Given my love for all things postal, you’d think I’d have heard of “porte timbres” a long time ago. But no. Porte timbres (French for “stamp holders”) were frames with a space in the center for a postage stamp. Also known as “stamp collars” or “advertising collars,” the frames carried patriotic, social, commercial or charitable messages, and were once popular in Europe and the U.S.

“The war on alcohol; alcohol makes you stupid; absinthe drives you mad; alcohol kills.”

In the U.S., George F. Nesbitt, a New York City stationer and printer, pioneered the idea of adding frames around the embossed stamps on printed postal envelopes and inspired other firms to use them for advertising.

An exhibitor at the PIPEX 2022 stamp show wrote, “Although the use of stamp collars dates from the 1850s, their heyday began in the 1880s and continued until approximately 1911 at which time the Post Office Department prohibited the placement of any printed design in the area of the envelope where the postage was affixed. However, they have been sporadically used to this day.”

Today collectors can find examples from the U.S., France, Russia, Germany and other European nations.

Further Reading

“Advertising Collars”

“French Stamp Collars”

“Getting Collared: The Use of Stamp Collars in the United States”