THE 'BOSTON RED'
British-American Colonial Periodical Stamp
on the Boston Gazette
1755
British Periodical Revenue stamps for the American colonies originally were handstamps or sometimes applied by embossing tools.
The collecting of revenue stamps became popular 70 years prior to the issuance of the first postage stamps. Thus cinderella stamp collecting predated philately by many years' revenue stamps are considered a main category of cinderella stamps.
John Bourke is considered to be among the first serious collectors of revenue stamps and began to collect and catalog them in 1774.
BRITISH COLONIAL TAX STAMP
for the American colonies
applied as an embossing
AMERICAN COLONIAL NEWSPAPER TAX STAMP PARODY
stamps like these were added to
colonial periodicals to mock British tax stamps in the late 1700's.
The Stamp Tax was a major consideration of the
American Revolutionaries
The American colonial parody stamps were not postage stamps, but rather periodical stamps, a type of revenue stamp. Even so these American fantasies rightly may be considered the first known fantasy stamps.
The skull is to be construed as a symbol of piracy.
A MULREADY LAMPOON
1840
British fantasy postal cover
Mulready, the postmaster general of Britain, issued a series of prepaid postal envelopes in 1840, shortly after the printing of the Penny Black. These envelopes were not well received by much of the British populace.
So ensued a series of privately handcrafted covers which were mostly very satirical...mocking the pretenses of the monarchy. These are now known as the Mulready Lampoons and are widely regarded as classic Mail Art.
THE NEW ENGLAND WHALERS
Home Post Express
was a very early fantasy stamp
from a set of 10
from a set of 10
woodblock edition
1851-7
The New England Whalers Home Express was the private fantasy edition created by a sailor who lived in Nantucket, Massachusetts.
It is now regarded as one of the very earliest known faux postage stamps, a direct ancestor of the artistamp.
THE WINANS CITY POST
was a very popular fantasy stamp created in
1862 by Hussey
It was reproduced in many colors by many
stamp fabricators including Scott and S.A. Taylor
Hussey, a Canadian stamp fabricator, was long regarded as the first fantasy postage stamp maker, until in recent years the New England Whalers stamp, a faux postage edition, appeared in the auction catalogs. The New England Whalers stamp was created in 1851, while the Winan's City Post first appeared in 1862.
Scott, Taylor and other creators of faux postage and bogus stamps were inspired by these to create what came to be called fantasy postal carrier labels. In the US at the time postage stamps were strictly forbidden material when it came to reproductions, as these were considered forgeries....but those private postal labels called carriage or carrier labels were fair game. Wuestoff and other stamp makers were encouraged to create what became the forerunners of artistamps.
SAMUEL ALLEN TAYLOR
Kers City Post
woodblock edition
Samuel Allen Taylor created the first fantasy local post shortly after the Winan's City Post appeared....Taylor was from Scotland but lived for a time in Canada where he worked collaboratively with Nutter, another stamp fabricator.
There is no such place as Kers City.
SAMUEL ALLEN TAYLOR
Utah Territorial Postage
this stamp was part of a larger set.
and was forged by other stamp makers later on
SAMUEL ALLEN TAYLOR
forgery
with forged postmark
Taylor's work was copied by
bogus stamp makers
Samuel Allen Taylor created 5000 fantasy and bogus stamps during his lifetime, making him the most prolific faux stamp maker of the 19th century. He created faux charity labels, making him an innovator in the area of poster stamps as well.
Poster stamps are stamps that advertise events or commemorate people, but are never intended for postal use.
Many stamps created by Taylor are from countries which had never issued postage stamps, such as Paraguay.
TERRA OF BAFFIN
hand painted fantasy stamps
created by an unknown French stamp collector
1861
A mysterious French stamp collector began creating painted postage stamps in the 1860's. He may have been French Canadian, as many of his fantasies have Canadian labels. He created hundreds of stamps.
NEW NORTH WALES
hand painted fantasy stamps
created by an unknown French stamp collector
1861
New North Wales is not a bogus name, but an actual settlement on Hudson Bay
in Canada.
Stamp essays and proofs are often times hand painted, but these Canadian stamps never were intended as proofs for any known postal authority. Baffin Island is north of Canada and populated primarily by indigenous Inuit people.
In the 1960's Donald Evans became well known for his hand painted postal fantasies....but historically the French artist predated him by a hundred years.
