PORT DE LA ROCHELLE
by Robert T. Kinsley (FCPS #2180)
Another French rarity. In fact, we will introduce two rarities, not identified in the Scott catalogue and, if we include a mistake to be described later, there are at least three rarities as associated with
this issue.
The stamp (Figure 1) is the beautiful depiction,
by the eminent designer and engraver Henry Cheffer, of the Port of La Rochelle, capital of Charente-Maritime, a major seaport since the 12th century located north of Bordeaux. It is a far happier choice than competing designs, such as the one shown in Figure 2. An auction in April 1998 by Jacques Robineau of Paris offered five of the six varieties of this stamp described in the Yvert & Tellier catalogue (Scott lists only three), and two of those varieties commanded a catalogue valuation of 29,500 francs ($5300) and 28,000 francs ($5000). That's getting into rarity range.
The Port of La Rochelle stamp was the first French stamp to be printed by line-engraving on rotary presses. The three types of this stamp listed in Scott are No. 251, Type I, with a serif at the top of the "E" of POSTES (Figures 3 and 4), printed from March 22 to June 8, 1929; No. 251A, Type II, with a break at the bottom of the inside and outside of the "0" in 10 fr. (Figure 3) and no serif on the "E" printed from September 18, 1930 to May 4, 1931; and No. 252, Type III, with no breaks in the "0" and no serif on the "E" (Figures 3 and 5) printed between June 19, 1931 and 5 April 1932 and from January 19, 1935 to February 26, 1938.
Scott identifies Type III as dark ultramarine, while Yvert lists two shades of Type III, Yvert No. 261
as blue and No. 261a as outremer (ultramarine). French authorities prefer to consider just two types, with three transfer rolls (molettes) for the second type, the latter two of which resulted in Scott's Type III, but that's another story.
Now to the rarities as offered in Robineau's sale. There were two additional varieties of Type I produced, for each of which Yvert assigns a major number: No. 261A printed not in blue but in chaudron clair, a light reddish brown just like the concurrent Pont du Gard issue, and No. 261B, printed in brun-noir (brownish black). These two issues were printed in an unknown but very limited quantity for "an eminent French personage" according to FCPS member Henry Jervis, writing in The Philatelic Magazine of April 23, 1943. In that Robineau sale No. 261A realized 18,690 francs and No. 261B realized 17,955 francs. Bernard Behr, also of Paris, in his net price catalogue of February-May 1998, offers an imperforate variety of No. 261A (261Aa) for 19,000 hams as well as a superb copy of No. 261B for 21,000 francs (almost $4000). Behr also offered an imperforate variety of Yvert No. 261 (Scott No. 252, the Type III) as an essay, since it was printed in red. Rarer than any of these offerings is a very limited trial printing, updated, of the Type II in bright ultramarine.
Students of this issue at the time in France concluded that a single master die was used for this stamp, from which three molettes (transfer rolls or roller dies) were prepared, representing the three types, and four plates for the actual printing. Following the printing of Type I the master die was reworked, the letters thickened and lines strengthened, and in this process the serif on the "E" disappeared. After the open "O" flaws were detected in Type II the master die was corrected (Type III) since it was impractical to retouch every impression on the roller die. The stamps were printed in sheets of 25 until May 1936. When additional quantities of Type III were printed beginning in November 1937 a fourth plate was prepared to print the stamps in sheets of 50.
We promised a mistake, an error associated with this issue, and although numerous unlisted varieties, re-entries and plate wear flaws have been reported, those are not considered errors. We've all heard of collecting plate blocks. This specialty is also a serious collecting interest in France except instead of plate blocks they are coin datè (corner-dated) blocks. In France the date of printing is impressed by a separate roll on the lower left-hand corner of every sheet of line-engraved stamps (Figure 6)¹. As a result of a mistake which, at the time Henry Jervis reported on this issue in April 1943, had never been repeated, the plate was reversed and the first sheets of the first type, those printed on March 22 to 26, 1929, showed the date at the right corner.
Jervis claimed that the dated corner blocks of these few sheets rank in rarity just behind the exclusive chaudron clair printing for une personnalitè haut placè. Who was that person? [NDLR: Premier Raymond Poincarè and close relatives and friends have been mentioned.] A brief search of French sale catalogues did not turn up such an early corner block for sale, the earliest being April 20, 1929 offered by Behr in 1997 for 3500 francs. The search did reveal in that part of the Dubus collection offered by Jean-Francois Baudot in his December 1988 mail sale a copy of Yvert No. 261A which realized 12,500 francs, as well as two essays, one violet and one red. Baudot's sale of December 1993 contained, in addition to an early corner block of May 23, 1929, examples of an apparent constant variety of type II described as cadre au bas, bavures, rare (bottom frame line smudged, rare). His sale of March 1998 included another essay, this time in green se-tenant with an essay of the Pont du Gard issue (Figure 7); the pair realized 14,200 francs (almost $2600). This suggests that an additional plate was prepared for these colorful essays.
Thus with special dignitary issues, varieties, essays, misplaced corner dates and lots of re-entries, this issue has much to commend it to the serious, as well as affluent, collector.
Endnote
[1] The Chambron rotary presses deliver sheets of large size stamps in continuous rolls with the short sides of the stamps parallel to the edges of the roll. Thus, a sheet of stamps of vertical design will appear to be dated on the right hand corner even though the date is actually on the left side as the sheet emerged from the press.
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