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 stamp catalog / real market value for this item, please leave a comment.
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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…
I have a collection of La Semeuse (the Sower) stamp collection 12 stamps 10c, 15c, 20c, 25c,30c,40c,45c,50c, 75c, all differnt colors and such. I can’t seem to find what they are worth? Can anyone out there help me?
thank you
barbara
Hi Barbara,
Just pick up your favourite stamp catalog (Scott, Michel, SG, Yvert etc) and look under France around 1920’s. They should be there… As there are different types (and subtypes, variations etc) of these stamps, telling anything specific with these details is impossible. As a generalization, all the basic sower stamps are of low (=minimun) value in used condition; mint stamps are completely different thing.
Hi Keijo et al,
With respect to the bandes publicitaires (pubs) on the Semeuse:
I do not collect them systematically, but in my collection of France
there are quite a few. These stamps stem indeed from booklets, and
the advertisements can be both on the top and the bottom
(no difference in value, since they were equally frequent).
I think that between 1906 (Yvert number 140) and 1939 (Yv.360) they
appeared on around 12 types of the Semeuse, typicallly the more
common values. Apart from the Semeuse, they also appeared on
Orleans (Yv.257), Expo (Yv.272), Paix (Yv.283, 365, 368), Petain (Yv.517),
and after the war on some Marianne de Gandon values (Yv.813, 886, 1011B).
There may be some more.
I think the latter one (1955) was the last, but I am definitely not an
expert in these matters. There must be separate publications about them,
and maybe even catalogues. I will have a look at that (with the danger that
I will start to collect them seriously), but I am sure someone
out there knows more about this area.
Note that the Semeuses are very well researched in french philately, and
with all the varieties are a collecting area in their own right, with and
without the pubs.
I think the Semeuse 50c red and the Paix 50c red and 65c blue are the most common ones: I have around 30 different pubs of each of these, just picked
up here and there, without really searching.
They all catalogue just a few € (used), and trade in my stamp society for between 20c and 1€ on average. The only really expensive ones are the Semeuse 10c green Yv188 Phena (€50) and above all the famous 188A Mineraline (€550), which is quite difficult to find real used (that would be an auction piece).
And there is a variety of the 25c on 30c (Yv.217) that catalogues €200.
With all the types and varieties ‘une mer a boire’ as the french would say,
but definitely less challenging to complete than a ‘world collection’ …
Best,
Dik Bakker
The Sower.
I read with interest the posts on the Sower stamps with advertising tags. Like many collectors I love the whole range of sowers, and I have a few with tags, but beware……I recently bought, on the internet, the stamp with the Phena tag. As soon as I saw it I was certain it was a forgery. It was fuzzy and patchy, almost like being out of focus, and most of all it was flat, no contrast. I’m just glad I didn’t shell out big money for the Mineraline one.
Nice artricle but what I am wondering is, are there any sites that lists the constant varieties of this particular issue. While I do not collect them per se, I do have many of them that have come my way in collections that I have broken down.
Happy collecting
Larry Matthews
@Dave C …. Thanks for sharing the warning.
@Larry… I haven’t come accross with any, but I’m pretty sure there are some (French) websites specializing in these. StampBoards has a pretty good discussion on the series in general: http://stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=6413
Acutally, part II of the excellent (but quite expensive) Maury catalogue does give a breakdown of all the types with prices for the individual stamps with bandes publicitaires, and not only the prices of the complete carnets from which they stem, as does the Yvert (2009: 517-544). In my 2009 version of the Maury there is a special section Bandes publicitaires (p. 1147-1162), with an interesting introduction for those who read french.
Dik Bakker