Sunday 3 September 2017

En Route

1974: 100th Anniversary UPU
Equatorial Guinea joined the Universal Postal Union in 1970, just in time to celebrate its 100th anniversary in 1974.  Their stamp set featured a romantic idea of carrying post with horses, canoes, llamas, sledges, mountain climbing and of course camels with a large 'correos' bag.
2013: Europa: The Postman's Van (Designer: Jaan Saar)
Estonia Post kept it real with horse power for the Europa theme of 2013.  The FDC features a 1960 mail lorry built by Tartu Utode Remondi, a company which operated from 1949-1997 in various guises. In 1960 it operated under the name Tartu Automobile Service Factory Number 3, nothing says Soviet more with a name like that.  The mail lorry seems to be based on the company's GAZ51, a 23 seater bus,  which they manufactured in various other guises such as bread lorries, and mobile workshops for people like hairdressers and shoemakers travelling around rural districts.
The stamps show a government stage coach dating from 1840 and one of today's modern vans. I think there is a piece of whimsy on the stamp as the titles seem to say old stage coach and modern stagecoach.  The span of time on the stamps would fit nicely into the existence the Estonian History Museum which celebrated its 150th Anniversary in 2014

I like the years rolling by on the stamp background.  The sword was found as part of some excavated grave goods and is dated to the 11th-12th Century. The stamp sheets have have little artifacts from the museum on the selvedges which I do not own but I have the next best thing
2014: 150th Anniversary of the Estonian History Museum
this FDC showing an entrance ticket from 1907 and a display of objects from the Estonian History Museum.  The designer is Lembit Lõhmusknown both for his work on many stamps and also engraved bookplates. His design of a silhouetted map of Estonia which features on the Estonian euro coin was chosen to be used after a popular vote in a national poll.  



Sunday Stamps II this week has arrived at the letter E - for Equatorial Guinea, Estonia and Europa - exit to See It On A Postcard.    

4 comments:

FinnBadger said...

Always fantastic to see a camel on a stamp. Love the first day cover.

viridian said...

the camel stamp is great but so is the bent sword!

VioletSky said...

I see a theme with the Estonian museum stamp and the background numbers (dates) and mine this week. I tried to read the binary code, but too much of it was missing. Besides I am not literate in binary.
The length of time it takes mail to get to some places, one wonders if camels are still being used.

Bob Scotney said...

Ours is more like snail mail than ever, Good to see so many Estonian stamps this week.