San Marino 2003 - focus

San Marino

18th March 2003 - Poster art
Il manifesto - Armando Testa 1968
design : Franco Filanci
printer: Cartor security printing

I asked one of my philatelic friends which was his favourite Europa stamp ever and he told me the 28 euro-cent stamp from San Marino 2003 !

Well, I don't know why exactly this stamp is his favourite Europa stamp among the thousands of Europa stamps issued, but I guess it may have something to do with those two deep blue eyes you see on the poster depicted on this stamp.

PostEurop selected an original subject for the 2003 Europa stamps theme: "Poster art". We knew already stamps on stamps, but now we have posters on stamps !

San Marino chosed two different posters for their Europa issue. A 1893 old poster of the French painter Toulouse Lautrec and a a more modern Italian poster of 1968.


This poster was designed by Armando Testa, a very famous Italian designer who specialised in industrial design and advertisement. He became famous by producing the official poster of the 1960 Olympics in Rome and later for advertising campaigns for well known Italian brands as Lavazza coffee, Borsalino hats, Pirelli tyres or Bacci chocolates. He founded is own advertising studio in his home town of Turin and it's still one of the biggest advertising companies from Italy.

This 1968 poster "Stilla collirio gocce azzurre per gli occhi" was produced for the Italian eyewash product "Stilla".

source of the images : http://www.ibolli.it/indexes/cept/index.php

Guernsey 1999 - focus

Guernsey

27th April 1999 - "Nature reserves and Parks"
design: Colleen Corlett
printer: Walsall Security Printers

This Summer I’ve visited for the first time the Channel Islands. As a Europa stamps collector I learnt to know very well the islands of Jersey and Guernsey through their stamps issues. This I decided to see it all in real !

The Channel Islands are an archipelago composed by five main islands. The three biggest islands issue stamps : Jersey, Guernsey and Alderney. The first two also issue Europa stamps but Alderney don’t. The other two main islands: Sarq and Herm don’t issue stamps… or better said, don’t issue stamps anymore.

In 1999 Guernsey issued a set of four stamps, two bearing the Europa logo featuring the nature of the island of Herm. It’s one of the rare Europa issue featuring a stamp on stamp !


The island of Herm is part of the bailiwick of Guernsey and is rent to a tenant ! During twenty years, from 1949 until 1969, the tenant of Herm decided to produce the island's own stamps. You can see some of those stamps on the 1999 Europa stamps of Guernsey. Those private issues from the islands of Herm were available with or without perforation and were triangular.



One more intersting thing about Herm stamps is that they also issued Europa stamps ! Well, not official ones but stamps with the word "Europa" written on it. Those "bogus" Europa stamps were issued in 1962 and 1963. They also over printed stamps with the word "Europa" in 1961, 1964, 1966


If you are interested in those Herm stamps, you can find them on auction websites are at around 7€ for a full set of 12 (you can find other Herm issues as well). You can also visit this website dedicated to Herm's stamps (sell also some sets).

source of the images : http://www.ibolli.it/indexes/cept/index.php & http://www.hermstamps.co.uk

Switzerland 1979 - focus

Switzerland

30th April 1979 - "Postal history"
design: Klaus Oberli
engraving: Max Müller
printer: Wertzeichendruckerei PTT - Bern
FDC (picture on Zasa-stamp blog)

The first Swiss stamp was issued in 1850, but before that stamps were issued in Switzerland by Cantons. Zurich was the first canton to issue post stamps in 1843 followed by Geneva. But the most famous Swiss stamp ever is the cantonal stamp issued by Basel in 1845: the "Basel Dove". This stamp was really modern for that time, was multi-colored and the dove was white embossed on a red field. Until today it is considered as "one of the most beautiful stamps ever produced" !


In the city of Basel where this stamp come from, the local post asked the architect Melchior Berri to design a mailboxes inspired by the Basel Dove stamp. One of the two 1979 Europa stamps issued by Switzerland is reproducing one of those famouse mailboxes. Today in Basel they are still six of those mailboxes remaining of 1845 and still in use ! Go to Basel and try to find them !

source of the images : http://www.ibolli.it/indexes/cept/index.php & http://www.basel-virtuell.ch

France 1973 - focus

France

16th April 1973 - common design "Post, telegraph & telephone"
Hôtel de ville de Bruxelles
design & engraving: Pierre Forget
printer: Imprimerie des timbres-poste et des valeurs fiduciaires (ITVF)

1973 was the last year Europa stamps were issued using a common design. The main reason of this change was the monotony of common designs issues among philatelists. Before the introduction of a common theme in 1974, the CEPT introduced a new rule in 1971, the right to issue a second stamp with a free subject as design. One country who used that new rule from the start was France. Between 1971 and 1973, France issued a second stamp depicting a famous building of a European city (Venice in 1971, Aachen in 1972, Brussels in 1973).

