Mexican Philately Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

In the 1860s postage stamp collecting began to become popular and by the end of the century was a world-wide passion, spawning stamp clubs, philatelic journals, stamp dealers and postage stamp albums. Mexico lagged behind the United States and Europe due to the wars and internal turmoil of the mid-century. Nevertheless, between 1889 and 1912 some 11 philatelic journals were published, mostly in Mexico City and Guanajuato. This article describes each journal, the number of issues, and the contents. The first page of the first issue of each journal is illustrated and other illustrations of interest. Most of these journals are preserved in the Crawford Philatelic Library, part of the British Library.

The artists who designed the early postage stamps of Mexico have largely been a mystery. Here, four of the first six stamps are attributed to Vicente Villegas (1856-1861 Hidalgo stamp), Sebastián C. Navalón (1864 Eagle and 1866 Maximilian stamps), Luis G. Campa (1866 Maximilian design), and Antonio Orellana (1868 Hidalgo stamp). All these artists were associated with the Academia de San Carlos, the leading art school in Mexico. Although these artists are well documented in the art literature, there is no indication in that literature that they also produced stamps. The history of Mexico’s early stamps was closely intertwined with the Academy. Some of these and other Academy artists went on to hold positions in the government stamp printing office. A previously unpublished drawing for the Maximilian stamp is illustrated along with an Academy commission to two faculty to produce the model. Attributions that have been made to Francisco Iacomet, José Villegas, Joubert and Gavalon are erroneous.