Geese

 

A century ago Snow Geese were rare in Greenland today there are between 200 and 2000 individuals coming in on the Atlantic flyway from Canada, numbers are hazy because of the fragmented nature of their distribution in Greenland.

1990: Birds IV (Design - Jens Rosing)

One of the 130 stamps Jens Rosing (1925-2008) produced for Greenland, he also designed their coat of arms.

1985: Protected Animals (Design - Andrea Soest)

Red-breasted Geese, another arctic goose but this one winters in eastern Europe.

1991: Postal Buildings

 Budingen post station where the stagecoach and horse riders travelled to and from Frankfurt.  Today it is a hotel and restaurant.  I wonder if the geese are going to market or just passing with their young herder.

1977: The Twelve Days of Christmas (Design - David Gentleman)

 

"Six geese a-laying"

Sunday Stamps A-Z ; G for Geese,, Greenland, Germany GDR and GB - See It On A Postcard 

E is for Equestrian

 

1972: Olympic Games, Munich, Germany

Post war Olympic riders gaining gold Medals in Eventing, Individual Jumping and Dressage

 

Show Jumping, Individual Dressage and Team Eventing

Individual Show Jumping

1979: Horse Racing Paintings and the 200th anniversary of The Derby

More horses but on English race courses. Mahmoud had a very successful career. Sir Alfred Munnings painted him for his owner the Aga Khan after his first Epson Derby win when the horse set  a record time that would stand until 1995. Munnings enjoyed painting Mahmoud, a much loved horse for his character. 

Newmarket in Suffolk is known as the birthplace of English horse racing The panting is by J N Satorius.

The first official running of the Grand National in 1839 at the Aintree Racecourse, the painting shows the jumping of Beecher's Brook. The jockey Captain Martin Beecher was in second place in 1839 when his horse hit the brook fence catapulting him into the water, he wisely headed to deep water for safety. After the race he remarked how dreadful water tasted without the benefit of whisky. The fence has been know as Beecher's Brook ever since.

Sunday Stamps A-Z - My E for Equatorial Guinea, England, Epson Derby and Equestrian

Dancers

 

1959-1965: The Copenhagen Festivals

Here Margrethe Shanne (1921-2014) dances in the ballet "La Sylphide", which she performed over 100 times, loved because of the ethereal and supernatural feeling she brought to the role.  The first Danish ballet dancer to appear on a stamp it was issued for three of  the Music and Ballet Festivals in May 1959, 1962 and 1965.

1976: 5th International Ballet Festival, Havana

Canto Vital (Vital Song), not one I am familiar with but apparently it is danced to the rondo of Mahler's 5th symphony and choreographed for male dancers. From one ballet dancer

1989: Ballet - The Art of Dance

to two

and four.

1979: Birth Centenary of Jacob Gade

For non professional ballet dancers but mere mortals this may be one of the ways to dance.  The stamp celebrates the  music of Jacob Gade (1879-1963) famous for his tango 'Jealousy', originally an instrumental but the lyrics we know today were created at a later date.

Sunday Stamps A-Z - here for Denmark and dance - See It On A Postcard 

C is for Cattle

 

1955-56: Five Year Plan

A dairy herd 

2000: Shangri-La

Grazing in green pastures somewhere below the Meri Snow Mountains, Yunnan

1946: Local Motives (Design and Engraving - Gabriel-Antoine Barlangue)

The Zebu and herdsman. A breed that will be well adapted for global warming as they were bred to be productive in hot, humid climates. Smaller than other domestic cattle they have a low metabolic rate and efficient sweat glands.

1979: Definitive - Coins 

Cow on a coin, and what better one than a chunky old 'thruppenny bit'.

Sunday Stamp's A-Z - C is for cattle, coins, China and Cameroun - See It On A Postcard 

B is for Birds

 

1985-89: Birds definitive (1st series) - Nuthatch

 

Andre Buzan first birds stamps for Belgium appeared in 1985.

Goldfinch

They would not be his last

1997-1999: Birds (3rd Series) - Fieldfare

He went on to create many more series, I'm guessing about 11

2002-2005 Birds definitive - Cirl Bunting 

which included the change to the Euro.  In 2010 Belgium post issued a mini sheet and stamps celebrating 25 years of 'Birds with Buzin' which featured raptors. Time marches on and this year another anniversary came along another mini sheet issue - 40 Years of Buzin Birds 'From Pen to Brush' featuring waterbirds.

1978: Birds (Illustrator - Michael F Bryan)

Another prolific stamp designer, Michael Bryan, who covered all manner of subjects for Botswana post including lots of birds. Unfortunately I know nothing about him except that from 1972 to c1988 he had created 194 Botswana stamps. Interestingly his first stamps in 1972 were on the subject of the Mafeking-Gubulawayo Runner Post which would be reissued for its centenary in 1988  (A celebration of the 500 mile relay runner route across what was then the Bechuanaland Protectorate).    

Sunday Stamps's A-Z - The Letter B - at  See It On A Postcard 

Australia Day

 A is for Australia Day -

1990: Australia Day (Illustrator - Celia Rosser)

The Golden Wattle acacia was pronounced Australia's floral emblem in 1988. The adoption of the wattle dates back to 1899 and indeed there is a National Wattle Day on the 1st September when acacia of all species are in flower. Australia Day on the other hand is celebrated on the 17th January.

