Collecting : my collection 03f

Yvert & Tellier is a catalogue that is used in France, Belgium.

The logo of the company is quite interesting too:

We see a snowflake on the left, and a sun on the right.
It's like winter and summer combined.
In French that becomes : "hiver, été liés" (winter, summer combined)
Phonetically pronouced as [yvert é télié] or Yvert & Tellier.


Now back to the catalogues ...
If you're a collector of all stamps, (or a theme collector with stamps from various counties in your collection), then you better have a well paid job.
The complete set of catalogues is not less then 20 (!) volumes!
Yvert isn't updating all catalogues very year (luckily I would dare to say), so some volumes might be a bit out of date, but they will be renewed in the near future.
An overview :

Catalogue of France by Yvert & Tellier

Part 1 : France (updated yearly)
Part 1bis : Monaco, Andorra, UN, french overseas territories (updated yearly)

Part 2.1 : French (former) colonies (2011)
Part 2.2 : Formerly french colonies in Africa : A - H (+ Laos and Cambodia) (2006)
Part 2.3 : Formerly french colonies in Africa : M -T (+ Vanuatu and Vietnam) (2008)

Part 3.1 : Western Europe : A - E (2006)*/**
Part 3.2 : Western Europe : E - L (2008)*/**
Part 3.3 : Western Europe : M - Y (2009)**

Part 4.1 : Eastern Europe : A - P (2010)**
Part 4.2 : Eastern Europe : R - U (2011)**

     * as it is a french catalogue : Germany is listed under A of Allemagne
        and Spain under E of Espagne.
     ** at the moment replaced by
          Part 3.1 (new) : Europe 1 : A - B (2011)
          Part 3.2 (new) : Europe 2 : C - H (2012)

Part 5.1 : Oversea : A - B (2011)
Part 5.2 : Oversea : C - D (2006)
Part 5.3 : Oversea : D - G (2006)
Part 5.4 : Oversea : G - L (2008)
Part 5.5 : Oversea : L - N (2008)
Part 5.6 : Oversea : O - S (2009)
Part 5.7 : Oversea : S - Z (2010)

There's an index catalogue (Tome de référence) (2007)

Example of Part 5.5 (Overseas)

And a very interesting catalogue "Classiques du monde 1840 - 1940" - with all stamps from the 'classic era' until 1940

Yvert : 'Classiques du Monde' 1840 - 1940

As you can see, some countries are updated till 2006.
Bad luck if you started to collect "Canada" from 2007 on ... as there's no catalogue for it.
Well, for those who are in need, Yvert & Tellier found a very good solution.

Each year, a small catalogue is issued, with all newly emitted stamps of that year.
Perfect to be used while waiting for a new complete catalogue.

Nevertheless, this 'small catalogue' has 690 pages ! (only for the year 2011)

Yvert : all new stamps of 2011

General impression :

+++ Nicely designed catalogue, especially usefull for France and colonies.
        Annual edition is a very good idea, especially for new collectors (young collectors)
        as the price for this catalogue is afordable, after several years the prices are a bit out of date,
        but by that time, you can buy a complete catalogue.
---    A bookshelf alone won't be sufficient to hold all catalogues.
        For collectors of a certain area (Scandinavia for example), you need to buy all european
        catalogues, as Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway, are in 3 different volumes.
        Information in the catalogues (except France / Monaco) is rather limited.

Please note, this information is 'as known' on May 2012.

to be continued ...

Collecting : my collection 03e

World catalogues, a blessing and a curse.
There are several 'world wide catalogues' and the most know are : Yvert & Tellier (FR); Michel (DE); Stanley Gibbons (UK) and Scott (US).
To have a paper version of those catalogues, you need a 'stamp catalogue' - catalogue!

Let's start with a catalogue that is mainly used in France.

the catalogue set

Yvert started a philatelistic magazine as early as 1887 already.
"L'Écho de la timbrologie" (The echo of stamp knowledge) still exists.
Nowadays it's issued by a private company, but it's still printed at the Yvert & Tellier press.

In 1896 the company emitted the first 'Catalogue prix-courant de timbres-poste par Yvert et Tellier' (first stamp quotation by Yvert and Tellier).

internet picture - not in my collection (1897)

At the same time, an album was issued with preprinted pages to insert the emitted stamps so far.
This idea is also used by other companies, and until today, it's an popular (but maybe conservative) way to organise stamps countrywise.

preprinted album

At that time, mint and used stamps were put together in those albums. One of the reasons why unused stamps are mainly hinged. In best cases, sometimes unused stamps were just attached with the gum to the albums.

hinged stamp

In Yvert & Tellier started to cooperate with the Parisian stampdealer Théodor Champion, 
Until his death in 1955 he made price listings for all stamps. Nowadays, a complete team of experts is doing this job.
Tellier left the company in 1913 and sold his shares to Louis Yvert. In remembrance of Théodule Tellier, both names are still used for the catalogues.
The family Yvert is still running the business, and two great-grandsons of Louis Yvert are managing the company : Christophe Yvert en Benoît Gervais.

Louis Yvert

Théodule Tellier

to be continued ...