I Muse ... On a Birthday

On 20 January 1899 the incredibly talented artist, designer and stamp engraver, Pierre Gandon, was born in L'Haÿ-les-Roses in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. His father, Gaston Gandon, was also an extremely talented engraver.

Since today is Pierre Gandon's birthday I thought I'd honour the day by featuring his first issued stamps. For this we need to go all the way back to 1939 to French Morocco. Between 1939 and 1942 French Morocco issued a set of 37 definitives and a set of 7 airmail stamps. Gandon was involved in both sets. He engraved three designs for the definitive set and one design for the airmail set.

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The first of the three definitive designs happens also to be my favourite. It depicts a horseman beneath a cedar tree.  This scene evokes for me a fantasy world - a lone rider on a journey, during which he will face many obstacles. I love it. This design comes in three values: 15c green, 20c sepia (pictured below), and 1f brown.

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The next design features a shepherd and arganier trees. This design comes in three values: 30c blue (pictured below), 40c brown, 45c blue-green.

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The final design he engraved for the definitive set depicts the Ramparts at Salé. This design was more prolific. It comes in seven values: 50c carmine, 50c blue-green (pictured below & issued 1940), 60c greenish-blue, 60c brown (issued 1940), 90c ultramarine, 1f 50c brown-red (1940), and 1f. 50c rose (1942).

One thing I find interesting about this stamp, and I'm not sure if it is a design flaw or just a stylistic quirk. The trunion - the bar that runs perpendicular to the barrel - is conspicuously out of its seat in the carriage. I for one wouldn't want to be behind such a cannon if it fired!

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Gandon was also responsible for engraving one of the two designs in the Airmail set. The design comes in four values: 1f. 90 ultramarine, 2f bright purple (1940), 3f brown, and 10f greenish brown. I haven't managed to find myself a copy of any of the values yet, but I did find an image of a lovely cover, which has three of the four values affixed. It is a registered letter to Paris.

Until next time...

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!

Ivory Coast 1936-1944 - Definitives

Between 1936 and 1944 Ivory Coast issued a large set of 41 definitives comprising 4 different designs. One of the designs, used for 15 of the stamps, was engraved by Albert Decaris. It's possible he also designed the image, but I'm not sure yet. This was the third design Decaris engraved and one can see the burgeoning of a great artistic talent.

The image Decaris designed depicts a coastal scene. This design was issued over five printings between 1936 and 1944. And 8 different colours were used. I recently purchased a set of the Decaris design, but I discovered the set is missing 3 values unfortunately. I guess I'll have to keep hunting for the 3 missing values. Nevertheless. the 12 stamps I received are absolutely fantastic. They are so nice, I decided to show them all here.

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In 1936 six values were issued.

Red Brown

Dark Violet

90c carmine rose (stamp not available yet)

Dark Green

Copper Red

1f 50c ultramarine (image not available yet)

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Two values were issued in 1938.

Black Brown

Carmine Rose

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One value was issued in 1939.

Dark Green

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Four values were issued in 1940.

Carmine Rose

Red Brown

Ultramarine

Black Brown

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One value was issued in 1944.

Greenish Black

Until next time...

Stay Decaris Crazy!

France 1939 - Battleship Clemenceau

One of the things that drew me to the hobby of stamp collecting was studying stamps from different countries, learning about those countries, and discovering the meaning behind the artwork on each stamp. Each stamp was like a little mystery for me to solve. All the clues are there. One just has to know how to look.

When I first looked at the Decaris designed and engraved stamp entitled Clemenceau issued by France on 18 April 1939, I considered it to be a fairly straight forward commemorative issue. No mysteries. No intriguing errors. Right? Well, actually...no! There's lots of good stuff packed into this little rectangle of paper. But I'm racing too far ahead.

First, why don't we dig into a little history. The battleship Clemenceau was named after Georges Clemenceau, a French statesman who was twice Prime Minister of France: the first time from 1906 to 1909, and again from 1917 to 1920, a period which included the end of the First World War. He was one of the architects of the Treaty of Versailles, which earned him the nickname Pere la Victiore (Father Victory). Clemeneau's bust is also depicted on the stamp.

Now to the fun stuff!

Before we go any further let's take a moment to peruse the stamp in question. It is a rather fine engraving in its own right. And the likeness of Georges Clemenceau is excellent.

First up I'd like to draw your attention to the fact that Decaris has drawn the battleship ploughing through the ocean. Here we encounter our first problem. The Clemenceau never made it anywhere near the ocean. In fact, the ship was never even finished!

The keel of the battleship was laid down in the Salou graving dock at Brest shipyard on 17 January 1939. Work on her moved very slowly. So slowly that by 1941 she was only 10% complete. She was taken, partially complete, by the Germans as war booty, floated, and used as a ship blocker in the harbour of Brest. On 27 August 1944 she was sunk during a U.S. air raid, which was the beginning of an offensive to liberate Brest.

Believe it or not the intrigue in the stamp does not end there. There is another rather cool secret locked in the design. What f I were to tell you that the ship depicted on the stamp wasn't even the right class of battleship! The Clemenceau was a Richelieu class battleship. But there is strong evidence to suggest that the ship depicted by Decaris is actually  the Dunkerque, the lead ship in the Dunkerque class of battleships.

Here's the evidence. I'd like to give credit to the website, www.phil-ouest.com for the following image.Click HERE to check out the site.

As you can see there are three areas of detail which suggest the ship on the stamp is actually of the Dunkerque class of battleships.

• The first point of interest is the bow section. The bow of the Dunkerque has a pronounced step.
• Number two is the smokestack which is present on the ship on the stamp, but is absent from the design profile of the Clemenceau class battleship.
• Thirdly, the stamp includes a catapult for a plane, which appears to be absent from the Clemenceau design profile.

So what do you think? Has the wrong type of ship been inadvertently engraved onto the stamp?

Until next time...

Stay Decaris Crazy!