Art Deco! magic stuff.
these reside in my top 100 stamps of all time.
Karl Bickel designer and engraver created a knockout.
When ever I see these, especially the pilot, I cannot
for the life of me, avoid also seeing Lee Falk's "The Phantom"
Airmail was still a novelty in the twenties and thirties and the artists who designed stamps for this purpose strove to
produce designs which were suitably avant-garde. Consequently, a large proportion of Art Deco stamps was
intended for airmail. The Swiss air stamps from 1923 to 1932 faithfully reflected current trends in Art Deco, from
the contrast of white on solid grounds of Bickel's 1923 series to the jazzy interpretation of 'Peace and the Air Post'
produced by O. Baumberger in honour of the International Disarmament Conference of 1932. P. E. Vibert's 2
franc stamp of 1929, with a stylized pigeon against starkly outlined clouds, is another good example. Hungary's
airmail series of 1933, with its symbolic design alluding to the gift of aircraft from Fascist Italy, and the allegory of
the Spirit of Flight, used cloud and sunray motifs. The airmails of 1936 relied on contrasting bands of colour and
the wrought-iron lettering to achieve their purpose.
William Finlay: Illus stamp design.
Some more work of Karl Bickel
Posted 08/31/2010 01:26 am
k
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