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| Poster Stamp Makers |
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Included in the attractions were: a giant film screen showing the works of frères Lumiére, a moving pavement (which had three different speeds), and the use of the new electricity that permitted photographs at night. Le Palais des . Illusions had many mirrors and garlands of the new electric lights creating special effects. The Impressionist paintings in the Grand Palace included those by George Seurat and Vincent van Gogh.
The exposition was opened by President Loubet; the organisation of the exposition was in the hands of Alfred Picard, Commissioner General.
For a collector, the exposition offers a lifetime of collecting possibilities. There are almost endless examples of ephemera, there are playing cards, there are hundreds if not thousands of postcards, there are books, magazines, publicity leaflets, tickets, trade cards,and over 4,000 different poster stamps (vignettes) - if the different coloured inks and different coloured paper are taken to be a separate item. But the poster stamps (in French, vignettes) are of particular interest to us. It is the Paris 1900 exposition which, as much as any other event, triggered the explosion of worldwide poster stamps in the years until 1914. In part, also, the diversity of the poster stamps were responsible for the sentiment behind the title of the French equivalent of the UK's Cinderella Stamp Club -'L'Arc en Ciel' (the rainbow).
The most commonly seen of the poster stamps are one of the Pavilion Series, produced by Baguet, a French printer.
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| Fig 3: Untypical 'Award Stamp' vignette |
There are 47 different of these and a study has been made of the number of printing plates produced, a subject more complex than can be covered in an article. There are five further groups of vignettes that are more attractive and perhaps of greater interest to readers. The first group is of the exposition publicity and these were probably mainly produced in advance of the exposition and were of different designs. To our mind some of the best 'fart nouveau' designs are illustrated in figure 2, a block of six different stamps in green. The one for 'Palais de l'Optique' is a classic. Figure 3 is a not so typical 'Award Stamp'. The more usual design (of which there are many) is of actual medals, obverse and reverse, in either gold, silver or bronze foil. |
| Advertising Vignettes |
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Fig 4: Once of a series
of vignettes produced
for models of sewing
machines |
There were dozens of vignettes produced by the exhibitors to advertise their products, and these are usually the most difficult to find. We illustrate in figure 4 one of a series produced for models of sewing machines; this model is the 'Phenix'. The illustration is embossed and is of a 'full skirted' lady using a treadle machine most decorously. A large series of vignettes, all broadly to the same design and colour (blue), but varying in the red printed legend, can be categorised as 'Groups and Classes'.
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Fig 5: 'Groups and
Classes' vignette |
An example is shown in figure 5. This particular one was issued for the company 'Guilliet & Fils'; most of these vignettes were used on invoices, letterheads, etc of the companies, so as to advertise where in the exposition their products could be found. The final group that we
illustrate is another stamp, but often referred to as a letter seal. These were predominantly German,
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| Fig 6: German vignette |
the Example shown in figure 6 is for the German Commissioner for the Paris 1900 exposition, and again, there is a complete series of these. Despite these vignettes having been produced 100 years ago, only in the past few months, five previously unrecorded stamps issued for the exhibition were discovered. Undoubtedly, new discoveries will continue for many years. |
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