Eritrean Life

Just like stamps on some of the other pages of this album, these stamps were meant to show some of the exotic life of Eritrea. They’re meant to make colonization of Eritrea more acceptable, to develop proprietary interest in the colony amongst Italians, and maybe encourage them to visit and possibly settle in the colony.

The images show large sharks caught by fishermen, camels – which don’t exist on the Italian peninsula, except in zoos – as well as some of the people from Eritrea. I’m not sure how appealing all of this may have been to the Italian public. However, it certainly would have peaked their curiosity about Eritrea should they see an envelop with one of these stamps on it.

For Eritreans, I suppose these stamps were meant to instill pride in their culture and a feeling that the Italian government appreciates them enough to make special stamps depicting Eritrean life.

Note

This page is complete, as you can see. The layout follows the denominations of the stamps themselves, rather than organizing them intentionally based on size or image. I think they’re organized well enough.

Contains 17 spots: own 17 – 17 unused, 0 used.
Page is finished.
Album or Web Page Last changed Feb 4, 2025

Stamp Details

The table below lists information about the stamps shown on this page of Lighthouse’s stamp album. For more details about a particular stamp, click on its description. That will take you to the related web page of Colnect.

spot

own

catalog

subject

description

comment

Eritrea Pictorials III

1.1	✓	203	Dromedary	2c (dec 1933) definitive, blue
1.2	✓	204	Shark drying	5c (dec 1933) definitive, black
1.3	✓	205	Dromedary	10c (dec 1933) definitive, brown
2.1	✓	206	Shark drying	15c (dec 1933) definitive, orange brown
2.2	✓	207	Baobab tree	25c (dec 1933) definitive, green & dark green
2.3	✓	208	Natives at the well	35c (dec 1933) definitive, violet
3.1	✓	210	African Elephant	2₤ (dec 1933) definitive, greenish black
3.2	✓	209	Cholloe ruins	1₤ (dec 1933) definitive, slate bluish grey
3.3	✓	211	Native man	5₤ (dec 1933) definitive, carmine pink
3.4	✓	212	Native woman	10₤ (dec 1933) definitive, orange

Duke of Abruzzi Memorial

4.1	✓	213	Dromedary	10c (may 1934) definitive, black blue
4.2	✓	214	Abruzzi	15c (may 1934) definitive, blue
4.3	✓	215	Abruzzi	35c (may 1934) definitive, green
5.1	✓	217	African Elephant	2₤ (may 1934) definitive, carmine
5.2	✓	216	Abruzzi	1₤ (may 1934) definitive, red brown
5.3	✓	218	Abruzzi	5₤ (may 1934) definitive, violet
5.4	✓	219	Abruzzi	10₤ (may 1934) definitive, greenish black

Footnotes

Spot refers to the postion of the stamp on the album page (e.g., 3.2 indicates row 3, position 2).
Amt. is an abbreviation for the face amount of the stamp.
Own indicates the stamp status: ✓ for unused; ✗ for used or canceled; ⭑ signifies I ordered one; ; ✨ indicates it was bought recently; ✠ means an auction bid is pending; and ◎ is used, and it costs too much for unused.
To search by catalog number, go to the search box and enter it in the catalog number box. However, it’s a bit broken; I need to fix it.