Iceland and New York

Iceland issued a special series of stamps to help finance their participation in the 1939-1940 New York World Fair. The cost of their exhibition was to be paid over 2 years, part of the cost was to be recovered by the sale of stamps and coins at the pavilion. Printed by the De La Rue Company in London delivery was made via the SS Manhattan sailing from Southampton in April 1939 bound for New York.

This 35 aurar stamp above shows a Viking ship on route for America. Leif Eriksson (c970-c1020) setting sail in 1003 with 35 crew, the first European to land there according to the Saga of the Greenlander. The first stop was a land of flat and shining rocks, Helluland (Land of the Flat Stones) possibly Baffin Island, then on to a place of woods and white sandy beaches, Markland (Woodland) possibly Labrador.  Lief Eriksson's nickname was Leif the Lucky.

 The 45 aurar stamp portraying the statue of Thorfinn Karlsefni in Reykjavik. The sculptor was Einar Jónsson who created a statue which was placed in Philadelphia and another casting was made for Reykjavik. The Philadelphia statue can be seen here. Karlsefni set sail about 1010 with 3 ships and 160 settlers to Vinland, the exact place is unknown but archaeological evidence seems to point to L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland. After 3 years the colony was abandoned and Thorfinn sailed to Greenland, then Norway and eventually returning and settling back in Iceland.

Now are you thinking, yes but what about the New York World Fair? It was the second largest of all time only exceeded by the St Louis Louisianan Purchase Exposition of 1904, which features at the end of  Meet Me In St Louis? One of my all time favourite films, usually shown here at Christmas time.  Anyway the New York World Fair motto was "the world of tomorrow" and its Trylon and Perisphere

 
appeared on posters and stamps (I don't have the Iceland one). 44 million people visited in the two seasons it was open, to be enthralled at this world of tomorrow, but when it closed in 1940 war meant that many of the European staff were unable to return to their home countries. The future had descended into the past.

Sunday Stamps is hosted by Viridian Postcard

Greenfinches

"Two little Greenfinches

Sat on a tree.

Said one to the other:

"Do you love me?"

If the answer is yes perhaps they can get married in the church in the distance. Greenfinches are sociable birds and can be often found visiting gardens if there are some tasty nuts put out by the resident human.

The card was sent on 26th August 1909

but contains no message of love but one of relief and a question from Lucy:  "Home again and I am not sorry. Nellie came Monday and is stopping until Saturday. She came to our Place so we had to sleep three in a bed what do you think about it. Remember me to G".  So that is Lucy and Nellie and an unknown third in a very crowded bed.

Postcard Friendship Friday is hosted by Beth of The Best Hearts Are Crunchy

Beach Time

The photographer has caught the early morning on Narrabeen beach, one of the northern beaches near Sydney, Australia, which also gets a name check in the Beach Boy's Surfin' USA song.  One always thinks of long sandy beaches in connection with Australia, however my sender, Penny, lives a long way from the beach in a small rural town, but in compensation there is a lot of wildlife, including kangaroos. That must be quite a sight seeing kangaroos bouncing past your house. The card came with

one of the 2009 series celebrating bush babies.  Koala spend most of their time in eucalyptus trees munching on the leaves.Something has caught the little koala's attention on this picture. The other stamps in this series of popular Australian marsupials feature kangaroos, possums and wombats. Has Australia cornered the market in cute mammals?

Air Race

A stamp issued to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Monaco's 1st Aerial Rally which is a reproduction of the 1914 rally postcard design.  Those original postcards would be nice to own, an aeroplane picture over the map and signed by the pilots. The magnificent men in their flying machines.  The routes of the race were of equal length over land and sea, their starting points are the places on the stamp map. The winner was the aviation pioneer Roland Garros who covered the circuit in his Molrane-Saulnier flying boat. The stamp shows a flying boat over Monte Carlo harbour.

