Central African Republic 1962 - Butterflies

Accidental finds can produce quite a rush of excitement. This was certainly the case for me when a few weeks ago, I received in the mail a set of Albert Decaris stamps from Central  African Republic. It was a difficult set to find by itself, so I settled for one that included other sets from that particular year. After I removed the Decaris set from the batch, one of the sets included caught my eye. It was a set of four butterfly stamps. Merely for curiosity sake, I had a closer look at these stamps. I was surprised and rather happy to discover the name Gandon at the bottom of each of the stamps. This particular set was printed in Photogravure and all four stamps were designed by Gandon. Regular readers of my blogs will know I collect all the stamps of a particular artist, whether designed, engraved or both. Basically everything to which they contributed. Besides, I think these stamps are rather nice, and to practice a bit of the French I'm learning - J'adore les papillon (I love butterflies).

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On 18 November 1962 a set of four stamps under the theme of butterflies was issued for use in Central African Republic. The set was designed by Pierre Gandon. Normally I provide some information on each stamp, then feature the actual stamp. Considering this set consists four different species of butterfly, to describe each would make the blog somewhat long. Instead I will make the name of each butterfly a hyperlink to the relevant Wiki page. If you feel inspired to read more about it, simply click on the name and you will be sent straight to the page. That said, let's look at some stamps!

Colotis euippe

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Papilio dardanus

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Papilio lormieri

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Papilio zalmoxis

Until next time...

France 1962 - Gallic Rooster

The Gallic Rooster has long been the unofficial symbol of France, the official symbol being Marianne who stands for the Republic. The story of how the rooster claimed the role of unofficial symbol is actually quite an interesting one. It all starts back in Ancient Rome when the biographer, Suetonius (c. 69-140 AD), noted in his book The Twelve Caesars that, in Latin, gallus, which means rooster, and Gallus, which means Gauls were homonyms, which is a fancy word that means two or more words which share the same pronunciation, but mean different things. This is not, however, how the Gauls, who became the French, came to use the rooster as a national symbol.

The rooster's close association with France seems to have begun in the Middle Ages, and not in the way you may think. The Latin similarity between gallus and Gallus mentioned above was used by the enemies of France to make fun of them! Eventually the French came to use the Rooster as a symbol due to its religious connections - one can also see that the French would've taken on the supposed derogatory symbol to take the sting out of the taunts of their enemies. But, anyway, back to the religious connections. In the bible it is mentioned that just before Jesus was arrested by the Romans, he foresaw that Peter (a disciple) would deny him three times before the rooster crowed the following morning. It turns out, according to the bible anyway, that Jesus was right. From this tale, it is believed that every morning the rooster crowing was a symbol of the daily victory of light over the darkness. It is also a symbol for Christianity of watchfulness and readiness for the return of Christ. France, being a Catholic state, thus adopted the rooster as a symbol. And the rest is, as we say, history.

France began a long tradition of portraying the rooster on stamps back in 1944. The initial design was by Henry Razous. And it is a lovely stamp indeed...

In 1954 a new design, with somewhat more energy than the first design, was released. This new version was designed by Pierre Poulain.

In 1962 Albert Decaris created a new iteration of this French classic. A design, I feel, is striking in its simplicity.

This lovely design was reprinted in 1965 with a new denomination of 30 centimes.

But that's not the end for this charming design. Decaris' masterpiece was again used in a 2013 Fifth Republic stamp with the denomination, of course, in Euros.

Over the years the Rooster has appeared on many a French stamp. In fact, I'm willing to bet one could create an entire thematic collection of French roosters!

Until next time...