I while back I did a pathetic and fake but militaristic stamp from the other side in the then North Yemen Civil War, see https://the-philatelist.com/2019/06/20/fake-north-yemen-stamp-remembers-the-barefoot-bazooka-guy-freedom-fighter/ . The Republican side in 1967 had just lost their Egyptian benefactor and so had their offsite printing presses crank up myriad stamps on art subjects that they hoped would attract the worldwide stamp market. They have attracted me, though so many years later it is of no help. 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. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
Think back to 1967 and the frequent simple single color printing of many European and American stamps. Now check out the quality of the Rubens image transfer and the grand gold foil used to frame it. To then notice the Yemen Arab Republic name and Arab script is to make one think the stamp is fake, but it is not.
Todays stamp is issue A60, a 1/2 Bogaches stamp by the Yemen Arab Rebublic then holding the capital Sana in North Yemen. Yemen no longer calls its cents Bogaches so half of one Bogaches would be 1.25 Fils in the current Yemen currency. That comes out to 5 one thousands of an American penny. This was a five stamp issue on Flemish painting Masters that also came as a souvinir sheet and as a set of imperferates with the frames the paintings in silver instead of gold foil. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents, which is disappointing until you think of that value in terms of Yemeni Rials.
Peter Paul Rubens was born in 1577 in modern Germany where his Belgian parents had run for the crime of being Calvinists. They then had Peter Paul Baptized Catholic in Cologne to allow for their return to the then Spanish Hapsburg run low countries. After an elaborate training that included time in Italy he began painting based out of Antwerp in the Flemish Baroque style at the behest of foreign benefactors and often on Catholic religious subjects. One of his frequent commissioners was Marie de Medici the Queen Mother of France. The frequent trips to Paris saw Rubens act as a spy and diplomat for his families native Duchy of Brabant, in modern Belgium.
At age 53, four years after the death of his first wife, Rubens married her 15 year old niece Helena Fourment with whom he had three more children that was the subject of the painting on this stamp. Rubens style changed with his new model and became very popular. His voluptuous nudes were cast in the Spanish Hapsburg Royal Courts as the Roman God Venus. Rubens got very rich off his paintings and was able to buy a country estate outside of Antwerp. In his last years his style changed again to the drawing of landscapes.
Around 1784, the painting on the stamp was acquired by a French citizen named Louis Capet. You may know him better as King Louis XVI. he was forced to use the above name during his last days before facing the guillotine. The painting was moved to the Louvre where it still hangs.
Around 1969, North Yemen papered over their differences under a unity government that included Republicans and Monarchists. Bizarrely the new leader was a closeted Jew. Sounds like a recipe for some fun stamps but the issues reverted to the pan Arabist 70s UN style.
Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to the brave souls that pedal crazy stamp ideas to bands of fighters in Arab civil wars. Imagine trying to pose the question to them, “What do you guys think of the Flemish Masters, framed in gold?” Come again tomorrow when there will be another story to be learned from stamp collecting.