Thursday, November 12, 2009

Adenauer, Konrad
The question of the German Rhineland kept the peacemakers busy. Ideally, it was to be a buffer zone between France and Germany, and various ideas were floated. Demilitarize the area, or make it part of France even. The inhabitants had never got used to Prussian rule, but becoming French was probably a step too far. In early 1919, a separatist movement grew stronger. Rhineland a separate state? Konrad Adenauer, then mayor of Cologne, toyed with the idea of separatism, but, cautious as he was, he made sure to represent the moderates. Later that spring he gave up any ideas of a separate state.
It is easy enough to find stamps with Adenauer on, especially since he went on to become West Germany's first chancellor in 1949. But in our Peacemaking story he was still 'only' mayor of Cologne; a fact many stamp issues tend to overlook.
This Grenada miniature sheet of 1992, however, does give full mention to this fact and is therefore a perfect addition to the Konrad Adenauer sub-theme.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Abdullah, Ruler of Jordan
1920 was a disastrous year for the Arabs: They lost Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and finally Mesopotamia as well. Britain and France were coming to an agreement on how to split up the area, in April 1920. Britain got the Palestine mandate. But as rebellion was breaking out among the Arabs, the Brits, mindful of their promises to the Arabs, decided to split the mandate in two and thus created Palestine to the west of the Jordan, and the new Arab state of Transjordan, where Abdullah, brother of King Feisal, was made Emir.
For Palestine this meant a change from being under British military occupation to having a civil administration under a British High Commissioner. This change was marked with a set of EEF (Egyptian Expeditionary Forces) stamps overprinted "Palestine" in Arabic, English and Hebrew. The set was issued on 1 September 1920.
When Abdullah was made Emir of Transjordan, a set of stamps was issued to mark the change of government. The 1920 set of Transjordan was overprinted "Arab Government of the East, April 1921" in Arabic.
This overprinted set was issued in December 1922.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Machins
Sometimes you need a little push to get going. That's what happened to me when I ordered an old postcard for my Peacemaking collection. The sender included two extra postcards, both modern, but both sent from here in Great Britain to Holland, and both being franked with Machin stamps.
And suddenly, without asking for it, my postal rate part of my Machin collection had grown from 1 to 3 items! Sometimes it's so easy to set up a collection! But of course you do need to find all the information needed, and for that I've found a wonderful website. Take a look, it's absolutely great, what time and effort and research must have gone into this!
So here are my latest two additions.
The first is a cover postmarked 25 July 1975, sent from Bodmin in Cornwall, England, to Boxtel in the Netherlands. The 6p pastel green, issued in 1971, prepaid the world postcard rate from 17 March 1975 to 29 September 1975, so that's only some six months. It does include the summer holiday period, so cards with this stamp on won't be extremely rare, but it is still a short period of usage.
This is a cover postmarked 2 August 1977, sent from Bexhill-on-Sea in East Sussex, England, to Goirle in the Netherlands. The 8p red, issued in 1973, prepaid the world postcard rate from 13 June 1977 to 20 August 1979.
I can't wait to get to the next fair and get those cards for next to nothing to build a more complete picture!
:-)
Adrian

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Conclusion
I'm back again! Sorry I took so long but sometimes with all the other stuff I have to write, my keyboard just dries up. Anyway, back with a vengeance. Well, hopefully anyway!
I may have told you that I've made a bit of a restart on my Peacemaking collection. It is going well so far, so I feel confident enough to share it with you. It will be a bit higgledy-piggledy, but I will label the posts in such a way that the various 'chapters' of the collection will be grouped together, making for a better read, eventually.
So let's start today at the very end: The Conclusion!
Apart from all the major issues that had to be resolved, the peacemakers also had to deal with numerous of minorities' claims and fears. They tried to impose obligations on the various governments to treat their minorities well, but this was rather futile in an age of growing chauvinism. The League of Nations was in charge of holding governments to their responsibilities, but gave up in the 1930s.
However, it was not all doom and gloom. There were a few hopeful signs, such as the case of the Aland Islands. The problem there was that the land was Finnish but the population overwhelmingly Swedish. The case was brought to the attention of the League and in 1921 they decided that the islands were to remain Finnish, but the treaty guaranteed the language and culture of its inhabitants.
This 1924 cover shows that, after the treaty, Finnish stamps remained in use on the Aland Islands, whereas the cover is written in Swedish.
The League of Nations meeting where the islands' fate was decided upon, which took place in Geneva, Switzerland, on 24 June 1921, was commemorated on a 1991 stamp issue.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Picture Gallery
Honduras, 1961
The 1c from the airmail set to mark the settlement of the boundary dispute with Nicaragua.
The stamp depicts a map of the disputed border and King Alfonso XIII of Spain who determined that border in the early 1900s.
Printed in recess.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

