Industry

 

2011: Factory Places (Design -Norbert Tamas; Engravers - Lars Sjööblom and Pjotr Nazarkowski)

Welcome to Forsvik by the Gota Canal, Sweden's oldest industrial area going back 600 years, home to the oldest lock on the canal and Sweden's first iron bridge.  The stamp shows the old forge, now a museum.  This photograph here puts its location into context

The rest of the set shows a glass blower in Glasriket which is a famous glass district dating back to 1742 and still home to glassworks and studios. Avesta -  the old industrial buildings here date to the late 19th Century when the town expanded with its iron work and later in the 1920s stainless steel which is still made in Avesta. The industrial buildings are considered unique. Jonsered whose first factories were started by a Scot, William Gibson, his companies were eventually taken over by Husqyarma who still make their chain saws in Jonsered. Lastly Mackmyra, once home to an iron mill and Sweden's first whisky distillery.

1999: Millennium -  The Workers Tale

This set is fascinating for who they involved in creating it. 19 - the master weaver Peter Collingwood, shows the woven threads of the weavers craft;  26 the artist David Hockney paid homage to the Mill Towns of Northern England, based on Salts Mill in Saltaire, with who he has a special relationship, his art is on display in the gallery (as well as his quirky postbox.) 44 - Bill Sanderson illustrates the shipbuilding industry with a hull on the slipway (fun fact - he has also in the past designed a stamp of Diskworld's Sam Vimes for fans of the series) and 64 - Brendan Neiland known for his portrayal of modern buildings takes on the City of London financial centre with the Lloyds Building   

1977: Centenary of the Factory Act

The factory scene celebrates Switzerland introducing the Factory Act in 1877 to protect workers.  It covered freedom of contract and protection of workers from accidents, limiting working hours and banned the employment of children under 14 years of age.

Sunday Stamps theme this week - Industry - visit  See It On A Postcard

Glass Bottles

 

1986: Glassware

An ornamental flask 300AD

1993: Folk Art

A Fluhli enameled glass bottle of 1738.  Its name originates from the two German brothers who moved to Switzerland and set up glass-works in the canton of Fluhli. The last works closed in 1869.  The postmark is from the wine making village of Fläsch so one could fill up this pretty decanter with Pinot Noir, Chardonnay or Riesling.

1999: German Contemporary Design 

No wine in these bottles but sparkling mineral water.  Designed by Gunter Kupetz as a reusable clear glass bottle with importantly a screw top which sped up the process of being automatically refilled.  From 1971-2013 five billion were produced as all German manufacturers used them, they could be returned to anyone, the perfect circular economy.

Sunday Stamps theme this week of course is - Glass - see more at  See It On A Postcard

Photographs

1991: 150 Years of Photography in Australia

 Gears for the Mining Industry, Vickers Ruwolt, Melbourne. The photograph is credited to Wolfgang Sievers and dates to 1967, a print version and Sievers thoughts on it can be seen here   From the factory floor

to the beach.  Bondi' by Max Dupain   From black and white to

2001: Outback Services

colour and a long way from the beach in the Australian outback, but not the postal service, I think the mail in there must get very hot.  The card shows emptiness but

not the stamp.  The colours of card and stamp reminds me of this verse from the Australian poem -

My Country by Dorothea Mackellar

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of drought and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror –
The wide brown land for me!

Sunday Stamps theme this week is - photography - visit  See It On A Postcard

Sailing Away

 

2020: Sailing Ships (Artist: Allan Palmer)

The 4 masted barque Viking was one of the last tall ships that participated in the Grain Race between Europe and Australia. How the wind is ripping into those sails. In 1909 with a full load of wheat she registered a record speed of 15.5 Knots (28.7km or 17.8mph). Today 10 four masted barques survive but only 5 still sail which is a miracle in itself. Viking was originally built for the Danish fleet but today is moored permanently in Gothenburg.

Here is Viking with all its impressive sails unfurled.

1983: Boats

Or you might prefer something more colourful from Vietnam

2015: Exhibition Card for the Swedish Svedala Stamp and Postcard Fair

A windy day. I wonder if those sails can cope?

