French engraving fans rejoice, its time for the TAAF 2022 stamps. Some of the best French designers & engravers return for a dive into the history of the Antarctic. January is a who’s who of French artists from Yves & Sophie Beaujard to Line Filhon and Pierre Barra.
Preparing TAAF is like writing up French stamps, I never know when to stop looking for new information. It’s like summer camp for art and history lovers. So, yea, I kind of nerded out on this page. You’ll need to grab an espresso and settle back for this one. There’s a lot to digest, for such a small issuing office.
Enjoy,
Catpaw
January
Claude Pieri (1922 – 2002)
1 stamp, sheets of 25
intaglio
Vice-Admiral, administrator of TAAF from 1982-1987
Death of Claude Pieri, Vice-Admiral (lemonde.fr)
Designer/Engraver: Yves Beaujard
Beaujard’s first stamp design was the 1999 Frédéric Ozanam for French Post. He is both an engraver and artist.
Yves Beaujard – Art of Engraved Stamp (artdutimbregrave.com)
Release date: January 2, 2022
Star Base or Moonrise on the East Island (Crozet)
1 stamp, sheets of 10
offset lithography
East Island is part of the Crozet archipelago. It’s a large rock about 130 km2 (50 sq mi) in size. For those who love looking up coordinates, you can find it here 46°25′S 52°12′E.
Designer: Sophie Beaujard
Sophie’s first stamp was the L’art roman. She engraved this 2010 stamp which her father Yves Beaujard designed. Beaujard won the Grand Prix de l’Art Philatélique in 2019 for her Montpellier stamp. She designed La Poste’s 2021 Napoleon stamp and the TAAF 43 Anniversary of the Antarctic Treaty.
Release date: January 2, 2022
Shipwreck and Archaeology: the Meridian (Amsterdam Island)
1 stamp
offset lithography
Don’t miss the details in this stamp. Click on it to blow it up and examine the archeologist inspecting the site. Jumelet did an excellent job with this issue.
We have to report a most destructive shipwreck, which has occured on the Island of Amsterdam, whereby the British barque Meridian, of and from London to Sydney, and her cargo, have been totally lost. News of the disaster was brought here by the American whaler Monmouth, which picked up the whole of her crew and passengers who were on teh Island, amounting to one hundred and five in all. We regret to state that her captain, cook, and a Swiss passenger named l’Fau, were drowned.
WRECK OF THE MERIDIAN
Empire newspaper, Tue 13 Dec 1853
Page 2
There are some interesting websites you can explore if you are are a shipwreck fan. Fan isn’t the right word, but you get the idea. Your first stop should be A narrative of the wreck of the Meridian, on the island of Amsterdam by Alfred J.P. Lutwyche. You can read this free, online, courtesy the National Library of Australia who have a full digital version online A narrative of the wreck of the Meridian, on the island of Amsterdam (nla.gov.au). The author, Lutwyche, was aboard the Meridian when it sunk. He wrote this narrative for the Morning Chronicle Dec. 1853.
The NLA also has a collection of digitised articles you can look through. They include contemporary newspaper articles
13 Dec 1853 – WRECK OF THE MERIDIAN. – Trove (nla.gov.au)
Designer: Claude Jumelet
Jumelet has been designing stamps since 1968. The first one was Locomotive type PLM 241 A for Monaco. His most recent stamp was last year’s Clostermann and Roman for France.
Release date: January 2, 2022.
Serpentine
Serie: minerals
2 stamps, sheet of 20
offset lithography
Serpentine: mineral, gem, ornamental stone, asbestos source (geology.com)
This is part of an interesting series TAAF began in 1989. Claude Perchat took over the series in 2014 and has featured the following minerals:
- 2014 Fluorite
- 2015 Beryl
- 2016 no stamp issued
- 2017 Pyroxene
- 2018 Ilmenite
- 2019 Sapphirine
- 2020 Amethyst
- 2021 Amethyst
Designer: Claude Perchat
Her first stamp design was the 2009 Juliette Dodu or La Poste. Perchat provided the design and artwork for TAAF’s 2011 Penguins.
