Sunday 15 June 2014

Send in the Clowns

Here comes a 'helpful' clown to assist with the caravan wheel. Although not a great lover of the circus I do like the bit when the clowns come on in a car that keeps breaking down so I imagine this clown has great experience in mending motorised transport.
2013: Road Trip
Unusually the stamp shows more details than the postcard and expands the view outwards.  I like the joke pointing finger on the right and of course the little koala bear looking out of the window at the back. The first series of Australia Post's "Road Trip" in 2012 proved popular and they issued another set in 2013 but this time featuring urban centres of Australia. As can be seen by the banner this is Adelaide, sometimes called the City of Churches and Festivals so the artist, Gavin Ryan, has included both in his amusing view.  The four day WOMAD (World Music, Art and Dance) appears ever year in Adelaide.  For more of Gavin Ryan's art work of fantasy and humour see here.
1994: The Circus
With this stamp we have arrived at the circus and are inside the Big Top with a clown balancing dogs on a tightrope drawn by the graphic designer and illustrator Parvan Ioana
1989: 70th Anniversary of the Soviet Circus

Lastly, a clown with a name, Karandash, which means 'pencil'.  His real name was Mikhail Nikolayevich Rumyantsev (1901-1983) and was a hugely popular performer for 55 years, still working right up to the end of his life.  Karandash started off as an imitator of Charlie Chaplin but soon developed his own act with the same sort of hapless accidents but with satire and also his character tended to outwit his opponents.  The stamp shows him in his stage dress with a donkey and his Scottish Terrier, Klyaksa which means 'ink spot' or 'blot'. When he toured he learnt about the city he was visiting beforehand and fitted in references to parts of it into his act.  The appearance on the stamp for the Soviet Circus Anniversary is not only because of his popularity but also because he was also a teacher of clowns  (one of his students was Oleg Popov) and the Moscow Circus School is named after him.

An entry to Viridian Postcard's Sunday Stamps theme of - Circuses here.
 

9 comments:

Sheila @ A Postcard a Day said...

I really do love the Australian maxi card. The whole road trip series is wonderful and this is no exception.

Little Nell said...

These are delightful, so full of detail. I like the last stamp best of all however, perhaps because I love donkeys and Charlie Chaplin and I’m sure I would have also loved Karandash.

Postcardy said...

My favorite is the Soviet stamp.I like the artwork on the Australian stamp, but I think there is too much detail to fit on a small stamp.

Mail Adventures said...

I really love your choice. All three stamps are wonderful and plenty of details!

Lisa B said...

Great maxi-card, so much detail.

luvlinens said...

Great Collection.

VioletSky said...


i checked out your link - what a delightful artist! Now, I'll have find the rest of this road trip series.

Bob Scotney said...

Karandash was new to me. Glad he made it on a stamp.

Heleen said...

A lot to see on the maxicard!

Also I love the Russian stamp, as donkeys are one of my favourite animals. And on this stamp the - usually hard working - donkey can sit down, the roles seem to have been reversed.