 Sunday Stamps theme this week is - Sails - tack over to See It On A Postcard

 

Stamps of 2021

 

2021: National Parks

 

I share some of this year's GB stamps and start with the first stamp issue in January celebrating 50 years of National Parks.  Here is Wild Dartmoor, inspiration for Conan Doyle's Hound of the Baskervilles, and an early morning mist in the New Forest

with a sunset in Scotland.

March 2021: The Legend of King Arthur

I thought the colour palette was too dark for the size of stamps but the FDC gives a light and misty view of Glastonbury Tor and King Arthur's sword.

For every child that read The Beano comic Minnie the Minx and Dennis the Menace made an appearance on the miniature sheet to go with the 'Dennis and Gnasher' set. Dundee is the home of DC Thompson, publisher of The Beano and many other comics, hence the postmark that tells one everything one wants to know about these two characters.

 

July 2021: Wild Coasts

Never far from the coast in the UK

August 2021: Industrial Revolutions

where cables to and from the world run. Many more have been laid since 1858 and even this year a transatlantic cable came ashore  here

September 2021: DC Collection

There have been heroes aplenty this year working for good

 

and alas villains too, but at  least some kept to the pages of comics and films.

I wish you all A Happy New Year

Sunday Stamps theme this week is - New/Recent Stamps - keep up to date at  See It On A Postcard

Industry

1991: Iron Mining

I am taking a trip around the history of Swedish Iron Ore Mining. The first stamp shows the iron ore mine in Norberg and the following stamp a Walloon forge at Forsmarks Bruk, a 18th Century mining village although pig iron had been produced here since the 16th century.

Top row -Bar iron forging at Svarta and welding at the rolling mill at Smedjebacken part of which I think has been turned into a cultural and industrial heritage centre..

Bottom row - Mine in the old mining town of Dannemora and The Blast Furnace at Pershyttan, a small mining town, this is now a working museum

1974: 25th Anniversary- Founding of PRC

From the blue of Sweden to the red of China and someone who seems to be a happy steel worker.  I hope he is not forgetting

1970: Health and Safety at Work (Design - Beat Mader)

his safety equipment, goggles

hard hat

and perhaps a respirator.  As the stamps say - Work Safely. 

Sunday Stamps II theme this week is - Workers and Industry - more at  See It On A Postcard.

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Saar

 

1926-1930: Definitive 'Views'

The Saar Basin (Saargbeit) is a border region which has been contested by France and Germany.  After WW1 it was occupied by France and administered under  the League of Nations for 15 years.  The definitives of views of the area had appeared over several years with differing decorative borders.  The stamp of course shows a colliery shaft-head

and  the cancel is appropriate, in that Quierschieb was a coal mining town.  Saar Post required 60c stamps so revalued the 80c postage stamp first with an overprint in March 1930, then a few weeks later this stamp appeared.  After a plebiscite in 1935 Saar rejoined Germany.  Yes you know what happens next.  After WW2 the territory was autonomous under French protection.

1952: Red Cross Week (Design - Hossfield; Engraver - Pierre Munier)

The stamp shows the Red Cross and refugees.  1952 was also the year of the Helsinki Olympic Summer Games and Saar sent a team but did not medal.  Alas I do not have that stamp and the ones I show here are my complete Saarland 'collection'.

1955: Red Cross Week (Design - Fritz Ludwig Schmidt)

Another Red Cross Week but this time a more optimistic mother and baby and then

1956: Red Cross Week (Design - Herman Mees)

a look back in history to a Red Cross Casualty Station in the city of  Saarbrucken  during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870/71.  The Saar seems to have been defined by war.  Of course their coal mines would be a prize for any belligerent.  In the year of this stamp, 1956, another plebiscite was held and the Saarlanders once again voted to return to Germany.  The stamps issued from 1957 were under the auspices of the German Federal Republic until the adoption of German currency in July 1959 and German stamps have been used there since.  The return of Saarland is sometimes referred to as the 'little reunification' as opposed to the larger one that happened when the Berlin Wall came down.

