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Fig 2 |
MARTHUR MAURY was the Stanley Gibbons of France and the poster stamps he issued are of the finest and of the most interesting. He was born in Paris on July 31 1844. He commenced dealing in stamps at the age of 16, a very early dealer, as this is only 20 years after the first postage stamps were issued. From a minor start, his business grew sufficiently for him to acquire premises at 5 rue Richelieu. His first poster stamp (fig 1) was printed in blue and shows the address and the words 'Vente' and 'Echange' (selling and exchange) as well as 'Timbre Poste'. His business grew very rapidly as the collecting of stamps became the vogue. He had to move to larger premises at 80 rue St Lazare, Paris - unfortunately we do not know the date, but The London Philatelist (Vol 16, page 295) states 'where for many years English sojourners in Paris were accustomed to visit him'. Again he produced an advertising stamp in blue, this time bearing the legend (fig 2) 'Album, Timbre Paste, Prix Courant, Gratis and Franco' (albums, postage stamps, current prices, free and post paid). Besides buying and selling stamps he compiled regular stamp catalogues, whose name still exists today. In addition, in 1864 he edited and published the Collectionneur de Timbres-Paste, a journal still published at his death in November 1907. He employed many people under the management of his brother-in-law, M. G. Verrier.
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Such expansion of business required one more move, to 5 Boulevard Montmartre in 1891, stated as 'an unrivalled site in the very heart of the boulevard life of the great city. The arrangements and installation of these premises are quite palatial, affording the most ample room for cus-
tomers and employés...' In 1894 Maury produced his third poster stamp (fig 3), now showing a distinguished man with the legend surrounding his portrait 'Serbmit, Sirap a Yruam' (listed in Les Timbres de Fantaisie [1936] George Chapier), The stamp-like picture is 'cancelled' with a 'postmark' bearing 'Maury 6 Bould Montmartre' dated December 15, 1994. This postmark can be found with and without the number 4 in the 'date' (figs 3 and 4). The stamp was issued in the following shades, we believe, lilac (shades), green, grey and purple (shades). The paper is pale buff to dark buff and the quality is not good as the stamps were produced by lithography.
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These poster stamps proved very popular and Maury commenced producing them in a far better quality, perforated either 11 or 13 and in a wide range of colours. These stamps can be found occasionally stuck on thin paper (fig 5) which carries the legend 'Having acquired several millions of these stamps, whose origin is not yet found, we offer them to collectors for free'. This joke could not have fooled many collectors. Occasionally, the stamps are found imperf on coloured thin card (black on pale green and black on pink).
Stamps found perf 11 are in green (shades), black, violet, dark blue to blue, red brown to brown. Those perforated 13X are found in black, blue (shades), violet, red (shades) and yellow.
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At some later date, the die was altered. The redesigned stamp (fig 6) had a larger flower in the four corners and the lettering of the words was made bigger. So far we have been able to identify this re-designed stamp as pert 11 in red brown and green, and perf 13¼ as dull red and blue. Again, the design was completely reworked, and we would suggest at a yet later date, with a new frame around the portrait (fig 7). So far we have in our collection orange-red imperf, brown perf 11, and grey and yellow pert 13Y4. None of these stamps is common. |
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