X

2015: Åland Post at the Turku Postage Stamp and Card Exhibition

Look up and there is an X sweeping across the sky

on Åland's Exhibition Maximum Card from Turku, Finland, although the postmark is the Swedish name - Åbo - which had me fooled for a while. The watercolour painting by Tord Nygren I think is of the Samppalinna windmill built in 1859-61 on a hill which today is part of a Sports Park. I imagine the person who is standing on the platform is having a great view.  Once there were many small mills in Turku but Samppalinna was the largest, built for an industrial scale of milling flour and is the only remaining windmill in Turku.  The artist's view does not show the lower part of the windmill which is where the miller once lived.

From sweeping blades to sweeping changes and

1968: Anniversaries - Women's Suffrage (Design: Clive Abbott)

the right for women to put an X on a voting form in Britain. Here is one of the most famous British fighters for the right, Emmeline Pankhurst, which shows her statue in Victoria Gardens, London. Stamp design is by Clive Abbott (1933-2008) who worked for an amazing 60 different postal administrations.

You may notice by the date on the above stamp that the 100th anniversary of the right to vote is this year and Royal Mail will be issuing a stamp set to mark the occasion but not until next month alas for my Sunday Stamps post!

Sunday Stamps II prompt is the Letter X - exit to See it On A Postcard