G. Richard and Cie, 5 Rue de la Perle, Paris

Surely this is not a stamp. But it was sitting amongst a lot of "real" stamps I found recently on a fleamarket. I'll bet this is the god Hermes, the god of tradesmen and lyars. His attributes and symbols include the winged sandals, a winged cap and his main symbol was the herald's staff, the Greek kerykeion or the Latin caduceus which consisted of two snakes wrapped around a winged staff.

Made me curious to know what it was, definetely not the Greek stamp you might initially mistake it for.

Imprimatur of the 80 Lepta of the “large Hermes heads” with the inscription of the printer Ernest Meyer. Ernest Meyer was a printer, located at 22, rue Verneuil in Paris during the second half of the 19th century. He had been chosen by to print the first large Hermes head stamps of Greece, the Paris Issue.

G. Richard and Cie. seem to have been printers too.

 

This is a fancy cover of a series of books by Victor Hugo (1802-1885), Œuvres, printed by Richard et Cie between 1885-1895. There are 45 volumes and this fantastic binding was realized by Charles Meunier in 1929.

 

I fond that they have also printed and edited postcards. Was that triggering the printing of the Hermes look-a-like stamp?

 

 

Le Grand Hotel-Cafe de la Paix-Place de l'Opera-Paris, Pre 1920 Postcard of Richard & Cie.  

"Faire sans Dire", le Comte de Reiset

 

This is a cover of a letter send from Helsingør on 22 january 1865 to Hanover. Helsingør (also known as Elsinore in English) is a city on the northeast coast of the island of Zealand (Danish: Sjælland) in eastern Denmark. Hanover is in North Germany, about 520 kilometer southwest of Helsingør.  

(Stamp Hanover, 1856)

The letter was send to an official of the Franch state: someone with the rank of a minister.

What was the political situation in Hanover 1865? After Napoleon I imposed the Convention of Artlenburg (Convention of the Elbe) in 1803, about 30,000 French soldiers occupied Hanover. The Congress of Vienna in 1815 elevated the electorate to the Kingdom of Hanover. In 1837, the personal union of the United Kingdom and Hanover ended as William IV's heir in the United Kingdom was female (Queen Victoria).

(The House of Hanover - 15 September 2011 - stamps and miniature sheet. The penultimate Kings & Queens issue covers the Hanoverian era from 1714 to 1901).

According to Salic Law Hanover could only be inherited by males.
As a consequence, Hanover passed to William IV's brother, Ernest Augustus, and remained a kingdom until 1866, when it was annexed by Prussia during the Austro-Prussian war.
Gustave Armand Henri, Comte de Reiset, 1821-1905 was a "ministre plénipotentiaire" of Napoleon III of France in Hanover.

(Stamp Napoleon III)

De Reiset was ennobled by King Louis-Philippe and adopted the "devis" : "Faire sans Dire" (do without saying).  He was also member of the Conseil General of the Eure, a region in France. He owned a castle there.

(Photos: French Ministère de la culture - base Mémoire)

 

These are photos of his "Château du Breuil" in Haute-Normandie; Marcilly-sur-Eure (photo around 1900 - 1920).  The Comte de Reiset acquired the Breuil in 1842. The church, at that time, served as a barn. Restored in part, it was destined again to worship in 1854 and then turned into a museum by de Reiset. He filled the museum with objects he reported from his travels. It was possible to admire numerous paintings and ancient statues. De Reiset died in 1905, the church passed to his heirs. The building building was hardly maintained during the second half of the 20th century. Objects of art were scattered and the building fell in despair.
It was classified as an Historical Monument in 1993 and acquired in 1995 by a couple who then started the restoration. It cannot be visited today.  
You can google some artefacts that formerly belonged to Mr. de Reiset, such as this portrait of the famous painter Ingres, this painting is entitled Madame Aymon or  "La Belle Zelie". 

This painting was auctioned in 1870, the same year that Napoleon III lost his war against the Prussians at Sedan and it was the end of his reign.

I have a second cover of a letter written to the same Comte de Reiset. It was sent in 1862 from  Frankfurt to Darmstadt.

I do not know about where these covers come from and who took interest to keep them all these years. I bought them in the US, but no story came along with them.

