France 1954 - Château Gaillard

Imagine you are travelling along the River Seine in a north-westerly direction from Paris. You enter the Eure département of historical Normandy. Then something catches your eye. A large circular castle standing on a huge mound. It looms some 90 metres over the commune of Les Andelys on the River Seine. You are seeing the stalwart medieval castle known as Château Gaillard.

Construction on the castle began in 1196. It was built for the King of England, Richard the Lionheart. At this time King Richard was also the Duke of Normandy. It was a massive castle with a considerably advanced design, employing the principles of 'concentric fortification'. Its complexity notwithstanding the castle was completed in the record time of just two years. It was built at the same time as the town of Petit Andely, which it overlooked. Today, the castle is in ruins, but it is still an awe-inspiring sight.

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On 8 June 1954 France issued a set of seven stamps featuring French Monuments. The 8f value features Château Gaillard and Les Andelys on the River Seine. According to Phil-Ouest, Albert Decaris only designed this stamp. But I cannot find another name on the stamp, which usually, from what I've seen, means that it was both designed and engraved by the one person. So I'll assume Decaris engraved this stamp also. If anyone knows differently, I'd love to hear from you.

In this design, the River Seine sweeps through the centre of the stamp, drawing the eye towards the middle distance where the ruin of the medieval castle, Château Gaillard, stands proudly. Below the castle to the left is the commune of Les Andelys.

Until next time...

Stay Decaris Crazy!

I Study...Printing Issues

In my last blog on 12 May I discussed some of the differences between the France 1946 10f Luxembourg stamp, issued on 29 July, and the 1948 12f and 15f reissues issued on 10 May and 10 December respectively. In that blog I suggested the possibility that the reissued values may have been different engravings. Now, I have to say, I did struggle with this idea. Why go to the trouble of re-engraving an entire stamp? And also, a fact that was pointed out in a very good blog by a former French printer (click HERE for the blog), no engraver, no matter how skilled, could replicate the exact same lines in a stamp. Such an endeavour would take even longer than the normally time-consuming and laborious job of engraving a unique design. Why go to all the fuss?

Why indeed! Well, it turns out France's postal authority didn't go to all that fuss. Either the original master die engraved by Albert Decaris or the transfer roller (not sure which) was altered in order to update the values.

So why then did I even entertain the notion of a re-engraved stamp? Well, firstly, as I pointed out in my last blog, it wasn't only the values that were changed. RF was changed to France. The position of Postes is different. And the shading lines along the top have been, naturally, altered to accommodate the changes.

Another bit of information regarding the above changes that I have found out since my last blog is the probability that Albert Decaris did not engrave the changes. These were, in all likelihood, executed in-house.

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The changes to the upper area of the reissues was not the only reason I considered the possibility that they were re-engraved. When I studied the 10f stamp against the 12f and 15f stamps I discovered many small differences that caused me to consider the possibility of an all new engraving. But the answer as to why there were so many small differences is quite probably twofold. And the first cause actually contributes to the second cause.

In order to explain the first cause for the subtle changes we need to understand the basic process of transferring an engraving to the printing plate. Basically what happens is the engraver creates an image in reverse on a metal die, which is the same size as the stamp. That die is then hardened. Then a transfer roller is applied to the die and rocked back and forth, impressing the image, now the right way around, onto its surface. The transfer roller is also hardened. 

Now that the image is fixed into the transfer roller it can be transferred to the printing plate. This is done in a similar way to the master die/transfer roller exchange. The transfer roller is applied to the printing plate over and over, depending on how many stamps are required per sheet. In the case of the Luxembourg Issue there were fifty stamps per sheet. So the transfer roller was applied to the plate fifty times.

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Okay, now that we've discussed the process of plate production we can examine where the changes to the actual stamps start to occur. As I said earlier, in order for the printing plate to be created the transfer roller needed to be literally pushed into the metal of the plate some fifty times, and that is just for the first plate of the first issue (I have no idea how many plates were made for this issue). So we can naturally assume that the transfer roller developed a certain amount of wear and tear over time. This wear and tear would appear on stamps as blurry, less crisp lines within the image. This is exactly what we see in the re-issues.

The second cause of the changes was the colour choice for the re-issues. Two shades of red were used for the re-issues. According to Y&T the 12f was red-carmine and the 15f was plain old red. Red is notorious for having the effect of blurring images. Then when we add the fact that the lines on the plating plate were themselves starting to blur...well, we have our answer!