FRANZ JOSEPH LAND
a bogus or phantom stamp
of an Arctic archipelago
1874
Phantom stamps was a popular designation of fantasy stamps during the 19th century.
J.C. JAY
Richwoods Dispatch fantasy local carrier stamp
tied to cover with rubber stamp
cancellation
1888
This cover is an example of early Mail Art....It shows fantasy stamp by J.C. Jay, a young stamp dealer who had been persecuted by philatelic societies for attempting to sell his own faux postage stamps.
RICHWOOD'S DISPATCH
J.C.Jay
carrier stamp
1881
He used to hand deliver mail in his own home town franking the envelopes with his own private carrier labels.
Today his covers are valuable rarities.
PHOTO PORTRAIT STAMPS & College Stamps
GENELLI STUDIOS
photo portrait stamp
St. Louis
Missouri
1885
PHOTO STAMP MAKER
patented by Thomas Huhn
and also Genelli
1887
Photo portrait stamps were popular in the 19th century on into the 20th century. They were often ordered by colleges and universities, private businesses and individuals.
COLLEGE STAMPS
photo stamps of graduates
SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES
in the US and Europe
issued their own stamps
in the 19th century
PHANTOM COLLEGE STAMP
Montreal
a fantasy created by Samuel Allen Taylor
when he was living in Canada
BRITAIN
photo portrait stamp
used as an advertisement
THE BEGINNINGS OF ARTISTAMPS
L.DUGARDIN
Artiste Peintre
early artistamp
Dugardin first exhibited in Paris in the 1850s
date of this stamp is unknown
MANCHESTER OCEAN PENNY POST
1899
Sydney Turner
HENRY GEORGE
Social Visionary
19th century
FRENCH POSTER STAMP
celebrating "microphotographic" stamps
1900
MICRONATIONAL STAMPS
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
micronational stamps
1898
Micronations, with private autonomous post offices began to appear in the 19th century....Deh Sadang out of Malaya is another such micronation. Elleore in Denmark became well known in the 1940's.
MONTMARTE COMMUNE LIBRE
French micronaition
early 20th century
MONTMARTE COMMUNE LIBRE
French micronation
early 20th century
GOLD ISLAND
fantasy micronation
1910
Today many artistamp makers describe their stamps as micronational.
POSTER STAMPS
VIENNESE SECESSIONIST POSTER STAMP
1908
this stamp was created as an
advertisement for an art exhibition
Poster stamps first appeared in the mid nineteenth century. They are stamps created as advertisements...not for postal use...They were called Art Stamps in the early 20th century when they were at their heyday as popular collectibles.
POSTER STAMP ON COVER
1912
Sweden
poster stamp
1912
GERMAN POSTER STAMP
such advertising stamps
are called reklamemarken
from Chemnitz, Germany
1921
Societies arose among collectors and albums for poster stamps began to appear in Germany in the late 19th century.
ART STAMP ALBUM
created by Wentz, Co.
featuring spaces to display movie star poster stamps
early 20th century
Poster stamp privately overprinted
for semi-official airmail postage
Colombia
1920
POSTER STAMP EXCHANGE SOCIETY
stamp depicting a British
Mulready Prepaid envelope
VERMONT STATEHOOD
poster stamp
issued by the Poster Stamp Society
1941
MAIL ART
ITALIAN FUTURIST MAIL ART
1910
the Futurists seem to have
developed the first truly modern Mail Art
stamp covers
FRANCE
antique mail art
BRITAIN
vintage mail art
CITY OF THE MOON
fantasy stamp cover
2019
by Eric Whollem
faux Sand Dune stamps
featuring Rossetti art designs
2019
by Eric Whollem
FANTASY BALLOON COURIER MAIL
from the Sasquatchian Dutch Colony
to the Grand Duchy of Guguwuph
with postal marking from Lemurian Post Office
ERIC WHOLLEM
2017
NOTGELD
GERMAN INFLATIONARY BANKNOTES
from Husum
1921
perforated block
Notgeld, or inflationary currency, was issued in great numbers in Germany after WWI. These were provisionanal notes. Not all such notes were perforated.
Interestingly enough some towns and even private individuals issued such notes as money makers to sell to collectors, overriding the interest in creating a medium of monetary exchange....In this regard they are cousins of artistamps....something non-essential, but works of art.
