XVII. Airmails and Commemoratives, 1949-1959

Currency: Iraqi dinar (1,000 fils = 1 dinar)

Iraq, to its very considerable credit, for a long time pursued a conservative policy regarding the issue of commemoratives — that is, it didn’t issue any at all. Why? No idea, as with so much of this. Britain, the former colonial master, exercised almost equal restraint, in sharp contrast to its European neighbours. But after 1932 the UK was much less directly the mother country of Iraq, and no doubt the domestic postal authority had the autonomy to commission and issue commemoratives if it felt so inclined. And yet, creditably, for a time it never felt so inclined. But eventually the national continence had its limits, and no doubt envious eyes were being cast at the profusion of remunerative new issues flowing out of Egypt, Syria, et al. And so, the stamps described below appeared.

These are all mediocre to bad designs, although it would’ve taken an artist of especial profundity to find poetry in topics like the “sixth Arab engineers’ conference”. The pedantry of contemporary British stamp designing almost guaranteed a boring result — the Swiss designs, while not much better, are at least a bit more eye-catching.

Another weakness of these stamps is the colours. From 1955 to 1956 (and then again in the stamps derived from those stamps) we have a tedious sequence of red, blue, and a slightly more greyish blue. 10 fils and 28 fils were the standard internal and external rates, and thus suitable denominations to use for these stamps, and the 28 fils I assume was obliged to be blue to comply with UPU regulations. But I’m not sure what, if anything, required the 10 fils to be blue, and making it any other colour would’ve certainly improved the variety of some of these series. But I may well miss some nuance here.

Airmail

First issued: 1 February 1949
Production: Bradbury Wilkinson & Company, London

I choose to put the airmail stamps in this sequence. Iraq had operated an entirely satisfactory aeromail service since 1919 without the need for special stamps. So this issue, while not commemorative of anything in particular, was clearly intended as a cash-grab, and so I group it with the commemoratives. The stamps are well-executed from a technical perspective but the designs have fairly little to commend them — the frames are pared back agreeably but I don’t think the spatial relationship between the aeroplane and the backdrop is successful on either the small- or large-format designs. The colours possess a certain lurid hardness, which I find vaguely disagreeable, but possibly this is just my having spent too long looking at the scans in Photoshop.

In contrast to the rest of the stamps on this page, these had a long afterlife, and can be seen on cover into the early 1970s.

75th anniversary of the Universal Postal Union

First issued: 1 November 1949
Production: Bradbury Wilkinson & Company, London

The whole world put out commemoratives of the Universal Postal Union’s 75th birthday in 1949, and Iraq was no exception. Iraq gets some credit for sticking to design elements of local interest and not reproducing the appalling flying-children-holding-hands-around-globe design like so many countries did. Here we have another set of mediocre designs executed well. Placement of the text is consistently poor and on the two lower values the oval portrait frames aren’t integrated well into the remainder of the stamps. The 50 fils is better in that sense but I find the equal placement of a portrait and some unexplained symbol (that of the postal authority?) unpleasing. I think criticism could also be levelled at the lack of a cohesive idea between the stamps: of the two lower values, we have a traditional mounted postman on one (so far so good) but the equestrian statue of Faisal I on the other, unintentionally implying the statue had some sort of postal function. Unless perhaps the two stamps are meant to read as the progression from backwardness to modernity under the Hashemites, with horses as a unifying visual element. At any rate, whatever theme was being sought here isn’t continued onto the third stamp. There’s perhaps also mild perversity in the order of the series not being the same as the order of the kings, with Ghazi coming before Faisal I. Note that this is the sole appearance of this portrait of Faisal II, rather an unsuccessful one. Upon magnification, the horseman and rider on the 20 fils appear a little amateurish.

A small mystery: what is the emblem next to Faisal II on the 50 fils? The introducing legislation describes it as the emblem of the UPU, which is not correct to my knowledge.

Coronation of King Faisal II

First issued: 2 May 1953
Production: Bradbury Wilkinson & Company, London

Although Faisal II became king immediately on the death of Ghazi, his formal coronation was delayed until 1953 when he reached the age of eighteen. Another bland design, with the space either side of the crown at the top not being used well. The arched value tablets are attractive and, perhaps, if the arch motif had been carried into the rest of the design with some energy (a point, rather than the flat thing we have here) a better result could maybe have been achieved. First appearance of the portrait which would be used a year later on the definitives.

Abrogation of the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty

First issued: 6 April 1955
Production: the Government Press, Baghdad

On 4 April 1955 Britain and Iraq signed the Anglo-Iraqi Special Agreement, and on the following day Britain joined the Iraq-Turkey alliance, bringing the Baghdad Pact into existence. This new treaty covered the same ground as the 1930 Anglo-Iraq Treaty, allowing that old and much reviled agreement to be terminated on 6 April, the date appearing on these stamps. An item in the Iraq Times of 4 April sheds some uncommon light on the conception of these stamps. The decision to issue them was apparently only made on 2 April, “putting the D.G.’s specialist assistant, Sayid Musa Naseer, and a three-man PTT staff on a high pressure assignment. The printing was done at the Government Press.” Of course, a deadline of literally days meant that ordering new designs from England was entirely out of the question, and so instead we have a modest overprint on three definitives.

