Barcelona & Catalonia Cinderellas

You're killing me with your last thread (Philatelic Exhibition sheetlets)!


Cheers

Well, I'm trying to show our real cinderellas, not just the nicer ones. And, as I wrote before, Catalan cinderella's design level falls sharply after the Civil War. This is because many artist go to exile or are banned from working for being either leftists or Catalan Nationalists (or both).
At late fifties, this starts to change. A sample, is this Barcelona touristic poster stamp designed in 1958 by Amand Domènech (Barcelona, 1920 - 2002), showing very schematically some of our city's main features: its more typical promenade, la Rambla de les Flors (Flower's Promenade), a Gothic arch (symbol of the Old Town) and the Mediterranean sea.

Two 1951 cinderellas from Tortosa (Southern Catalonia) issued for their 2nd philatelic exhibition.

Still loving this thread
Return for the first time this year and it is still near the top of the 100 most active and easy to find.

David

That Barcelona 1950's stamp seems done in an impressionist type of way.
Very Nice.

Thank you very much for your continous encouragement. And, as it seems that we've got quite a few followers, let the show continue! I've material to keep the thread running for a while, and I add new items to my collection every week... I hope you won't get tired.

Following the recovery trend of Catalan cinderellas design at the end of 1950 decade, we've got this big (53 x 70 mm!) one:





Designed by Ramon Rogent (Barcelona, 1920, Pla d'Orgon, France, 1958), this poster stamp advertises the 3td exhibition of the "Asociación del Arte Actual" (Modern Art Association, in the then compulsory Spanish), held on May 1959 in the chapel of Barcelona's Holy Cross Old Hospital. This hospital, a jewel of Catalan Gothic architecture (XV century), is the site of Catalonia's National Library.

Jumping back to 1936. Some pages ago I showed a cinderella for the ill-fated 1936 Barcelona People's Olympiad:





As I've been able to find the other two, which are just different on the text. The last saying "Catalan Committee for People's Sport". I'm showing them:





They were issued on 25 items sheets with straight edges, as it can be seen on the second cinderella.

I've also found something on the background of them.

The author was Fritz (also known as Fred, Frederic or Federico) born on 1893, somewhere in Germany, he studied Arts in Düsseldorf. Being from a Jew family, he emigrated to Catalonia in 1933, where he workedvas artist until 1936 when he went to fight at the International Brigades. In 1938 he went to the US, teaching at the Cinnati, Ohio, Fine Arts School until his death in 1950.

The cinderella was commisioned by the Propaganda Dpt. of the Catalan Governement chairman, Jaume Miravitlles. Born in 1906 in Figueres (North of Catalonia), the town of Salvador Dali, whose friend he was. Catalan freedom fighter, his department launched during the 1936/1939 war what we call "the good taste revolution" due to the high quality of its propaganda products: cinderellas, posters, films... Being very western minded, he had also the good taste of choosing New York City, for his 1948/1962 exile (I would take it also for mine!) he worked for the South America broadcasting, upon his return to Barcelona, where he died in 1988.

What I like most of cinderellas is that some seem to bring a history with them...

Lets take this poorly done one I saw about 10 days ago on e-Bay:






It just says "Campionat de Catalunya de Rem" (Catalonia's Rowing Championship) a rower and a badge. No date.
But I remembered seeing something alike on a Catalan sport poster book:





That's better. Here, you can read that this championship was orgamised by the Centre Autonomista de Dependents del Comerç I de la Indústria (CADCI, for short)which was a Catalan Nationalist Union of Commerce and Industry junior clerks and white-collars. A very influential worker's association in Catalonia up to 1939. It's obvious that the cinderella was taken from the poster.

Note:I've just found, in a book that I bought yesterday (April 28th 2012) that the above poster was the work of Ramon Rigol I Font (Barcelona, 1891-1976).





We read also, that it was the January 1917 championship, competing for the Cup of the Mancomunitat de Catalunya, a semiautonomous Government that ran Catalonia from 1915 to 1924; whose president up to August 1917 was Enric Prat de la Riba (Castellterçol, 1870 - 1917).







The two last cinderellas belong to a collection of 400 ones, issued in 1933, that perhaps deserve a later explanation. We'll see...

Anyway, this was the history that the first cinderella (now, safely in my album) told me. I hope you liked it.

Cinderellas issued as mini-sheets for the 1956 Philathelic and Numismatic exhibitions of the Barcelona's neighborhood of Sants-Hostafrancs (Sans-Hostafranchs in the, then compulsory, Spanish language), showing the main Barcelona City Council building in that area of the town. There are 6 colours of each cinderella.







You can see that the text is written in English, Italian, Esperanto, Spanish, French and German languages. But, curiously enough, not in Catalan, the language spoken by most people organizing, participating and attending the exhibition; as our language was forbidden by Franco's fascist regime.

As we go into the sixties, we get the first photographic poster-stamps. See this one, with a dangerous woman (watch the big scissors she's holding!) from a 1964 taylor's fair:





Anyway, the picture is pretty good as it was taken by Leopold Pomés (Barcelona, 1931) one of our leading photographers.

Ripoll, in Northern Catalonia, is considered the cradle of our nation. In its XI century Monastery Church, some of our early rulers are buried.
1935 Catalonia's Esperanto Congress.

Two civil war cinderellas: the first one is of the "el Masnou" a town by the sea 20 km North of Barcelona. The second one was issued by the political party, "Acció Catalana Republicana" to raise money for refugee children.

Rising human castles, "Castellers" in Catalan,is a very widespread folkloric/sportive activity in Catalonia. With their motto: "Strenght, Balance, Bravery and Good Sense", they have deserved to be considered Humanhood Immaterial Inheritance by the UNESCO. Philatelic, Numismatic and Cinderella's exhibition in el Vendrell (60 km South of Barcelona) in July 1967.

Last week I ran into this nice early cinderella, and I was able to buy it. I hope you'll enjoy it. Is from the 1922 Barcelona Trading Fair.

Two cinderellas, of a set of three issued between 1910 and 1924 to rise money for a first aid hospital in Sarrià, now a Barcelona trendy neighbourhood, but up to 1924 an independent hilly village.