Sunday Stamps II - 71

2013, 68p Jersey, Damsels and Dragons

illustrator: Lizzie Harper

A series of six stamps to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the British Dragonfly Society were painted by Lizzie Harper, a natural history illustrator. This one shows the Large Red Damselfly which is one of the earliest insects to appear in the spring. It can grow up to 36mm and can generally be found near slow moving water, ponds, and bogs.

for invertebrates

Sunday Stamps II - 70

 

1968, Canada, Narwhal

designer: John Alexander Crosby

The Narwhal is a small whale that is found only in the Arctic Ocean and mainly in Baffin Bay.  Unlike some whales that migrate, these will spend the winter under the sea ice and can dive as deep as 1.5 miles. The narwhal can grow up to 16', but add to that its tusk which can be as long as 10'. They have been called "the unicorns of the sea" for their solitary tusk that is spiral. Only the males have these tusks; most have only one, but sometimes two will grow. There has been no evidence seen that this tusk is used for fighting, so it may be something to attract the females.

for mammals of the seas

Sunday Stamps II - 69

Great Britain 2001, Weather
illustrator: Tony Meeuwissen

Issued in March of 2001, this stamp is one of four; the others showing rain, fair, and stormy which when shown together form a barometer. They were voted the most popular British stamps of that year.

for weather
and, of course, even a stamp showing mist, snow, clouds, or a bright blue sky could be weather related

Sunday Stamps II - 68

September 2003, Slovakia "Small Cold Valley" view to the High Tatras
designer and engraver: Martin Cinovsky

The High Tatras form a natural border between Slovakia and Poland with the majority of the range and the highest peaks in Slovakia. There are 29 peaks reaching higher than 2,500 metres (8,200 feet) and 35 valleys containing 110 lakes. It's the only part of the Carpathian mountain range that has an alpine character and is one of the more important tourist sites in the country as a popular spot for winter sports and trekking.

for mountains

Sunday Stamps II - 67

March 1, 2016 Canada Hydrangea macrophylla
illustrator Marie- Élaine Cusson

A brand new stamp in the continuing flower series, hydrangeas produce blue or pink flowers depending on the acidity or alkalinity of the soil. These are also called 'mophead' hydrangeas and are the most popular variety grown. Although this particular one on the stamp is called "Endless Summer" it has in recent years become perhaps more popular as a spring potted plant than the white Easter lily for this time of year.

Happy Easter!

for Easter or spring

Sunday Stamps II - 66

1973 issue for New Year, bronze lantern

This bronze lantern was unearthed in 1910 on the grounds of the Chiba Temple. An inscription on the top indicates it was cast in 1550. The hexagonal lantern has alternating patterns of bamboo and plum panels on the central cylinder with one panel serving as a door. Apart from this door, the whole lantern was cast of one piece. It stands 11 3/4" and can now be seen in the Tokyo National Museum.

for the colour green

Sunday Stamps II - 65

2010, Canada, Mental Health semi-postal
value .57¢ + 10¢ donation (Canada Post Foundation for Mental Health)
designer Louis Gagnon

The stamp features a mental health patient on the path towards recovery with the lines representing the plight of a troubled mind moving toward a sense of peace as they rise up the mountain. A tree grows at the summit as a symbol of growth, healing and renewal.

for health & welfare

Sunday Stamps II - 64

2010, Austria, Shanghai Expo
designer: Irmgard Paul

Empress Elisabeth, nicknamed 'Sisi', was born in Bavaria and married Franz Josef I at age 16. She was not well suited to court life and had an extremely interfering mother-in-law, which did not help. Her major political achievement was contributing to the Austo-Hungarian Dual Monarchy, and that was mostly because she retreated to Hungary for solace and an escape from Vienna. For the most part, she had no control in her life as Empress, but what she could control - and did so, obsessively - was her physical appearance and her beauty. She was a tall woman (5'8") and weighed around 110lbs. With the aid of exercises, fasting and corsets she emphasized her slender figure and 19" waist. Her chestnut hair fell to her knees when let loose and took 2-3 hours of care daily. This portrait, by Francis Xaver Winterhalter, was made in 1894 when Sisi was 27 years old and is said to have been Franz Josef's favourite.

for: women

Sunday Stamps II - 63

2015 Canada UNESCO World Heritage Sites

These Hoodoos are in the badlands of Alberta. They stand about one to three metres high and are weathered stone columns with sandstone caprocks. The problem with this stamp is that the Hoodoos are not in Dinosaur Provincial Park, but are actually near Drumheller, about 165 kms to the northwest. The stamp was issued on Friday, July 3rd and by Tuesday, July 7th were recalled. All the stamps in the booklet, including the other two in the series, Waterton National Park and Wood Buffalo National Park, were destroyed. By late August the set was re-released with the correct Dinosaur Provincial Park badlands photo. 

