Large Animals

1954: SAS First Flight Cover

On 15 November 1954 the SAS airline flew the first regular 'polar shortcut' service to Los Angeles and this cover is of the Greenland-Denmark leg.  They produced a dizzying number of different cover designs and stamps for the event.  The polar bear may find the iceberg melting now but in 1954 we had never heard of global warming.

1938-1946: Definitive (Design - Harald Moltke; Engraver - J Britze

The stamp is called 'Wandering Polar Bear' and it was one of the first Greenland letter stamps, the only stamps before this were for parcel post as letter postage was free of charge within Greenland and to Denmark.

1963: Polar Bear (Design - V Bang; Engraver - Cz Slania)

   The Polar Bear is Greenland's symbol and has been on their coat of arms since 1666 but in 1819 it was changed to an upright bear as seen on the stamps.

1970: Greenland Whale (Design - J Rosing; Engraver- Cz Slania)

Head offshore and mighty whales are swimming

2000: Animal Kings (Design - A Helgestad and H Strager)

I love the water pouring off the tail of this sperm whale

1954-1961 Definitives: Wild Animals

Travelling onto land for two powerful animals - the white rhino and african elephant.

1997-2000: Endangered Fauna (3rd Series)

and the endlessly fascinating giraffe at the waterhole. 

illustration from Wild Adventures in Wild Places' by Gordon Stables (1911)

 

Sunday Stamps II theme this week is - Big Animals - roaming at See It On A Postcard

 

Dancing

1986: Dodo Carnival

The Dodo Carnival is a tradition of wearing animal masks and dancing though the villages of Burkina Faso which sounds like a fun day out. The Dodo legend originated in Nigeria and was introduced into Burkina Faso by traders. The story goes that a man during the Friday of Ramadan went hunting, which is forbidden, and killed an animal. He was punished by being transformed into a man with an animal head but his village did not shun him but tried to gain mercy from the gods by dance and there it is on the stamp.

1950-52 Airmail

More dressing up but here for the Dance of the Half Moon

1970: Visit Indonesia - Traditional Dances (Design: Soerosa)

For something prettier turn to Timor dancers who can make their own music.

1982: Europa - British Theatre (Design (Adrian George)

Or perhaps a floaty ballet dress. The designer Adrian George won an international award for this set and also Most Beautiful Stamp in the World which I would guess was for this ballerina

1959-1965: Copenhagen Music and Ballet Festivals (Design - H Thelander; Engraver - B Jacobsen)

Another ballerina dances into view and the stamp features Margrethe Schanne in her most iconic role, from the one act ballet Les Sylphides which she danced over 100 times including her farewell performance for the Royal Danish Ballet in 1966. She was also the first living Dane (apart from the Royal family) to appear on a Danish stamp.  The music for Les Sylphides is Chopin but if you prefer Tchaikovsky

1993: Death Centenary of Pyotr Tchaikovsky (Design - Riess)

then maybe take a trip to see Swan Lake or perhaps it is showing on a television set somewhere but of a much larger size than this one -

2000: The 20th Century Issue 3 (Design - Keith Bassford; Engraver - Martin Morck)

Is this a comment on women's roles in the 1950s?  The theme is communications and Arena was a Danish producer of radio and television sets started by Ove Heath Nielsen in the corner of his father's bicycle factory but grew to become the largest supplier of televisions in Denmark in the late 1950s.  Today its place is in the Industrial Museum in Horsens where the factory was located.

Sunday Stamps II prompt this week is the Letter D - here for Denmark, Dodo and Dance - See It On A Postcard

Flying Machines

I was wondering what to post today and then noticed the date on this cover!

Biggin Hill International Air Fair used to be the largest civilian air show in the world and in the 1960s ran for 4 days, by the 1970s it was reduced to two and remained so until the licence for the event was revoked in 2010 so no June fly pasts this year.  This airport which was originally a RAF Fighter Station was once thought of as a backwater but it has turned into one of the top 15 business aviation hubs connecting to 750 airports, the owners thought the show was encroaching on their business services.  There is talk of reviving the event on a smaller scale (date unknown) but until then the best destination for plane spotters at the airport is the Biggin Hill Heritage Hanger where you can see their collection of Supermarine Spitfires and even sit in one of the cockpit.   Here is their collection of planes with the sunlight glinting on their fuselage and in pride of place the 'Kent' Spitfire.  The south east coast of England is a hotspot of historic airfields and museums.  Visiting one, Parham Airfield in Suffolk, last year there was a Dutch family trying to find out about their grandfathers aircrew, the custodian mused who might know and more pertinently who was still alive. 

The stamp, (one of a 1997 set) shows an the Mitchell designed Spitfire. R J Mitchell was an aeronautical engineer of the Supermarine Spitfire who died in 1937 at the early age of 42, working to the end. He would never see his aircraft become the iconic symbol and most successful aircraft of World War 2 (22,000 and their derivatives built).  He was succeeded as chief designer by Joseph Smith who developed the design further.

The cover was flown in an Avro Lancaster B1 as part of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight in memory of the most highly decorated pilot of WW2, Group Captain Lord Cheshire who went on to found the Leonard Cheshire Disability charity, its aim  to improves the quality of life for disabled people.

An entry to Sunday Stamps