Great Stamp Blunders - More on the Simplon Tunnel
Rodney
I did some detective work, and turned this up.
I am now off to try and find the "Gotthard Mail" by Rudolf Koller
Cheers
Rod
Pictured is the 1956 25L Simplon Tunnel stamp issued by Italy.
Numbered "931" by Stanley Gibbons, the stamp has been called
"a comedy of errors" by some critical philatelists. (See story.)
RAILROAD ERROR
When Italy commemorated the 50th anniversary of its
Simplon Tunnel with a 25 lire stamp on May 19, 1956, the issue
must have caused quite some embarrassment in high places.
The horse-drawn coach to the left of the tunnel exit on the stamp is a copy of the
painting "Gotthard Mail" by Rudolf Koller!
But, there are some worse serious mistakes in the design of this un-usual stamp. The
old Simplon street for example, is on the wrong side of the right-of-way of the
railroad.
Instead of the single track until 1921, the design shows two tracks and two tunnel
arches. Pictured riding on the right side the train is clearly misplaced, as trains roll
left in Italy. The "coup de grace" is the steam locomotive emerging from the tunnel -
traffic has, in fact, been electrified since the tunnel was commissioned!
Stamps such as this one, often make a very interesting addition to a collection,
especially when all the relevant information is printed alongside. The Simplon Tunnel
Stamp is not highly catalogued either - Stanley Gibbons listed it at 20 pence (mint)
and 5 pence (used) in their 1978 "Stamps of the World 'catalogue.
Rodney
Alt Vista turned up Zippo.
If anyone can supply a link, will be appreciated.
Rod
"Rodney" <rod...@touch88.com.au> wrote in message news:3de8...@usenet.per.paradox.net.au...
Victor Manta
>
> Alt Vista turned up Zippo.
> If anyone can supply a link, will be appreciated.
> Rod
>
http://www.kunsthaus.ch/kunsthaus/PMKoller_E.pdf
Victor Manta
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Philatelic Webmasters Organization: http://pwmo.org
1900 Links Online: http://pwmo.org/weblinks/links.asp
Art on Stamps: http://values.ch
Romania Shown by Its Stamps: http://marci-postale.com
Spanish Africa: http://www.values.ch/sna-site/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
TC
wrote:
Rod:
Check out:
http://www.gotthardpost.ch/html/frameset-E.html
A travel (historic post) company offers a trip
in a similar postal landau over the Gotthard Pass.
Notice the 5 horse team (3 in front,
2 in the rear).
More photos:
http://www.gotthardpost.ch/picts/tv/angebotbild.jpg
http://www.gotthardpost.ch/picts/tv/impress1.jpg
http://www.gotthardpost.ch/picts/team1/team1_r2_c1.gif
http://www.gotthardpost.ch/picts/linkbild.jpg
Re: Gotthard Post and the Freiberger horse
http://www.pferdezeitung.com/img/Ausgaben/134/8.jpg
The Freiberger horse with its momentumful running and
compact body is an ideal driving horse. Here we see
the Conductor and Postman riding the Post coach. These
two operate the so-called Gotthard post office, which
you naturally also find in the InterNet under:
http://www.gotthardpost.ch.
With their FIVE Freiberger horses, which you see in
above-mentioned picture, they drive in the summer
months from May to October a daily Post Coach Service
with historical background.
Already in old paintings of the painter Rudolf Koller,
we see an illustration of the Gotthard post office
on the Gotthard Pass road of 125 years years ago.
Around that year - 1875 - believe it or not, 70,000
passengers were carried by annually post coach. Yes,
and it is seen today. With a coupé Landau, which was
copied the original Gotthard post office coach, and
five Freiberger horses straining before it to be able
to carry passengers on the journey via the Tessiner Riviera.
The Swiss Realists
Rudolf Koller [Swiss painter, 1828-1905]
1873 - The Gotthard Post by Rudolph Koller
http://www.kunsthaus.ch/sammlung/images_sammlung/koller.jpg
Oil on canvas. 117 x 100 cm
Gift Dr. Emil Welti, 1898
Kunsthaus Zurich (Switzerland)
In 1848, there developed from the ancient states of the Swiss
Confederation, the modern democratic Federal State; at the
same time a fresh artistic generation, rich at gifts began to move:
Anchor, Boecklin, Buchser, and Koller reached out with
their impressive regional development of international
realism, for this previously rather peripheral country,
to make the connection to other European painting.
In this work, with artistic means Koller arranged reality,
which shows the Gotthard "mobile post office" at a determined pace,
passing over the postal route that, at that time, had existed
only for a few decades, but on which cattle had casually trotted
for centuries. Koller composed his famous painting as an allegory
of the acceleration of modern times and transportation.
For other works by Koller see:
http://cgfa.sunsite.dk/k/p-koller1.htm
The Richisau, 1858, oil on canvas,
Oskar Reinhart Collection, Winterthur
http://www.artrenewal.org/images/artists/K/Koller_Rudolf/small/museum/Koller_Rudolf_Schimmelpaar_Bei_Herannahendem_Gewitter__1877.jpg
Pair of horses in the approaching thunderstorm, 1877.
1877 Oil on canvas
40.16 x 51.97 inches / 102 x 132 cm
Private collection
Blair
Pierre Courtiade
>> G'day Bjorn,
>> I did some detective work, and turned this up.
>> I am now off to try and find the "Gotthard Mail" by Rudolf Koller
>> Cheers
>> Rod
Then, later on :
> Alt Vista turned up Zippo.
> If anyone can supply a link, will be appreciated.
> Rod
Hi Rod,
I searched (with Google.fr) for "Rudolf Koller" + "Gothard"
Here is one of the results I got :
http://www.glenatpresse.com/dyn/glenat/pagesasp/glenatpresse/accueil.asp
?url=http://www.glenatpresse.com/lalpe/02/mag.htm
Your only mistake, Mr Sherlock Holmes, was perhaps 2 "t" in Gothard ;-)
You will find there an image of this nice painting (4th from the top)
Here is a translation of the text below the painting :
Rudolf Koller. Gothard's mail, 1874.
At the time the work on the Gothard's railway line was just beginning,
this work of art, opposing the dynamism (movement) of the mail-coach and
the traditional image of the herd, appears to express a conflict between
modernism and the ancestral way of life.
The painting was ordered for Alfred Escher, then Chairman of the
North-East Railway Co and General Manager of Gothard's Railway Co.
[Painting] owned by Credit Suisse Group.
At the bottom of the page, there is a link to abstracts in English.
--
All the best,
Pierre Courtiade
pcou...@club-internet.fr
Rodney
My e album has a nice background story
surrounding that 25L Italian piece.
What lovely scenery.
Victor Manta
A nice (even if obviously very commercial) Bolivian sheet from my
collection, reproducing a work of R. Koller, can be found on the page about
Mail Coaches:
http://www.values.ch/Art-Gallery/Coach/coaches.htm
Victor Manta
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Art on Stamps: http://values.ch
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rodney
That's the best repo of his painting to date.
He paints a mean horse, one other I saw, was just as animated
and powerful.
Must say the harsh and dry licence he adopted, contrasts markedly
with the lushness of the scenery in the photo's.
"Victor Manta" <ma...@values.ch> wrote in message news:ascl23$plod7$1...@ID-86007.news.dfncis.de...