FRENCH STAMPS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19529, 11 July 1925, Page 22

FRENCH STAMPS.

RECENT ISSUES CRITICISED. The French people are no better pleased with the now exhibition stamp, i 5 centimes i “Decorative Arts and Modern Industries,” than they wore with last year s Olympic Games senes, writes Fred j. Melville, in the Daily Telegraph. The Echo do la Tirnbrolgie has not a good word for its design, colour, paper, or ideal, and deplores the bad taste that has selected id turnip, neither artistic nor decorative, for the stamp which was to proclaim French eminence in the decorative arts, the satirical journal, Loup Garou, has the following “very important notice”: “The person who has been able to understand what is represented by the new 15 centimes stamp of the. Exhibition of Decorative Arts is begged to present himself to the Ministry of Public Instruction, where M. do Mon/.ie will confer upon him the academic palms.” There is a wide difference between this 15 centimes exhibition stamp and the 5 francs stamp of the old type, just re-issued in a special edition in connection with the international philatelic exhibition now open in Paris at the Pavilion de Marsan. This old design was introduced in 1877, and was obtained in open competition among French artists. The prize-winner, J. A. Sago, was a young designer in a painted glass factory, and lie produced the emblematical figures showing Peace and Commerce joining hands across the world through the medium of the post. Mcissonier, who was one of tlio judges, was much impressed by the artist’s sketch, and suggested some modifications which were adopted before the die was engraved by the famous Paris engraver, M- E, Mouchon. For this special occasion a small plate of four replicas of the die, denominated 5 francs, have been printed in red, m little sheets of four. The edition is 200,005 stamp/, but at the posl office in the exhibition they can only be obtained in unbroken sheets of four by persons who have paid for admission. There has been a very lively run on the exhibition by speculators rather than collectors, to obtain supplies of those stamps with a view to turning them over at a profit when the edition is exhausted.