The role of ladies and girls in the Great War 1914-1918

If you collect stamps, you risk finding other documents, such as old post cards. When I came across this one during a visit to one of the many "brocantes" that are held in the streets in France, I was intrigued by the text as well as the monocle of the officer on the card. An impeccable French officer with a German, bavarian, standard.

It reads "Le Premier Drapeau du Bataillon (I B.VI 132.IVB) d'Infanterie Bavaroise pris par le 10ième chasseur à pied". The standard of the 1st Bavarian Batallion taken by the French. I understand it is a classical card, well known by the collectors.

The text on the card is one of a father, seemingly participating in the war, writing to his young daughter.

In French it reads (lacking interpunction in the original):

"Puisque les classes sont recommencer il faut travailler ;  comme je te le disais dans ma précedente lettre, c'est indispensable. Et jouer il ne faut pas toujours songer à la guerre ni à ses conséquences : c'est l'affaire des hommes les dames et les jeunes filles se doivent les premiers aux enfants et les secondes au travail et de cette façon chacun remplit son devoir dans la nation. Le plus beau drapeau que tu puisse gagner sur ton champs de bataille particulier, c'est ton tableau d'honneur et la place
de première dans toutes les compositions. Je m'arrête ma chère Mignonne en t'embrassent bien fort. Ton père qui t'aime beaucoup" (signature illisible)

I am translating it as follows:

"As classes have resumed you should work : as I said in my previous letter this is indispensable. And play you should not always worry about the war neither about its consequences: it is the business of men and the ladies and the young girls should firstly care about the children and secondly about the work and in this way everybody does his duty for the nation. The most beautiful flag you can win on your own battle field is the table of honnor and the first place in all compositions.  I am stopping here my Lovely and give you a big hug. Your father that loves you much". (cannot read signature)

    

Iranian Revenue Stamps Nasr el Din

The Nasr el Din set of three on the second row features the shah, also known as Nāseroddin Shāh, who reigned from 1848 till 1896.

Now you may have seen him on stamps before, but here are some contemporary pictures, for amusement.

Mind the hat on this one, must be a favorate one, see it on the stamps too.  

Your blogger was sleeping for a while

I have been sleeping for a while on this blog. Saw these stamp kissens somewhere.    

In the middle a kissen with a stamp with a "Gros Chiffre" obliteration 455.

This is the 455 for "Bercy", currently the 47th "quartier administratif" in Paris (12th arrondissement).

"Bercy" is now synonymous with the French Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industry that is found there.

Who recognizes the other stamps?

Phares 2007 "Décalage de Couleurs"

Years ago I bought a watercoulour of a small town in the Provence.

When in 2007 I was driving through that part of the world, I saw an exit indicating this town. Curious to visit the place that I only knew from my watercolour, I decided to leave the highway.

Looking for a parking place, I found a spot in front of what appeared to be the postoffice. I remembered there were some new stamps depicting lighthouses issued the other week. I entered the postofice and bought two blocks of these stamps.

Back home I saw that one of the blocks contains an errow. The colour shifted, what is called in French "décalage de couleurs". I show the block and a detail here. I also have a detail of the stamp as it should have looked.

I consider myself lucky, a bit like winning the lottery. Nothing wrong with leaving the highway once a while, especially when in the magic Provence.

(You know: click on the pictures and you will see them much bigger, with more detail)

Detail of the errors in the block:  

This is how it should have looked:

Letters of the Cabinet of Farah Pahlavi, 1962 and 1963

With such very sad news these days, I suddenly thought of the covers of Farah Pahlavi that I should have somewhere.

I found them back. I share them with you. They are nothing very special. But I still like them, because they tell a little story and in their own way say it all.

In the 60ties of the last century lettters were written by hand or with a typewriter. If you are the Cabinet of Empress Farah Pahlavi, you use a typewriter. The letters are dancing a bit and are not all in line, as we are now used to.

The stamps on the covers picture her husband, interesting if you think it through.

The first cover is addressed to an exclusive name, probably to order something very expensive. So you have the picture just by looking to a cover.

The 1962 cover

A letter to a store: Morabito in the fine Rue Saint Honoré in Paris.

A luxery shop for jewelry, leather and handbags with an exiting and impressive history. See http://www.morabitoparis.com/en/index.html

They created products for Marilyn Monroe, Maria Callas, Kings and Heads of State.

The 1963 cover

I do not know who the addressee of this cover is. Anybody knows?