Some French Colonial Stamps

I think some of the most visually interesting stamps are those produced in Europe during the colonial period in the late 19th and early 20th century.Colours are generally minimal, but striking,often using the colour wheel putting yellows against purples, reds against greens and oranges against blues. The designs are also very interesting, using local scenes and people rendered in elegant line drawings underlying the bold areas of colour with only one colour and the white of the paper for shading. Stamp borders are often patterned adding another area of interest to the stamp. The enlargements below also reveal the range of marks used to create areas of lighter or darker shades using shorter and longer lines or dots widely or densely spaced. The two Madagascan stamps enlarged below illustrate the techniques used to perfection. Some of the smaller illustrations can be enlarged by clicking on them. (back page to return to the blog)       Below are some illustrations of some French colonial stamps from that period.

The two enlargments below are from the album page above

The enlargement below is from the album page above