The S_zekula Family of Stamp Dealers

In 1930, Eugen Sekula had a very special idea for injecting his own creations into the philatelic market: instead of printing or writing the words Porto bezahlt, Port payé or Porto pagato (German, French and Italian for Postage paid) on envelopes meant to be sent out as cash paid printed matter, he had postage-stamp-like labels made for that purpose. On September 24 the post office no. 6 of Lucerne granted permission to use these labels. After preparing a few hundred covers he began sending them out on October 10. His marketing ploy only lasted 10 days. On October 20, as soon as the postal administration of Lucerne became aware of this, further use of these labels was prohibited because they violated Swiss postal regulations.
Instead of feeling defeated the businessman Sekula immediately saw an opportunity. Pointing out the rareness of his vignettes in ads placed in various philatelic journals he began selling his leftovers at high prices! Complete sets of all four stamps were offered in special glassine booklets in German, English, and French. The ones shown below contain the scarcer set of tête-bêche printed pairs.

Six covers and three postcards franked with Eugen Sekula’s vignettes postmarked between October 10 and October 18, 1930. Due to the short period of time these labels were accepted by the Swiss post office in Lucerne, traveled covers with these labels are scarce.