Dürer's "Feast of the Rose Garlands"
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This page displays philatelic items related to Dürer's painting Feast of the Rose Garlands.
Part 1: Items issued by Czechoslovakia
Part 3: Postal stationery items issued by Germany
A note regarding German and Berlin stamps:
After World War II, Germany was occupied by Allied forces (American, British, French) as well as by Russian forces.
The area occupied by the former eventually became West Germany (Bundesrepublik Deutschland) and that occupied by the
Russians became the German Democratic Republic (Deutsche Demokratische Republik or DDR), also referred to as East Germany. East
Germany, being controlled by the Russians, eventually became a communist, vassal state, beholden to the Soviet Union.
Berlin was completely within the
Russian zone, but was also divided into a western part, "West Berlin", also occupied by the Allied forces, and a communist eastern part,
"East Berlin", occupied by the Russians. Hence, West Berlin became a western enclave completely surrounded by communist areas.
When West Germany started to issue its own stamps, separate stamps were issued for West Berlin. Generally, the Germany and Berlin
stamps were issued
in parallel, for the same occasions and with similar designs. The definitive Dürer stamps are no exception, as you can see
below that some of them have the country name "DEUTSCHE BUNDESPOST" and others "DEUTSCHE BUNDESPOST BERLIN".
Part 2: Definitive Stamps and Booklets Issued by Germany and Berlin
In 1961, Germany and Berlin issued, as part of the Famous Germans definitive set, a 10 Pfenning value that depicts Dürer's
self-portrait from the Feast of the Rose Garlands. This design, shown below,
was used for many years in stamp booklets as well as on postal cards (shown in the
next section).
Booklets were issued with various covers, creating many varieties. Booklets with particular covers can be quite
pricey. However, all these varieties provide many collecting opportunities for the specialist collector.
From left to right:
Germany-Berlin Scott 9N179 tete-beche pair depicts Dürer's head from his self-portrait. This design was issued both
by Germany proper and Berlin within a definitive set and reused in stamp booklets and on postal cards, as shown below.
At the right, first day cancel
Booklets
The boooklets contain one pane of 10 identical stamps of 10 Pf. While this configuration was maintained for all booklets with the Dürer stamps, the covers varied over time. The back external cover contained an advertisement.
The top figure shows the front of a booklet. The bottom figure shows the back cover of the same booklet. The back cover always carries an advertisement. On this cover, the advertisement is for Paul Ondrusch, a stamp dealer based in Berlin, who indicates that he buys stamps of all types, including collections, inherited stamps, accumulations, etc.
On the inside of the cover, there was text indicating postal tariffs, recommendations on how to address and mail items. These texts changed over time.
There was plenty of room for varieties over the years that these booklets were issued. The advertisers on the back cover
changed, the text on the inside covers changed, even the front cover had slightly different typefaces or lines. In addition,
there were parallel editions for Germany proper and Berlin.
Interestingly, there are few, if any errors or freaks of the stamps themselves. However...
... because of the way printers laid out sheets of stamps intended for booklets, there were plenty of ways adjacent stamps could
be positioned relative to each other. The first row above shows a tete-beche pair. Above, on the left is a gutter pair,
and on the right is another tete-beche pair from the lowest row of the pane, showing the selvedge at the bottom.
Proceed to Part 3: Postal
stationery items issued by Germany