1957: Int Correspondence Week

Anglophone stamp collectors always refer to this ex country as Saar whereas German speakers refer to it as Saarland..  My ancient school history atlas refers to it as the Saar Basin (its official name after the Treaty of Versailles was - Territory of the Saar Basin).

Sunday Stamps II theme this week is - Country names that no longer exist - I'm interpenetrating that theme with some laxity but in mitigation you have a choice of three - the name of the game is - See It On A Postcard
 

Holiday Windmill

A windmill and someone hauling logs for the holiday season on a crisp winter day completes this picture of the Netherlands under snow. The postcard does not say where the windmill is but from the clues in the landscape and if I had both patience and time would I be able to trace it on the Dutch Windmill database?  The card wishing a Pleasant Christmas and Happy New Year was originally sent to Schiedam, home of the tallest classic windmills in the world, very different to the one on the card.

Happy New Year

Harvesting

1980: Wildlife (Artist - Wendy Walsh: Graphics and text Peter Wildbur)

Its Spring and hares are out in the open looking for a mate and perhaps, if lucky, one might see a hare like this but make a motion and its off at high speed.  Like the hare I'm speeding but through the year to harvest time

1916-20: Harvesters (Design - Ödön Tull)

and the wheat fields of Hungary.  Ödön Tull (1870-1911) had won a Hungarian stamp design competition in 1909 which resulted in the issue of what is considered today a classic stamp unfortunately by the time of the first issue Tull had died. I leave the pastoral scene and journey to

1946: Re-conversion to Peacetime (Design - Herman Herbert Schwartz; Engraver - Silas Robert Allen)

the Canadian prairies as a combined harvester reaping and threshing the wheat speeds up the harvesting process considerably.

1950: Airmail (Design - Zoltán Nagy)

I like this Hungarian airmail set which combines fields, factories and transport (see here) so I'll thrown in a tractor as well as a combined harvester.

1955: Workers

not forgetting the tractor drivers

1989: Centenary of the Agricultural Museum (Design - B Bonfils; Engraver - A Kühlmann)

this chap even has time to smoke his pipe. The mighty machine is a steam tractor from 1917 and in the distance can be seen a sight more common in 1917 of a horse drawn plow

1994: The Red Cross: Finnish Horses (Design - P Vahtero)

you cannot operate that sitting down.

1961: Definitives (Agriculture and Art)

although it looks as though neither can you on this combined harvester working in a rice field. After all this work a refreshing cold beer might be on the menu perhaps made from hops from one of the world's major growers, Germany.

1998: 1100 Years of Hop Cultivation in Germany (Design - Steiner)

Here they are harvesting the hops, today of course there is a machine that does this but not as scenically as the workers on the stamp.

The Sunday Stamps prompt this week is the Letter H - here for Hungary, Harvest, Hare, Horses and Hops - hare over for more at See It On A Postcard

A Zing of Colour

1980: Definitives - gemstones (Designer - Neil O Pederson)

The first stamps of Zimbabwe were a reprinting of Rhodesia's 1978 definitives with new values and of course the country's new name. Some featured gemstones, on the left is a garnet (if you are born in January this is your birthstone) and on the right, a citrine which is a yellow variety of quartz, its colour gained because of the iron content of its surroundings (more in depth and informed explanation here). Zimbabwe is rich in Iron Ore

1970: Definitives - Industrial Development (Design - Rose Martin)

so no wonder the pouring of molten metal featured on one of Rhodesia's definitive stamps beautifully captured by the illustrator and cartoonist Rose Martin.  From the golden glow of molten metal to

1971: Birds of Rhodesia (Based on photographs by Peter Ginn)

one of the iridescent wonders of the natural world sat ready to dive or fly by a stretch of water, a Half-collared Kingfisher so called because dark blue patches on either side of its neck form a half collar and found  in Southern and Eastern Africa. The other bird is a Golden breasted Bunting which in contrast prefers dry open woodland and savannah and seen in most of Africa south of the Sahara.

Sunday Stamps II prompt this week is the Letter Z - for Zimbabwe - at  See It On A Postcard