Poster Stamps
Poster stamps are a subset of Cinderella stamps. A Cinderella stamp is essentially
any stamp not produced by a government for use as postage, a definition which includes
(to some people) officially-issued stamps such as tax stamps, telegraph stamps and
locals. Poster stamps are advertising stamps, and usually poster-like in their
appearance. Many are indeed just reduced versions of actual posters, and were issued in
conjunction with the events for which the posters were produced. The image below, for
the 1932 Olympics Games in Los Angeles, was produced as a poster, post card, stamp,
envelope cachet, pin, program cover, etc. Even in 1932 the Olympics were already big
business, and heavily marketed!
(Click on any image to see a higher-resolution version.)
My own favorite poster stamps fall into various categories, such as trains, olympics, multi-language sets, and multi-year sets.
Multi-language sets
LEIPZIG BOOK EXPOSITION - 1914
The set below is a popular one for its exceptional design. To date I have found thirteen different languages, and seventeen distinct versions, plus several varieties. I am told there are additional versions with black borders. Note that one of the stamps in Chinese has the language (in German) printed in the selvage, which leads me to wonder how these were issued - did a sheet have all stamps of the same language, or did it have one each of every language? Or did they put the language next to the Chinese stamp just so people would know what it was?
German --- German --- German --- Chinese --- Chinese
German --- German --- Spanish --- Italian --- Russian
French --- French --- English --- English --- Japanese
Esperanto --- Portuguese --- Dutch --- Swedish --- Danish
MULTI-YEAR SETS
That seems to have been the philosophy of the promoters of the fairs for the sets shown below, and I enjoy trying to find all the versions.
NATIONAL EXPOSITION OF POWER AND MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
Can you find the train in the stamps for 1929, 1930, and 1932 of the set above?
That was their initial appeal to me, but now I'm curious how many years the design was used.
I have all the stamps from 1922 through 1942, as indicated by the ordinal numbers,
starting with 1925 - the Fourth show. Note that the train disappears from
the stamps for 1934 through 1940, but in 1942 the train is back!
Was there a show in 1944? Probably not, WWII. But after? Stay tuned.
Looking through my collection recently I noticed the three seemingly related stamps below, for a similar show held in Chicago. Two of the shows are in the same years as the National shows, suggesting that the concept was popular at the time. The designs are all different, but all three include a train, which is why I acquired them.
CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES EXPOSITION
One of the longest-running U.S. sets of poster stamps is those issued for the Chemical Industries
Exposition,
now called "Chem Show". I have created a separate page for that set,
as they have become an obsession.
One even thas a train! GO HERE.
CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL LIVE STOCK EXPOSITION
Click here to access my web page about
what may be the longest multi-year set
in the US, the poster stamps created to advertise the Chicago
International Live Stock Exposition.
SWEDISH INDUSTRIES FAIR
The above stamp, for the Swedish Industries Fair in Göteborg, Sweden, is a favorite of
mine,
both for the design, and the fact that it is the first of a set that spans fifty years, 1918-
1968!
In this case the set clearly spans the War, with some design modifications, and there are four
different languages for some of the early years, so there could be many more in the complete
set.
For some history of the event - click here.
It was last held in 1973, though the name survives in the form of an exhibition center.
I own or have seen stamps for every year from 1918 through 1950, EXCEPT the following: 1923,
1941, 1942.
Click on the image above to see tham all.
I suspect there are additional languages for some of the years. If you can fill
in any of the gaps with information or scans, please email me at 
.
AN ALPHABET SET!
An alphabet is an old reliable concept for presenting a topic in an entertaining way (as my web site itself attests!), and has been used on poster stamps, of course. The set below, distributed by New York Edison in 1913 to promote electricity, is quaint and charming today, when we are exhorted to use LESS, not more, and electrical conveniences are so much taken for granted that it is hard to imagine a time when they were a novelty, and people had to be persuaded to try them.
I am short three of the stamps, D, F, and X, but viewers contributed those, and the set above is complete.
April 24, 2002 - A viewer from Calgary, Alberta, Canada wrote to say he owns some of these stamps in two different colors, light green and light blue, so they must have been printed at least twice. I wonder how they were distributed, and whether there were equal quantities of all the letters. It seems unlikely they were printed as a single sheet of all the letters, since there is no neat multiple that equals 26. So they must have been printed in sheets of all the same letter, or perhaps several letters at a time.
February 14, 2003 - R. Roberts wrote to say:
I have the Edison poster stamps in frames of blue, pink, green.February 19, 2003 - R. Roberts sent scans of the three letters I am missing, so I filled those in above. He also sent samples of all three colors, so those too are shown above. Note that all shown here except the pink one include the manufacturer's name and address at the bottom. So far the only ones I have seen without the credit are pink, but most of the pink ones have the credit too.
Some of R. Roberts' stamps are also connected, in pairs and triples, e.g., D-E-F, so they may have been issued as a single sheet with all the letters, after all. I would love to know how it looked, as there is no likely multiple that equals 26, so there must have been duplicates of some stamps, or other labels to fill out something like 5x6.
February 20, 2008 - I bought 26 of these stamps from an eBay seller (doubling my own collection!), and now know that there are FOUR colors, the fourth being a pale lavender.
For images of all my stamps (plus a few from other collectors)CLICK HERE.
In case you prefer to save your eyes from the torture of trying to make out the text on
the set above,
here it is all on one
page.
10/13/07 - I just acquired this new group of twelve New York Edison poster stamps
I can't decide which set was produced first.
I suspect the A-to-Z set was produced later, though. If anyone out there has a better argument, send it to the author -
with a similar concept, to show all the ways the new marvel, electricity, could be used
to make life easier and more pleasant.
The figures are almost identical on both - those hairdos!
And comparing the autos, the irons, and the vacuums,
there's nothing that looks more modern about either.
Someone saw the first set and said, "You could do one for each letter of the alphabet!"
LOUISVILLE AUTOMOBILE SHOW
The set above are Queens of the Poster Stamp world, both for their
striking graphic artistry, and for their use of the female figure.
Unfortunately, none has a year date, so all I can say about
their dates of issue is that I suspect it is in the 19-teens.
ELECTRICAL AND INDUSTRIAL EXPOSITION
This set illustrates one of the effects of scientific and technical progress
during the twentieth century.
These technologies were thought of as closely
related in their infancy. Today no one would think to connect them.
The last item illustrates this divergence.
All text Copyright © 2000, William M. Senkus
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Created -- 06/18/2000
Revised -- 02/20/2008