Release date: January 2, 2022
Robots in the Service of Earthen Science at Adélie
1 stamp on a souvenir sheet
offset lithography
The photo was taken by AP Photo/Frederique Olivier, Downer Productions.
A new way to spy on penguins | news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site
Designer: Valérie Besser
Besser’s first stamp was a Joint Issue with Morocco in 2001. If you are a fan of postmarks, check out her previous designs Valérie Besser – La Poste / postmarks (valatwork.com)
Valérie Besser – ValAtwork
Release date: January 2, 2022
Pointe-Bénédicte Labratory – “Pointe-Bé”
1 stamp on a souvenir sheet
mixed
Designer/Engraver: Yves Beaujard
Release date: January 2, 2022
125th Anniversary – The Ice Sphinx – Jules Verne
1 stamp on a souvenir sheet
mixed
The Ice Sphinx is a Verne tale that takes place in the Antarctic. First published in 1897 in the magazine Magasin d’Education et de Récréation. You can also find it under the name An Antarctic Mystery .
Designer: Pierre Bara
Bara’s first stamp was for Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, La Jeanne, 2010. La Monde ran in interesting interview with Bara in 2020. It’s a fascinating interview that talks about his experiences as an engraver. It is in French, but Google translate does a good job converting the text.
Pierre Bara: “My preference is for Josef Herčík’s reinterpretation of Picasso’s ‘Guernica’, issued by Czechoslovakia in 1966” (lemonde.fr)
Release date: January 2, 2022
250th Anniversary of the Discovery of the Crozet Archipelago
1 stamp on a souvenir sheet
mixed
Discovered Jan. 24, 1772 by French explorer Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne, (the man in the stamp above) an officer in the French East India Company. When du Fresne, who captained the ship Le Mascarin, was killed later in the expedition, his second in command Julien-Marie Crozet assumed command. Crozet met Captain James Cook when they were both on a stop over at Cape Town sometime in 1775. Crozet shared information on the discoveries he and du Fresne made during their voyage. Cook mentions Crozet in his diaries and was responsible for for naming the unnamed island Crozet.
Designer: André Lavergne
Lavergne’s first stamp was the 1981 Hommage aux martyrs de Châteaubriant for La Poste. Previous designs for TAAF was the 2015 Marion Dufresne.
Release date: January 2, 2022
The Astrolabe and the Aurora Australis
2 stamps on a souvenir sheet
offset lithography
The Astrolabe is a French polar research vessel and the Aurora is an Australian Antarctic supply ship.
Designer: Marie Detree-Hourriere
Detree-Hourriere designed TAAF stamp Marion Dufresne in a Bottle last year.
Release date: January 2, 2022
250th Anniversary of the Discovery of the Kerguelen Archipelago
1 stamp on a souvenir sheet
mixed
The islands are also called the Desolation Islands. Find them at -49.356915° N, 69.38831° E.
French explorer and navigator Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen-Trémarec spotted them 12 February 1772. For a short time, it was thought he had discovered Terra Australis. After a number of voyages to the area, it became clear, Kerguelen wasn’t this fabled land and was nothing more than a big, barren rock.
de Kerguelen-Trémarec was booted from the French Navy, shortly after returning to France from a third exploration voyage. On May 25 1776, he was court marshaled and thrown out of the French Navy for violating Naval Regulations. de Kerguelen-Trémarec had fallen out of favour in the French court by the time of his court marshal. The charges brought against him included profiting off the slave trade and bringing his mistress aboard his ship and living in a “most indecent, the most scandalous way”.
