USA [ 11th Post ]

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When I thought in one more post with US stamps, I was thinking again in the 1922 definitive series...I have to start looking to these early series, because I have plenty of stamps from this period.. but it requires a lot of hard work and dedication, and in the last days I am feeling somehow "distracted", I cannot focus my attention in anything in particular.. it is a strange feeling and I hope it will pass in the nearby future...so , something more "light" was in order, and I decided to look for an important group of series that was issued between 1981 and 1995--- the Transport Issue --- ; in the 2nd part of the post , a small one , I have some of the stamps related to the American Revolution Bicentennial...I will not present the main 1976 series, but some of the other related series issued in previous and posterior years...a great part of these stamps are [Photo] printed , so in my opinion it is a big "Negative" point...

Before starting with the Transport Issue, I wish to present a small series of 5 stamps about American windmills.. As we all know, Windmills are a popular and Global topic, with series about them issued in many countries throughout the years...

(1)

You can see that the first stamp is presented in a smaller form , because it is a pair, and ... you know, these image bonding process I arranged , it is not yet perfect!!! the stamps are engraved by K. Kippermann and A. Saavedra (perhaps one in the vignettes and other in the lettering, I don't know....) and the overall result is a beautiful little series with also nice designs from Robert Sharpe...
1980 "American Windmills" (5) [Des (Robert sharpe)][Engr (K.Kippermann)(A.Saavedra)][Recess] Sc(1738,...,1742)
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The "Transports Issue" is a group of 4 main series and some reprints of previous designs with small differences between them...

The series present us designs of the evolution of transports from 1800 until the 30's and 40's of XX Century...the stamps are all of small size , with engraved pictures , [Recess] printed...

(2)

all the engraving seem particularly simple, but we have examples of excellent engraver work in the 17c stamp, for example...I don't have any of these series in it's complete form, and in this case , this first series has 14 stamps , so I have 5 of them missing (all of them will be bought briefly...) ; you can see that  some of the stamps are pre-Cancelled..Scott Specialized gives some information about these marks... in this case, these are "empty" pre-cancellations (untagged) made by BEP...

1981/1984 "Transports 1st Series" (14) [Des (David Stone 1c,2c,5.9c,10.9c,18c)(W.Brooks 3c)(J.Schriever 9.3c,20c)(C.Jacquays 17c) [Recess] Sc(1897,1897a,1898,1901,1903,1904,1906,1907,1908)

(3)

Here are some stamps from this 2nd series , issued in 1985/1987... again , some BEP Pre-Cancellations are visible and all the series has similar quality than the previous one..

1985/1987 "Transports 2nd Series" (14) [Des (William Bond, 4.9c,8.5c,14c,25c)(James Schlyer 6c,8.3c,10.1c,12.5c)(David Stone 5.5c)][Recess] Sc(2124,2125,2126,2128,2129,2130,2133,2134,2136)

(4)

I have only two stamps from this 3 rd series of the Transports Issue... the series was issued between 1987 and 1988...

1987/1988 "Transports (3rd Series)" (12) [Des (Richard Schlecht 3c)(Dan Romano 20c)][Recess] Sc(2252,2263)

(5)

All stamps of this group of series, are unperforated in one or two sides..they are what we commonly call "Coil stamps"...in the first 3 series the perforation is 10 VERT , but in this last series it turns to 9.5 VERT....

1990/1995 "Transports (4th Series)" (12) [Des (Susan Sanford 5c Carmine)(Paul Calle 5c RedBrown)(David Stone 10c)(Robert Brangwynne 23c)][Recess] Sc(2452,2453,2457,2464,2466)

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The next section of this post is dedicated to a group of series commemorating the Bicentennial of the American Revolution.... this group has it's central point in 1976 with the issue of a 4 sheets , each one with several stamps, at the Interphil 76 that took place in Philadelphia...I personally don't have these sheets , but the Philatelic commemorations of the Bicentennial started in the 4th July 1971 with the issue of a stamp with the Emblem of the bicentennial Commission...

I will start this small review with the 1973 series about the Colonial Communications...

(6)

This series is not completed , and it has the particularity of being [Recess] (the first stamp presented)  and [Litho/Recess] (the other two stamps presented) printed.. in the last two stamps, we can see the usual wrong displacements of the yellow color specially in the house's roof and in the arm of the man that is picking the Gun,  and of the Green color in the hands of the horse rider...I don't really understand why these printing facts occur, but they are very common in these [Litho/Recess] stamps... nice stamps...

