Puyplat's signature, sculpted into the design
Bud's Big BlueBud's Observations
Collectors who regard
their albums as miniature art galleries owe a great debt to early 20th
century French and French colonial stamps and to the artists who engraved them.
Guadeloupe’s stamps were
engraved by two notables.
Beginning in 1905,
Jules-Jacques Puyplat’s wood engravings of street and harbor scenes provided
the central images for the definitive issue.
The surrounding borders – replete with bananas, coffee plants, cocoa,
and sugar cane – are even more elaborately engraved than the central images.
Similarities in style
suggest that Puyplat also engraved the 1905 postage due stamps with cotton and
fish in the borders, although they are unsigned. Guadeloupe continued using his artistry until
1928, 3 years after his death. His
signature, sculpted into the design of the definitives, is difficult to read
(see above).
Georges Hourriez, sc,
engraved the 1928 definitives and postage dues.
His skill shows to advantage in the central images rather than the
borders. The sugar mill design is outstanding. The three workers depicted in it are likely
descendants of indentured servants brought in from India to replace the African
slaves freed in 1848. In 1925, shortly
before Hourriez’s stamps were issued, Guadeloupian Indians were finally granted
full citizenship and suffrage.
Where did Puyplat and
Hourriez get ideas for their engravings?
Probably not by
visiting Guadeloupe themselves but by artists’ sketches they had
available. Compare Hourriez’s 1928
postage dues to the postcard below.
Scott’s Catalog
identifies the stamp affixed to the postcard (also Hourriez’s) as a view of
Saints Roadstead, now called the Bay of Terre-de-Haut. The hills across the bay
that frame the setting sun are on uninhabited Îlet à Cabrit.
The “sc” that sometimes
appears following engravers’ signatures stands for sculpsit, meaning in Latin “He
carved (engraved, sculpted) it.” An
excellent resource on stamp artist and engravers: http://artinstamps.blogspot.com.
Census: 124 in BB spaces,
38 on supplement pages.
Jim's ObservationsGuadeloupe is an ideal French Colony for the WW classical collector. A nice variety of regular and surcharged classic stamps, and two long attractive pictorial issues. And generally inexpensive.
Guadeloupe Post and BB Checklist
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Supplements
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Comments appreciated!
Compare 1928 postage due stamp design.
I thoroughly enjoy your posts and learn a great deal from them. I am one of those who considers some stamps, particularly from the classic period, to be works of art. Puyplat and Hourriez were masters. I think Puyplat did slip his signature into the 1905 postage due issues. It's in the lower right hand corner, just under the twist in the end of the banner that arches across the bottom of the stamp.
ReplyDeleteThanks, James, for your comment and keen eye. Even at 50x magnification on my computer and 10x with a loop I'm not sure what I'm seeing is a signature or a continuation of the buildings in the bay scene. But I conceded that you're right. Puyplat was crafty!
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