(seen here on this PrePaid Postcard)

for stamp oddities

Sunday Stamps II - 62

2007, Canada Terra Nova National Park
designer: Saskia van Kampen
Photographer: Garry Black

Showing a sunrise over Alexander Bay, this stamp celebrates the 50th anniversary of Terra Nova National Park, the first national park in Newfoundland. The park is 400 square kilometres of rugged terrain that is part of the Appalachian Mountain System that extends from Newfoundland to Alabama.

for sunrise/sunset

Sunday Stamps II - 61

2011, Israel - Rescue Forces
designer: Achva Kahana

This stamp celebrates the men and women of Israel's rescue forces who devote their time and energy to training and preparation in anticipation of an emergency situation - a natural disaster, accident, acts of terrorism or war - where their services might be needed. Members of the various rescue forces are responsible for evacuating the injured from the scene of an event, providing life saving treatment and speedy transfer to hospital as well as protecting the public from law breakers and terrorists. Many volunteers are active in each of the rescue organizations.

for red stamps

Sunday Stamps II - 60

2003, Slovakia,  Biennial of Illustration Bratislava

The Biennial of Illustrations Bratislava (BIB) is an international competitive exhibition of illustrations for children's books.  Jana Kiselová-Siteková 'creates ethereal and fragile illustrations using fine colours, unusual techniques and microdrawings'. This stamps shows Hans Christian Anderson's Thumbelina (Palculienka in Slovak) which won a Golden Apple award for the BIB in 2001.

for illustrations

Sunday Stamps II - 59

2014, Finland

A bridge over a snowy river with a low winter sun. Other than that, I could find no information about this stamp.

for winter scenes

Sunday Stamps II - 58

2008, Russia,  7 rubles,
women's bicycle B-22, 1954
designed by V Beltyukov

The others in the set of four stamps for a history of Russian bicycles were from 1917, 1938, 1946.
This is the only one that is a women's bicycle.

for cycles

Sunday Stamps II - 57

1978 USA wildlife from Canada/US border
CAPEX (Canadian Association for Philiatelic Exhibitions)
designed by Stanley Galli

Mallards are the most widespread and abundant duck in North America and are particularly plentiful in city and suburban parks where they can be very tame. They are a dabbling duck and are known for hybridizing with other dabblers. The standard duck 'quack' is the sound of a female mallard.


for water birds

Sunday Stamps II - 56

1966, Spain F.N.M.T. (Fábrica Nacional de Moneda y Timbre - the Royal Mint)
one of a series from Castles of Spain
1 peseta

The Alcázar de Segovia started of as an Arab fort and has served as a royal palace, a state prison, an artillery college, and a military college. It is now a museum. Throughout the Middle Ages it was a favourite residence of the Castilian monarchs. Phillip II was married here and rumour has it Walt Disney used it as his inspiration for Cinderella's castle.

for castles or palaces

winter in the mountains

c 1930s linen

Sunday Stamps II - 55

1974, commemorative stamp "Bridges and Rivers of Lesotho"

The Tsoelike Suspension Bridge was built in 1930 by the same company that built many of the most famous bridges in the UK, and the only one outside the UK,  Sir William Arrol & Co. based in Glasgow. It is still in use.

for bridges

Sunday Stamps II - 54

 

2006, Netherlands, lenticular stamp

Speed skater Yvonne van Gennip who won three golds at the Calgary 1988 Winter Olympics. The short film on a stamp was created from a series of 12 film stills taken from the winning race and pieced together.

for a favourite stamp

Sunday Stamps II - 53

1972 Great Britain,  Christmas Angles
issued 18 October 1972 and postmarked in Edinburgh from the Philatelic Bureau
photogravure
designer: Sally Stiff
2 1/2p  - Angel in pink with Trumpet
3p - Angel in blue with Lute
7 1/2p - Angel in brown with Harp

