This page gives to stamp collectors who are interested in the Art on Stamps topic the possibility to search on-line among the about 10,000 records of the Art on Stamp database. The results are displayed on a new page, always the same (therefore don't close it if  you wish to continue your search).

You can print the results of your query by using the standard features offered by your browser.

The whole database in Excel format (the newest version), and/or a whole database environment in Access format can be downloaded by clicking here.

Credits: Many thanks to my wife Michaela, an experienced database programmer, who decisively contributed to this development.

Preamble

Advice to the wise: Please take your time and read this page attentively, before to proceed further. The time that you will spend to read it will be largely compensated later, when you will try to use the huge amount of information stored in the present database. I recommend you to print this page, in order to use it later as a reference.

The Paintings and Arts on Stamps is a vast theme, probably the largest of all in the topical philately. There are over 30,000 unique stamps and over 3,200 sheets that are listed in the present database. The first difficulty one has when she/he tries to put together a complete database (and a stamps collection too) of all stamps issues worldwide, is to define and then to identify which stamps belong to it. The task is not simple, because almost each stamp could be considered as a (kind of) piece of art. Somebody, normally/hopefully an artist, had to design it, to bring it on paper and to choose/specify the means by which his work will be "converted" to a stamp.

Selection Criteria

I have included in the database the stamps that meet the following criteria:

  • They should reproduce (pre-)existing works of art
  • They should show real works of art (as for example opposed to banal portraits, reproduced millions of times, like kings' or dictators' faces)

The only exception I have made is for the works of art designed by renown artists with the purpose to be explicitly reproduced on stamps.

References, Completeness and Updates

It took a long time to put together the information stored in the present database. I used as references the Stanley Gibbons "Stamps of the World" catalogues, the Stanley Gibbons "British Commonwealth" catalogue, the Zumstein catalogue and since 1999 the Scott and the Michel catalogues. Since the year 2000 we also use as reference the Spezialkatalog Gemaelde of Dr. H. Meinel.

Not all Arts Stamps are listed in the database yet. The reason is the time needed to identify all stamps and to enter the information. Nevertheless over 90% of all Paintings on Stamps issued worldwide till now are already listed. The database is updated on a regular base, with new issues and with older ones, the last update being done on:

 *****     May 2010   *****   

At present quite all European stamps are conform with the new format of the database. Any help in completing the database is more then welcome and credits are immediately given, on this page!

Credits: Many thanks to Jose Luis Nascimento (from Portugal) who made an excellent job and offered us the Access version of the database, with many interesting features.

Database structure
 

Country Year Subject Themes Artists Number MS FDC MaxCard Catalogue IdStatus
Aitutaki 1987 Paintings Paintings Rubens 4 2     - O
Aitutaki 1988 Christmas Paintings Rembrandt 5 1     - U
Ajman 1968 Paintings, Adam & Eve Paintings Cranach,Goes,Durer 4 3     - O
Ajman 1968 Paintings, Adoration Paintings Van Honthorst 0 1     - O

The database has 11 fields.

  • The first two field, Country and Year, are self-explanatory. Abbreviations (like USA, GB) are used for the names of some countries.
  • The Subject column describes what was commemorated, "Art from Russian Museums", "Anniversary of Picasso's death", etc. (modified).
  • The field Themes gives the type of the work of art (Painting, Sculpture, Stained-glass, etc), followed by a short description of the set (new).
  • The field Artists presents the names of artists whose works are displayed.
  • The Number field contains the number of stamps in the set.
  • The MS field contains the number of Miniature Sheets, also named Souvenir Sheets.
  • The FDC and MaxCard indicate the number of FDC-sets and Maximum Cards respectively. This changed in July 2007 and these fields are for the moment empty.
  • The Catalogue field starts with a letter that identifies the catalogue used. G = Stanley Gibbons, M = Michel, S = Scott, Y = Yvert, Z = Zumstein. Only a small part of stamps have catalogue numbers attached to them in the present database.

What you see as a row, starting with Aitutaki, is named a database record. The actual database has already over 10,000 (!) such records. With more time invested by myself  and with the kind support of the Internet community, the database will improve and will reach the degree of completeness desired by its author. A project called The Paintings and Arts on Stamps Database Project (PASDP), was started at the beginning of year 2000, with the goal to improve the database. Since then the database has considerably expanded, containing more records (i.e. more stamps) and more information (like the name of the artists, for already many of records).

Notice: only a part of fields appear in the on-line querry.

Copyright notice, property rights

The presented databases are protected by copyright laws and are the exclusive property of Mr. Victor Manta, Switzerland. You have the permission to access its records for personal use only. It is strictly prohibited to distribute them or to use the results for commercial purposes. That means that dealers can use them too, in order to have a better knowledge of what exists in the field of Art on Stamps, but are not allowed to send them or parts of them to their clients.

Free Internet Club

The Paintings and Arts on Stamps Internet Club regroups a large number of fans of stamps of art. If you are interested in this topic, you are kindly invited to join us. To join PASIC please click the PASIC-Free Club, Join the Club text on the left, or click here (a new browser window will open, so you will not loose the access to this page). Please don't apply if you are already member of PASIC (check in PASIC - The Free Club, Club Members, or click here if you are unsure). To easier find your name in the Members List, you can use the Find function of your browser.

Notes

  • The "All" in the Country field means that all countries are selected, which permits for searching only by using the "Subject" and "Artist" criteria (like: all countries, all "flowers", by "van Gogh")

  • We recommend you to enter al least one search term in any of the fields. No capitalization is necessary.

  • The results appear in a new browser window.

Country
(please choose one from the list)  
Subject
 (like: Paintings, Sculptures, Religious, Mosaics, Archeology, Frescoes, Pottery, Ceramics, Christmas, Easter, Flowers, Landscape, Women, Rock Art, etc.)
Artist 
(like: Vermeer, da Vinci, Michelangelo, Durer, Raphael, Rembrandt, van Gogh, Picasso, etc.)

 

 


Created 02/02/01. Revised: 05/02/2010. 
Copyright © 2001 - 2010, by Victor Manta, Switzerland. 
All rights reserved worldwide.

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