The rise of Art Deco in New Zealand was in part brought about by the disastrous Napier earthquake of 1931, which reduced most of the town to rubble. Rebuilt, literally from the ground up, Napier became the home of some of the most beautiful and famous Art Deco buildings in the Southern Hemisphere. The town's reputation is now so well established that in February 1999, Napier hosted the Fifth World Congress on Art Deco.
Art Deco style reaches well beyond Napier, of course. Classic and diverse examples of Art Deco architecture can be found all over New Zealand, four are shown in this stamp issue.
The Four Stamps.
40c - The Civic Theatre in Auckland.
The Civic Theatre is the only movie palace in New Zealand built on the scale of the huge fantasy cinemas of which every respectable American city could boast at least one. The Civic was conceived and constructed before the Depression began when the boom of the 1920s was at its height. However, two months before the opening, Black Friday on Wall Street changed the world and although this would not have been apparent at the gala opening on 20 December 1929.
$1.00 - The Masonic Hotel in Napier.
Napier’s massive earthquake in 1931 was a disaster for the city and the province of Hawke’s Bay. By good fortune, this happened when the Art Deco style was new to New Zealand and approaching the height of its popularity overseas. The new Napier arose when architects were seeking a new style for a new century and buildings were beginning to take on a new look, but ornament was not yet dead.
$1.50 - The Medical and Dental Chambers in Hastings.
Hastings did not suffer as badly as Napier in the 1931 earthquake, because it was further from the epicentre, had fewer large masonry buildings and did not lose its water supply as completely as Napier, enabling the fires which broke out to be contained. But many buildings were lost, and most of the facades. As a result, Hastings too looked, by 1933, like a brand new, modern city, built like Napier in the styles fashionable at the time - Stripped Classical, Spanish Mission and Art Deco.
$1.80 - The Buller County Chambers in Westport.
People in other countries are often surprised that Art Deco reached isolated New Zealand. It certainly did reach New Zealand - even its more isolated parts. Westport boasts two important Art Deco buildings – the Westport Borough Council building and the former Buller County Council building (illustrated on the stamp).
First Day Cover - 10 February 1999.
Technical information.
Date of issue: 10 February 1999.
Designer: Donna McKenna, Wellington, New Zealand.
Printer: Southern Colour Print, New Zealand.
Stamp size: 28mm x 44mm.
Sheet size: 50 stamps per sheet.
Process: Lithography.
Perforation gauge: 14.
Paper type: 103 gsm red phosphor coated.
Period of sale: These stamps remained on sale until 9 February 2000.
Some of the images in this post were used with permission from the illustrated catalogue of StampsNZ
You can visit their website and Online Catalogue at, http://stampsnz.com/
Information & images for this post came from.
I like that message behind this post. You do find this style of building all over New Zealand.
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