Heads of State

 

1980: 200th Anniversary of the Death of Empress Maria Theresa

Empress Maria Theresa, only female monarch in Hapsburg history, pragmatic ruler in the 'Age of Enlightened Absolutism'. She brought peace to Austria, well after the little matter of the War of the Austrian Succession'. No-one was expecting a woman to rule. The stamp set show her in her youth (missing from my collection 😞), in middle age when she had had 16 children and maybe quite a few of a Hapsburg favourite, Meringue Cake (three layers of meringue filled with fruit preserve) and in her later years as a widow. Unusually for the age despite being betrothed to her future husband as a child it was a love match. After her death they found a scrap of paper in her prayer book where she had calculated the total number of years, months, days and hours they had been together.

1947-1948 Sun Yat-sen)

Jumping forward in time here is the China's 'Father of the Nation', and first president, a position he quickly resigned from. This stamp with plum blossom was issued long after his death.

1972: 90th Birthday of King Gustaf VI Adolf

This set of booklet stamps was issued with 1 kr going to the King Gustaf VI Adolf Birthday Fund for Swedish Culture. It shows some of his interests as a collector of books and graphic works, Chinese objects from his collection, reading a speech from the Swedish throne, two Greek objects d'art and the King in the garden of Solliden Castle.

Sunday Stamps theme this week is - Heads of State - See It On A Postcard 

Transportation

 Transporting people, post and products in past times are -

2003: Philexjeunes Stamp Exhibition - Utility Vehicles (Design Francois Bruere)

A 1932 Renault coach stopped by what looks like a mountain lake and a remarkably clean coal delivery vehicle

1978: Day of the Stamp (Design J Krall)

A rather quaint post-bus of 1913.

 

2020: Mail Ships (Design Andrew Robinson)

Taking to the water here is a three masted steamer, the Ariadne built in 1823. I thought at first the funnel was a lighthouse, then I saw the smoke coming out of it... 

This time I can tell the difference. The 'Antelope' steaming past a  harbour light. This was the first of three ships built for the Great Western Railway when they started the Weymouth-Channel Islands service. Her maiden voyage was on 3rd August 1889

Sunday Stamps II theme this week is - Transportation - travel to See It On A Postcard

Osterreich in Outer Space

1982: UN Space Conference in Vienna (Design - Otto Zeiller)

Austria and outer space is something which does not immediately spring to my mind however I would be wrong as  it turns out they have been involved in space research since the 1950s and are members of the European Space Agency.

Austria chaired the UN Committee of Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) from 1957-1996 and in 1982 issued this stamp to commemorate UNISPACE II - the UN Conference on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space held in Vienna.

1978: (Definitive Series 1973-83): Beautiful Austria (Design - Otto Zeiller; Engraver - W Pfeiler)

Before setting off into outer space on top of highly inflammable fuel perhaps one might take time out to offer a prayer of safe return here in Oberwart which as that beautiful handwriting says is located in Burgenland (South East Austria).  The stamp shows the old parish church rebuilt in 1463 and the new parish church built in the 1960s.  I would take bets that the old church will outlast the modern.  You might have noticed that Otto Zeiller (1913-1988) has designed both of these stamps and of course the rest of the 'Beautiful Austria' issue.

1978: Modern Art in Austria (Design - Rudolf Hausner)

Who might we encounter in outer space?  This is Adam who Rudolf Hausner (1914-1995) depicted repeatedly over the decades subtly changing and based on his own image.  No wonder when they held a retrospective exhibition of his works it was called 'Ruldolf Hauser - it's me'.  My thoughts on when seeing this stamp for the first time and observing the hat was linking it in my head with Guinan, the quirky and wise alien played by Whoopi Goldberg in Star Trek.  Hausner has been called a "painter of the landscapes of the soul" and his style can't be classified although people try, calling it fantastic realism and him a psychic realist.  The Nazi's had other views and designated him a degenerate artist during World War 2.