Roland Garros was the first person to fly the Mediterranean non stop, he also flew high and held many altitude records. He was in Germany giving exhibition flights when war was declared later in 1914. As a French citizen he was in danger of arrest, but fortunately neither he nor his plane was very well guarded, so he set off at night to return to France. A feat in itself, very few pilots at this time flew in the dark. Garros reported for military service. On 5 October 1918 he was shot down near Vouziers in the Ardennes region, just one day short of his 30th birthday. His name lives on as anyone who watches the French Open will know the red clay courts of the Stade Roland Garros. The airport on the island of Reunion, his birth place, also carries his name.

 Roland Garros and Molrane-Saulnier Type L fighter plane

Viridian Postcard is the hostess of Sunday Stamps. This weeks theme, trains planes and automobiles.

Hands Across The Sea

Hands Across the Sea always have a special significance for me because my Grandfather, an ex sailor, had a very pale blue tattoo of this sentiment on his forearm.  His was rather plainer than this pretty card ,which certainly works the theme for alls it worth.  Roses, a cottage, the river to the sea, a lighthouse and to top it all off an airship. I suppose when this card was sent the airship was going to be the way everyone was going to travel. The card is unstamped

but a birthday message from Dolly to her father.  Including the words indicating mortality "hope you may live to have a lot more birthdays".  I wonder where he was celebrating his Sunday birthday party?

An entry to Postcard Friendship Friday hosted by Beth at The Best Hearts Are Crunchy

The Winter Palace

The beautiful Winter Palace looking as stunning at night at it does in the daytime.  How wonderful it must have been to live here. As my sender Olga says, here lived kings. When visiting the museums of Moscow and St Petersburg some years ago and seeing the  fabulous wealth of the tzars, one of the thoughts flitting through my mind was, no wonder there was a Revolution.  Once the winter home of the Tzars, now the palace houses part of the Hermitage collection. The largest collection of paintings in the world. You could spend years in there and still not see everything.

I think there must be a lot of postcrossers in St Petersburg, I've had a number of cards from there. It is a beautiful place so they will never run out of postcards to send and I always love to receive them.

The card came with

 some of the 2009 Kremlin definitives, and some I have not had. On the top, Pskov Kremlin and below, the Kazan Kremlin. Only four more to go and I'll have a full set. The blue stamp bottom left is one of the 2003 definitives of Palaces and Sculptures. This is the Gatchinksy Palace (in the outskirts of St Petersburg) and the statue of Paul I, who is known as the most romantic of the Russian Emperors. He did not have too good a time of it, his mother Katherine II neglected him and did not want him to become emperor. He spent a  lot of time at Gatchinksky. As his title implies he did become emperor but was assassinated by the nobility for his reforms (more rights for the peasantry, better treatment for serfs) and wanting them to accept a code of chivalry.

Thank you Olga, beautiful card.     

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

The death centenary of Alfred, Lord Tennyson in 1992 produced four stamps which featuring the poet at different ages. I only have the one of the aged Tennyson in 1888, or should I say the poet in maturity?  The legends of the Morte d'Arthur have fascinated artists through the centuries and Tennyson was no exception. He had pondered over the retelling of the legend in his "Idylls of the King" for many years, working at it from time to time, one part influencing another. This stamp portrays the part that eventually appeared as 'Merlin and Vivien' with, in the corner, part of the Pre-Raphaelite painter Sir Edward Burne-Jones'  'The Beguiling of Merlin'.  Tennyson's poem starts

A storm was coming, but the winds were still,
And in the wild woods of Broceliande,
Before an oak, so hollow, huge and old
It looked a tower of ivied masonwork,
At Merlin's feet the wily Vivien lay.

The full Burne-Jones paintings, it does not end well for Merlin, for here he is trapped and entangled in a hawthorn while Nimue/Vivien reads his spells.  I have been lucky enough to see this painting as it hangs in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, not too far from where I live.

An entry for Viridian's Sunday Stamps, the theme - Poets or Poetry.