Peru [1st Post]

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Today I only have stamps printed by ABNC... they are from a period of time when ABNC New York not only was dominant in Peru's Philately but had the Monopoly for 14 years (from 1895 to 1909)...it is very interesting to see , not only in Peru's case, but in almost every Central and South American countries ,that the "Geopolitics of Printing" with periods of dominance of one or more companies close together with periods of deep confusion with several consecutive series made by different companies,is another aspect of our hobby that still needs deep research from those who are willing to do it...

A first series where the focus is on the opening of the New Central Post Office Building... it is necessary to see that the label "1897" is common to all 3 stamps... 
the 5c stamp is definitely the best of this series with it's usual ABNC look whenever a portrait is printed...very good engraving and the "American" design is everywhere..! it is also good to know that the presence of these Giant companies was in the end a good thing , because not only brought the best artists and technicians but also gave these countries the possibility of having stamps printed in very nice papers, that could not otherwise be used by local printing companies...
the 5c stamp represents President Nicolas de Pierola
1897 "Opening of the New Postal Building" (3) [Recess (ABNC,New York)] Sc(154,...,156)

I'm a big fan of the Philatelic early days of Central and south American countries, because of the great instability that reigned all of that region in those days... it brought a great diversity of Overprints, surcharges, and events that would not happen in any other conditions... but there is also something that really annoys me...blurred postmarks... it is very common in these stamps, specially in those of Brazil, one of my favorites, and they almost destroys the stamp... I like postmarks, big, small,discrete,thick or thin,but I do not like those who really damage the stamp... unfortunately ,it is the case of this one... not only damages the visibility of the portrait and frames, but has to much ink and that is the real problem...

well,this stamp is a commemoration of President Eduardo Lopez de Romana. the stamp has a curiosity , that is the fact of the frames being [litho] printed and the vignette [Recess] printed...the information I have is that all the work was done by ABNC ,but it was not a common fact (at least in postage stamps...) , to have [Litho] printings done by them...

1900 "President Eduardo Lopez De Romana" (1) [Recess , portrait (ABNC) Frames (Litho)] Sc(160)

This is a series that brings me some doubts about the printing...the data I have don't talk about anything then [Recess] printing.. it is obvious that the portrait is very well engraved and [recess[ printed, but the frames ....I don't know ,but looking to the first stamp. the green 1c, I still allow myself to think that they could be [recess] printed,but when we look to the other 2 stamps,it doesn't seem to be possible anymore to think about that.. the frames are not [Recess] printed, so we have again [Litho] printed frames and [Recess] portraits...

The personalities represented are : 1c) Admiral Grau 2c) Colonel Bolognesi 5c) President Eduardo Romana.

1901 "Advent of 20th Century" (3) [Recess(ABNC, New York)](I will only give the data I have...) Sc(161,162,163)

I think that this stamp don't bring us nothing of special or to highlight...in fact, I think that the vignette has too much empty space,white space, it should have some clouds behind the building design...the stamp itself commemorates the Municipal Board of Health building...it was issued in 1905 , but as we will see it was overprinted many times during the years...

1905 "Municipal Board of Health building" (1) [Recess (ABNC, New york)] Sc(165)

in 1907 were issued the first two overprints presented above...the first one diagonally upwards  in Red  "Un Centavo" and the second one in violet "Dos Centavos"....the 1st , 2nd and 4th (this last one in 1913) overprints were only printed over this particular stamp...the 3rd was printed in 1915 over several different stamps from 1897 to 1908 ....

this series is not completed with the High values missing (1s and 2s)..sorry because the 50c is damaged , but I had to present it anyway... 

The stamp I like the most in this series is the 4c that represents "the Lama",an animal original from the Andean regions of Ecuador and Peru..I always remind the difficult relation between Cap. Haddock and one of these animals in the Comic Book "Tintin and the temple of the Sun" (pictures below)

facing again our stamp series , we can say that the other stamps don't have nothing very significant to show us...some statues , buildings and a portrait of Admiral Grau..., all of them accomplished in a very ABNC style...
1907/1908 "Various Designs" (9) [Recess (ABNC,New york)] Sc(168,...,174)

well, I've got many more Peruvian stamps to present but the "Low size" posts demand me to restrain myself, and so I will present them in another post perhaps about other period of Peru's Philately...

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