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Ceres series (France)
Encyclopedia
Postage stamp
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
series of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, issued in 1849 as a representation of the French Republic.
The series bore the effigy of Ceres, goddess of growing plants in Roman mythology
Roman mythology
Roman mythology is the body of traditional stories pertaining to ancient Rome's legendary origins and religious system, as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans...
. Jacques-Jean Barre
Jacques-Jean Barre
Jean-Jacques Barre was the general engraver at the Monnaie de Paris between 1842 and 1855. In this position, he engraved and designed French medals, the Great Seal of France, bank notes and postage stamps....
did the initial drawing and gravure. Anatole Hulot
Anatole Hulot
Anatole Auguste Hulot was a French civil servant who directed the designing and printing of the first postage stamps of France between 1848 and 1876.- Biography :...
was in charge of the printing of the Ceres series done in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in the 19th century.
The drawing was used again by necessity when the Second Empire
Second French Empire
The Second French Empire or French Empire was the Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870, between the Second Republic and the Third Republic, in France.-Rule of Napoleon III:...
fell in 1870, with printing in Paris besieged by German armies and in Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
where the French government fled. Two new Ceres series were issued in the 1930s and 1940s.
As first series of France, these stamps appeared regularly on commemorative stamps for philatelic anniversaries and exhibitions, and on the logo of many philatelic organizations and firms.
Second Republic, 1849-1851
Roman mythology
Roman mythology is the body of traditional stories pertaining to ancient Rome's legendary origins and religious system, as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans...
. She wore a garland of wheat and a bunch of grapes in her hair. The design, which avoided any specifically republican or Revolutionary connotations, was drawn by Jacques-Jean Barre
Jacques-Jean Barre
Jean-Jacques Barre was the general engraver at the Monnaie de Paris between 1842 and 1855. In this position, he engraved and designed French medals, the Great Seal of France, bank notes and postage stamps....
, general engraver at the Paris Mint
Monnaie de Paris
The Monnaie de Paris or, more administratively speaking, the "Direction of Coins and Medals", is an administration of the French government charged with issuing coins as well as producing medals and other similar items. Many ancient coins are housed there...
, under the supervision of Anatole Hulot
Anatole Hulot
Anatole Auguste Hulot was a French civil servant who directed the designing and printing of the first postage stamps of France between 1848 and 1876.- Biography :...
, a civil servant who obtained the right to print the stamps at the Mint until 1876.
The issue on the first January 1849 marked the application of a postal reform similar to the one in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
of May 1840: to simplify the nationwide postal rates between Metropolitan France
Metropolitan France
Metropolitan France is the part of France located in Europe. It can also be described as mainland France or as the French mainland and the island of Corsica...
, Corsica
Corsica
Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....
and French Algeria
French Algeria
French Algeria lasted from 1830 to 1962, under a variety of governmental systems. From 1848 until independence, the whole Mediterranean region of Algeria was administered as an integral part of France, much like Corsica and Réunion are to this day. The vast arid interior of Algeria, like the rest...
and to encourage the payment by the sender through the use of postage stamps.
In January 1849, the two first denominations
Denomination (postage stamp)
:This article deals with the price of a postage stamp. For other meanings of the word 'denomination' see Denomination .In philately, the denomination is the "inscribed value of a stamp"...
were a 20 centimes black stamp and a 1 franc red. As the postal reform was extended to other rates (local, rural and newspapers), new denominations were issued.
As early as 1849, the first of these stamps that earned philatelic interests afterwards existed. Because the black cancellations can be masked and the 20 centimes black stamp easily reused, the issue of the 40 centimes blue in January was aborted and switched to orange. While the 20 centimes blue was first printed in Spring 1849, it never replaced its black counterpart because of a change of rates in July 1850. In December 1849, part of the much paler red of the 1 franc stamps were recalled by the postal administration because their tint was too close to the 40 centimes orange to be issued in February 1850. The lighter stamps were named "vermilion
Vermilion
Vermilion is an opaque orangish red pigment, similar to scarlet. As a naturally occurring mineral pigment, it is known as cinnabar, and was in use around the world before the Common Era began. Most naturally produced vermilion comes from cinnabar mined in China, and vermilion is nowadays commonly...
