Hellenic Steamship Companies and their Handstamps
385 steamship companies, 110 private shipping agents, and 1657 maritime handstamps comprise the framework of the 500-page brand-new book recently released by Nikos Antypas. The reader will also have the opportunity to get acquainted with Greek shipping legends like Embiricos, Typaldos, Vlassopoulos, Goulandris, Potamianos, Nomikos, Livanos, Pantaleon, Onassis etc.
We read on the book’s back cover:
About 40 years ago, in November of 1984, on the banks of the Congo River, the well-traveled Cephalonian Nikos Antypas dreamed of a collection of maritime handstamps related to the wider
Greek area. During the decades of the 1950s and 1960s, philatelists had already begun studying Shipping Companies that had contracts with the Hellenic Post after discovering that many letters had been transported by ships. The imprint of the shipment was obvious (maritime handstamps) or implied (postage, sender’s notes, etc.). The passion of the author led him to gather an amazing and rare collection, to even retrieve information of unknown majority owners of a single ship and to highlight the impressive organization and operation of larger companies.
The time has come for this exciting and scarce material to emerge in this rich and fascinating book that we leafing through with admiration. All the 1657 handstamps presented here were found by the author on stamps, envelopes, letter slips, bills of lading, tickets, charters, sales contracts, advertising publications and timetable posters. They reflect the rich activity of Greek shipowners in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Video presentation of the book (2 minutes): https://e.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZisHhZLYAacNDkW5FYuHl5MI2ho8q4S4dk
First 29 pages in pdf: https://fepanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Antypas_1-29.pdf
Format A4, 500 pages, in colour, hardcover, price € 70 plus postage (postage: Europe € 36, rest of the world € 46), availability at nicolasantippas@yahoo.
