Guadeloupe Postal History

Edward J.J. Grabowski (U.S.A.) a obtenu le Grand Prix d’Honneur pour « Guadeloupe Postal History » dans la Grande Compétition Philatéliste de Washington.

Voici comment il raconte ses travaux à une de ses correspondante.

I started collecting stamps way back in 1947 when my uncle bought me an album and a packet of stamps. I collected all of the world. As I got older, I realized that this was too much, so I decided to specialize. I then started collecting the United States when I was in my twenties. That was too expensive, so I looked for something else. By chance I found the stamps of France
and became interested in them. But the classic stamps were still too expensive. I then found the French Colonies – which were cheaper at the time. I became good friends with someone who wrote 6 books and around 300 articles on the French Colonial stamps and letters, and started to get very serious in my collecting. Through him I became interested particularly in Guadeloupe. Because of its commerce (sugar, fruits, wood, rum, etc.) there was much French business there in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and thus lots of old letters and stamps. Also, the colony had many post offices (lots of small ones from which it is difficult to get mail), outer islands (St. Barts, St. Martin, Marie Galante, Desirade, Saintes), and British influences which made the postal history (letters) very interesting. Around 30 years ago I started putting my collection together, and I started exhibiting it at stamp shows – first local, then national and finally international. In May of this year, I won the Grand Prix d’Honneur at the Washington, DC international show. This is the highest award in philately and now my Guadeloupe Postal History exhibit is retired.
I am putting everything onto CD’s – scanning all of the covers – writing much text. I plan to sell the exhibit when I finish this. But all is not done. I specialize in an 1892 issue from the French Colonies called the Group Type. This was a single stamp design with values from 1c to 5F. The name of the specific colony was printed separately, and 29 colonies used these stamps from 1893 -1915. I collect letters with this stamp from all 29 colonies and have a collection of more than 2300 letters. I have attached an early letter from Guadeloupe from the first collection, and a letter from Madagascar showing use of the Group Type stamp.
Sorry for the long answer, but it is a long story.

Et pourquoi pas cette exposition un de ces jours prochains en Guadeloupe à moins qu’elle ne soit d’ici peut sur le Net.

Beaucoup d’éléments sur la Guadeloupe, se trouvent dans cette collection de timbre poste…

On trouve aussi ceci sur le net !