Views of Constantinople, 1914

arly Turkish stamps can be a puzzle for collectors in the West. The lettering is unfamiliar, indecipherable tougras indicate changes of reign and the intricate ornament makes some stamps look like miniature oriental rugs. Things changed on 1913, when Adrianople (now Erdine) was recaptured from Bulgarian forces in the Second Balkan War and Bradbury Wilkinson created a set of pictorial commemorative stamps, printed recess. They were well received. So when new definitives were required, Oskar Effendi, Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, decided to continue the pictorial approach, based on the monuments of the then capital Constantinople. Ornamentation (Muzafer Bey) and calligraphy (Mehmet Bey) were done in Constantinople, while the scenes were engraved by Bradbury Wilkinson’s pool of engravers. Much of the visual reference was supplied by postcards, which were popular with the many tourists who now visited the city. Collector Bill Robertson, writing on the website, has tracked down fourteen of the actual cards they used.