Advertising Belgium

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November 10, 2021

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In the period beweeen the two World Wars, particularly during the reign of King Albert I, Belgium produced many stamp pairs that included an advertisement (“Timbres-Publicitie”). Here at PostBeeld we have some great examples and also a large stock of very interesting stamps from Belgium.

The pairs seen above advertise the Ostende-Dover ferry, operated by the Regie voor Maritiem Transport (RMT) – the Belgian state-owned ferry service – which was inaugurated between Ostend and Dover in March 1846. Owing to heavy financial losses and increased competition from the high-speed Eurostar Channel Tunnel train service and shorter sea ferry routes, the Belgian government took the decision to close the company in 1997. The attached stamp values have the Belgian coat of arms, an allegorical female figure playing a lyre and King Albert I of Belgium who reigned from 1909 until his death in 1934.

The first medicinal advertisement was for Syrup of Manceau (Sirop Manceau) issued 1929-1932 on labels adjoining the Belgian “lion heraldic” issue. The product was created in the 1890s by Dr. Charles Manceau and pharmacist Abel Guillion. The remedy, containing apple, fennel, coriander, and senna, was promoted as a laxative for young children.

Here we have stamp pairs promoting leather soles for shoes that have a protective dressing.

The moving coil, direct radiator cone loudspeaker seen on the above stamps was the creation of a New York inventor Clair Loring Farrand in the mid-1920s, and set a standard by replacing the horn type speaker which could not produce the sound quality of the cone speaker. Mr. Farrand held over 250 patents and his company, Farrand Industry Inc., held more than 1,000. Mr. Farrand was working as a wireless operator for Marconi in 1912, when news of the sinking of the Titanic broke. He stayed up all night to receive the names of Titanic survivors from an incoming ship. The list which was later posted in the newspapers.

Persil washing powder was invented by Professor Herman Giessler and Dr Herman Bauer from Stuttgart, Germany, at the beginning of the 20th Century. They mixed ordinary soap with a salt that was rich in oxygen. Persil got its name from its original ingredients: ‘Per’ from Perborate and ‘Sil’ from Silicate. Originally the Persil powder had to be stirred into a paste before use. Lever Brothers (now known as Unilever) bought the company in 1919 and introduced the product to the UK.

In the early 20th Century people washed their clothes using bars of soap. This new ‘scientific’ washing powder was different from what people were used to and it took a while to become popular.

More bilingual stamp pairs, this time from 1932. There are advertisements for Dutch cheese, Telefunken radios, Publibel postcard albums, a Colonial Lottery, Froede stamp catalogues, a National Stamp Catalogue for Belgian Congo, stamp albums from Ka-Be and Schaubek, and Marbrite decorative products.

Stamp Errors Part 16 – Wrong Flag of Italy

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October 26, 2021

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Stamp Errors Part 16 – Wrong Flag of Italy

A series of 42 stamps featuring flags of 21 countries was issued in 1951 by Korea. They were produced to recognise assistance provided by those 21 countries during the three-year Korean War. Armed forces were sent from 16 United Nations countries, including a large contingent from the United States. Five other countries – India, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Italy – contributed medical services to support the effort. At that time Italy was not a member State of the United Nations, thus being the only non-member State to participate.

The green stamps show, centre, the Statue of Liberty accompanied by the flag of a participating country and that of Korea. The blue stamps display the UN emblem with doves and the same flags.

The flag of Italy stamps shown here commemorate the medical and humanitarian aid rendered by the Italian Red Cross.

Unfortunately the wrong flag vignette was used. The crown and shield of the old Kingdom of Italy appear in the central, vertical white panel on the original version released in October 1951 (the bottom pair above).

The redesigned stamps (top pair above) issued in 1952 feature a larger shield without the crown. Despite this alteration, the designer again used the wrong flag! In 1946 Italy became a Republic with a tricolour flag having three equally wide vertical panels of green, white and red, but without any emblems.

The following are the stamps showing the other four countries that contributed medical services to support the effort.

Black Heritage – Part 11

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October 20, 2021

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Part 11 in this series of Black Heritage stamp articles begins in the year 2002 with poet, journalist and author Langston Hughes (1902-1967). He was just eighteen years old when he composed his first – and best known – poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.” Hughes was an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance movement. During his lifetime he wrote poetry, news articles, books, short stories and plays – highlighting poverty, prejudice, radical politics, violence and social causes. He wrote the Broadway shows “Mulatto” and “Street Scene”, and two successful gospel shows, “Black Nativity” and “Jericho-Jim Crow”.

Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993) was featured on the 2003 Black Heritage stamp. He was the first African-American Supreme Court Justice. He became known for his views concerning the need for fair and impartial treatment of the nation’s minorities. As the chief of the NAACP’s (The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) legal staff, he won the civil rights case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka before the United States Supreme Court. This was a landmark case in which racial segregation in the public schools was declared unconstitutional. Marshall later served on the U.S. Court of Appeals, was the U.S. Solicitor General and a liberal member of the Supreme Court.

