Art Deco Designs / Vehicles / Architecture On Stamps

I am an antiques collector. I have a focus on early 20th century art movements. My absolute favourite early 20th century movement is Art Deco. In terms of antiques, art deco items are very desirable and thus extremely expensive. I decided to start collecting as many art deco stamps as I could, especially cheap ones from the original art deco period (1910s-1950s). I want to share what I have and hope that others can share theirs and inform me of other stamps that I should look for to add to my collection.

Art deco is very special to me. It is so beautiful, combining classicalism from ancient Rome and Greece with modernist geometry and symmetry. I have tried to make my own art deco designs, but I am no artist. I love photographing art deco buildings and learning their history.

Here is an example of my art deco collection at the moment. Netherlands colonies of Suriname and Curacao issued some incredible art deco designs in the 1930s.

15 September 1924.
100 years of the Dutch rescue society, i.e., lifeboat institute.
Design by Pieter Adrianus Hendrik Hofman.
NVPH nrs. 139 - 140.

Let's not forget the Irish high-value definitives depicting Saint Patrick and the Paschal Fire. There are a few of these sets.

@NSK Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe those are the only Irish art deco stamps ever issued. Truly a shame, but excellent stamps nonetheless. I have some coming in the post, but they are taking their time.

Lots of dutch stamps I am after, lots that I will post here. The dutch equivalent to art deco was called "Amsterdam School Style" and can be found on lots of early 20th century dutch stamps.

Wikipedia page for Amsterdam School: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amsterdam_School

These Swiss airmail stamps, I believe from 1925, are definitely in my favourite stamps list.

The prevalent style in the Netherlands was Art Nouveau. The Amsterdam School represents a style that transitions from Art Nouveau to Art Deco. I think a designer that falls in the same transitional category is Chris Lebeau, who designed the flying dove (absolutely not flying gull) stamps.




Here is another Dutch stamp with Art Deco elements: the frame and typographic elements.



As for Ireland, it issued about a dozen commemoratives up to 1940 and the Irish Symbols definitives. So there were not many opportunities to issue Art Deco designs.

Similarily, England did not issue many art deco stamps either. Here is one of the only examples of English art deco stamps I know of, from the 1946 peace issue. There is also a nice art deco design from England from the 1949 UPU commemorative issue, not in my collection.

One stamp from the event which art deco derives it's name from. The 1925 Paris International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts. I have a full set, but this particular design from the set, I believe, is most representative of the style.

I got quite lucky and found this 1928 Uruguay "Albatross over beach" airmail in a random lot. There are two sets, the first set is imperf, this is from the later perforated set. Both sets are very rare and expensive.

In 1953, the Canadian Government presented seven nickel-silver doors for the main entrance of the General Assembly building, United Nations, NY. Each door is faced with four Art Deco bas-relief panels symbolizing peace, justice, fraternity and truth, ideals upon which the United Nations is founded.

The doors were created by Ernest Cormier,(1885-1980), a Canadian engineer and architect, spent much of his career in designing notable examples of Art Deco architecture.

A set of four stamps, designed by Ole Hamann and issued by the United Nations on May 28, 1967, shows the four allegorical figures.

There are some incredible art deco designs featuring Mercury from Belgium on railway parcel post stamps.

The first is a set of 6 stamps from 1945.
Here is my personal set.



The next is a 25fr stamp from 1951.

@LaoPhil I have those stamps on a cover from the UN pavillion at the 1967 World's Fair in Canada. I knew about them coming from the reliefs seen on the UN building doors, but never knew the history of the designer. I read about him and looked at his works.

Another country that produced a number of stamps that fall into this category is Russia. This set is one of my favourites more for the topic than for the design. It was an anti-war propoganda issue which came out on January 1, 1935 and most probably fits with your topic even though the designs are much more "cartoonish".

Again Russia but more in line with the transportation theme. These Airmail stamps from 1937 use elements of the artistic theme while still showing fairly accurate renderings of the actual planes.

Latin America made a lot of beautiful art deco designs. Here is my set of the 1934 7th Rio De Janeiro International Trade Fair stamps.

Geneva Disarmement Conference, 1932.