To conclude my rambling, the Luxembourg Issues were not re-engraved. The subtle changes in the stamps are due to wear and tear on the printing plates and the colour choice of the stamps.

Until next time...

Stay Decaris Crazy!

I Study...The Luxembourg Palace Issues

Yesterday I received a comment on one of my blog posts regarding the Luxembourg Palace issues designed and engraved by Albert Decaris. The reader asked me to add an image of the 10f value to my 1948 reissues blog so he could compare the different values against each other (click HERE). I was happy to help him out, and I have to admit that even though I did a blog for the 10f and a separate blog for the reissues, I never thought to compare the different printings. I just assumed they were from the same die with simply a value change. 

So I took out my 10f 1946 stamp and my 12 and 15f 1948 stamps and laid them out side by side. I was immediately surprised at three glaring differences that are so obvious I can't believe I had missed them! I guess sometimes you don't see what's right in front of you. And the more I looked the more differences I found. This got me to thinking: are the reissues totally different engravings?

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Below is the top portion of the 10f and 15f together for comparison. I have circled the three main differences. Note that the 12f is the same as the 15f so there was no need to add it here.

The biggest difference is the name, which in turn, contributes to the other two changes. The original 10f value has only the initials "RF", whereas the 15f value has the full name "France". This change completely alters the shading at the top middle and the top right corner to the point where in the corner it is non-existent in the reissue.

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I found some more differences between the original and the reissues. But are these differences due to engraving variances or are they merely a result of colour choice? Both the 1948 reissue stamps were printed in red, which make the image look rather heavy, blotting out some fine details. I have again circled some of the differences in fine detail that I found between the issues. 

Firstly, if we compare the detail I have highlighted within the rectangle of the 10f stamp with the two other values, there is a distinct difference in the clarity of detail. The red seems to have obscured the background somewhat. So I ask again: is this an engraving difference or merely a  colour difference? Not sure? Take a look at the pot on the 10f value. The outline is far better than the reissues. The same goes for the signature; the 10f is by far the clearest of the three. And if you look closely you will notice that the "I' is not dotted in the original 10f, but it is dotted in the reissues. 

These are but a select few of the numerous differences I have found all over the stamps. In fact, as I write this blog with the comparison image staring me in the face I just noticed that the shading on the top left border area is also different. I could go on and on, but I think I've rambled enough for this blog. Perhaps another blog at a later date looking at a few more differences...

To conclude, I initially believed that the reissues of this stamp were from the same die with the value changed, but all the differences suggests to me they were different engravings. I could be totally wrong here, so if anyone has any additional information on the printing of these issues I'd love to hear from you.

Until next time...

Stay Decaris Crazy!

France 1944 - The Grand Condé

The famous French general, Louis de Bourbon, the Prince of Condé, was born on 8 September 1621. His father, Henri de Bourbon, first cousin once removed to King Henry IV, demanded his son have a proper education. Louis spent six years at the Jesuits' school at Bourges, where he studied history, law, and mathematics. After completing his studies at Bourges, he went on to study at the Royal Academy in Paris.

At the young age of 17 Louis began to display talent for leadership. While his father was absent from home, Louis managed to govern Burgundy successfully. It was about this time that young Louis' personal life became somewhat complicated. His father had betrothed him to the 13 year old, Claire-Clémence de Maillé-Brézé, niece of the powerful Cardinal Richelieu, chief minister of the king. The problem was Louis was in love with someone else, a woman named Marthe Poussard (mademoiselle du Vigean), daughter of the king's gentleman of the bedchamber. Despite this, Louis' father forced him to marry the thirteen year old girl.

Even though his young wife bore him three children, he accused her of multiple infidelities and had her locked away at Châteauroux. These charges were in all likelihood false, and merely a way of ridding himself of a woman he didn't love.

By the time of the Thirty Years War in 1643, Louis was already a combat veteran. But at the Battle of Rocroi on the 19 May, he excelled himself against Spanish generals with far greater experience. After a resounding victory, he returned to Paris a hero. But the woes of that annoying  marriage continued. It seemed the only respite from this situation was returning to the battlefront. In 1644, he went to Germany and he was again victorious in the Battle of Frieburg.

