China- Dream Of Red Mansion

Hi all

Off late I am bitten by China stamps and have been buying quite some china stamps now. I am mesmerised by 3 stamp sets in particular.

White haired girl
Dream of red mansion (see picture below)and
Huangshan yellow mountain set.







While the white haired girl and huangshan stamps are available as used stamps, Dream of red mansion is only available as a souvenir sheet. Its pretty costly for a amature stamp collector like me but I am somehow greatly attracted by the sheer beauty of these 3 stamp sets.

I wanted to see if anyone here knows more about these 3 stamp sets, dream of red mansions in particular. I want to know why is it that even though it being a much sought after stamp it is not available in used condition ???

Hello jagsp, welcome!

I have not seen many Chian stamps. There is a thread / topic on here just recently that talked about the White-haired girl set.

The Dream of Red Mansion is pretty from what I can see of it. Some here know more about China, perhaps khj, but they may be away and not see this right away. Be patient.

I see and hear that China stamps are very up in price as investors are speculating on them going up further.

I would just be like you and not worry about the pricing too much but be concentrated on the beauty and interest of the stamps themselves.

if I am not boring ,

its very difficult to refrain from buying something as pretty as that stamp. I have set my heart on it but my mind is not in sync with my heart. it costs around 160$ , I can afford it and I know 20 years later it may fetch me double the price. but I dont want to buy with the intent of selling. thats where the problem begins. it feels insane to spend 160$ on a single piece of paper.

thats the reason I wanted to check wheather I could even find a used version for a lesser price.. as you said let me wait for more inputs..

Check out this auction.

http://cgi.ebay.com/China-T69M-B-So...em4cf1cdb149

If you like the design and just want to own it, this might be a way to get it...the speculators are probably going to ignore this auction.

The Dream of the Red Chamber/Mansion (Honglou Meng) is one of the four great classical novels. This is the Wiki entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_..._Red_Chamber

I find it the least attractive of the four, but the other three are well worth tracking down and reading. They are 'The Water Margin' (translated by Pearl S. Buck as 'All Men Are Brothers') something akin to a Chinese Robin Hood story, 'The Journey to the Western Paradise' (translated by Arthur Waley as 'Monkey') and the story of the Monkey King that all Chinese children love, or used to love anyway, and the Jin Ping Mei (in a really horrible translation as 'The Gold Lotus', and in a bowdlerised version as 'The Mandarin and His Six Wives') - a sort of Chinese Dallas or Dynasty, and really great read.

Thanks a ton cjd I dont know how I missed to see this one on ebay. however I know this one will cross the 150$ mark as well..i have seen atleast 6 similar items cross the 100$ mark. anyway I have put a bid on it. appreciate your gesture. Thanks

@tonymacg
stamps excite me more than books. yeah I did go through that wiki entry when I had first seen this stamp.

@tony

I liked the story behind 'the white haired girl' stamp set..
here it is
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Haired_Girl

Hi all,

I come from China. Sorry that my English is not fluent!

The stamp of the Dream of Red Mansion is expensive in china, about 1650RMB in China.

Hello sungeidai

You have come at the right time.

I basically collect odd shaped stamps but in the recent past I came across some really beautiful china stamps. Cultural revolutions in particular and those issued in the 1980s. Dream of red mansion is one such. What seems strange though is that I see a lot of MNH souvenir "sheet" of this stamp but nowhere have I come across a used version of only the stamp. its either an FDC or even the used ones in ebay comes as a souvenir sheet pasted on the mailing letter. why is it so any idea ? Also , why exactly is the stamp so costly ?

Hi Jagsp,

Cultural revolutions is from 1966 to 1976, but Dream of Red Mansion was issued in 1981.

You know, the postage was eight cents in 1980's, but the souvenir sheet is value 200 cents, so people have not chance to use so expensive postage, that is why you can not see the used version now.

The stamp is 450RMB in 2007, but now it is about 1500RMB.

the cost of Chinese stamps increase fastly......Tell the truth, I have not the Chinese stamps before the 1990's because of is is so expensive...

hmm.. looks like I will never own this stamp in my lifetime

jagsp£¬don't disheartenment, I will help you to find these stamps in China's shop.

By the way, there is another huang mountain stamps which issued in 1997.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Chinese-Stamps-...em1c10d4827a

Hi Jagsp,

Please see the link.

http://www.zhaoonline.com/detail/au...l.shtml#tab1

I can help you to bid this stamps. Would you tell me your maxinum price?