The Coming of Pictorials and Other Philatelic Items

What really gave a tremendous fillip to philately as an art or hobby was the coming of pictorial stamps, commonly called ‘pictorials’. These include pictorial definitives, pictorial commemoratives (issued to commemorate an event) and special issues (issued on special occasions), all of which depict the intrinsic beauty of a nation’s flora and fauna, its art and culture, its science and technological achievements. Multicouloured setenants or sets of stamps, issued with say two or four stamps in a set – like the set of four multicolours issued in June 1975 to commemorate the 500th Anniversary of Michelangelo, and ‘miniature sheets’ – like the Mahatma Gandhi MS miniature sheet with two issued on 2nd October, 1995 – have given a tremendous spur to thematic lovers, who look for unusual aspects of information brought out in the theme related to the country of issue or to other closely allied themes.

Though the Post Office was founded in Britain in as early as 1635 with primitive means of mail carriage, the first postage stamp ever to be issued in the world was the famous Penny Black issued in black ink on the 6th May 1840 for one penny depicting the head of Queen Victoria. Sir Rowland Hill – subsequently, Post Master General – could achieve Parliament’s backing for the ‘Penny Post’ that year and this ushers in the era of the modern pre-paid postal services using postage stamps. However, one must not that a ‘lady’ was chosen to be represented in the first ever stamp of the world. Quite a few philatelists in India possess the Penny Black and its subsequent issues.

Ever since the 1860s, collecting postage stamps began to grow as a hobby, especially with the coming of illustrated stamp catalogues, magazines and albums in Europe and North America. By the 1890s, many countries of Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand began to issue pictorial postage stamps depicting the scenic beauty of their countries. The first pictorial issued of New Zealand on Lake Wakitipu for 21/2 D of the 1890’s is one such example. They are considered as classic designs and were reused a century after its release.

The collection of Postal Stationary items also was established during this time. The 1910’s and 1920’s saw the prominent rise in the use of Postcards, and if used with pictorial stamps on them, we have the beginning of Maxim Cards and the collection of such cards, called Maximaphily. The coming of airplanes and stamps depicting them in the 1920’s ushers in the era of Aero philately.