Bavaria (Bayern) — Kingdom of Bavaria Stamp Lot (1876–1911 Wappen & Ludwig III)
A solid working collection of thirty Bavaria (Bayern) stamps spanning 1876–1911, covering key German States issues. The page opens with the higher denominations of the 1876 Wappen (coat of arms) series — including 50pf shades and 1 Mark values — and closes with a substantial run of the popular 1911 King Ludwig III portrait definitives, headlined by the 3 Mark Ludwig III (Stanley Gibbons catalogue value £100).
The 1911 Ludwig III set was issued to mark the 25th anniversary of Ludwig's accession and remained in postal use until the Bavarian postal authority was absorbed into the Deutsche Reichspost in 1920. Two stamps in the lot carry contemporary perfin cancellations (typical of business mail of the period). All stamps in the lot are used.
Lot contents
1876 Wappen (Coat of Arms) high denominations — 9 stamps
- 20 Pfennig grey-blue
- 25 Pfennig pair (matched cancels)
- 50 Pfennig brown × 3 (shade study)
- 50 Pfennig orange
- 1 Mark mauve × 2 (assorted cancels)
1911 King Ludwig III portrait definitives — 21 stamps, including the 3 Mark high value (vermilion-red)
- 3 Pfennig brown × 3
- 5 Pfennig green × 5 (one with company perfin)
- 10 Pfennig red × 6 (assorted cancels)
- 15 Pfennig green × 1
- 20 Pfennig blue × 4
- 40 Pfennig olive × 2 (one with company perfin)
- 1 Mark olive — clear MÜNCHEN cds
- 3 Mark vermilion-red — clear MÜNCHEN cds (SG cat. £100)
Lot specification
| Issuing authority | Kingdom of Bavaria (Bayern) — German State |
| Period | 1876–1911 (Wappen high values & Ludwig III portraits) |
| Number of stamps | 30 (all used) |
| Currency | Pfennig and Mark |
| Headline item | 3 Mark Ludwig III, used with clear München cancel (SG cat. £100) |
| Catalogue references | Stanley Gibbons / Michel (SG values pencilled on page) |
| Combined SG catalogue value | Approximately £216 (of the 30 included stamps) |
| Presentation | Despatched on the original album page exactly as shown, with pencilled SG references and catalogue values intact. One additional 2 Mark stamp on the page is identified as faulty and excluded from the valuation. |
A short note on the issues
The 1876 Wappen (coat of arms) definitives are the most familiar Bavaria stamps, running for over thirty years in various shades. The high denominations — 25pf, 50pf and the 1 Mark mauve — were the workhorses of registered and parcel post and are correspondingly scarcer in fine used condition than the lower pfennig values.
The 1911 King Ludwig III portrait definitives marked Bavaria's last major design change before the kingdom's postal absorption into the Reichspost in 1920. The set ran from 3pf to 20 Mark, with the 3 Mark vermilion forming one of the desirable high values. The Ludwig III portrait, by the artist Friedrich Bauer, captures the king in uniform during his role as Prince Regent before his formal accession in late 1913.
About Your Philatelist — Over Forty Years a Collector
Every stamp listed by Schnauzer Stamp Co. has been personally examined and identified by a philatelist with more than forty years' collecting experience, specialising in Great Britain (Machins) and the British Commonwealth, with a working knowledge of classical European material. Stamps are identified against the Stanley Gibbons catalogue and described honestly — I know an SG112 from an SG112a, and I will not call something fine if it isn't.
If anything in this listing is unclear, or you would like a closer photograph of a particular stamp before bidding, please send a message — questions from fellow collectors are always welcomed.