" by philatelists. Two half-stamps of each tint were stuck on the official order to retrieve the vermilion.
After the coup in December 1851
French coup of 1851
The French coup d'état on 2 December 1851, staged by Prince Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte , ended in the successful dissolution of the French National Assembly, as well as the subsequent re-establishment of the French Empire the next year...
, Prince-President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte
Napoleon III of France
Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was the President of the French Second Republic and as Napoleon III, the ruler of the Second French Empire. He was the nephew and heir of Napoleon I, christened as Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte...
decided to have his effigy on French stamps. The first denominations were issued progressively from September 1852 and throughout the Second Empire
Second French Empire
The Second French Empire or French Empire was the Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870, between the Second Republic and the Third Republic, in France.-Rule of Napoleon III:...
.
A poor imitation of the French stamps was used by the Corrientes Province
Corrientes Province
Corrientes is a province in northeast Argentina, in the Mesopotamia region. It is surrounded by : Paraguay, the province of Misiones, Brazil, Uruguay, and the provinces of Entre Rios, Santa Fe and Chaco.-History:...
local post in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
between 1856 and 1880.
Franco-Prussian War, 1870-1871
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...
, after Republicans abolished the Empire of Napoléon III on 4 September 1870, they faced the siege of Paris
Siege of Paris
The Siege of Paris, lasting from September 19, 1870 – January 28, 1871, and the consequent capture of the city by Prussian forces led to French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and the establishment of the German Empire as well as the Paris Commune....
by the German armies and the lack of postage stamps from the former rule. Houlot had to print new Ceres stamps until the insurrection of the Paris Commune
Paris Commune
The Paris Commune was a government that briefly ruled Paris from March 18 to May 28, 1871. It existed before the split between anarchists and Marxists had taken place, and it is hailed by both groups as the first assumption of power by the working class during the Industrial Revolution...
, in Spring 1871. The printer told afterwards he hid the Ceres series material and was forced by the insurgents to print Napoleon III stamps.
At the same time, in Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
, where the provisional government fled, the printing of Ceres stamps was authorized from the 5 November 1870 to the 4 March 1871 to supply the post offices of non-occupied France. The stamps were printed in lithography
Lithography
Lithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface...
(instead of typography
Typography
Typography is the art and technique of arranging type in order to make language visible. The arrangement of type involves the selection of typefaces, point size, line length, leading , adjusting the spaces between groups of letters and adjusting the space between pairs of letters...
) by Augée-Delile. Because of this choice, stamps differ repetitively from one another.
Third Republic
Anatole Hulot
Anatole Auguste Hulot was a French civil servant who directed the designing and printing of the first postage stamps of France between 1848 and 1876.- Biography :...
. He had to use old material to create new denominations (like the low values created in Bordeaux) because Désiré-Albert Barre, Jacques-Jean's son, broke his association with Hulot in 1866.
In July 1875, the postal administration gave the printing of its postage stamps to the Banque de France
Banque de France
The Banque de France is the central bank of France; it is linked to the European Central Bank . Its main charge is to implement the interest rate policy of the European System of Central Banks...
to reduce the high cost and delays it accused Hulot. The stamp design was changed too: a competition launched in August 1875 was won by Jules-Auguste Sage with its Commerce and Peace uniting and reigning over the world allegory. The new stamps were issued in 1876.
1937-1941
For the philatelic exhibition of Paris in 1937, PEXIP, a minisheet of four bicolored Ceres stamps was issued.The next year, in 1938, began a new Ceres series with high values (1.75 to 3 francs), alongside the Sower series and the Peace series. The head was kept into a new decorum. All these definitives retired in 1941 and replaced by Philippe Pétain
Philippe Pétain
Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Joseph Pétain , generally known as Philippe Pétain or Marshal Pétain , was a French general who reached the distinction of Marshal of France, and was later Chief of State of Vichy France , from 1940 to 1944...
