The vast majority of poster stamp books for collector hobbyists are written and self-published by individual collectors, and they are typically “letter” size (8.5″ x 11″), or the metric A4 size (which is very similar, c. 8.25 x 11.7 inches). In this list assume this size unless noted otherwise. This list is prejudiced towards books that are more generalist, in English primarily, and obtainable without monumental effort.
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- Lick’em Stick’em by Steele
- Events Catalog by Gardiner & Greiczek
- For God, Kaiser & Fatherland by Jackson
- Poster Stamps: the American Story by Kiddle and with U.S. Advertising Poster Stamps by Bradbury
- Hungarian Poster Stamps and Similar Cinderellas by Blase
- Political Campaign Stamps, by Warda
- Delandre the series by Schmidt & Kiddle
- Field Guide to the Cinderella Stamps of Canada, by Lafreniére
- Ludwig Hohlwein [and many other Kiddle ‘by artist’ catalogs]
- Mosbaugh’s U.S. All Fund Seals Catalog [and Mosbaugh’s Red Cross Seals of the World]
- German Aviation: Zeppelins and other topical catalogs by Kiddle [pick from many topics]
- St. Louis 1904 by Kiddle combined with St. Louis Stickers 1900-1904 by Bradbury
1. Lick ’Em, Stick ’Em – The Lost Art of Poster Stamps
by H. Thomas Steele
Abbeville Press, US, 1989; 96 pages, 9×9; color. Hardcover.
ISBN-13: 9780896598997
ISBN-10: 0896598993
Edition: 1st
A small format book with many pictures of poster stamps, emphasizing American items from 1910 through the 1940’s. A beautifully designed book, all in color and an easy read, with some history background. Chapters are mostly by topic. Although more of a sampler it is the only general information book on poster stamps ever to have true national publication. A must-have for any poster stamp lover.
Abbeville Press printed over 20,000 copies which is ginormous by stamp collector standards. Copies can generally be found used for a few dollars on sites such as Amazon. There was only one edition, but some early portion was issued with a heavy dust cover and boxing and two sheets of poster stamps included, one for the book and one for the typographic designers. It is shown in the first picture above. The book is identical for all.
2. A General Illustrated Catalog of Exhibition and Event Poster Stamps
by Stewart Gardiner & Steven Greiczek, et al.,
Published by the Cinderella Stamp Club (UK) 2007-2010, 745 pages, color, xerox- published, 3-hole binder in letter size in the US.
ISBN 0-9546087-1-2; last printing 2014
A massive, monumental work by a group of collectors led by Stewart Gardiner, with 1000’s of listings covering dated event stamps up to 1914. Sold as several volumes by period, sorted by year and city location of the event. Stamps are ranked as Common, Uncommon, Scare, Rare or RR. This is the best catalog for dated poster stamps, making several early catalogs obsolete, and is the place to start for event collecting.
Unfortunately, the Cinderella Stamp Club has quit printing or offering the catalog. PScc is working to make some version available. At the present time, it is unlikely more later years will be added. An extensive Addendum, with corrections and new listings, was produced by Steven Greiczek and is now posted on our website. Full text available only to members.
3. For God, Kaiser and Fatherland-First World War ‘Cinderella’ stamps of the Central Powers
by Alan Jackson
Published by Oxford Cinderellas (self-published), New Zealand, 1993, 404 pages, black & white only, Spiral wire bound. Reprinted in 2001, with some revisions. Listings give text in German and English.
An exhaustive catalog of poster stamps (and similar) issued during the First World War by the “Central Powers”: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire, although very few came from Bulgaria or Turkey. Jackson’s basis is his translation of “Die Kriegsmarken der ….” by Ferenc Kölbig from 1926. Kolbig’s book was in German with no illustrations.
Because Jackson worked from Kolbig’s book and added some whole sections of material not listed, the catalog is confusingly arranged and difficult to use, but is full of a wealth of information otherwise not available printed anywhere else.
Jackson deserves kudos for going far beyond the original in quantity and quality.
Out of print and output in small quantities. However, a full scan of the first printing can be found online. The Cinderella Stamp Club special interest group on World War One continues to output more information on the era in the quarterly issues of the club.
4. Poster Stamps: The American Story
by Charles Kiddle
World Poster Stamps [self published] UK, 2009; 160 pages color, GBC wire binding.
combined with:
United States Advertising Poster Stamps 1912-1915
by Robert C. Bradbury
(Self-published) US, 2008; 124 pages, black & white, GBC binding.
The 2 books mentioned combine to give a good dose of golden era poster stamps of the US in particular. The Kiddle book is a summary sampler of poster stamps of the US; not numbered or arranged as a catalog, also including some covers and pages from albums and brochures of the time. The era covered includes some from the late 1800’s through to World War 2. There is a table of contents, but no index. All in color.
The Bradbury book (most recent edition January 2018) is the opposite, concentrating on only advertising stamps from 1912-1915, indexed by the company name of the advertiser. There are over 6400 entries, with over 2300 illustrated in color. There are numerous reference citations and appendices listing various “stock” design sets, and the imprints known on them.
