Album
Preface
News sources remind us
that 2020 marks many anniversaries -- 500 years since Magellan sailed from the
Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, 500 years since Raphael’s death, 400 years since
the Mayflower landed on Cape Cod, 250 years since Beethoven’s birth and 200
years since Florence Nightingale’s, 75 years since Franklin Roosevelt and Anne Frank died.
Although these people and
events will likely be commemorated with new stamp issues in 2020, as they have
many times in the past, the 100th anniversary of the League of Nations’
founding (January 10) is of far greater significance for classical era stamp
collectors. The sheer number of League-related issues -- both the official
stamps Switzerland provided for the League and the stamps resulting from
League-sponsored plebiscites and mandates throughout the world -- warrants such
a claim. Sadly, the anniversary will be observed with few new stamp issues. Despite
all its efforts, the League failed to prevent a second world war and, so, it
was dissolved in 1946. The United Nations has, nonetheless, issued a 10-pane
1.70-franc stamp honoring its predecessor’s centenary.
When Jim visited me last
fall, he admired my League of Nations collection and invited me to serialize it
on this blog spot. I’m pleased to do that in honor of the League’s 100th.
A few years ago, through
the mediation of a dealer, I acquired the bulk of Brian Wickland’s League of
Nations stamps. Wickland, an avid and intelligent collector, worked for the US State
Department. During the 1970s, he was loaned to the United Nations, becoming an executive officer at
the UN Refugee Agency in Geneva. His interest in the
League and his collection can be traced to his time in Geneva. His stamps,
covers, postcards, photographs and other material comprise most of what will be
shown in subsequent posts; I have added only a few items. The organization of
the collection and the commentary, however, are mine.
Brian
Wickland, 1938-2013
All
League of Nations and International
Bureau of Labor stamps that are listed with major numbers in
Scott’s catalogs will be included in this series of posts, along with most of
the minor numbers, an assortment of anomalies, and specimen-overprinted stamps.
Related covers, League-sponsored convention cancels, and postcards will also be
included, as will other artifacts with connections to the League. In all, there
will be more than thirty posts, spread over the entire anniversary year and
beyond. These posts are listed in the Table of Contents, below, which is based
loosely on the categories used by the United Nations for their League of
Nations collection in Geneva.
Curiously,
Big Blue Volume I omits entirely the Swiss League of Nations official stamps.
An oversight? Perhaps. Perhaps the editors thought, given the League’s nervous
fragility in its later years, it would have been impolitic to include them. The
omission was partly corrected in 1949 when Volume II came out with spaces for some
catalog numbers.
I
dedicate this League of Nations album to my father, a veteran of World War I
whose enthusiasm for the League faltered as the League itself faltered and a second
world war became inevitable. Hope for peace died, but not the love of it. The
album is also dedicated to Woodrow Wilson, another man of peace.
The
key resource for studying League of Nations stamps is a small volume by Charles
Misteli, Etude sur les timbres-poste et oblitérations de la Société des
Nations, du Bureau International du Travail et des Conférences Internationales.
Published by Club Philatélique et Aéropostal de Genève, 1943. I will refer to
it often in subsequent posts. A partial English translation exists.
As
expected, the more expensive League overprints have been faked, often crudely, sometimes
dangerously. Resources for identifying forgeries and strategies for avoiding
them are available. These will be discussed throughout the posts.
Best
wishes to all who select League of Nations stamps as a casual or serious
interest. The search for them will yield many insights about good and evil in
the 20th century.
--Bud
When I visited Bud this past October, and saw his League of Nations album, I asked him if he would be willing to include it in the Big Blue Blog postings.
He agreed, and I am thrilled.
The reader is in store for a treat!
--Jim
League
of Nations (SdN)
Album
Table
of Contents
Preface
Table of Contents
Dedication Page
1. Industrielle Kriegswirtschaft(Switzerland War Board of Trade), a precursor of SdN and BIT overprints: Stamps and covers
2. Pre-SdN Philately: Congres dela Paix -- Versailles and St. Germain-en-Laye, cancellations and covers
10.
World Disarmament Conference, Geneva, 1932-34, Lausanne Reparations Conference,
1932
11.
1930s SdN conference
cancels and covers
12.
Landscape issues,
typographed: specimens and covers (1934-35)
13.
Landscape issues, engraved,
1937
14. New SdN building,
commemoratives: Linear and circular overprints (1938), covers
related to the site donor
15.
Switzerland History issues, symbolic subjects, high denominations, stamps and
covers (1939)
16. Re-engraved landscape stamps
(1942-43)
17. Overprints reading “Courrier
de la Society des Nations” (1944)
18. Last years of The SdN
19. Oddities and freaks:
legitimate variations, overprinting slippage, die re-entries, printing errors,
and fakes
20. Stamps issued by countries
other than Switzerland regarding the SdN and its meetings
21. Stamps issued by nations under
SdN sponsored plebiscites (Allenstein, Saar, Upper Silesia, etc.)
22. The abandoned Wilson Peace
Palace of the Nations, a photographic essay
23. SdN Cinderellas
24. International Bureau of Labor
(Bureau Internationale du Travail, BIT-ILO),
first issues covers
25. Shield motifs, covers
26. Disarmament conference stamps
and covers
27. Landscape series topography,
covers
28. Landscape series engraved,
covers
29. BIT and SdN buildings,
commemoratives, covers
30. Linear and circular overprints
reading “Service du Bureau Internationale du Travail” and covers.
31. International Court of Justice
Looking forward at this presentation but I'm a bit surprised by what's written :
ReplyDelete"75 years since Franklin Roosevelt, Adolph Hitler, and Anne Frank died.
Although these people and events will likely be commemorated with new stamp issues in 2020, as they have many times in the past, "
Mentioning Anne Franks death and the one of Hitler in a same sentence and then continuing by saying that they will be postally celebrated...
Maybe Anne Frank yes but will Hitlers death be postally celebrated?? Serious?
Axel - we thank you very much for picking up that unintended meaning. We are horrified that the wording escaped both of our reviews. We are grateful to you. The offending sentence has been edited.
DeleteThe possible reading of my remarks that you point to, Axel, is certainly unintended and counter to what I hope the posting of the League of Nations collection might, in a broad sense, accomplish.
DeleteOf course, Hitler will not be commemorated in 2020, and probably his death won't be in any way recalled postally. I hope not. And yet, we dare not forget the evil he did and those like him do, lest it be repeated.