Sixth Arab Engineers’ Conference, Baghdad

First issued: 26 November 1955
Production: Bradbury Wilkinson & Company, London

I actually don’t mind this one so much – it’s laid out neatly and I like the approach of taking the definitive stamp design and extending it out on both flanks. Beyond that I have little to say. I can find nothing about this conference, or others in the series — the current Arab Engineers’ Federation was apparently only established in 1963, so the meeting commemorated here must have been one of an earlier organisation.

Third Arab Postal Union Conference, Baghdad

First issued: 3 March 1956
Production: Bradbury Wilkinson & Company, London

Wholly bland and uninspired.

Development Week, 1957

First issued: April-July, 1957
Production: Hélio Courvoisier S.A., La Chaux-de-Fonds

Iraq strides boldly into the multicoloured future, courtesy of Courvoisier. I can’t say offhand whether Bradburys ever did this kind of four-colour photo work, but certainly it wasn’t their specialty. I think these are actually successful in an odd kind of way – there’s an enthusiastic naïveté to the designs and lurid colouring which, to whatever extent this was intentional, does successfully suggest optimism and confidence in the country’s future. The 1 fils, in rather more sober hues, is the odd man out. The royal portrait has an unpleasant waxy quality throughout, and the arabesques around it on the 1 and 10 fils add nothing.

Baghdad Agricultural and Industrial Exhibition

First issued: 1 June, 1957
Production: Hélio Courvoisier S.A., La Chaux-de-Fonds

The medallion itself is charming, and the field and border harmonise nicely with it, but the royal head throws the overall composition off somewhat.

Twenty-fifth anniversary of the Iraq Red Crescent Society

First issued: 14 November 1957
Production: Unknown (the Government Press, Baghdad?)

The foregoing stamps are at least wholehearted, and not a dismal half measure like this one — unsold stock from the Postal Congress series overprinted to commemorate an unrelated occasion.

Army Day

First issued: 6 January 1958
Production: Bradbury Wilkinson & Company, London

King Faisal salutes the men who would overthrow him in a few months. Bland but very well-executed designs. The 30 fils leaves the strongest impression – the king, in his fussy full dress uniform, belongs to a bygone era compared with the swaggering, open-shirted Nasser and his imitators. Robson Lowe’s The Influence of Bradbury Wilkinson… shows a few late drafts of these designs: the engraver’s supervisor has identified some remarkably minute areas for revision. The 8 fils is also, in its way, indicative — by 1958 the Churchill tank, as seen here, was rather antiquated; if it represented the most avant-garde vehicle in service with Iraq at the time, then Britain certainly wasn’t treating it generously.

Development Week, 1958

First issued: 26 April 1958
Production: Hélio Courvoisier S.A., La Chaux-de-Fonds

The second, and last, Development Week issue. The relatively subdued colour palette gives this set a drearier feeling compared to the 1957 one.

To play out the monarchy, a few words from Kapuściński’s Emperor on the subject of “development”.

A kind of mania seized this mad and unpredictable world, my friend: a mania for development. Everybody wanted to develop himself! Everyone thought about developing himself, and not simply according to God's law that a man is born, develops, and dies. No, each one wanted to develop himself extraordinarily, dynamically, and powerfully, to develop himself so that everyone would admire, envy, talk, and nod his head. …Our Emperor, innately infallible, noticed and generously agreed with this, seeing the advantages and charms of costly novelty, and since he had always had a weakness for all progress indeed, he even liked progress — his most honorably benevolent desire for action manifested itself in the unconcealed desire to have a satiated and happy people cry for years after, with full approval, "Hey! Did he ever develop us!" …Alas, my friend, it is a sad truth that, despite His Majesty's having led the Empire onto the path of development, the students reproached the Palace for demagoguery and hypocrisy. …Development, they said, is impossible without reform. One should give the peasants land, abolish privileges, democratize society, liquidate feudalism, and free the country from dependence on foreigners. …That's thoughtlessness and running off at the mouth for you.

Arab Lawyers’ Conference, Baghdad

First issued: 26 November 1958
Production: Unknown (the Government Press, Baghdad?)

The Republic began conservatively with its own commemoratives, overprinting remainders while it waited for exciting new multicolour designs to arrive from overseas. The size and vigour of the overprint admittedly does result in some visual appeal.

International Children’s Day

First issued: 1 June 1959
Production: Unknown (the Government Press, Baghdad?)

Another overprint. And that is that.