1919: For Express (Design - Alfred Cossmann)

Mercury doesn't need fuel or rockets to race around the world just wings on his hat and feet.  This stamp is for express delivery use and is the second issue which was overprinted 'Deutschösterreich' - German-Austria; a political desire of unification by Austria at that time as it emerged battered and without an empire at the end of the first world war.

Sunday Stamps II prompt this week is the Letter O - here for  Österreich, Outer Space, Oberwart and Otto - See It On A Postcard     

Lamplight

2002: Visit Austria (Design - Adolf (Adi) Tuma)

A warm glow in a winding alleyway called Schönlaaterngasse (Beautiful Lantern Alley) in central Vienna. The beautiful lantern in question is outside number 7 but the original wrought iron creation  is in Vienna's City Museum and only a copy shines here. The Schönlaterngasse has appeared 4 times on Austria's stamps and also more excitingly for me in Carol Reed's movie The Third Man.  Shadowy people and places filmed in 1948 on location in a postwar Vienna.  Today there is a Third Man walking tour, I imagine the catchy zither sound track running for ever in my head during that, and yes the tour includes the sewers.

1979: 300th Anniversary of Street Lighting (Design - Finke)

Meanwhile in Berlin more than half the world's existing gas lights illuminate the streets and the stamp's Gas Lamp is in the Kruezberg District but since 2013 they are being demolished and only 3,200 out of 37,000 will be preserved although there is a residents action to try to save them.

1996: Images of Germany (Design - Schillinger)

I imagine this chandelier type lamp is also gas lit and shines on what is considered one of Berlin's most beautiful squares, Gendarmennmarkt.

1948: Airmail - Explorers and Inventors (Design - Légrády Sándor)

Of course Thomas Edison would definitely be for electric lights.  A motion picture is beaming out in the background and happily giving me another 'L' by showing a view of the Statue of Liberty.

2004: Bordeaux (Design - Claude Andreotto; Engraving - Claude Jumelet)

Here the lights are on the Pont de Pierre which crosses the Gironde River at Bordeaux. Planned and designed on the orders of Napoleon Bonaparte (although only eventually competed in 1822) its 17 arches are said to be for the number of letters in his name.  Although the stamp seems to show the tram on another bridge it actually runs over the Pont de Pierre but the condition of the bridge means that all traffic has been banned since 2016 with the exception of pedestrians, cyclists and the tram-line. 

1981: Huis ten Bosch

Lastly lamplight leads us here to the 17th Century Royal Palace in The Hague,  one of three official residencies of the Dutch royal family and since 1984 the Dutch monarchs office for political and state affairs.

Ammonite Lamp Post at Dusk, Lyme Regis (Jurassic Coast)

Sunday Stamps II prompt this week is the Letter L - here for Lamps, lamplight and liberty -  lots more at See It On A Postcard
 

 

Jesters

1968: Polish Paintings

The court jester Stańczyk lived at the time of the 16th Century Polish Renaissance and here he is attending Queen Bona's ball (seen in the background), but all is not well for he has discovered a letter and the news of the loss of Smolensk to Russia.  The artist, Jan Matejko (1838-1897) was a painter of the history of Poland and this is one of his most famous paintings, a popular exhibit in the National Museum, Warsaw.

2011: 500th anniversary of the Till Eulenspiegel Stories (Design - Henning Wagenbreth)

 A more upbeat Joker, Till Eulenspiegel, a peasant trickster playing pranks and jokes and driving people mad by taking their words literally. The stupid but cunning peasant always outfoxes the narrow dishonesty of townsmen, clergy and nobility. His name translates as 'Owl mirror' and like the original book of his adventures the stamp shows him with both. The stamp illustrates the various objects from his pranks and is designed by the Berlin illustrator Henning Wagenbreth

1991: Greeting Stamps 'Smiles' Reissued as 1st Class postage (Design - Michel Peters and Partners)

