Welcome readers to todays offering from The Philatelist. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. We have an interesting story today of a stamp that lasted twenty years in various editions, by which time the building being celebrated lay in ruins.
The issue today has the look of many early 20th century Latin American stamps. An impressive façade of a building in the classic style with much filigree. It must be remembered that these countries were new and unstable, and so it is understandable to try to allay peoples fears by trying to put forth an aura of stability and permanence.
The stamp today is issue A34, an August 1924 reprint of the 1902 issue. It is possible to tell the issues apart by some color issues and the small writing Perkins Bacon and co, ld londres on the bottom of the stamp. 7 of the original 10 stamp issue were reprinted in 1924.The issue displays Guatemalan architecture. This particular stamp displays what was then known as the Colon, (Columbus), Theatre. The reprint is worth 25 cents cancelled. The original version of the stamp from 1902 is worth 40 cents. The version of this stamp to look out for is an imperferate vertical pair version that is worth $100.
The façade on the stamp is of the Carrera Theatre, located on the central square of Guatemala City, the capital of Guatemala. When built in 1852, it was named Carrera. Later it was renamed the National Theatre. In 1892, it was refurbished and expanded in celebration of the 400 anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s voyage to the New World and renamed in his honor.
The Theatre was built at the direction of then Guatemalan President Rapheal Carrera. He was a big opera fan and the theatre was the suggestion of his mistress Josefa Silva, who was a singer and actress. A German team was brought in to complete the project. Carrera’s rule in retrospect was a time of relative prosperity and stability but former politicians are often not looked kindly by current ones seeing that his name was removed from the theatre.
There was a large earthquake in 1918 that left the theatre in ruins although the front façade remained. It was thought that the Government did not respond well to the earthquake and that was used as a pretext for a military coup that had the support of the big fruit company. Yes we are talking about banana republic days. The ruins of the theatre stood for over 5 years in the central square of the capital before they were finally demolished to make way for a street market. Yet through all this they were still printing new versions of a 20 year old stamp that displayed the theatre at it’s best.
Well my drink is empty and so it is time to open up the conversation in the below comment section. In retrospect, Guatemala was probably not in much need of an opera house in 1852. The proof was that there was no coming together to get it rebuilt after the earthquake. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.