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| 1975: Faroese Stamps |
On the 30th January 1975 the Faroe Islands issued the first definitive stamps as an independent postal authority and the first that bore the country's name. Two of the seven designs featured maps of which this is one
The figures and letters on the stamps are designed by Lydia Laksafoss and the steel engraving was made by Czeslaw Slania who would go on to have a long association with the
islands stamps. The map of the Faroe Islands is a section of a map called 'North' from the 1573 edition of the wonderfully named 'Theatre of the World'
(Theatrum Orbis Terrarum) by the geographer Abraham Ortelius considered the creator of the first modern atlas. If you are ever in Antwerp (his birth city) I can recommend a visit to the printing museum of
Plantin-Moretus not only for the oldest surviving printing presses in the world and the building itself but but their collection of maps including Ortelius's atlas. Oh and did I mention the postcards in the shop, I still regret not splurging the cash and buying the complete Dick Bruna alphabet set of cards.
But lets move on several centuries and a more modern map
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| 1978: Mykines |
of the westernmost of the Faroe Islands, Mykines, famous for its birds, as you might have guessed from those flying around the island on the FDC. There are certainly more birds than people as only 11 live on the island all year round, however there are forty houses.
The stamp artist was the Faroese painter Bárður Jákupsson and the set was the first of the projected 'island profile' series in which it was intended to show all eighteen islands.
Now lets head south to the Mediterranean
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| 1977: World Telecommunication Day (Design: Harry Borg) |
and the distinctive boot of Italy and the Islands of Malta and Gozo in the middle with the radio aerial pulsing its sound waves from the coast of Africa. The stamp was issued on World Telecommunication Day, 17th May, but since the issue of the stamp it is now called World Telecommunication Day and Information Society Day. Not as snappy is it! The theme for 2017 is
'Big Data for Big Impact' I wonder could one call stamps small data, big impact.
3 comments:
Great stamps today, love the ones from the Faroe Islands.
Beautiful stamps! I sometimes wonder (and look for!) which is the first stamp issued by different countries. For older states is usually the king/queen, but a map of the territory seems a good option.
Very nice map stamps and the last one is of particular interest to me at the moment! I've been doing a lot of research about Malta and Gozo for the past 3 weeks and I'm happy to find a Maltese stamp here in your page. Thanks for sharing.
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