And like micronations who minted coins as well as stamps, German communities also minted metallic money for the same reasons as the faux banknotes.
US FRACTIONAL CURRENCY
served as a form of postal note
or money order
and were valid for postage
US FRACTIONAL CURRENCY
served as a form of postal note
or money order
and were valid for postage in the early 20th century
HAND PAINTED STAMPS
SABOR OF THE MIDLANDS
fantasy stamps
by Russ Sabor
Iowa
1933
During the Great Depression Russ Sabor had these stamps printed as gifts for those who could not afford postage stamps. They are embellished with the phrase 'Sabor Telestamps.'
DONALD EVANS
hand painted stamp fantasy
from the 1960's
this was used as an illustration in one of
Evan's book
Some of Donald Evans handpainted fantasy stamps from the sixties by coincidence
resemble the works of Sabor. Sabor's stamps were printed in many different colors
and gained only a limited notoriety in the 1930's, while Evan's works were influential among fantasy stamp creators during his lifetime.
STAMPS OF PRISONERS OF WAR
MALTA CAMP POST
British POW camp
a private creation of Karl Sessler
linocut
an Austrian Prisoner of War
1914
Mail from prisoner of war camps usually required no postage, but was sent free of franking. But Karl Sessler was an artist and did not want to waste an opportunity to use his skills.
POLISH PRISONER OF WAR STAMP
early 1940's
linoleum cut
Polish prisoners of war briefly managed to create stamps for use on their mail in German internment camps. They would use shoe soles to carve cancellations. They created inks from various found substances.
Polish Prisoner of War
Stamp cover with 'Fox Dinner' stamp
created by the prisoners to
protest the unnamed dead animals
fed to the inmates.
KARL SCHLESWIG
Jewish prisoner of war
hand painted fantasy stamp
painted in the blank selvage of a stamp sheet
Karl Scheswig, like the French Canadian stamp fabricator of 1861, is known today for his hand painted stamps. These were created in a German Nazi concentration camp. And are famous for being protest stamps.
Prisoner of War Camp
World War II
TOY STAMPS
YVES KLEIN'S BLUE STAMPS
a classic modern fantasy stamp
1957
New Realism School of Art
SARDINIAN ARTISTAMP
JIM CYZL
JOEY PATRICKT
TOYLAND POST
children's stamps, or toy stamps
is a specialized genre
1953
Toy Stamps for children have been with us for many decades....The French call them Timbres Enfantines. The Germans call them Kinderpost.
TOYLAND POST
postal money order
1953
TINTIN FANTASY STAMPS
by Herge
Belgian illustrator
1953
THE BEGINNINGS OF MODERN ART STAMPS
a classic modern fantasy stamp
1957
New Realism School of Art
Yves Klein belonged to the French School of New Realism...Later art critics tried to lump him with several art movements with which he had no historical connection. He was a pioneer of the modern artistamp.
The rest of Artistamp History is well known. In the mid 1950's Yves Klein mailed his famous blue stamp on a card.
And here in the 1950's the modern international Mail Art movement had it's beginnings, though it has been widely recognized that Mail Art has been with us as long as artists have been sending letters. Matisse mailed 1200 illustrated letters in his lifetime. The preraphaelites left us quite a legacy of Mail Art.
Mad Magazine released it's famous fantasy stamp parodies in the 1960's.
Bidner, a Canadian stamp artist, coined the name Artistamp in 1982.
The rest of Artistamp History is well known. In the mid 1950's Yves Klein mailed his famous blue stamp on a card.
And here in the 1950's the modern international Mail Art movement had it's beginnings, though it has been widely recognized that Mail Art has been with us as long as artists have been sending letters. Matisse mailed 1200 illustrated letters in his lifetime. The preraphaelites left us quite a legacy of Mail Art.
Mad Magazine released it's famous fantasy stamp parodies in the 1960's.
Bidner, a Canadian stamp artist, coined the name Artistamp in 1982.
by Stefano Foissant Sini
Untold thousands of artistamps have been created in recent years.
Oz stamp
on cover
The Mail Maker
2021
READ MORE ABOUT CLASSIC PHOTO STAMPS HERE:
Fantasy Poster Stamps/ Parody Stamps/ A Contribution to the History of Artistamps
C.W.CHUTE/Illegal Stamps-Philately's Rough Trade
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