The French Congo was the original French colony established in the present-day area of the Republic of the Congo, Gabon, and the Central African Republic. It began in 1880 as a protectorate, and its borders with Cabinda, Cameroons, and the Congo Free State were established by treaties over the next decade. French Congo was temporarily divided between Gabon and Middle Congo in 1906, before being reunited as French Equatorial Africa in 1910 in an attempt to copy the relative success of French West Africa.
The first postage stamps for the colony were overprints issued in 1891 on the generic issue for the French colonies. They read "Congo francais" followed by the value, either 5c, 10c, or 15c. In 1892 the omnibus Navigation and Commerce issue included stamps inscribed "CONGO FRANCAIS". A pictorial series followed, in 1900; its images included a leopard, Bakalois woman, and a coconut grove, printed in pairs of colors, some rather garish. A couple of provisional surcharges on the Navigation and Commerce stamps proved necessary in 1900, and two more were needed on the pictorials, in 1903.
The watermarks of the pictorials of 1900 are unlike any other watermarks used in the French area; they are plant branches, with thistle for the low values (up to 15c), rose for middle values (up to 75c), and an olive branch for the three franc values.
Famous quotes containing the words postage stamps and, postage stamps, postage, stamps, postal, history and/or french:
“Designs in connection with postage stamps and coinage may be described, I think, as the silent ambassadors on national taste.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“Designs in connection with postage stamps and coinage may be described, I think, as the silent ambassadors on national taste.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“Designs in connection with postage stamps and coinage may be described, I think, as the silent ambassadors on national taste.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“Even in harmonious families there is this double life: the group life, which is the one we can observe in our neighbour’s household, and, underneath, another—secret and passionate and intense—which is the real life that stamps the faces and gives character to the voices of our friends. Always in his mind each member of these social units is escaping, running away, trying to break the net which circumstances and his own affections have woven about him.”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)
“This is the Night Mail crossing the Border,
Bringing the cheque and the postal order,
Letters for the rich, letters for the poor,
The shop at the corner, the girl next door.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)
“Don’t give your opinions about Art and the Purpose of Life. They are of little interest and, anyway, you can’t express them. Don’t analyse yourself. Give the relevant facts and let your readers make their own judgments. Stick to your story. It is not the most important subject in history but it is one about which you are uniquely qualified to speak.”
—Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966)
“But compared with the task of selecting a piece of French pastry held by an impatient waiter a move in chess is like reaching for a salary check in its demand on the contemplative faculties.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)