I decided to focus on the 1973 stamp representing the town hall of Brussels. This stamp is part of a 2 stamps set, the other stamp depicting the common design made by the Norwegian artist Leif Frimann Anisdahl. This French stamp has been designed and engraved by the French artist Pierre Forget. He designed many stamps during his live for France, Monaco and Andorra. Besides this issue he is also the author of the 1975 french Europa issue. In 1979 he received the prize for the World's best stamp (!) for for the International year of the child french stamp. You can have a look at all Pierre Forget's stamps on this French stamp database: Phil-Ouest


The town hall of Brussels is a beautiful Gothic building from the Middle Ages. It is located on the Grand Place (market square) in the heart of Brussels' old town. This Saturday this building will be the showcase of the ceremony of the first "Best Europa stamp - Jury prize" ! PostEurop decided to give two Best Europa stamps prizes each year from now on: The Best Europa stamp will be selected as usual through the internet voting (held earlier this year on PostEurop's website) and the winner will be announced in October this year.

Besides this elder prize, a jury of 8 members composed by stamp designers, former philatelic managers and myself will select the stamp which will receive the first "Best Europa stamp - Jury prize" ! Next week you'll know who is the winner !

source of the images : http://www.ibolli.it/indexes/cept/index.php

Great-Britain 1991 - focus

Great Britain

23rd April 1991 - "European aerospace"
design: Jean-Michel Folon
printer: Harrison & Sons Ltd

Many stamp collectors collects stamps related to space. They call it astrophilately or space philately. 1991 must have been an interesting Europa stamps year for all those collectors (as later 2009 with the Astronomy theme) but for my part space on stamps is not really my cup of tea. Rockets, satellites is a bit boring to me.

But two countries that year issued stamps with a more poetic touch, the Netherlands and Great-Britain. I will focus in this post on the British issue as I love the designer of those stamps : Jean-Michel Folon.



Folon was a Belgian painter and sculptor who produced many posters but also many stamps during his life. The set he produced for Great-Britain in 1991 is composed of 2 pairs of stamps. The first pair is called "Man looking at Space" and the second one "Space looking at Man". It is a very poetic point of view showing space through the eyes of man, how small we are in front of this immensity lost on our little blue planet. In the first pair of stamps the cosmos is our head as a dream and in the second one in our eyes more like a kind of reality.

If you are visiting Belgium one day, the Folon foundation in La Hulpe (near Brussels) is really worth a visit !

Austria 1987 - focus

Austria

6th April 1987 - "Modern architecture"
design: Auguste Böcskör
engraving: Wolfgang Seidel
printer: Osterreichische Staatsdruckerei GmbH [OeSD]

I love architecture, that's why I love the 1987 Europa stamps year ! It is hard to take one stamp out of this year but I decided to focus on the Austrian stamp.


The stamp represent the Hundertwasserhaus in Vienna built between 1983 and 1986 by the City of Vienna. I was lucky enough to visit it when I visited the Austrian capital. This house is amazing, totally different of the usual standards we know in architecture. Lot's of colours, twisted walls, mosaics, mirors, trees on the roof, etc. It makes me think of a house coming out of a children drawing.

This house came out of the mind of Friedensreich Hundertwasser an Austrian architect who decided to build houses made of windows instead of walls. All his buildings are from the same type but the one depicted on the stamp is his most famous one, that's why it's simply called Hundertwasser-house !

Friedensreich Hundertwasser is not only an architect, he is also an artist who produced many stamps (mainly for Austria but also for Liechtenstein, the UN or more surprisingly for Cape Verde !), a website is even dedicated to them: http://www.hundertwasser-stamps.com

On the top left of the stamp you can see a little E logo. This is the logo of Europalia, an arts festival held every two years in Brussels celebrating one specific country and in 1987 it was Austria's turn. It's the first time that a Europa stamp is bearing this logo. This year's Europalia's invitee is Brazil.

source of the images : http://www.ibolli.it/indexes/cept/index.php

San Marino 1974 - focus

San Marino

9th May 1974 - "Sculptures"
design: V. Nicastro & R. Di Giuseppe
printer: I.P.S. Roma

I decided to start a new type of messages to put a bit life in this blog when the Europa stamps season is a bit down.

I will focus on a stamp or set of the Europa stamps collection. This idea is inspired by the blog of Tomoko - well centred - I hope she won't mind !

The first set I chosed, is the 1974 issue of San Marino.


It's my favourite issue of that year. The beauty of the sculpture is very well given back by the quality of the engraving (two engravers for this set, one for each stamp !). It's also interesting to see that both stamps from this set are representing the same sculpture - a close up of the head and a full size image of the whole sculpture. One more thing I really like about this issue is the use of colored paper. It so much nicer than having a border around the stamp in my opinion. It emphasis the stamp on a cover especially a white one.


About the sculpture: it's a work of Emilio Greco, Italian sculptor born in Sicily almost hundred years ago. I think the work shown on both stamps is "Grande Pattinatrice n.2" (= great skater) of 1971. Surprisingly this sculpture can't be seen in San Marino but in Orvieto in Italy in the Emilio Greco Museum.

source of the images : http://www.ibolli.it/indexes/cept/index.php