SHAVER LAKE, CALIFORNIA
fantasy tourism poster stamp
1940
E
E
John Coulthard
A NOTE ON THE HISTORY OF ARTISTAMPS
Though in the 19th century many fantasy stamps were made, they were mostly postal carrier labels, a type of stamp whose creation was not illegal. In those days in America at least to make fanstasy postage stamps was a crime, considered to be a type of counterfeiting.
Canada was a leading center of fantasy carrier labels.
Carrier labels were stamps created by private postal carriers, who would carry letters from the post office to private homes and businesses, as it was years later that central governments would provide home delivery of mail.
The invention of advertising stamps began in Britain in 1860.....but by the end of the century such stamps, called reklamemarken proliferated in Germany, Austria and spread through the world.
Today such advertising stamps are called poster stamps....
Poster stamps were hot collectibles in the early days, with societies catering to collectors.
Stamp albums were made especially for poster stamp collectors. Poster stamp societies arose to accomodate people interested in the genre.
The stamps posted here in this blog post, are examples of poster stamps of an atypical variety....comical fantasy stamps....Such comical stamps appeared later with issues created by Mad Magazine in the 1960's. Such comical stamps are categorized as artistamps today. Bidner, a fantasy stamp collector, coined the term, artistamp, in 1982.
The numbers appearing on the 'tourism' stamps appearing in this post are a type of faux denomination, which makes them quite different than poster stamps. Faux postage stamps are considered to be synonymous with artistamps.
Artistamps exist with and without denominations.
LOOKINGGLASS, OREGON
fantasy tourism poster stamp
1940
E
John Coulthard
BACHELOR, CALIFORNIA
fantasy tourism poster stamp
1940
E
John Coulthard
LEFT HAND, WEST VIRGINIA
fantasy tourism poster stamp
1940
E
John Coulthard
BEGOOD, VIRGINIA
fantasy tourism poster stamp
1940
E
John Coulthard
ROMEO, COLORADO
fantasy tourism poster stamp
1940
E
John Coulthard
YOUNG AMERICA. INDIANA
fantasy tourism poster stamp
1940
E
John Coulthard
O.K., KENTUCKY
fantasy poster stamp
1940
E
John Coulthard
MUD, WEST VIRGINIA
fantasy poster stamp
1940
E
John Coulthard
As background, it was very popular in the 1930s to collect postmarks from towns with unusual names. The Western Stamp Collector, a weekly stamp paper, in 1939, commissioned John Coulthard to design a series of 20 poster stamps featuring towns with unusual names. This series sold for .40 for a set of twenty or .10 for four of the labels. The series was popular and a second series was printed to bring the total up to forty stamps or labels. It is my observation that collectors bought these poster stamps, applied them to a cover, and mailed them to themselves. Several of these labels include in the design a small, spotted dog that was kind of a signature piece for Coulthard's art. The example below is number eleven and is typical of Coulthard's work. The addressee, I believe, enhanced the label somewhat by drawing a box around it. (Cited from: https://www.stampexchange.com/threads/cinderellas.4609/?fbclid=IwAR3USbbr1CDRRx6NlKH5oANAUMNkMz6ZMiGl5TqKR9HSQn35bEANfMzuFn4)
JOHN COULTHARD COVER
'E'
1939
as posted in Stamp Exchange.com
COMPETITION, MO.
fantasy poster stamp
1940
E
John Coulthard
GASOLINE, TEXAS
fantasy poster stamp
1940
E
John Coulthard
JOHN COULTHARD
was a prolific artist of
philatelic cachets
1936
MAD MAGAZINE
humorous fantasy stamp
1964
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A Short History of Artistamps:
History of Artistamps: 19th century photo portrait stamps:
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