1982: Australia Day (Design and Engraving - Brian Clinton)

Brian Clinton has been a prolific designer of Australian stamps since 1977 but has a passion for portrait painting so he would have enjoyed this postage stamp commission.

1966: Famous Navigators (Design - Walter Jardine)

Adventurers - Two famous seafarers exploring the southern oceans, Captain James Cook and Abel Tasman. The cancel extols the virtues of  Australian food products - "Australian Food Produces Champions".

1953: Food Production (Design - George Lissenden)

Agriculture - Australia's biggest grain crop is Wheat.

1982: Reptiles and Frogs (Design - Beverley Bruen)

Amphibians - Corroboree Frog found in New South Wales. Pretty but poisonous. The poison is secreted from their skin to protect against predators, useful as they are ground dwelling

2003: Nature of Australia - Rainforests (Design - Wayne Rankin)

 

Sometimes it is safer in a tree. The orange-thighed tree frog in the wet tropical rainforest of North Queensland - Daintree National Park

1982: Tourism - Surf Boat

Aerogrammes -  One can fit a lot of correspondence, indeed a whole life, in this inexpensive, thin, lightweight folded piece of postal paper. The UK discontinued their use in 2012 but having checked on the Australia Post site they still issue them. The current one features flora and fauna of Australia.

Sunday Stamps is starting on a journey through the alphabet - See It On A Postcard 

Xmas in July

 

1981: Europa - Folklore (Design - Fritz Wegner)

Mummers' plays were performed seasonally usually at Christmas, Easter or Plough Monday and could be described as early pantomime with rhyming couplets. A popular play in England would be George and the Dragon with a twist that George is also eventually killed by a knight called Slasher but George is brought back to life by The Doctor and his magic potion. The plays are stories of birth and re-birth, good over evil enacted by masked or disguised actors. Modern mummers don't often wear elaborate masks.  I imagine the mummers glory years were the Middle Ages.

1993: 150th Anniversary of A Christmas Carol (Design - Quentin Blake)

Whatever the time of year everyone needs a jovial Mr and Mrs Fezzywig who Dickens portrays as symbols of joy and community, kindness and generosity and not only for Christmas. What else is not only for Christmas?  Well there is

2004: Christmas (Illustrator - Bjorn Berg)

receiving and sending mail and

2024: Christmas (Artist - Judy Joel)

churches, or this case cathedrals. Not forgetting the well known plea that when buying puppies as presents

 

1991: Dogs - Paintings by George Stubbs

"Dogs are not only for Christmas'. 

Sunday Stamps theme - Christmas in July - See It On A Postcard 

Millennium Blue

1999: Millennium - The Traveller's Tale (Design - George Hardie)

 Into the blue with Millennium stamps - Jetting around the world

2000: Millennium - Water and Coast

Take the maritime route at Portsmouth Harbour

2000: Millennium - People and Place

Cross over the Gateshead Millennium Bridge spanning the River Tyne

2000: Millennium - Art and Crafts

Visit Tate Modern, 20th Century art and beyond, housed in what was the Bankside Power Station

1999: Millennium - The Patient's Tale (Design - Susan Macfarlane)

Sometimes unexpected things happen, lets hope it does not involve nurses and stretchers.

2002: Peter Pan (Illustrator - Colin Shearing)

or pirates.

Sunday Stamps theme - Blue - See It On A Postcard 

Tall Tales

 

2002: Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories  - Centenary of Publication (Artist - Izhar Cohen)

 

How the Camel Got His Hump - How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin. 

The Beginning of the Armadillos - The Crab That Played With the Sea

Kipling was a prolific writer and poet and one could spend some time on the Kipling Society website where all his short stories appear both by theme and date.

1979: International Year of the Child (Design - Kass Janos)

Tom Thumb, no bigger than a thumb, seems to spend his adventurous life being swallowed by various animals, here he has encountered the hungry wolf.  But Tom has a plan and talks to the wolf from its stomach and tricks him to take him home,  All is well in the end.

The Fisher and the Goldfish but this fish is not golden in Hungary's colour scheme but is provided with a golden crown. Alexander Pushkin told the story in verse.

Sunday Stamps theme - Stories, Folk Tales - See It On A Postcard 

Summer Fun

 

1994: Centenary of Picture Postcards

Bathing at Blackpool, tales of the unexpected

Stay on the sands and enjoy a game

of Beach Volleyball as illustrated by Catharina Nygard

1988: Operation Raleigh (Design - Victor Ambrus)

Head to the Great Barrier Reef where the water temperature at the moment is 24℃ (an average temperature for July), not bad for the beginning of winter in Australia!

2006: Summer at the Lake (Illustrator - Irina Gebuhr)

Summer fun by the lake picnicking, fishing, swimming (the dog is not tempted) and enjoying the warmth and calm of a long summer evening.

2016: Lake Constance

 Time to relax after all that fun and watch the world go by.

Sunday Stamps is enjoying Summer Fun at See It On A Postcard