For Christmas stamps with a religious theme

Mile High State

received 2015

Stackars Pettson

received 2015,  Poor Pettson
Pettson and Findus

Sunday Stamps II - 52

2015, USA
designed by Antonio Alcada

A Charlie Brown Christmas was first shown on television in 1965. For the 50th anniversary, the USPS has issued a booklet of stamps with 10 still frames from the animation. This one shows Charlie Brown with Linus and his Christmas tree. The "Forever/USA" is written in the same font as the Peanuts comic strip.

for secular Christmas stamps

Sunday Stamps II - 51

2015, Germany for EUROPA 'Old Toys'
designer Kitty Kahane

Germany chose a drawing of a rocking elephant with a monkey riding on its back as their old toys - historisches spielreug -  for their 2015 Europa stamp. It was inspired by toys from the 1920s and 1930s.

We are coming up to the one year anniversary of Sunday Stamps II and I hope it has been a fun and challenging and interesting year for everyone. We are a small, but dedicated group and I think we have all enjoyed everyone's contributions. If anyone has any themes that you would like to see in the coming year, don't be shy and let me know. I am more of an accumulator of stamps than a collector, but I'm sure some of you have collections on themes, or countries, that I haven't thought of, or that you'd like to see repeated.  There are no hard and fast rules - anything related to the weekly theme is welcome!

 

Sunday Stamps II - 50

2012, Belgium  "write me"

designed by Brody Neuenschwander, Hindi script by Dharmesh Jadeja

One of a series of Calligraphy stamps issued in 2012. The others in the set were written in Arabic, Latin, Chinese and Greek. On each stamp is written "write to each other" or "write me" - in Hindi "Ek Dusre ko Likhan"

Sunday Stamps II - 49

1975, Canada
Anne of Green Gables designed by Peter Swan, typographed by Bernard Reilander

Anne (with an 'e') of Green Gables was written in 1908 by Lucy Maud (without an 'e') Montgomery of Prince Edward Island. It is the first of a series of stories about a young orphan girl sent to live with a middle aged brother and sister to help out on their farm. She is a bright, imaginative and talkative girl and the book recounts her experiences in adapting to her new home in a close knit community. 

for children's stories

Sunday Stamps II - 48

2012, Canada,
Design Manager, Alan Leduc; Designer, Paprika
Photography by Grace Gladhill

This stamp of Louise Arbour was issued for the series "Difference Makers" in May 2012. Before being appointed  High Commissioner for Human Rights at the United Nations, where she was a chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, Ms Arbour was a Supreme Court Justice for Ontario and Canada. She retired in 2004.

Sunday Stamps II - 47

1951, Pakistan, 4 annas
designer: A R Chughtai

Pakistan continued to use Indian stamps for a few months after partition (August 1947)  with overprinted stamps in use until 1949. This Saracenic leaf pattern has Pakistan written in Urdu in the centre of the crescent with the values written in English and Urdu at the bottom left and right side plates.  It is one of a set of nine stamps issued for Independence Day 1951 designed by Abdur Rahman Chughtai (1897-1975) who is considered the national artist of Pakistan. 

for monochromatic stamps

Sunday Stamps II - 46

1948, USA,
First Day Cover

The Brahma was chosen for this stamp as it is the oldest breed of chicken in the US. "The Light Brahma Hen descendant of the original introduced at the first Boston Poultry Show in 1948" Known as the "chicken stamp", 52,975,000 were printed.

for farming or farm animals

Sunday Stamps II - 45

Canada, issued August 2015
Souvenir Sheet of International stamp

The HMS Erebus, built in 1826 was abandonned in the ice of the Arctic in 1848 during the Franklin Expedition. After years of searching, it was found in 2014. The stamp shows a diagram of the upper deck on the right and a sonar image of the submerged ship on the left.  We know that none of the men on board survived, but what happened to them is still a mystery.  The Erebus, along with HMS Terror, were on a search for the Northwest Passage when they disappeared. 

for stamps commemorating battles or disasters
(and, yes, I now realize that this is more a stamp commemorating the finding of the ship than the disaster of losing it)

Sunday Stamps II - 44

1946 Dominican Republic, 10 centavos

An airmail stamp showing the air routes to the capitol city, Cuidad Trujillo. The city of Santo Domingo was renamed by the Dominican Republic's dictator Rafael Trujillo after himself in 1936. Following his assassination in 1961, it reverted back to Santo Domingo. 

for maps or flags

Sunday Stamps II - 43

Canada
issued 2009
designed by Isabelle Toussaint.

