Alphabetilately: C is for Cinderella

C is for Cinderella Stamp - Page 2

More Poster Stamps - Multi-year sets

Many organizations and events that met or were celebrated yearly created Poster Stamps. I find these series especially appealing, particularly when they use an identical or similar design from year to year. The one above is interesting for the ways the design developed over the five years shown. I suspect there was no National Foreign Trade Week in the WWII years, so 1941 is probably the latest year for which a stamp was created. I just recently acquired the 1937 stamp, and am on the lookout for earlier ones.

More multi-year sets here.

Click here to access my web page about what may be the longest multi-year set in the US, the poster stamps created to advertise the Chicago International Live Stock Exposition.

Crane Stationery Ad

Here's a sheet of modern Cinderellas/Poster Stamps with a message.
This promotional piece was produced in 1991 by one of the original sponsors of the slide presentation from which this exhibit evolved, ( Crane stationery) in two sizes - this one, 8-1/2x11 inches overall, and a larger one, with each "stamp" 8- 1/2x11 - unfolded, that's almost 3x4 feet!

Artistamps and Mail Art

Another large - and relatively modern - subarea of Cinderellas is Artistamps and Mail Art.

Artistamps are stamps created by artists as works of art. Many artists enjoy the challenge of creating a work as small as a stamp that still communicates something important to them. Some also like to use their creations on mail, either as decoration, or in place of a real stamp, to see if they can fool the authorities. The cover above epitomizes to me what Mail Art is about. Its creator, Steve Smith, markets his own Artistamps, and when I bought some, created this envelope to send them in, using his own "stamps" (plus official USPS issues as well, of course) to mail them to me, and knowing my love of trains, enhanced the gift with not only his own train-related artworks, but an address of trains as well.
Here's a link to a great site with extensive mail art links.

As I mention at the bottom of my Z is for Zeppelin Post page, German artist and artistamp creator Uwe Bressem has produced two panes of stamps to promote the Cargolifter venture. Above is a "press sheet" of the two panes. If you would like to buy some, try a web search for the artist's name - his web site was defunct when I last looked.

Protest Stamps

One of the aspects of collecting that I enjoy most is the stories, and the human element. The item above is a good example - it's the initial design for a sheet of stamps the USPS issued in 1995, for the 50th anniversary of the end of WWII. Note the stamp in the center of the bottom row, showing the explosion of an atomic bomb, and the text "Atomic bombs hasten War's end, August 1945".

Yielding to pressure from high government officials, the Postal Service replaced that design with the one shown in the center of the bottom row above, "Truman announces Japan's surrender, Aug. 14, 1945".

One result was a storm of protests from veterans, and the release of stamps like the ones above. I acquired these five without working at it, so I suspect there are many others like them - they document an interesting modern event, and the strong emotions surrounding it. I picked up the cover below as an additional souvenir of the controversy.