Both of these were printed in small quantities and are out of print.
5. Hungarian Poster Stamps
by Ch. J. Blase
World Poster Stamps, UK; 2001, 550 pages, black & white
ISBN: 1 901959 5 2
Published by World Poster Stamps (Charles Kiddle) UK 2001, 550 pages black & white, Perfect bound, softcover. Hungarian and English bilingual.
An exhaustive look at all poster stamps from Hungary with a large amount of social-historical explantation, a necessity for non-Hungarians. Monumental effort by essentially one collector covering a country where cinderella’s were very popular from 1910 all the way through the 20th century. Items are grouped by purpose and era in logical fashion, with a numbering system. Each era and topic gets a short section of contextual information, before the individual stamp listings. The scans are on a separate CD, which is definitely not convenient but allows for a lot of images.
Out of print. A web search found no copies as of this writing.
Previous to this book, overlapping in content: Hungarian Exhibition Cinderellas 1896-1945 by Karoly Balázs, co. 1996 Budapest, Hardbound. showing 204 event stamps, all indexed by topics and year. Not an exhaustive list but the nice thing here is printed color photos of most items.
6. Political Campaign Stamps
by Mark Warda
Krause Publications, 1998; 80 pages black & white, Perfect binding, softbound.
ISBN 0-87341-616-3
A catalog listing US only cinderellas concerned broadly with politics. All stamps are shown full size or slightly reduced, and 8 pages showing some in color is included. Chapters include candidates, parties, or movements such as civil rights, and also social causes such as “prohibition” or “war and peace”, if the cause might involve voting or legal changes. The period covered is from earliest known (about 1860) until 1998 and time of publication.
There is very little commentary or side information, but pricing (as of 1998) is given, useful for an idea of rarity. Note that some of these are not graphic enough to be called poster stamps, but anyone collecting by the topic will still want them for subject alone.
Long out of print but can be found online for sale (recently on Abe Books) from $6 to $60 used.
7. Images of the Great War Volumes I-V [the Delandre issues series]
by Walter Schmidt & Charles Kiddle
(self-published) & World Poster Stamps editions 1985-1998, US & UK,
ISBN 0-87341-616-3
- Volume I Delandre’s French Military Vignettes 1914-1917 ISBN none (1984)
- Volume II Delandre’s non-French Military Vignettes 1914-1917 ISBN none (1985)
- Volume III Delandre’s Red Cross Vignettes 1914-1917 ISBN 0 9524655 0 7 (1994)
- Volume IV Delandre’s Other than Military & Red Cross [propaganda] ISBN 0 9524655 1 5 (1996)
- Volume V Updates, Notes, True Italian military stamps vs. Delandre’s fakes ISBN 1901959 10 4
Gaston Delandre was a French con man who became obsessed with printing patriotic stamps for collectors during WW1. Eventually his fraudulent charity issues (primarily) got him arrested, but not before he published several thousand different designs for military units (volumes 1-2), Red Cross groups (3), and assorted (4) patriotic slogan and charity stamps (4). Volume 5 adds revisions and notes concerning earlier volumes and notes on Delandre forgeries of earlier stamps put out by the Italian army. Later volumes are only for specialist wanting to see essays, etc.
Some of the volumes went through a second printing c. 2000. The CSC was offering some volumes on it’s website, future availability unknown.
8. Field Guide To the Cinderella Stamps of Canada
by Ron G. Lafreniére
Bird Bear Press, Canada 2012; 234 pages color, 8 x 10 spiral wire bound.
ISBN 978-0-9878947-0-9
High quality small-format catalog covering many cinderellas, not just poster stamps; it includes private carrier, strike stamps, fantasies & forgeries, etc., and mention of some types not included, such as revenues. Color pictures of all listings, but reduced in size.
There is no official numbering to the listings, except for stamps within a group or series, but there is a large and helpful index, and a reasonable order within the chapters. More important are the short informative notes with each stamp group. Excellent basis for Canadian poster stamps, therefore.
The last printed was a revised version 2015 in a size about 8.5 x 11; and another expanded edition was planned. Unfortunately, Mr. LaFreniere passed away in 2022, his publishing website at www.birdbearpress.com remains for now, but it is unclear if his wife will go ahead with publishing of that final version.
9. Ludwig Hohlwein The Poster Stamps – Reklamemarken
by Charles Kiddle
World Poster Stamps, UK 1998, 64 pages color, Perfect bound softcover.
ISBN: none
The [first?] all color poster stamp catalog by Charles Kiddle; every stamp here is by one commercial artist, Ludwig Hohlwein (1874-1949) “the most prolific and brilliant posterist of the 20th Century”. The catalog has high quality color printing on coated stock; one of the best Kiddle produced out of 50+ he made over 20+ years. Includes a brief biography & other introductory material.
Over 20 years Kiddle continued to produce catalogs for major artists in the world of poster stamps, and for those wanting to collect by artist, these are invaluable for the information about attribution (who designed which stamp) and rarity (which helps as a guide to money values).
Artist catalogs by Charles Kiddle:
- The Top Twenty Graphic Artists (2003) – includes 2004 Addendum. Every stamp is identified and illustrated at full size & in color.