1973 "American Revolution Bicentennial / Colonial communications" (4) [Des (W.A. Smith)][Recess (1st,2nd)][Recess/Litho (3rd,4th)] Sc(1477,1478,1479)

(7)

(8)

These are the first [Photo] printed stamps I have to present today and so the scanner detail was the adequate (less detail) ...the stamps from this series are printed in the back [(8)] , with some biographical details of the personalities represented...this printing in the back of the stamps was never a common procedure, but some examples turn out to be very famous , like the adds in the back of early New Zealand stamps or the Latin prayer in the back of the St. Anthony 1895 Portugal series ... 

The stamps commemorate the life's of four personalities who distinguished themselves during the Revolution days...

1975 "American Revolution Bicentennial / Contributors to the Cause" (4) [Des (N. Boyle)][Photo] Sc(1559,...,1562)

(9)

This is the first of several series with illustrations based on paintings of American Painters...most part of these stamps were designed by Bradbury Thompson, a very famous US stamp Designer...

now that we are talking about Stamp Designers, I like to make a small reflection on the subject "Who is the stamp Designer"...

[1st] we have to distinguish what is the type of  Vignette we are dealing with : we can see that the "Contributors to the cause" series have original illustrations made for those stamps in particular...but we could have also a stamp based on an ancient paintings (like (9)) , or a photo, etc... 

[2nd] we have to know that is also part of the work of the stamp designer to chose the labels, to place them in it's correct place in the stamp, to chose the lettering, etc... in the early days of Postage stamp Designing, most of the stamp Designers were Artists, and they idealize and execute all the stamps as one single work, with original vignettes, lettering and labels.. the stamp was idealized and executed by the Artist...with time , these stamps based in paintings from Known Artists ((9)) appeared, but the stamp Designer was not the famous Painter who painted the vignette...The stamp designer, as in this case , was the person who idealized the stamp.. so, he chose an illustration for the vignette and execute and place the labels where he think they fit better...I think that  nowadays the stamp Designer is the man (he don't need to be an Artist) who idealize the stamp, using whatever he needs for his creation (photo, Computer Labels and Lettering, paintings, original drawings and paintings, logotypes, etc) .. Today, Stamp Designing is much more a Graphic work  (compose  items from different origins to build or represent an idea) than  a Painter or Illustrator's work.. 

1975 "American Revolution Bicentennial : Battle of Bunker Hill" (1) [Des (Bradbury Thompson after a painting of John Trumbull)][Photo] Sc(1564)

(10)

stamps representing the Military uniforms of the American Army and militia during the Revolution days...I must highlight that the symbol present in some of these "Revolution" stamps is the Emblem of the Bicentennial Commission....

1975 "American Revolution Bicentennial : US Military" (4) [Des (E. Vebell)][Photo] Sc(1565,...,1568)

(11)

unfortunately the scan is not the best, because some parallel vertical lines appear (I repeated the scan several times, but there was nothing I could do about it).

1975 "American Revolution Bicentennial / Battles of Lexington and Concord"  (1) [Des (Bradbury Thompson (after a painting by H. Sandham)][Photo] Sc(1563)

(12)

Excellent Stamp, Excellent printing!!

1976 "American Revolution Bicentennial / Benjamin Franklin" (1) [Des (Bernard Reilander --- Canadian Artist -- )][Litho/Recess] Sc(1690)

(13)(13a)

I am sorry to say it, but this is a good example of a bad printing... we cannot have a "decent" and good clear view of Washington's face, because the level of detail simply doesn't allow it..! two stamps are presented , just to highlight that the rightmost stamp is much darker than the other...to have a reference point, you could look to the cannon.. you can see that in (13a) we have a dark brown cannon and in (13) we have a much lighter brown...this could be another result of  different printings...

1977 "American Revolution Bicentennial : Washington at Princeton" (1) [Des (Bradbury Thompson (after a painting by Peale)][Photo] Sc(1704)

(14)

stamp representing a scene of the Battle of  Oriskany... once again the printing present us lack of detail..

1977 "American Revolution Bicentennial / 200th Anniversary of the Battle of Oriskany" (1) [Des (Bradbury Thompson (after a painting by F. Yohn)][Photo] Sc(1722)

(15)

this time we have a better printing ten the average from this group of series...I am beginning to feel very curious about the 4 sheets of 1976.. the printing cannot be as bad as the last one's... 

1979 "American Revolution Bicentennial / John Paul Jones" (1) [Des (Bradbury Thompson (after a painting by Peale))][Photo (ABNC Fergusson)] Sc(1789)

(16)

1983 "American Revolution Bicentennial / Paris Treaty" (1) [Des (D. blossom)][Photo] Sc(2052)

It is a pity to end the post with this kind of low quality printing , but chronological requirements oblige it...

Seeyou

Update] there are many problems in this post with the size of the letters... I simply cannot  arrange it today.. Blogger isn't cooperating..I don't know what's happening..! maybe tomorrow.. Sorry!!