Small Animals

 

1998: Endangered Species

It has  turned cold so little dormice will be curled up and fast asleep. Due to an active reintroduction scheme locally there are many more snoozing in the woods.

2014: Amphibians

A tiny yellow bellied toad, it displays its yellowness when under threat.  If that fails then the toxins it can expel are a useful addition to its defence.

2011: Europa - Amazon Alive

The Poison Dart frog also has colourful warning signals. The species range in size from 1.5cm (0.59inch) to 6cm (2.4inch). Not as small as the tiniest frog ever discovered found in Brazil this year which could sit on a stamp or as this article says it is smaller than a pencil eraser.

2013: Appenzell Ausserrhoden and Innerrhoden

Lets go up a size, small animals high mountains. A stamp marking the 500th anniversary of the Appenzell region's membership of the Swiss Federation.  It is a largely pastoral area so one of the big occasions of the year is in autumn when the farmers return their herds of cows, sheep and goats from the high altitude pastures.

Sunday Stamps theme - small animals - See It On A Postcard

On High

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt is heading high for urban aerial views

Rheinau, Switzerland (1996)

On the bend of the Rhine River (which forms the Swiss-German border) is the small municipality of Rheinau most of which is forest (54.8%) or agricultural land (26.8%) but here is its perfectly placed village. Rheinau Abbey can be seen on an island, top right. One of Switzerland's many bright yellow postbuses runs a connection from Rheinau to the Marthalen railway station.

2014: Liechtenstein/Singapore Joint Issue - Modern Art

In contrast here are the bright lights of Singapore.  The stamp features a painting by Yens W Beyricht who creates inter-woven symmetries which he calls Hypersymmetrics. One of his themes is the City State.

Calligraphy

 

1981: Inscription by Chou En-lai

Chinese calligraphy is an art however some ancient scripts are difficult to read for modern Chinese people which is why I think this is regular scrip (Kai shu) for it is a message to be read with ease.  It says - "To deliver mail for 10 thousand li has bearing on arteries and veins of the country". (A li has altered in measurement over the centuries as it was orignally based on the size of a field or village but in modern times has been standardised to half a kilometre),

 

2017: 200th Anniversary of Balzers Post Office/Letter Collection Point

Mail coaches could also have taken up that mantra of delivering mail. This posthorn is surrounded by some attractive calligraphy on both stamp and cancel

When this postman, Franz Frick (1907-1975), started his career in Balzers it was an age of fine penmanship

seen on the postcards and envelopes of the era.

Sunday Stamps this week is on the theme - Calligraphy - See It On A Postcard

Crafts

 

2017: Trades and Crafts

As someone who likes pottering around old churches this Maxi Card featuring a stone mason may be the reason for my impulse purchase of the set. Sometimes one may see them at work...

like this one at the back of York Minster. He had just started on the block of limestone but

was ready for a break and a chat

and as they say on TV shows, here is one made earlier.

Someone working with much softer material, I like the crunching sound the scissors make.

and lastly one I have never seen at work, but now I would like to - a goldsmith.

Sunday Stamps theme this week is - People At Work - See It On A Postcard

Celebration

2007: Greeting Stamps (Designer - Victoria Leonard)

The stars combine and this stamp is celebrating success.  The others in the set (which I don't have) were passions and wishes all painted by Victoria Leonard.

2014: We Will Celebrate That (Design - Veronica Ballart Lilja)

I present another painter Veronica Ballart Lilja. This was the first time she designed images for stamps, but not her last.  The motifs relate to celebrations and different ways of sending a greeting

such as a message in a bottle.

Veronica said she was going to send a postcard with her stamps to her grandfather.

1981: Europa (Design - Regina Marxer)

Lets celebrate with some fireworks, this is the other stamp of the set I showed on Sunday Stamps last week and is Liechtenstein National Day 'Fireworks at Vaduz Castle'

2012: Memories of London 2012 (Design - The Chase, Manchester)

More fireworks but this time celebrating the joy of sport and the coming together of all nations at the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Sunday Stamps II theme this week is - Celebration - See It On A Postcard 

Flowers

2001: Cactus of Peru

These could be two little eyes popping up from the cactus and having a look around. The genus Cleistocactus live in the mountains so there will be fine Peruvian views.

1963: Flowers (Design - Pierrette Lambert)

Hibiscus always make me think of holidays in the sun. The artist is the prolific Pierette Lambert, a designer of over 1,300 stamps and many bank notes. Appropriately for this week's theme her first stamp designs for Saint Pierre et Miquelon in 1962 were also of flowers

1961: May Day (Design: Adam Cziegleny; Engraver; Melynyomat)

A red rose for May Day in Hungary.

1981: Europa - Folklaw (Designer - Regina Marxer)

Liechtenstein's national flower is the yellow lily but as their National Day is August 15th sunflowers take centre stage on this stamp design.  I believe there may be a flower pageant as part of the day.   For one of the smallest countries in the world and a population of 37,000 the day will also be filled with beer and wine, free buses, a large fair in Vaduz and fireworks at the castle which is the subject of the other stamp of this set.