The acclaimed 20th-Century singer and actor, Paul Robeson (1898-1976) became world famous with his version of the song Ol’ Man River after he played the part of Joe in the musical Show Boat and for his title role in Shakespeare’s Othello. He first played the part in England in 1930, and later took the production successfully to Broadway. But his final stage appearance, as Othello for the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford in April 1959, was the most celebrated. He also appeared in a number of films, including Sanders of the River, Show Boat, and Song of Freedom. Robeson was an outspoken activist for racial justice and social progress, and even travelled to the Soviet Union with the aim of encouraging international peace.

The opera singer Marian Anderson (1897-1993) was featured on the 2005 Black Heritage stamp. Her love of music from an early age was obvious as she joined a church choir when she was six years old. She was so talented that members of her church congregation raised funds for her to attend a music school for a year. Following years of not being able to sing in “White Artists Only” venues, in 1955 she became the first black singer to appear as a member of New York’s Metropolitan Opera Company. Other notable achievements by Marian Anderson saw her become a goodwill ambassador to Asia and a delegate to the United Nations. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award, and the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal.

Sturgeons and Caviar – Wildlife and Highlife Under Threat?

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October 11, 2021

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The fish depicted on the stamp shown, issued in 1965 by Mongolia, is the Siberian Sturgeon (Acipenser Baeri). Sturgeons are among the largest fish on Earth, can grow up to eight metres long and weigh as much as 1,360 kilograms. They take up to 15 years to mature and can live as long as 100 years.

Of the 27 sturgeon species, 23 are on the brink of extinction and four are possibly extinct. They have existed on earth for more than 200 million years. Sturgeon caviar is one of the most expensive wildlife products, which has led to illegal fishing and a black market for the product.

On this Yugoslav example from 2002 we have a Sterlet, a relatively small sturgeon species.

The Syr-Dar Shovelnose Sturgeon (Pseudoscaphirhynchus fedtschenkoi) is another relatively small species, but has not been seen in decades and is possibly extinct.

The stamp sheet above features the Russian Sturgeon (Acipenser guldenstadtii).

Top left of these Chinese stamps from 1994 is the kaluga (Huso dauricus) is a large predatory sturgeon found in the Amur River basin. Also known as the river beluga sturgeon. They are thought to be the largest freshwater fish in the world. Acipenser sinensis, the Chinese sturgeon, is another species that can grow to an enormous size but has been threatened by river damming and overfishing. Bottom right is the species Acipenser dabryanus, also known as the Yangtze sturgeon, Chiangjiang sturgeon and river sturgeon. It is endemic to China and today restricted to the Yangtze River basin. Top right is a fish species now thought to be extinct, the Chinese paddlefish (Psephurus gladius). The Chinese paddlefish, which was native to the Yangtze River and could reach up to seven metres in length, was last spotted in 2003. Researchers now believe that the Chinese paddlefish disappeared from the wild between 2005 and 2010.

Above and below joint issue stamps from Ukraine and Moldova. Showing left, the Russian sturgeon (Acipenser gueldenstaedtii), and right a Perch (Zingel zingel). They were produced to highlight efforts being made to protect the fauna of the Dniester River Basin and its environs.

Great Britain produced the above in 2014, featuring endangered fish species, including sturgeons and other species considered sustainable.

Horatio Nelson – A Chip Off the Old Block

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September 28, 2021

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Horatio Nelson – A Chip Off the Old Block

In June 1803 Admiral Horatio Nelson embarked on HMS Victory as Commander in Chief in the Mediterranean. This was the first year of the Napoleonic Wars and in the period leading up to the decisive 1805 Battle of Trafalgar he had been either blockading or chasing the French and Spanish fleets. To mark the 200th anniversary of the death of Nelson special stamps were issued by Gibraltar and the Isle of Man. After Lord Nelson was killed at Trafalgar, his body was preserved in brandy and spirits of wine mixed with camphor and myrrh for over two months until his burial in London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral.

The Crown Agents Stamp Bureau bought 50kg of Victory’s oak timbers after the ship was refitted in Portsmouth Naval Dockyard – the work to refit the ship was completed in 2005. The purchased wood was pulped and incorporated into stamps marking the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar. Using an advanced printing technique, the stamps used the traces of oak timbers on the surface of the image of HMS Victory. The stamps were printed by Cartor Security Printers, a French company.

Above we have: the 38p stamp image “Guarding the Body” depicting the barrel that Lord Horatio Nelson’s body was returned to Britain in after his death; HMS Entreprenante (40p stamp), a 10-gun cutter that the Royal Navy captured from the French in 1798. The British commissioned her in 1799 and she served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, participating in the Battle of Trafalgar. She took part in several small engagements, capturing Spanish and French ships; the 47p has a portrait of a fully-decorated Nelson. The HMS Victory stamp (GBP1.60) is the only one printed from paper made by pulping wood purchased during the HMS Victory refit.

The above Gibraltar stamp sheet is a siamese joint issue with the Isle of Man – a siamese joint issue a type of twin issue in which the stamps from both countries are physically (se-tenant or within the same miniature sheet) linked together.

