Sunday 10 July 2022

Monochrome

 

1990: 500th Anniversary of Postal Communications in Europe

A speeding post rider celebrating 500 years of post with an Albrecht Dürer drawing 'Der Kleine Postreiter' (dated circa 1496).  The cancel on the stamp was imperfect but

1990: Lübeck Cultural Heritage
 

here it is on a stamp featuring the old part of Lübeck, 'Queen of all the Hansiatic Cities' . I had to look up how many cities were part of the Hansatic League and its a whopping 194 cities in 16 countries.

1988: Grotto Art - Maijishan

Going back even further in time to the Western Wei dynasty (535-557) here is a compassionate Bodhisattva, one of thousands of Buddhist sculptures in the 194 caves cut into the hill at Maijishan, North West China.

1988: Grotto Art in China - Longmen

 More caves this time the Longmen Grottoes , the stamp is described as Hercules. From this I'm guessing it is from the Fengxian Temple with its huge Buddha, either side of which are Bodhisattvas, Heavenly Kings and Hercules. Longmen, in Henan province,  has tens of thousands of statues of Buddha and his disciples.
1986: Traditional Houses

Lastly we journey from caves to houses in Fujian.

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


3 comments:

viridian said...

Great stamps! Like the second one especially.

violet s said...

Is Hercules dancing?!
So, 194 cities and 194 caves. Synchronicity like this pleases my sense of order :)

Mail Adventures said...

A lot of subjects to look up on this post!
I like specially the city view. I didn't think there were so many cities in the League, wow.