One of the grievances against him was the illicit trade and in particular the slave trade carried out during his mission (in 1727, Louis XV had defended it against the captains and officers serving on the king’s ships). The cumbersome presence of junk on the between-deck had bothered the crew; moreover, Yves de Kerguelen had deliberately shortened the duration of the southern expedition, only to be before the bad season in Madagascar where he probably hoped to buy some slaves. In exchange for tobacco and powder from his junk “eight negroes that the pilot assistant bought on behalf of M. de Kerguelen” were taken to the ship while it was anchoring at theÎle de France; Kerguelen sold six or seven of them at a profit, and kept the last two for himself. Yves Joseph de Kerguelen de Trémarec – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
He was subsequently imprisoned for 6 years in the Château de Saumur. When he was released, he rejoined the French navy and fought in the American Revolution. During the French Revolution he was made a rear-admiral, then arrested (not sure why) and eventually released again and reinstated in the French Navy. He retired in 1796 and died in 1797.
de Kerguelen-Trémarec also authored a number of books about his travels. You can read one of them on-line here Relationship of a trip in the North Sea, the coasts of Iceland, Greenland … – Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen-Trémarec – Google Books
His memoirs about the South Seas trip was titled Relation of two voyages in the southern seas & the Indies made in 1771, 1772, 1773 & 1774: as well as some letters or memoirs on the navy, & a state of the services of M. de Kerguelen.
Designer: Line Filhon
Filhon has designed stamps for France, TAAF, Saint Pierre and Michelon, French Polynesia and Monaco. Her first was the 2009 Royaumont Abbey, Val d’Oise for La Poste. She also designed a previous Minerals stamp for TAAF in 2012. She designed and engraved the 2021 TAAF stamp Sea Lions of Amsterdam Island.
Release date: January 2, 2022
White Chin Petrel
1 stamp on a souvenir sheet
offset lithography
Designer: Nadia Charles
Charles designed the 2020 Kerguelen and Crozet Cormorants.
Release date: January 2, 2022
Marion Dufresne Supply Mission in Kerguelen
1 stamp on a souvenir sheet
offset lithography
Marion Dufresne – French oceanographic fleet (ifremer.fr)
Designer: Pierre-Andr Cousin
Cousin began his career as an architect. His first stamp, Ouistreham Lighthouse, was for La Poste in 2004. He designed the 2021 Basler BT67 Aircraft, Concordia Base bloc.
Release date: January 2, 2022
The Seabed of the TAAF
1 stamp, sheet of 10
offset lithography
Designer: Sarah Lazarevic
Release date: January 2, 2022
Maintenance of Relay 26 – Mont Fernand Amsterdam
1 stamp
Mont Fernand… – disams62.over-blog.com’s blog (In French, use Google Translate)
Designer: Noëlle Le Guillouzic
Noëlle Le Guillouzic – Illustrator, Watercolourist. Internship and watercolor course in Brittany Côtes-d’Armor. Naturalistic books, philately (noelle-le-guillouzic.fr)
Release date: January 2, 2022
June
500 years of the discovery of Île Amsterdam
1 stamp on souvenir sheet
offset
Amsterdam was first sited in 1522 by Spanish explorer Juan Sebastián de Elcano while on a circumnavigation voyage around the world. The name wasn’t attached to the island until Dutch explorer Anthonie van Diemen named it in 1633. He called it after his ship Nieuw Amsterdam.
Designer: Raphaële Goineau
Goineau lives and works on the island of Saint Pierre et Miquelon. She designed stamps for SP&M as well as TAAF and as of 2021 she has been an official Painter of the French Navy.
Release date: June 23, 2022
Pioneers
7 stamps
Designer: Martin Mörck
Release date: June 25, 2022
November
300th Anniversary of the Discovery of Tromelin Island by La Diane
1 stamp on souvenir sheet
mixed
Tromelin Island – French Southern and Antarctic Lands – Atlas Obscura
“Tromelin, the island of forgotten slaves” – French Southern and Antarctic Lands (taaf.fr)
Designer: FILHON Line
Release date: November 4, 2022
Joint Issue TAAF France – Monaco – Centenary of the Death of Prince Albert I of Monaco
2 stamps on souvenir sheet
Designer: Bite Thierry
Release date: November 24, 2022
See last year’s TAAF stamps TAAF Terres Australes et Antarctiques Françaises 2021
You can see more from these designers on both the French 2021 and 2022 pages.
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