Barcelona & Catalonia Cinderellas

Thank you very much for your nices words, but I'n affraid I lack both the matterial and the knowledge to write anything on cinderellas. There are some books/catalogs published (in Spanish and English) on Civil War and local cinderella.
Although I've never seen nothing on commercial, sports related and trade shows cinderellas; which are my main interest. There are some papers published (mainly in Catalan by some friends of mine and myself) in local Philatelic Societies magazines, but nothing that I do consider relevant. That's all.

We're still circulating cinderellas.
On this cover, circulated yesterday from Artesa de Segre (Western Catalonia)to Barcelona, you can see two "estelades" (lone star frags), one inverted cancelled by a rubber postmark imitating a 1840's Artesa de Segre cancelation, a 1900 Catalanist cinderella and a 2011 stamp (that, actually, pays the fee) tied by a current Artesa de Segre postmark. Gone through the mail.

Cinderellas of the 1934 to 1936 Barcelona's Fair

What a great thread. I've just scanned through it a couple of times and am taken with the wonderful illustration on some of these labels. They are obvious products of what we call the "Golden Age of Illustration". Some of the printers lockout labels of 1914 smack of Aubrey Beardsley, while a number of those on the second page remind me of Maxfield Parrish or JC Leyendecker (The 1929 Barcelona International Fair especially)
And on page 3 the car race stamps are wonderful. I see a signature in the top left corner of the Copa Catalunya stamp. Is it possible, Cursus for you to discern what it says. The work looks like Ethel Reed or Edward Penfield. This was an amazing period for poster art, and these stamps certainly reflect that.
Beautiful!

Thank you James for your nice words, which I appreciate very much coming from a highly educated country, which I had the pleasure to visit (just a little of Ontario and Quebec) twenty years ago.
Although being somewhat immodest, I must admit the high level of Catalan artists of the end od XIX century and up to 1939, having survived up today with works of Miró, Tàpies, Mariscal (from València, but working in Barcelona; which reflected into cinderellas. As you correctly guess, the connection to the European state of arts was total. It was very usual for the Catalan artists that could afford it, or took great sacrifices, to go to Paris from time to, as Catalonia has always looked up to the North.
I'm lucky enough to have two good reference books of XIX - XX cent Catalan Posters, from which I've found out that the cinderella whose author you asked me for. It was the work of Pere Montanyà. Sorry, I've not been able to find any more data on him; but the names are absolutely Catalans ("Pere" translates to Peter and "Montanyà" to coming from the mountain).

That makes sense Cursus. Many of the American illustrators of the time studied in Paris, and other centres in Europe and the movement in America paralleled their European counterparts. Some of them were even from Europe originally, like Leyendeker who was from Germany. And of course Beardsley was British, and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec was at the forefront of it all.
I'll have to be on the look out for books on Catalan posters.
If you can find it, I'd recommend a book called The American Poster Renaissance by Victor Margolin. It was published in by Watson-Guptill Publications in 1975 and I'm sure you could find it on ebay or Amazon. I used it as part of a course in colour theory I taught many years ago. Wonderful images.

A small cinderella, part of a set of 4, to raise money for the "Hospital General de Catalunya" (now, Hospital de la Santa Creu I Sant Pau) during the 1936/1939 civil war.

Today, Catalans, like all good people in the world, will join the NYC and US citizens on the mourning for the 11-S victims.

But, since 1714, September 11th is also our particular mourning day. On that date, the Spanish troops stormed and took Barcelona. That meant, aside of the dead of many citizens, the end of the Catalan state and the abolition by the Spanish of our secular (from XII s.) laws and freedoms.
But, our fight for reconstructing the country and recovering didn't end and the resumed the fight (by other means) up today. For this reason 11-S (Onze de setembre) is Catalania's National Day (la Diada Nacional), and today our the country will be full of flags people on the street and national pride.
For this day, and since many years ago a number of cinderella has been issued, mostly showing the statue of Rafael Casanovas, 1714 Major of Barcelona, falling with the city flag on his arms.
Some are old and other new. I hope You'll enjoy both.

Very Interesting information Curus, Thank You!
Hope this day is a good one!

Thank you. It was fine day, like any patriotic day. Vindicative, but festive. I even managed to catch some new and old patriotic cinderellas.

In 1882 in the coastal town of Vianova I la Geltrú (60 km South of Barcelona), there was held a General Catalan Exhibition. For this, a cinderella was issued: it shows a classical building, the Vilanova's Library-Museum, and a Modernist woman.






The Latin words "Surge et Ambula" on the building frontispiece meaning "Rise and walk", are the ones that Jesus said in Lazaru's resurrection and refer also to the resurrection of Catalonia's culture and wealth.

Two cinderellas of the towns of Vic (Central Catalonia) and Mataró (Eastern Catalonia). Both were issued on the decade of 1930.





The look is somewhat cruder than Barcelona's cinderellas, but it doesn't lack style.

In the early decades of 1900, there was in Catalonia a deep concern for children health, as tuberculosis and other missery illnesses were widespread. So the Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalonia's Governement) issued from 1931 to 1938 a number of stamps to collect money to pay for milk in public school, open air holidays, and the like. Stamps were issued in booklets with inscriptions on the cover and on the sheet margins, to give parents information on how to best care for their children's welfare.
On the tab of first stamp it can be read "Breath fresh air!".All the stamps bear the inscription, in Catalan, "For children's health".

Barcelona, like any other Roman Catholic town, has some "Protecting Saints" (or Patrons, as we call them). In our case are two Saint Eulàlia (whose day is February 12th) and the Virgin of la Mercè (celebrated on September 24th). As you can guess, Eulàlia and Mercè are very popular names among Barcelona's girls. Some kind of festivals are held by mid Frebruary and late September.
As today is September 24th, somewhat jumping on the chronological order that I'm trying to follow in this thread, I'm showing cinderellas issued in 1955, 1956 & 1957 for he Virgin of la Mercè (written as "Merced" in the then compsory Spanish language).





In the first, you can see the Gegants (Gigantic plaster puppets, very popular on our celebrations since XIV century), the Virgin of la Mercè and a poster design with the outlying of the virgin.

Between July 19th 1936 and April 1st 1939. Catalonia undergoes the Spanish Civil War. During that, many cinderellas are originated in both sides, upraised army ("Nationalists")and democrats ("Republicans").
As most intellectuals and artists side with the democrats, the quality of their cinderellas is much higher than the opposing side ones.
Catalonia is held by the democratic forces quite just at the end. So,all 1936/1939 Catalan cinderellas are "Republican".
Anyway, as I don't specialize in them, I have just a few to show here.