Auguste M. Thévenin)][Typo] Sc(126,128,129) [only the codes of the 3 stamps that entered the collection..]

Now I have a small section of this post with some commemorative stamps from 1936 to 1986..

this is a stamp from 1934 that I didn't find in my 3 catalogs.. there is not a single issue of the Anti Tuberculosis Fund in 1934, and the stamp itself don't present any value label or extra tax... I don't understand this stamp, but it is probably a "Cinderella" stamp..the stamp also don't present  the "Republic Francaise" label ,  but it is engraved by Henry Cheffer , one of the French Masters.. it is a [Typo] printed stamp... 

another one of the 7 stamps of this series from 1936 , commemorating the 1937 Paris International Exhibition.. the first 4 stamps are from a smaller format and have a different design.. 

1936 "Paris International Exhibition" (7) [Des/Engr (Daragnés)][Typo] Sc(320)

Beautiful stamp commemorating the visit of the Great Britain Monarch's to France...The Peace and Good Relations between the two Countries is clearly symbolized in the Medal at the Center.. Great Design and engraving by Henry Cheffer..

1938 "Visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth to France" (1) [Des/Engr (Henry Cheffer)][Recess] Sc(352)

We can see clearly that the personality represented in this stamp is the same of our "Unknown" stamp at the beginning of this section...it is Dr. Leon Charles Albert Calmette...

1948 "1st International Congress of the Calmette-Guerin Bacilus Vacine" (1) [Des/Engr (Henry Cheffer)][Recess] Sc(B232)

A Great work by Raoul Serres and Albert Decaris...another stamp with the same design was issued again in 1954 but  with several shades of blue and with the face value of 12F...

1952 "Marshal  Jean De Lattre De Tassigny" (1) [Des (Raoul Serres)][Engr (Albert Decaris)][Recess] Sc(675)

this stamp is part of a series honoring several famous French Inventors and Scientists.. the personality represented is Cammile Flammarion  ...

1956 "French Scientists and Inventors" (4) [Des/Engr (Raoul Serres)][Recess] Sc(792)

a work by Albert Decaris, with his usual Excellent Engraving...the stamp commemorates the early days of the French Maritime Postal Service...

1957 "Stamp Day : French Maritime Postal Service" (1) [Des/Engr (Albert Decaris)][Recess] Sc(B311)

1957 "Bicentenary of the Porcelan Works of Sevres" (1) [Des/Engr (Pierre Munier)][Recess] Sc(820)

A work from Pierre Bequet, celebrating the life and work of Leonardo Da Vinci... it is a stamp from the Artistic Series of 1986...

1986 "Artistic Series" (5) [Des/Engr (Pierre Bequet)][Recess] Sc(2007)

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