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- Volume I Bernard to Lubbert, includes a Hohlwein ‘update’ 155 pages, 71 in color. Price £49
- Volume II Maga to Wolff 146 pages, 64 in color. £47
- Poster Stamps : Graphic Artists : The Best of the Rest : One, Two or Three Designs Only (2011) 86+ pages, almost all in full color. £35
- Poster Stamps : Graphic Artists : The Best Of The Rest : A to G (2011) 140+ pages, most in full color. £49
- Poster Stamps : Graphic Artists : The Best Of The Rest : HA to LU (2011) 140+ pages, most in full color. £49
- Poster Stamps : Graphic Artists : The Best Of The Rest : MA to RU (2011) 165+ pages, most in full color. £54
- Poster Stamps : Graphic Artists : The Best Of The Rest : S to Z (2011) 191 pages, most in full color. £59
- Poster Stamps : Graphic Artists : 2012 : New Discoveries (2013) 113+ pages, all stamps in full color. £46
- Poster Stamps : Raphael Tuck & Sons (2013) 73+ pages, all stamps in full color and at actual size. £39
- (Manfred Zollickhofer’s) Poster Stamps : 1001 Better by Design (2014) 130 pages. All stamps in full color and at actual size. £49
10. Mosbaugh’s U.S. All Fund Seals Catalog
by Ray Mosbaugh, Hoger, Irwin et al.
Ray C. Mosbaugh 1962, Christmas Seal and Charity Stamp Society & Henry Irwin 1979-1981, US; approx. 330 pages, black & white, loose leaf 3-ring binding. Also issued as a CD rom..
ISBN: none
combined with
Mosbaugh’s Red Cross Seals of the World Catalog
by Ray C. Mosbaugh, Irwin et al.
Published by Ray Mosbaugh 1972; by the Christmas Seal and Charity Stamp Society since, 1984.
Ray Mosbaugh was a cinderella collector who owned a print shop, and self-published the first versions of both of these catalogs. The appearance is pretty bad by modern standards: grainy, black & white images in reduced scale. The US All Funds Catalog lists charity stamps of all US non-profits excluding the Red Cross and the Lung Association (both have separate catalogs), sorting them into 10 chapters plus an index by charity names. Little has been done to update any of the catalog since the mid 1980’s, except for a nice new Easter Seals section; but then charity seals have declined in use since 1980, and the items we would call Poster Stamps come from earlier years.
Unlike the All Funds catalog, the Red Cross catalog is international in scope, and is sorted by country. Both of these catalogs remain the best general reference on those charities; although if specializing, one can find single country lists that are more detailed.
The Christmas Seal and Charity Stamp Society still sells the US All Funds Catalog, through dealer “John Denune’s ChristmasSeals.net” site. The US All Funds catalog is available on cd as pdf format inexpensively ($8.95 +2 PH), the Red Cross catalog the same, CD $8.95. Both are available printed also. The site literature listing: https://www.christmasseals.net/index.php/mainnavlit
11. German Aviation: ‘Zeppelins’ [And other Topical Catalogs]
by Charles Kiddle
[And other topical catalogs by Charles Kiddle and other authors.]
World Poster Stamps (self-published) UK 2007, 256 pages color, GBC wire binding.
ISBN: 1 901959 21 x
A large number of catalogs were published by Charles Kiddle listing items by subject. Any collector could pick one or more to use as a guide, the format and style of all is generally the same, with full size color illustrations of known poster stamps on a topic. Elsewhere on this site you can find a full listing of Kiddle produced catalogs; the names, such as Owls, Trains, Bicycles, Cars, Fashion, or Photography & Cameras, make the coverage obvious. The idea of a topic or thematic collection interested other authors who have printed catalogs over the last 30 years: Beer & Tobacco, for example.
Kiddle’s Zeppelin catalog is also part of a series covering German stamps on Aviation. The intense public interest when airplanes began to show up circa 1910 meant the poster stamp fad and aviation coincided. The field is surprisingly large.
Out of print and output in small quantities.
12.The Poster Stamps of The World’s Fair St. Louis 1904
by Charles Kiddle
World Poster Stamps [self published] UK, 2003; 80 pages color, GBC binding, with an included color card.
combined with:
St. Louis, Missouri Die-cut and Illustrated Advertising Stickers 1900-1904 – including 1904 World’s Fair advertising stickers
by Robert C. Bradbury
Self-published, US last rev. edition 2019; 100 pages, black & white, GBC wire binding.
ISBN none, for either.
Yes it’s true, this item is listed partly because the editor is a resident of St.Louis, but this time and place is unique. About 1900 a fad began in St. Louis for the typical sticker of that time, more crude, single color, and die cut (see A History of Poster Stamps section). The fad continued somewhat into the World’s Fair of 1904, but many of the Worlds Fair stamps were produced as elaborate big embossed stamps popular in Europe then. So the two catalogs overlap but only slightly.
No other US fair of the era, and no other city in the US, had the impressive number and variety of stamps. Unfortunately both catalogs are out of print and made in small quantities. And many of the stamps are difficult to obtain, also.