The Narrowing of the Waters
2008 marked the 400th anniversary of the foundation of the City of Québec. The Canadian and French postal authorities marked this with a joint stamp issue in May 2008. A hundred years before, Canada Post went it alone and released a still very popular set of eight stamps to mark the city’s tercentenary.
In March 1908, the Canadian government proposed to issue a set of stamps based upon the history of Québec, including historic scenes and non-royal persons. For this, permission was needed from King Edward VII, who consented when asked. The King does, however, take his rightful place on one value; the 2c carmine shows him together with Queen Alexandra.
Québec’s story starts with the French explorer Jacques Cartier (1493-1557).
His second expedition, in 1535, saw him ending up with three vessels on the future site of Québec. This was near Cape Diamond, on a narrow stretch of water where the St Charles River flows into the St Laurens River. His three vessels are shown on the 20c dull brown.
Cartier anchored near the Indian village of Stadacona. The area had long been populated by Indian hunters and fishermen. In fact, the future city was to take its name from their language, Kebec being the Algonquin word for “Narrowing of the Waters”.
The 1c blue-green depicts Cartier, shoulder to shoulder with Champlain, who was to take Québec’s story further.
Samuel de Champlain (1570-1635) was a well-known French navigator who set out for the West in the spring of 1608.
His departure is shown on the 15c brown-orange.
The design is inspired by Champlain’s own version of events, which has him leaving from the Isle of Sainte Helaine on Monday May 27th, accompanied by four Frenchman and one Indian, with their canoes laden with provisions, arms and merchandise.
When Champlain arrived in the Québec area, he set about fortifying it. The City of Québec was officially founded on 3 July 1608. It consisted of three main buildings and a deep moat to protect it from Indians. Champlain collectively referred to this stronghold as l’Abitation. It is depicted on the 5c indigo.
The design of this stamp was based on an illustration in Champlain’s narrative of his voyage to New France. L’Abitation was the first permanent settlement of the French colony “Nouvelle-France”, or New France. However, the French were not in a particular hurry to expand their colony. In 1663, the year Québec became the official capital of New France, its population was still no more than 550!
In the early 1660s, François de Montmorency-Laval (1623-1708) left France for Québec.
His main aim was to organize the Roman Catholic Church in the city, becoming its first bishop in 1674. He also founded a theological school there, the “Séminaire de Québec”. Later, after Queen Victoria granted a Royal Charter in 1852, the school was renamed Université Laval, in honour of its founding bishop.
In Laval’s early days, the “city” was still mostly made up of wooden dwellings. Only after a devastating fire in 1682 were most dwellings rebuilt in stone. The 10c violet shows what the city looked like in 1700.
The design is based on an illustration from Bacqueville de la Potheries’ “Histoire de la Nouvelle France”.
Québec is the only city in North America to be surrounded by city walls. Its old parts, le Vieux Québec, are now a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Québec has always played a major role in the battle for English supremacy in North America. English colonists from the south besieged Québec in 1629. This led to three years of English rule. A second attempt by the English, in 1690, was not successful and the French experienced a period of relative peace thereafter.
In 1759, the English laid siege to the capital once again, and after two months of bombardments, British General James Wolfe (1727-1759) defeated French General Louis-Joseph Montcalm (1712-1759) during the Battle of the Plains of Abraham.
These two generals, who both died in battle, are depicted on the 7c olive-green.
The design was based on existing portraits by Moncornet (Montcalm) and Houston (Wolfe).
The following year, the French tried to recapture Québec during the Battle of Sainte-Foy. The French were victorious but they were to lose Québec later to the English anyway. The “Monument des Braves” was erected to honour both French and English soldiers who gave their lives during the battle.
The Paris Treaty of 1763 ceded Québec once and for all to the British. The city then became the capital of the British colony the Province of Québec. The city flourished and became predominantly English. But when economic fortunes changed, the English moved away from the city towards the West, leaving the city once again mainly populated by the French, helped by an influx of French speaking peasants. Québec did manage to hold on to power as capital of Canada, but only for a few short periods. Afterwards, it was “downsized” to the capital of the Province of Québec with its population stabilizing and its growth decreasing.
And that’s how we find the city on 16 July 1908, the day the Tercentenary of Québec set was issued, just in time before the then Prince of Wales (later King George V) reached Québec to participate in the celebrations. On 22 July, He arrived on board the Indomitable, then the newest, largest and swiftest of British battleships. The Prince and Princess of Wales are depicted on the ½c sepia.
The design is based on photographs taken by Messrs. W. and D. Downey. The original die, however, shows that at first, the idea was to depict the Prince of Wales in civilian dress!

