Beautiful La Semeuse (the Sower)
La Semeuse, the Sower, first appeared on French stamps in April 1903. The graceful figure (of model Charlotte Ragot) wearing the Phrygian cap of liberty, sowing ideas at sunrise, came to symbolise Republican France throughout much of the 20th century. The stamp was designed by Louis Oscar Roty and engraved by Louis-Eugène Mouchon. Without going deeper into this series, I’ll just show an interesting item I found recently.
50c. Red (Yv.#199, Michel#161) was first issued in September 1926, and printings continued until 1932. It was the most used value of the new sower series, franking ordinary internal letters of 0-20gms. It appeared on sale as sheets, in many booklets (with or without adverts), and on postal stationery. The item I have is a single used stamp with advert from an booklet.
France - used La semeuse stamp with advert pane from an booklet.
What I understand about the advert text (”À la toile d’avion”), is that it has something do with aerial landscape art (painting from the aircraft/above).
I have seen some complete mint / never hinged advert booklets on sale in price range of 50-100 euros, but I have no clue what single used stamps with advert pane might be worth. I suppose few euros at max… If you happen to know any catalogue / real market value for this item, please leave a comment.
From my Maury catalogue (again…), the booklet Toile d’avion is worth (I mean ‘coter’ in French) 150 euros. Semeuse stamp is a Semeuse lignée Type IIB.
They also give the value of only one Toile d’avion stamp (like yours). If it’s new, and superb, it’s worth 7 euros, yours, since it’s been cancelled, is worth 2,5 euros.
Thanks AdA…
The catalogue value for single stamp was pretty much what I figured… Michel doesn’t sadly list the advert booklets or singles at all. My French Yvert&Tellier does have them, but because it’s very ancient (even prehistoric) I don’t trust the price/value information at all…
HI
A la toile d’avion was the name of a chain of clothes shops.
Here is an ad:
http://cgi.ebay.fr/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250443290591#ebayphotohosting
It’s so exciting to see how a simple stamp lead to so many informations;-)
Jacques Marie
Thanks Jacques. That was interesting piece of information…