Louis' continued military success earned him respect as a general and he was renowned as le Grand Condé, which basically meant he was considered the most successful of the Condé family. For more on Louis, click HERE

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On 31 July 1944 France issued a set of six semi-postal stamps commemorating 17th Century French celebrities. Each stamp has a surcharge that contributed to national aid. One of these stamps features Louis as The Grand Condé. The stamp was designed and engraved by Albert Decaris. 

There are a few features in this design that I really like. Decaris has rendered the armour on Louis' right (our left) arm beautifully. I also like the delicate feel Decaris has given to the neck scarf. One final feature I like is the quiver-like country nameplate. A nice suggestion of the subject's military prowess.

Until next time...

Stay Decaris Crazy!

Monaco 1974 - International Circus Festival of Monte-Carlo

On this day, 6 May, in 1901, the supremely talented Albert Decaris was born in Sotteville-lès-Rouen, France. This year marks the 115th anniversary of his birthday. 

Over the last couple of days I've spent some time perusing my collection of stamps he engraved, searching for something appropriate to use to celebrate his birthday. When I turned to my stamps he engraved for Monaco, I came across a set that reminded me of one of my most memorable birthdays when I was a kid. I think it was my tenth or eleventh birthday and I recall being told we were going to visit my grandmother. I always enjoyed seeing my grandmother so I was quite excited by the idea, but little did I know we were going somewhere far more exciting! So I jumped into our car and we started driving. It wasn't long before I knew weren't going to my grandmother's. About a half an hour later my eyes nearly popped out of my head as we pulled up right near a Circus Big Top. That birthday was the best. What better way then to celebrate Decaris' birthday but with some circus stamps.

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The Premier Festival International du Cirque or International Circus Festival of Monte-Carlo is an annual festival, created in 1974 by Prince Rainier III of Monaco. Every January the best circus performers from all over the globe flock to Monte-Carlo to take part in the festival. 

On 12 November 1974, Monaco issued a sumptuous set of seven stamps to celebrate the first year of the International Circus Festival of Monte-Carlo. Albert Decaris engraved the stamps and in my humble opinion they are some of the finest stamps he ever produced. The fun and frisky nature of the stamps suit his quirky style to a tee. 

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Roll up! Roll up! The circus has come to town!

Can you hear the crack of the whip? The roar of the wild beasts? We know what that means. Enter the brave tamer, decked out in his leopard-skin loin-cloth, working hard to maintain control of a group of tigers. Is that a tiger sneaking up behind him ready to pounce? Or is it a bested tiger and an example of what the tamer hopes to achieve with the other three tigers staring him down?

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The thunk of horse hooves reverberates beneath the Big Top as the prancing horses gallop out and dazzle the crowd with their organised prowess. Such colour. Such beauty.

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Who doesn't love an acrobatic elephant? Watch these giant lumbering beasts perform staggering feats of balance and control. Take a photo. What a great snapshot! 

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Prepare to be spellbound by the equestrian event. Marvel at the feats of human agility, all while riding upon a horse. 

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And here come the clowns! Laugh yourself silly with their zany, side-splitting antics.

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And what do we have here? Is that a man standing on a bike with a woman doing a handstand on his head? What masterful balance! Quiet now. We wouldn't want to disturb their concentration.

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Quick. Look up! Watch the grace and poise of the High-Wire acrobats. Just look at them fly. Tumbling, flying, catching, swinging...

Well, I hope you enjoyed the show!

Until next time...

Stay Decaris Crazy!

Cameroun 1939 - Carved Figures

In 1939 Cameroun issued a beautiful set of Postage Due stamps, featuring examples of carved African statues. The set comprises 10 stamps featuring the same design. A further Postage Due with the same design, but slightly tweaked was issued in 1944 (but more on that later). This design was engraved by Albert Decaris. Each value of this set was issued in a different colour, which in my opinion, subtly changes the impact of the design. As such I will share all the different values here. All colours I have used are according to the Scott Catalogue.

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5c burnt red violet.

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10c prussian blue.

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15c carmine rose.

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20c black brown.

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30c ultramarine.

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50c dark green.

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60c brown violet.

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1f dark violet.

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2f orange red.

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3f dark blue.

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As I mentioned above, there was a further Postage Due stamp of the same design issued in 1944. But this stamp is slightly different. Can you pick it?

If you haven't spotted it yet, turn your attention to the bottom of the stamp. The R & F are missing. Incidentally, this later stamp was not issued in Cameroun, according to the Scott Catalogue.

So which colour do you prefer?

Until next time...

Stay Decaris Crazy!