And Nelson’s connection with Gibraltar? It was at Rosia Bay, Gibraltar on the 3rd November 1805 that his body was brought ashore from HMS Victory. Here we have a stamp sheet showing the badly damaged HMS Victory being towed towards Gibraltar after the Battle of Trafalgar.

Malawi via Nyasaland etc.

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September 14, 2021

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One of the most popular British heroes of the late 19th-century Victorian period was the Scottish missionary and explorer David Livingstone (1813-1873). On one of his expeditions he traversed the country we today know as Malawi. Blantyre, Malawi’s second city, is named after Livingstone’s birthplace in Scotland. In 1973 Malawi commemorated the 100th anniversary of his death with the stamps shown here.

In the periods of history where various parts of the African continent were claimed and divided amongst European countries and subsequent entities, postage stamps were produced by the interlopers. One such organisation representing Britain and keen to exploit the continent’s mineral wealth was the British South Africa Company which had much influence in what is now Malawi. Above we have a British South Africa Company stamp overprinted B.C.A. (British Central Africa) from 1891.

And here an example from British Central Africa issued in 1895.

The Nyasaland Protectorate was a British protectorate in Africa established in 1907 when the former British Central Africa Protectorate changed its name. Here we have a Blantyre overprinted King George V stamp from 1913.

This is a fine example of a 1938 King George VI Nyasaland Protectorate stamp with, below, a great unused definitive set from the same year.

For the stamp booklet collectors out there we have this item from 1954, replete with advertising.

In the early colonial period there was a massive loss of African communal lands. In January 1915, there was an attempted rebellion, led by the Reverend John Chilembwe in protest at discrimination against Africans and from the 1930s, a growing class of educated African elite, many educated in the United Kingdom, became increasingly politically active and vocal about gaining independence. In 1953 Nyasaland was forced into a Federation with Southern and Northern Rhodesia, causing a rise in civic unrest, as this was deeply unpopular among the people of the territory. In 1963 the Federation was dissolved and on the 6th of July 1964 Nyasaland became independent from Britain and was renamed Malawi. The stamp sheet above was produced in 1965 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Reverend John Chilembwe-led uprising.

In 1964 Malawi issued the above stamps to celebrate independence, incorporating a portrait of Hastings Banda, first President of the country.

Recently Added to Stock

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Freestampmagazine

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September 7, 2021

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Some examples of items recently added to PostBeeld’s stock – beginning with a fine stamp sheet from the Isle of Man issued in 1991 to mark the 80th anniversary of the island’s annual Tourist Trophy motorcycle races (see also articles https://freestampmagazine.com/2019/02/12/manx-and-the-speed-kings-part-one/ & https://freestampmagazine.com/2019/04/01/manx-and-the-speed-kings-part-two-irish-winners/)

Europe in Space was the theme for the 1991 Europa stamps issued by members of the Conference of European Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT). Above is a mint 1991 Europa stamp sheet from Monaco, the stamps show the Inmarsat Radio Satellite.

Two King George V stamps shown here are samples from the many Turks and Caicos Islands items recently added to the PostBeeld catalogue.

The central image on these Turks and Caicos Islands stamps from 1905 show a man raking salt into piles with a ship waiting to take the goods to be sold in the background. Salt was of particular importance to the Turks and Caicos Islands from 1678 until 1964, when competing for trade with another salt-producing island proved no longer viable.

We have many additions from the U.S.A. Above is a 20-stamp DC Comics Super Heroes mini-sheet from 2006 …

… and a 20-stamp Marvel Comics Super Heroes mini-sheet from 2007.

“The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757”, was the second and probably most popular novel of the “Leatherstocking Tales” five-book series by American writer James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851). Colourful scenes from the five books were depicted on these beautifully-illustrated stamps produced by the Soviet Union in 1989, the bicentenary of the birth of J. F. Cooper.

Also we have a nice St. Lucia King Edward VII definitives set first issued in 1902.

Another new addition are these United Nations Geneva World Dance Day stamp sheets from 2016 featuring Spanish Flamenco and middle eastern dancers. Please visit freestampcatalogue.com to see other 2016 examples from United Nations Geneva and New York.

Olympic Wonders

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Freestampmagazine

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August 21, 2021

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Estonia became independent from Russia in 1918 and first competed as a nation at the VII Olympiad, the 1920 Summer Olympic Games held in Antwerp, Belgium. In 2020 Estonia issued a special pure silver stamp to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first gold medal win for Estonia by Alfred Neuland in the lightweight weightlifting event.

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Black Heritage – Part 10

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August 16, 2021

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Part 10 in this series of articles begins in the year 1998 with a stamp commemorating Madam C.J. Walker (1867-1919). Madam C.J. Walker created hair-care and cosmetic products, particularly specialising in products for African-American hair. She developed a very successful door-to-door selling and mail-order business as white department stores would not sell her products.

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Stamp Errors Part 15 – Seven Wonders of the World

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August 3, 2021

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Stamp Errors Part 15 – Seven Wonders of the World

A stamp issue from the South Arabian postal administration of Aden in 1968 was dedicated to the old and, what might have been considered by its designers in 1968, new wonders of the world. The stamp sheet has two triangular airmail stamps each with the value of 200 Yemeni fils.

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