Photographs of the rhododendrons were taken at an exhibition at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Research Centre in Kentville Nova Scotia. The flowers were in natural light with the "pastel green leaves reproduced digitally to soften the background – an effect carried onto the booklet and souvenir sheet.  275,000 souvenir sheets were printed, and 13,000,000 booklets (of 10 stamps) printed.

for flowers

oops, sorry. here is the linky!

Sunday Stamps II - 42

issued June 2012 (also a joint issue with Germany, identical design)

Pfälzer Hütte – Palatine Hut (at 2108m) is near the spot where the borders of Austria, Switzerland and  Liechtenstein meet. The original hut was built in 1928 by the German and Austrian Alpine Association on Bettlerjoch, a mountain saddle in Liechtenstein. By 1950, after the hut had been uninhabited and looted for several years,  the Liechtenstein Alpine Association took over and now it is open from June to October with meals and accommodation. From here it is a moderate hike to the summit of Naafkopf (2570m) and Augstenberg (2359m)

for stamps with scenery

Sunday Stamps II - 41

France
1981 EUROPA stamp for folklore and feasts
designed and engraved by Jean Delpech

for folk costumes

Sunday Stamps II - 40

issued August, 1959

Designed by artist Robert Foster with a modern oil derrick to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first commercial oil well drilled in the US (the Drake's Well). Despite intense lobbying by oil historians and the petroleum industry, this is the only commemorative oil stamp USPS has produced. In 1959, at the stamp's unveiling, the Postmaster General, Arthur Summerfield declared "The American people have great reason to be indebted to this industry. It has supplied most of the power that has made the American standard of living possible." Attitudes to the oil industry have changed greatly since those heady days.

for technology and industry

Fistral Beach

Published by the Proprietors, headland Hotel Co., Ltd.
Newquay, Cornwall

Headland Hotel was built in 1900 to the highest standards to be the finest hotel in South West England. Every floor had two washrooms for the gentlemen and two for the ladies. Every bedroom had a fireplace, hot and cold running water, electric light, and an electric service bell

Sunday Stamps II - 39

1977, joint issue Canada USA

The Peace Bridge crosses over Lake Erie at the mouth of the Niagara River and connects Fort Erie (Ontario) to Buffalo (NY). This is about 20km from Niagara Falls, and the fast moving current of the Niagara River posed a challenge to the building of the bridge. When it opened, it was the only road bridge on the Great Lakes from Niagara to Minnesota. 

Unusually for joint issues, these stamps are very different in design.

bridges

Elizabeth II

2012

cat circus

unsent, 1940s
Alfred Mainzer Cats

meet me at the tower

circa 1955

There's a new landmark at the "Ex". It's the Shell Oil Tower, whose gleaming glass walls and giant clock add a new feature to the skyline. An elevator is waiting to whisk you to the observation platform, far above the ground, where you can look down on the breathtaking spectacle of the greatest show on earth, the Canadian National Exhibition...look out over Metropolitan Toronto. here is a unique bird's eye view which makes a trip up the Shell Tower a must for every visitor to the Exhibition. You'll find the Shell tower straight through the Princes' Gates. make it a meeting place - get into the habit of saying to our friends "meet me at the Shell Oil Tower".

source: promotional flyer

After it was demolished in 1985 to make way for a car race, many people were lost as they left instructions to meet at a no longer standing tower. It is still missed.

Sunday Stamps II - 38

1976 surcharge

in 1976 the pula replaced the South African rand at par as official currency. This stamp for 1c (cent) has a 1t (thebe) overprint surcharge.
Amethyst is a purple variety of quartz and found in many parts of eastern Botswana.

a popular gemstone for rocks, gems, minerals

Grand Island

unused, date unknown

Both of these bridges were opened in 1935 and are operated by the New York State thruway. The bridges extend I-90 over the Niagara River to Grand Island from Niagara Falls to the north and from Tonawanda (a suburb of Buffalo) to the south. Grand Island is the largest island along the Niagara River. The North Bridge is 4,000' in length with the South Bridge slightly shorter, at 3,400'. The South Bridge is undeniably much prettier. In 1963 a nearly identical bridge was built alongside as a northbound span with the older bridge becoming a two lane southbound span.

a pair of bridges for Sepia Saturday