 Its Mr Punch so we know that mayhem is just around the corner, as it is with the other smiling face of Stan Laurel of Laurel and Hardy fame.  These greeting stamps were issued in booklets of ten on various subjects  but sadly they haven't done them for years

1991: Folded Stamp Booklet Number 1 of 4 - 150th Anniversary Punch Magazine

and of course the illustrated cardboard covered vending machine stamp booklets have long gone too.  This was the first of a set of 4 booklets issued in 1991 for the 150th anniversary of the satirical and humorous magazine Punch featuring Punch on the cover as drawn by Richard Doyle and on the back a Gerard Hoffnung cartoon.

1985: Austrian Modern Art (Paul Flora)

I'll finish with high japes and the brightly clothed Harlequin as imagined by the prolific Austrian Tyrol illustrator and cartoonist Paul Flora (1922-2009) on the 'Carnival Figures' maximum card.

The 'Clowns Riding High Bicycles' with a postmark showing off nicely those delicate peddling pointy feet.

1985 (Artist - Paul Flora; Engraver - Wolfgang Seidel)

but for the full colourful effect and their red noses here is the stamp alone. The country name is raised and tactile on the stamp which akes me imagine Paul Flora sitting at his drawing board putting the finishing touch to the stamp with a nice scratchy pen nib.

The Sunday Stamps II prompt this week is the letter J - for Jan and  Jester, I'll try to resist jape and joking, oh no I haven't - See It On A Postcard

Snowy Tops

1985: Mountains in the Antarctic

Let's head over to some inhospitable mountains in Antarctica located in Queen Maud Land. This is part of the Norwegian Antarctica where there are 12 research stations, only 6 of which are occupied all year round. 

Here are the stamps

with their little teams of huskies. On the left is Sagbladet or The Saw Blade and on the right Hoggestabben Butte, a butte is an isolated hill with vertical sides and a relatively flat top, and the translation of Hoggestabben is - The Chopping Block.

1991: Mount Hengshan (Shanxi Province)

A more accessible mountain in China is next and it is the northernmost of "The Five Great Mountains of China",  Mount Hengshan in Shanxi Province.  A mountain sacred to Taoists but one of the least visited of the sacred mountains and so relatively less commercialised. The wikipedia article is quite lyrical about it saying that to get to the top is "a lovely hike of three hours where the summit is covered in fragrant lilac blossom in June"   

Its most famous aspect is the Hanging Temple which is set into a sheer precipice 246 ft (75m) high. It was built in 386-534 and unusual in that it combines three traditions - Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism.

 55 - Shrine of Hengshan carved in the rock face  80 - Temples in Flying Stone Grotto

The mountain was painted by Yang Wenqing (b1954) and engraved by Li Defu.  Yang Wenqing has painted many stamps for China Post and won the Best Stamp Painting award in 1980 and 1982.

Lastly is a stamp featuring the Rätikon Massif and the Lindauer Hütte which perches at 1300m, perhaps a good place to take off ones hiking boots for rest and recuperation ready for the next day in the mountains.  Featured on one of Austria's lovely definitive stamp series of the 1970s sometimes called Beautiful Austria, although my catalogue calls them rather prosaically 'views'.

An entry to Sunday Stamps II theme - Mountains - reach the heights at See It On A Postcard   

No Pictures, Possibly

If when browsing some Channel Island stamps a few weeks ago I had purchased Jersey's Magna Carta issue featuring one word, this week's Sunday Stamps II theme would have been a breeze. As I didn't there was a long browse through my collection of stamps, although because I have very few Brazilian stamps I  remembered the one above.  Where would we all have been without learning our ABC?  I always remember singing it at school, perhaps they do the same in Brazil. The stamp was issued in 2005 for Teacher's Day.  Maybe some of the pupils dream of becoming engineers

 and this stamp celebrates the 50th Anniversary of the Royal Flemish Association of Engineers, the KVIV. It was designed by someone whose surname I imagine took him a long time to write when he was learning his ABC - Emile Vandemeulebroucke.  Of course engineers need their mathematics so lets turn to numbers

and the ones use for post codes. This stamp was issued in 1966 for Austria's introduction of the Postal Code System and shows a postal zone map.  They use a four figure number, the first (the one shown on the stamp) is the geographic delivery area (1 being for Vienna etc).  The full set of numbers would also include a second number for the routing area, the third is the route the mail takes by truck or train and the fourth the post office outlet and the routing city.

