COLOUR, A POSTAL SYMBOL

Did you know that mailboxes come in a wide variety of colours? Various reasons have been given for choosing a specific colour: greater visibility, or political or historical significance.

Seeking to present a uniform image to the public throughout the country, postal administrations select a specific colour to identify their service as a whole.

THURN AND TAXIS

A 400-YEAR POSTAL MONOPOLY

From the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century, the princes of Thurn and Taxis managed a postal network that stretched from the Baltic to the Adriatic and from Poland to the Strait of Gibraltar. At the height of its power, this family enterprise had 20,000 employees and owned thousands of horses and vehicles.

Franz von Taxis, whose family was originally from Italy, was appointed to the hereditary office of Postmaster General by the emperor of Germany. The Thurn and Taxis postal service met both political and economic needs, as it established a link between the many small independent states that existed in Europe in the fifteenth century.

However, such a supranational network could not withstand Napoleon's conquests and the advent of national postal services.

The political upheavals of the 1850's led to the decline of the Thurn and Taxis postal system. Over 400 years after it was established, the family's postal network was sold.

The Thurn and Taxis palace in Frankfurt am Main. Reproduction of a German postage stamp in the Europa 1990 series.
Courtesy of the Canadian Postal Archives




Thurn and Taxis office of the Augsburg Imperial Post.
Reproduction of a 1984 German postage stamp.
Courtesy of the Canadian Postal Archives




Thurn and Taxis postal sign at Nuremberg, eighteenth century.
Courtesy of the Deutsches Postmuseum, Germany




Appointment of Franz von Taxis as Postmaster General. In 1505, he was asked to establish a postal network linking Spain, France, Germany, Rome and Naples.
Reproduction of a 1989 Spanish postage stamp.
National Postal Museum




Thurn and Taxis messenger. Belgian postage stamp issued to mark Stamp Day in 1973.
National Postal Museum


POSTAL SIGNS

In all postal administrations, it is customary to use signs to let the public know where offices are located. These signs, made of wood, stone or metal by local artisans, come in various shapes and sizes.

In countries where the postal service was controlled by the Thurn and Taxis family, the family's coat of arms shows the imperial eagle, a distinction awarded by Emperor Maximilian I. Notice the horn, the emblem associated with the position of Postmaster General.

Thurn and Taxis postal sign at Aix-la-Chapelle, circa 1750
Courtesy of the Deutsches Postmuseum, Germany