From our Collections...
The most famous air stamp is the USA ‘Inverted Jenny’ issued in 1918. The 24c value depicted a blue ‘Jenny’ within a red frame. A number of sheets were fed into the printer for the second colour upside down, only one sheet of which remained undestroyed. Examples turn up for auction from time to time and always sell in excess of £125,000.
This is my example of an ‘Inverted Jenny’. I managed to get it for just £6. You will note that, whilst the DELAWARE/OHIO pre-cancel overprint has been applied inverted, sadly, the two colours blue and red remain correctly orientated!
The set of 3 FDC’s of the 1947 USA Air Stamps, issued on separate days. These were actually sent through the post to a common address in New York, from the 3 different cities depicted in the designs.
Due to its unusual typography, Chile was unusually dependent on aircraft to deliver its mail between cities. Services to Europe developed in the 1930’s. Here is an early commercial cover, dated 1934 flown from Valparaiso to Naples.
Here is another 1934 Argentina to Europe cover flown from Buenos Aires to Freidrichshafen by Graf Zeppelin L127. This was the sister ship of L129’ The Hindenburg’ which tradjically crashed in New York, putting an end to Airship travel as a commercial enterprize.
A special propaganda flight cover carried by ‘The Hindenburg’ over the Olympic Stadium in Belin during the 1934 opening ceremony attended by Adolf Hitler – unusual in that it was franked with contemporary issues of the time, rather than the more usual Olympic set specially issued for the occasion.
A fully commercial cover flown balloon in 1871 during the German Siege of Paris. This was one of the last 4 flights to land and be retrieved successfully before the siege was lifted some 10 days later.
And lastly – a mystery cover. I havn’t been able to establish whether this issue was indeed printed by Harrisons, or why the cylinder numbers have been struck through. Any ideas?
