1100 Years...so much time!!

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Sometimes I have the conscience that the stamps I am showing and all "my talking" isn't enough to create an interesting post... however,there are days when I know for sure that that will be one of the top posts I ever done...and ,fortunately,this post will be one of those with a beautiful selection of stamps,enough to capture Your attention... 

My interest in Morocco stamps came from the first days of my collection.. I remember buying my first two lots of Morocco and Brazil in a Portuguese Stamp Auction... that lot of 300 stamps was enough to open my mind to these wonderful stamps, full of beautiful designs and history... Now I can say that I have all the Morocco stamps from the Classic French Period ,until 1960 (most part of them are not classified yet, so lots of Fun are waiting for us in future posts...).. talking of this large period of time is also talking of many French Master engravers and so, we should not be admired that some of these stamps are work of Great Artists of the French Cultural Panorama...

Let us start by the beginning,chronologically speaking...

These are the stamps that  complete this series from 1955 ,still as a French Protectorate...the stamps presenting Bab El Mrissa (50c,1f,2f,3f) and Casablanca (18f,20f) were already presented in previous posts...this series , like many others in Morocco's Philately, present us various designs of famous places of Morocco...

1955 "Various Designs" (17) [Des (A. Delpy)][Engr (Jules Piel 5f,6f,8f)(Charles Mazelin 10f,12f,15f)(Pierre Gandon 25f)(Roger Fenneteaux 30f)(Raoul Serres 40f)(Jean Pheulpin 50f)(A. Fréres 75f)][Recess (Paris)] Sc(315,...,320)(323,...,327)

The stamps presented above are from a Educational Fund from 1956...they are showed individually because I don't want the viewers to loose anything from all the Engraving details...some of the series I present today are really, really good , but I don't have the details of the engravers and designers (I doubt they exist , because they don't appear in any of the catalogs I have.)..this is one of those series, without any signature in the stamp (I have lost some time trying to find clues to the engraver ,but I didn't find anything..)

I want to highlight that in 1956 we were under the Rule of Sultan Sidi Mohammed ben Yusuf... the sultan changed his title to King of Morocco and adopted the name Mohammed V in 1957...

the series show us the simple frame (double lined this time..) usual in these days in Morocco stamps, a small portrait of the Sultan at the top left corner and five different scenes of the educational process taking place...we will find also several Arab writings in these stamps, and this is for sure enriching to the final Good aspect of these stamps...(we must remember that Arab Calligraphy was and continued to be learned also as a form of Art, and we can find good examples of this fact in Algerian, Tunisian and Turkish stamps...).

1956 "Education Campaign" (5) [Recess (Paris) Sc(8,...,12)

Beautiful stamps, Great engraving,the same simple frame and some more complexity of the design and of the Arabic  labels...

1959 "50th Birtday of King Mohammed V" (3) [Des/Engr (Charles Mazelin)][Recess (Paris)] Sc(29,...,31)

A simpler stamp, much more oriented in it's conception to the Graphical aspect , with some logotypes and simple designs...it is in the end a well accomplished stamp,with good engraving and nice graphical Design Art...

1960 "Meeting of UN African Economic Commission, Tangier" (1) [Recess (Paris)] Sc(35)

This is a series with original design from 1956 (in fact ,stamps with this portrait of the Sultan,were the first series of postage stamps of the New State of Morocco,recognized by the International Community in March 1956...)...the surcharge was applied to the "Adulterating Cooking Oil Victims Fund " ... this was another of those very ugly aspects of Humankind ,and I don't want to talk about it ... Originaly the stamps were designed by Flandrin and engraved by Charles Mazelin...

1960 "Adulterating Cooking Oil Victims Fund" (3) [Recess (Paris)] Sc(B1,...,B5)

Well, this is a huge "Success" Series...for me it is one of the best engravings I ever saw...once again the simplicity of the frame clashes with the enormous complexity of the design and engravings... The Arabic labels are beautiful and turn the stamp even more appealing...all the work is Excellent but the Artists are unknown.. it is a shame that  we cannot  credit someone with the excellency of this work...I will try to get this information , contacting some of my Algerian friends... perhaps they know something...

it is somehow disturbing that  these stamps "talk" about a University with 1100 years of history...My own Country, Portugal, one of the oldest in Europe (when we talk of it's fixed borders...) has only 800 or 900 years of History,but no !! ,we are talking of 200 years before that.!!.it is normal that this University was from the days when the Iberian Peninsula was invaded by North African Warriors...and one thing I can be sure of..they left many ,many signs of their presence in Portugal and Spain's Culture... many names of Towns and villages from the South of the Peninsula continue to show Arabic names...many of the words commonly used in our actual languages came from this presence of Centuries in the Peninsula...I use to say that Portugal is the result of one of the most complex processes of Culture Mixing..with time,invaders from the North and East found here the Sunny weather they pursued,invaders from the South found here the water brought by Abundant rains in the winter  , and all of them were imprisoned here by the Ocean, there was no more land..!!! and they stayed, and they mixed.. all of them!! Celts , Muslims, Central European People, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans, etc...and the actual result is this...We cannot even rule Ourselves!!!

1960 "1100th Anniversary of the University of al-Qarawiyyin" (5) [Recess (Paris)] Sc(39,...,43)

To end this post,here it is another one of those series that are like an Engravers Contest...All the stamps are designed by Albert Decaris, but  there are several engravers...I'm sure that this is not a very known series,but it is a great acquisition for a Sport or Olympic Topic Collector...my favorite stamp, is the 45f.. really beautiful!!!

1960 "Olympic Games,Rome" (8) [Des (Albert Decaris)][Engr (Albert Decaris  5f,40f,70f)(Jean Miermont 10f)( Claude Durrens 15f)(Charles Mazelin 20f,30f)(Pierre Gandon 45f)][Recess (Paris)] Sc(45,...,52)

... I think good engravings are pleasant  to almost every stamp collector, so I sincerely hope that You've  liked this post...

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