's effigies, the Iris and Mercury series.
Liberation, 1945-1947
In 1945, a redesign effigy of Ceres by Charles Mazelin was among the numerous definitive series to be issue in liberated France.Since 1949, on commemorative stamps
The Jacques-Jean Barre's Ceres effigy had appeared again on stamps commemorating the philatelic and postal history of FrancePostage stamps and postal history of France
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of France.- See also :*Ceres series *French post offices abroad*List of people on stamps of France*Navigation and Commerce issue*Postage stamps of the French Colonies-External links:*...
:
- 1948: Stamp's Day stamp on stamp with effigy of Étienne AragoÉtienne AragoÉtienne Arago was a French writer and politician, and co-founder of the newspaper Le Figaro.-Early life:Arago was born in Perpignan, the youngest of the four Arago brothers...
, director of posts in 1849; - 1949: a vertical stripe of two Ceres stamps and two Mariannes by Gandon (the definitive series of the time) for the centenary of the first French postage stamp;
- 1949: inside a large white minisheet, was printed in intaglioIntaglio (printmaking)Intaglio is a family of printmaking techniques in which the image is incised into a surface, known as the matrix or plate, and the incised line or area holds the ink. Normally, copper or zinc plates are used as a surface, and the incisions are created by etching, engraving, drypoint, aquatint or...
a vermilion 10 franc Ceres stamp for the CIPEX exhibition in Paris; - 1999: for the 150th anniversary, a booklet of five black Ceres and one red Ceres stamps on stamps;
- 1999: at the occasion of Philexfrance '99 in Paris, a stamp on stamp with the 20 centimes black and a holographicHolographyHolography is a technique that allows the light scattered from an object to be recorded and later reconstructed so that when an imaging system is placed in the reconstructed beam, an image of the object will be seen even when the object is no longer present...
Ceres head.
The logo of the philatelic service of La Poste
La Poste (France)
La Poste is the mail service of France, which also operates postal services in the French Overseas Departments of Réunion, Guadeloupe, Martinique and French Guiana, and the territorial collectivities of Saint Pierre and Miquelon and Mayotte...
used the Ceres head.
In the French colonies
From 1849 to 1924, French AlgeriaFrench Algeria
French Algeria lasted from 1830 to 1962, under a variety of governmental systems. From 1848 until independence, the whole Mediterranean region of Algeria was administered as an integral part of France, much like Corsica and Réunion are to this day. The vast arid interior of Algeria, like the rest...
used the same postage stamps and postal rates as in Metropolitan France
Metropolitan France
Metropolitan France is the part of France located in Europe. It can also be described as mainland France or as the French mainland and the island of Corsica...
. The Ceres series from France could be found cancelled in the French colony.
In 1850 and 1851, a little number of colonies used the Second Republic Ceres stamps.
From 1871 to 1877, imperforated
Postage stamp separation
For postage stamps, separation is the means by which individual stamps are made easily detachable from each other.Methods of separation include:# perforation: cutting rows and columns of small holes...
Ceres stamps were sent to the colonies to replaced imperforated Napoléon III stamps. They served until the issue of imperforated Sage stamps in 1876. One mean to recognize the colonial Ceres stamps was the cancellation with a three letter code for each colony.
Sources and references
- Collective (2000). Timbres de France. Le spécialisé. 1849-1900, Yvert et TellierYvert et TellierYvert et Tellier is a postage stamp dealer and a philatelic publishing company founded in 1895 in the northern French city of Amiens, where the head office is still located. The logo is a circle divided into a snowflake and a smiling sun...
, tome 1, volume 1, 3rd reviewed and corrected edition.