pedroguy

12 Feb 2016
10:49:11pm

re: Uruguay Scott 154 -- Girls Head

Scott catalog has the same description "Girls Head" Issued in 1900 Scott #154 Cat. Value .80 cents mint .25 cents used

That's it

Bill

 
2 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.

Guthrum

13 Feb 2016
05:11:23am

re: Uruguay Scott 154 -- Girls Head

The iconography here - the sun's rays as well as the well-developed angels - suggests a more general symbol of the burgeoning of youth and fecundity, and by extension that of the mother country, the Uruguayan state, emerging from a period of military rule into an era of economic expansion. However, there was trouble to come (another attempted coup by the Blancos) before the government could settle into comparative prosperity.

 
2 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.

youpiao

13 Feb 2016
07:41:47am

re: Uruguay Scott 154 -- Girls Head

The "Diligencias" with the girl's head in the sun, is always interpreted as representing the birth of the republic. This newer stamp appears to be a more sophisticated version of the same design.

 
4 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.

scb

Collecting the world 1840 to date - one stamp at a time!
14 Feb 2016
02:12:04am

re: Uruguay Scott 154 -- Girls Head

I've always thought this stamp to be be an artists adaption/tribute to Goyas 'nude Maja' (there's something similar about the head & hair).

But likely the more allegorical roots are more true.

-k-

 
2 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.

re: Uruguay Scott 154 -- Girls Head

The Uruguay set from 1900, including the 5c Girl's head, was engraved / printed by Waterlow & Sons Ltd., an English company.

 
3 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.

re: Uruguay Scott 154 -- Girls Head

Hey Jill and Eric,

I found this picture of Waterlow and Sons letterhead on eBay. It makes me wonder if these engraving shops had a "stable" of artists that worked for them exclusively or if different engravers would go from job to job with different shops as they landed big contracts. This is pure conjecture on my part, but I bet you can see the work of various artists across the industry and that the individual artists influenced and perhaps even copied each others work.

-Ernie

Login to Like
this post

youpiao

15 Feb 2016
09:43:53am

re: Uruguay Scott 154 -- Girls Head

@winedrinker

Resistance is futile.

The Philatelic Club of Uruguay has a specialized catalogue for Uruguay available online for a nominal fee of 0.00 Pesos ($o.oo USD at current exchange rates).
http://www.clubfilatelicodeluruguay.com/BiblioFrame1.html (2nd link in the left-hand navigation bar.)

The link above that one takes you to a page with pdf articles available for download.

And John Apfelbaum had this to say about collecting Uruguay, in his blog:

SPECIALIZATION AREA: URUGUAY
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19TH, 2015
What Can Be Done: Uruguay is a wonderful country to collect. The classics are interesting and hard to find, but not particularly pricey. The Uruguayan first issues are called the "Suns," and they have long had tremendous specialty interest by themselves. The later nineteenth century has many better stamps (and in Uruguayan philately a “better” stamp sells for $50 where in US or British philately it would sell for $500). There are many surcharged issues in the latter nineteenth century (There are probably more surcharged issues in Latin America from 1870-1930 than the rest of the world combined. Many of these Latin American countries were poor, and inflation and economic problems were common. It was far cheaper to surcharge stamps when rates and taxes changed than it was to create new issues. Many surcharge varieties exist as the print shops that did the surcharging work were primitive and the workers ill trained. Uruguay had its share of interesting overprint varieties, and they make for good collecting).

Twentieth century Uruguayan philately is a very nice collecting experience. The stamps are plentiful enough to make the search interesting but not overly expensive. The postal issuing policies of the Uruguayan post office have been conservative. There have never been an excess of new issues (Until about 1990 when the postal agencies of many third world countries was taken over by businesses in New York, countries that had small domestic philatelic demand generally issued few stamps as there was no one to buy them. These countries make for good collecting). Uruguay airmails are very interesting and have many better sets, and the Officials are fun too.

Specialty Catalogs: Scott is pretty good for Uruguay. By straight listings, Uruguay is not a particularly difficult country to master and for which to make a pretty comprehensive collection. The varieties are tough, though, and there are many of them. I think the Officials are particularly interesting and that the Scott catalog prices on these are particularly off base. The prices for Officials are low and yet collectors almost never have them, and they are rarely offered for sale. (Officials of most countries are often among their most interesting issues. They were always issued for definite postal purpose and never have a philatelic-issued-for-collector-demand component. Notification of their being issued was rarely made in advance, and many are surcharged at the last minute for particular purposes and in very small quantities. I’ve never seen a specialized collection of Officials of the world—it would be a great way to specialize).

Specialty Album: The Scott Specialty series is very good for most of South America, and Uruguay is no exception. Davo (a Dutch album producer) makes a good specialized Uruguay album, and there is a hingeless version of the album that I’ve seen and which is very nice. Davo is imported to the United states, so it should be easy to find.

Expense: Uruguayan philately is in the “Goldilocks zone” (ie. just right, being neither too expensive nor too cheap). The first twenty or so issues are pricey and then, too, some of the Airmails. Besides that, the country is very manageable from a price standpoint.

Availability of Material: This is the best part of collecting Uruguay. The stamps are not too hard to find, yet they sell quickly so that diligence and the ability to pull the buying trigger is necessary to making a good collection. Uruguay is one of those countries with great interest outside of country natives (which is fortunate as, with a population of only three million, Uruguay couldn’t have much of a domestic collector base).

Overall Grade: A

So, winedrinker, you with me yet?

 
3 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.

re: Uruguay Scott 154 -- Girls Head

In 2013 and 2014, Uruguay was one of the countries that I selected to concentrate on. Of particular interest to me was filling in the spaces on the older material. The Scott catalog values are often the same for used or unused. I prefer mint, never hinged. I could hardly find any unused or MNH of older material. There is plenty of used stamps available, but unused is much harder to find. I did not buy the used stamps, and most of those spaces remain empty.

 
2 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.