COVER N. 228 - FRANCE

Postmark: Gustave Eiffel 1832-1923 1er Jour 23-03-2023 - 21 Dijon  

Posted on the 23rd March; Received on the 30th March 2023

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Paris wouldn't be Paris without its most recognisable sign: the quintessential wrought iron tower, towering (no word would make more sense, I guess) 324 metres high to the top of the antenna that sits on its apex, which bears the name of the master engineer who conceived it, Monsieur l'Ingénieur  Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, né Bonickhausen dit Eiffel. (1832-1923)

All the same, the Portuguese cities of Porto or Viana do Castelo, would lose quite an important part of their aura, if the bridges that Eiffel designed for each of them, would not  be there, the Maria Pia Bridge, over the Douro, for the former, and the Eiffel Bridge (what else?), over the Lima, for the latter.

Last, but certainly not least, my growing cover collection would be deprived of a very beautiful item if Eric hadn't again decided to surprise me with an outstanding piece, in the form of a first day of issue postmarked souvenir sheet containing the  very beautiful in-taglio printed 1,80 stamp, issued on 23-03-2023 to mark the centenary of the passing of Mr. Eiffel.

I really like the simple beauty of this stamp, featuring the effigy of Eiffel against a section of the arch on the sides of the tower base.

Of note is the fact that the postmark was issued at the city of Dijon, his birthplace. 

Thank you so much, Eric. Once again, your generosity humbles me. 

Other than the eponymous tower, Gustave Eiffel contribution to functional architecture, is well known for such famous creations as the Gabarit Viaduct (the red structural section on the souvenir sheet) , the inner structure of the Statue of Liberty, the already mentioned Portuguese bridges, and a host of other creations like  train and bus stations, churches, Lighthouses, Theatres, etc, in Europe and South America, mainly,  and I guess that having his name associated with engineering works that can be regarded as works of art by themselves, irrespectively of the purpose for wish they were build, does play an important part in this well deserved claim to fame.

I wonder if some of those works of art did not in some way at some point inhabited the small office Mr. Eiffel kept at the Palácio da Bolsa at Porto, where he worked during his stay in my country, and which I have had the opportunity to visit.

I will not elaborate about Eiffel's  career and immense contribution to the development of structure and bridge engineering, since Doctor Google will readily provide any reader with much more information than I can provide, but  I do think I have  a point when I say that one cannot but be marvelled  at the way his more well known master creations are woven together in elaborated (and scientifically calculated) lattice works,  clearly evocative of the industrial progress issued out of the industrial revolution that would characterise the transition from the  19th to the 20th centuries.

I look at all that Iron and I see future..... I read Jules Verne on those lattices, that somehow evoke monumental Mecanno creations, in the geometrical way the structures develop themselves, I can even see the foundations for such ground breaking artistic moments as the cubist inceptions of  Braque and Picasso.

This, for me, is the beauty of  Eiffel's genie, which I have had the pleasure of marvelling at, but also of actually using, for such is the beauty of functional art....