Classic French Stamps - references

A little over 1 year ago I decided to move beyond my main interest - the Postal History of Tasmania, and joined the F&CPS.
Peter Kelly was kind enough to suggest some reading and this has helped considerably as I try to understand the stamps of French Colonial Africa. I now have a club-level display of a number of French Colonies and the possibility of expanding this to include the Postal History of Madagascar, Cote Francaise des Somalas, Gabon, Mauritania and others.

Alas ( for my bank account), I have also now developed an interest in classic French issues and am seeking some guidance about useful reference literature beyond the catalogues. I am interested in traditional stamp collecting and also post marks and postal markings from 1849 to early 20th century. My French is passable but I still prefer to read in English, probably a faint hope I suspect.


If anyone can suggest some useful reference publications for the classic period and beyond to around WW1 I would be very grateful. I do appreciate there may be many specialised publications and articles but any thoughts would be very welcome.

Up-date
Having undertaken some research I can see that my initial request was somewhat ill-informed. There must be hundreds of references in Journals and books about French stamps from 1849 to WW1.
what I probably need, if such exists, is some sort of over view so I can work through the issues over time and then decide where to specialise.

Peter Allan

You will need to grit your teeth and accept that most literature is in French. The most up to date books are those written by Michèle Chauvet with plenty of illustrations and tables so not too hard to follow. Start with 'Introduction à L'Histoire Postale de 1848 à 1878' published in 2007. The websites of the main French dealers and auction houses usually have currently available books - Baudot, Brun, Robineau etc

Thank you cjhitchen. Thats a very useful lead and confirms what I had thought - I'll need to consider French language references.

A copy of Maury 2011 Catalogue de Timbres de France turned up today and thats proving far, far more useful than my older SG France. One picture is worth 1,000 words and there are plenty of pictures in the Maury.
I have also tracked down a copy of the Michele Chauvet 1848-1878 book you mentioned for sale on the net which I will purchase if possible. That would seem to cover my needs for that period for a long time to come.
Your Journal is also proving very useful. Luckily I bought quite a few issues when I joined the Society last year.
Thanks again for your help.