The stamp artist, Regina Marxer, was in 1981 one of the instigators of the votes for women campaign - 'Action Sleeping Beauty'.  A male only referendum on the question of women's suffrage took place in 1984 and by a narrow margin women were given the vote.  Liechtenstein was the last European country to introduce female suffrage in national elections.  Being stunned by that date I can only say well "Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom"  Happy National Women's Day.

Port Sunlight village, Merseyside in Summer.

Sunday Stamps II theme this week is - flowers - more are blooming on See It On A Postcard


  

Into the Woods

1980: The Forest in Four Seasons (Design - Walter Wachter; Engraver - Wolfgang Seidel)

The zing of fresh green has arrived (in stamps) - "Beeches on Matrula in Spring", Liechtenstein.

1976: Centenary of Swiss Federal Forest Law - 'Conserve the Forest'

I like seeing the intricate shapes of trees in winter so this artists view lets me see both the green and those amazing branches.

2011: Europa - Forests (Design Christian Broutin and Barbara Kekus-Slizowska)

One could perhaps visit a wood with this stamp in hand to identify all that could be found there.

1968: Birds (Design - Walter Wehinger)

A flash of colour in a branch above is a Northern Bullfinch.  Sit very quietly and perhaps a

1967: Animals (Design - Celestino Piatti)

a roe deer will observe you from a distance

1953: Air - Forest Animals

or a magnificent fallow deer

1953: Air - Forest Animals

and a red fox trot by.

2019: Forests (Design - Up Creative Consultants)

The full forest view can be seen in the Snowdonia National Park in Wales but a picnic is best taken sitting by water and in Northern Ireland's Glenariff Forest the sound of water falling would be very restful 

1951: 1st Anniversary of 5 Year Plan (Design - S Legrady)

unless someone had brought an accordion.

Sunday Stamps II theme this week is - The Colour Green - See It On A Postcard

Small Animals

2009: Snövita Djur - Snow White Animals (Illustrator - Staffan Ullström; Engraver - Piotr Naszarkowski)

The magic of snow and a trio of fauna wearing their winter coats.  The winter scenes feature a Rock Ptarmigan (Lagopus muta) although in Canada and Scotland is simply known as ptarmigan, a word derived from the Scottish Gaelic for croaker. Next is a stoat but as it is in its winter finery - an ermine (or in Swedish Hermelin).  Lastly a Mountain Hare (Lepus timidus)  a bundle of fur and twitching whiskers. These were the International Christmas Mail stamps, sending a little bit of Sweden 's winter out into the world.

1997: Spotted Polecat (Design - D Vasarheli)

This little chap could almost be wearing a trapper hat although all the fabulous fur is growing on a marbled or spotted polecat (Vormela peregusna)

seen here going about its daily life. When alarmed it arches its back and curls its tail and may inflict a foul smell emanating from under that tail if threatened.

2013: SEPAC - Young Animals of the Alpine Region (Design - Eric Beck)

Among the mountains of Liechtenstein a young marmot is coming out of its burrow. A shrill whistle is used as a warning to other marmots of predators, hope this one has sharp hearing while it is out in the open. 

2013: SEPAC - Baby Animals (Design - Marta Gullklett)

I started in winter but here is the promise of spring with cute little bundles of wool. The Faroe Islands lambs arrive in late April.

Lost Sheep on top of the York Left Luggage Office

Sunday Stamps II theme this week is - small animals - appreciate the small things in life at - See It On A Postcard

Letters from Liechtenstein

2017: 200 Years k.k. Briefsammelstelle, Balzers (Design - Christine Bohmwalder)

A mail coach in 1895 poses for a photograph outside the Balzers post office and collection station in Liechtenstein. The stagecoach on the stamp

is rather more flashy.  A miniature sheet of three stamps was issued to celebrate the opening of Balzers mail collection station in September 1817 which at the time was part of the Austrian postal administration. The early stamps of the country (first issued in 1912) bear the words 'Imperial and Royal Austrian Post in the Principality of Liechtenstein' until 1921 with the signing of the treaty of post, telephone and telegraph with Switzerland they became part of the Swiss postal system but with their own distinct stamps. A close postal relationship with Switzerland has existed ever since.

2017: SEPAC - Trades and Crafts (Design - René Wolfinger)

From letters to lettering which perhaps this stonemason is chiselling.

The set of stamps issued for three trades all include a hand and graphic symbols of tools of the trade seen here, a hammer, pointed chisels and drove chisel.

1982: Liba 82 Stamp Exhibition

One might have picked up some nice stamped letters at the Liba 82 Stamp Exhibition (a national stamp exhibition first held in 1934 and since 1962 LIBA happens every 10 years). The view on the card is of the castle above Liechtenstein's capital Vaduz, home to

Prince Hans-Adam II and Princess Marie of Liechtenstein who celebrated their golden wedding last year.  Prince Hans-Adam is the richest monarch in Europe and appears on the world's 500 richest people list , it helps if you own your own bank.

Sunday Stamps II prompt this week is the letter L - for Letters, LIBA and Liechtenstein - See It On A Postcard.