Ship Stamps Artist's Proofs

The ship stamps artist's proofs gallery shows images of more than 500 proofs issued between 1966 and 2015.

Many of the Francophone territories outside of Africa are islands with a deep connection to the sea. For this reason, ships are an important part of their history and commerce and are a common topic of their stamps. This is particularly true for the French Antarctic.

Ships are ideally suited as stamp subjects because their shape fits easily within the dimensions of a stamp, although the masts of sailing ships need to be cut off if a sailing ship is depicted on a horizontal stamp so that it takes up most of the stamp. Ships are usually depicted on horizontal stamps, though there are a few vertical stamps with ships, especially sailing ships.

Many engravers design and engrave stamps with ships as the subject but a few are particularly worthy of mention:

• Haley - inventive and artistic use of curved lines and framing
• Delpech - awarded the Marine Artist designation; destinctive style characterized by curved lines used in waves and other parts of the design, framing of the subject against a white background often with an irregular border, and silhoutted people or animals in the foreground
• Quillivic - explorers and ships, distinctive style