Railway Thematic Stamps : Artist's Source Material, mostly Postcards

With so many photographs in the world today, and so easily accessible, anyone can quickly come up with an image of almost anywhere on the globe and turn it into a postage stamp. Unfortunately, many ungifted and / or purely commercially-minded persons apply themselves to this task all too often, usually with very disappointing results.

However, go back a century and a stamp designer in London, Paris, Amsterdam or New York, charged with producing a pictorial design for, say, some African country, would rarely have had access to a picture library containing anything useful. Just producing something from one's imagination with no point of reference would have risked some cultural nonsense, so he might instead have trawled through the engravings in popular magazines. From about 1900, though, he made use of the explosion in the production and popular usage of picture postcards which were starting to criss-cross the globe in incredible numbers.

With the odd exception, this article looks at some of these picture postcards and how they were turned into stamps. It is not intended to be an exhaustive study, just examples that we have spotted over the years. We hope you find them interesting.

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Barbados

Although not quite the same, this or a very similar postcard, would appear to be the source.

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Bermuda

A tramcar in Hamilton, exact image used.

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Bosnia & Herzegovina

The Glogosnica Viaduct, slightly different elevation, but quite possibly the source material.

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Bulgaria

King Boris of Bulgaria as an Engine Driver, probably at Sofia. He was fascinated by steam locomotives. The postcard is dated March 1931. A close-up of the King, taken from the postcard view, is shown alongside the stamp. Although clearly in a different pose and location on the locomotive, we think there is a reasonable chance that this view may have been used as a starting point for the stamp designer. After conducting a small search online, we have found no other picture of the King in the cab of a locomotive nor in the same coat and cap, which may be the ones he is said to have had specially tailored for him in Paris for his 'outings' on the footplate.

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Cambodia

London Transport (LT) was the umbrella organization for the London Underground as well as for London's buses from 1933 to 2000, the Underground system being fully electrified below ground by 1907, although outposts of the service were still operated by steam into the early 1960s. However, steam traction continued to be used until the early 1970s for maintenance trains, freight trains carrying LT stores and general shunting in LT yards. For many years, the locomotives were in the livery shown below on the Cambodian 1000R. We would like to thank Nick Ridge for bringing this stamp to our attention and for pointing us towards the scan shown below of the source material, which was probably extracted from an edition of the monthly periodical 'Railway Magazine'.

Note the slouching posture of the driver in both images and the identical areas of reflected light on funnel and dome.

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Croatia

This viewpoint at Ozalj in Croatia seems to have inspired a few photographers but the postcard shown seems exceptionally similar to the finished stamp. The stamp was issued in November 1941 by the Croatian pro-Nazi puppet government. Online, there is a 360-degree panoramic view on Google maps, taken right down at track level. Click here (opens in a new tab) to see the Google view.

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Fiji

A photograph, rather than a postcard. Appears to be the exact image used.

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Guatemala

Railway Bridge, Puente de la Penitenciaria, Guatemala City. Exact Image, a few detail changes.

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Guernsey

A tramcar in Guernsey, used for a Postage Due stamp, exact image.

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Iran

A railway viaduct in Iran, exact image. We think it is also the first example of a Beyer-Garratt locomotive on a stamp.

Left : The issued stamp.
Right : American Banknote Company die proof in Black. (Image from the online archive of sales of Cherrystone Auctions)

ABN Company artist's mock-up, a unique item from the Company's archive. (Image from the online archive of sales of Cherrystone Auctions)

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Ivory Coast

Abidjan Railway Station, exact image, some detail changes.

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Monaco

Interior view of the Gare de Monaco (the pre-1999 station). There are several similar postcard views to the one shown, but this card seems to be the most popular apparent source, giving rise to perhaps all three of the stamp designs shown below it - albeit with varying levels of artistic embellishment.

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The last stamp above additionally shows, at top, the exterior of the station, which can features at the far end of the avenue shown in the postcard below.

The stamp appears strongly influenced by the postcard shown and may be the inspiration for it. The view has been updated from c. 1905 to c.1920 with a less ornate horse-drawn cart and the addition of an electric tram.

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There are innumerable postcard views of this scene, photographed from near-identical positions above the Sainte Dévote Ravine, often with a train included. This postcard has exceptionally-close similarities to the painting reproduced on the stamp and it may well have been the artist's source of inspiration.

See our article on Monaco for further stamps and postcard views of the Principality.

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Nicaragua

Mount Momotombo & Steam Train, exact image. There are two quite extensive articles on the Momotombo stamps of Nicaragua amongst our articles (link in left panel).

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Senegal

Gare de Dakar, from a set of four stamps, all being reproductions of old postcards. We have seen many postcards of la Gare de Dakar but this certainly seems to be the source material with only minor modification by the the modern artist, including some simplification of the tree's foliage and a reduction in the number of people present.

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Peru

Finally, as we had these to hand, an example of turning a photograph into an artist's sketch and finally into a stamp.

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