Something not seen anymore is the postage due stamp which can be quite plain but not in the case of Czechoslovakia who produced some beautifully designed postage due stamps over the decades and I have chosen this one

used from 1946-1953 which they following in

1954 by this design.  They used two of their great stamp engravers for these intricate designs, Bohan Roule (1921-1960) for this and

Jiri Antonin Svengsbir (1921-1983) for the higher values.  I'm counting the area around the number as decoration to get round the "no pictures" guideline. Yikes don't mention the map otherwise I would not have been able to make an (unintentional) ABC of countries. 

An entry to Sunday Stamps II theme - Words and/or Numbers (no pictures) - more alphanumerics here
  

War and Peace

1969: Investiture of Charles, Prince of Wales

In the days before the bland design houses employed by Royal Mail, whose first thought seems to be to head for the photographic archives, these stamps were produced by the great stamp designer David Gentleman.  Caenarvan Castle's vast edifice stands at the mouth of the Seiont River in Wales and its bulk was intentional. Edward I in his conquest of Wales built a string of fortresses across the country, his idea at Caernarvan was to echo the walls of Constantinople and project imperial power. The stamps show, left to right, The King's Gate, The Eagle Tower (the first part of the castle to be built) and Queen Eleanor Gate.  Unusual for monarchs at the time Edward and Eleanor spent a lot of time together, Eleanor even accompanying him in his military campaigns.  Their son, the first Prince of Wales, was born here in 1284.

The other stamp of the set shows a Celtic cross from Mangam Abbey. I think this is the Cross of Conbelin an immerse stone cross wheel standing 8ft 6ins (2.61m)  with knot and plait work probably dating from 950-1050.  Mangam Abbey has a Stone Cross Museum of Roman and Celtic Crosses

The set completes with a portrait of Prince Charles who was at the centre of  his investiture as Prince of Wales by the Queen. The eyes do make him  look like one of those murderous and machinating princes of the medieval period.

This is a stamp from one of the 'Smilers' sheets which I think were a series covering all the countries of the United Kingdom's castles. The two I show are from the 'Castles of England' sheet. This one goes back to our last invasion, that of William the Conqueror who started this castle in 1068 and the present construction developed from that.

One of my particular favourites is Orford Castle in Suffolk where you can get marvellous view from the top as not only do you have the hight of the keep but also the hill it is built on.  All that is left today is the keep and some of the outer fortifications.. Built in the 12th Century by Henry II it too was built to consolidate royal power in the region. I happened to take a photo of it last time I was there here.

Enough of British castles here is the medieval Moorish Castle of Gibraltar which stands in a dominant and strategic position and played a part in the Arab conquest of the Iberian peninsula. Over time it has been destroyed and rebuilt.  Now lets turn to the quiet sanctuaries of monestries and abbeys in Austria

 Here are some of the series of 18 stamps showing Austrian abbeys and monasteries that Wolfgang Pfeiller engraved between 1984 and 1992. The stamps are quite small which makes the quality of the engraving all the more amazing. Until I scanned these at first glance I thought the stamp on the right showed sheep in the meadow and then in its larger form saw  they were in fact trees.  From a brief search I cannot find any information about Pfeiller apart from the fact he was  born in 1941 and produced a great many stamps for Austria.

 He shows beautifully the abbeys in theirsurroundings

 And the different colours are rather pleasing.

An entry to Viridian Postcard's Sunday Stamps theme - Castles, Churches and Fortifications.