© 2009, AKPhilately
An edited version of this article was published in Stamp Magazine of August 2008.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Picture Gallery
Great Britain, 16 June 1982.
The 24p value from the Maritime Heritage set. The stamp depicts Lord Nelson and HMS Victory, which is preserved at Portsmouth.
Printed in recess and photogravure, engraved by Czeslaw Slania.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Thinking cap
I do not always go on about it (well, I do a bit, but still), but my thinking process as regards the way my "grand" collection is going forward, is still ongoing. That falling star of two nights ago, and my subsequent secret wish have led to the following luminous concept: Restriction!
It's just too much to be working on the number of collections I'm working on (or want to work on) right now. So I'm letting go of a big chunk and just keep two main collections: My recently so gloriously restored Wilhelmina collection, which I've tried to give up once and that didn't work so I'll not do that again, and my even more recently restarted Peacemaking collection, about which I will soon say more. What I'm letting go is a number of European definitives, which I kept alive because I have this vague idea of maybe when I'm over 50 writing books/booklets about. I've now decided to incorporate what I have in my existing general all world collection. I can always pick it up if that above-mentioned idea becomes less vague, but won't want to spend any time and/or money on it now.
So if I manage to stick to this plan, I'll have two demarcated collections, one primarily of stamps and the other venturing into postal history, and I can always add to my world collection through the material I have to get for writing my articles, so that'll statisfy my hunger for ever more stamps!
Sounds good, doesn't it?! I hope it works and I hope I can stick it, but you know me, I'm such a sucker when it comes to stamps!
:-)
Anyway, to tell you something about Wilhelmina (you see, I immediately get so focused that I manage to update my blog!), my latest item is a cinderella of 1913.
It is part of the 1913 set issued to mark the centenary of Dutch independence. The set of twelve features four portraits; those of the three Dutch kings: William I, II and III, and that of Wilhelmina. The stamps were so popular that the designs were used by a good number of companies for advertising material, such as this advertising label from a Dutch tea company. I already had the other two with Wilhelmina on, the 10c and 50c, but this is the top value, so I was very happy when I saw it on eBay! Now all I need is to get the proper 10g stamp!
But that's such an expensive stamp, that I'll need to win the lottery first!
There are other versions of the cinderella as well, with the company's name incorporated into the design, but I haven't got any of those yet. All I have is a few kings stamps like that.
One last thing to notice is that the frame around the portrait of the cinderella is different from that of the real stamp. Actually, what they used is the frame of some of the kings' stamps!
:-)
Adrian

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Picture Gallery
Russia, 1 January 1913.
The 1 rouble of the set to mark the Tercentenary of the Romanov Dynasty. The stamp depicts the Kremlin.
Printed in recess.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Finally
I've been doing a bit of research on the Dutch stamps for the International Court of Justice in The Hague, which have been issued ever since the 1930s. The early ones, up to the 1950s, consisted of current stamps with an overprint in gold.
I was bascially wondering whether they were more gimmicks rather than properly used stamps. I was wondering that because the current issue denominated in euros has not kept pace with the rate changes, so basically there is now no stamp for the basic inland rate, because that changed some years back from 39 to 44 ct.
I've been looking for ages to find any material to show that these stamps were really used, but had basically given up, expecting I'd have to settle for just mint stamps, and cancelled to order copies of the older ones. Mint stamps were not made available in the old days, although some did end up on the philatelic market, like this 1950s stamp with the Peace Palace on!
But thankfully, two auction catalogues appeared at the same time, both advertising properly used Court stamps on Court envelopes! So I'm happy to be able to show you one!
:-)
Adrian