Category: GB stamps

Modern British postage stamps issued by the Royal Mail

The way we were … European flags in 1979

4 Comments on The way we were … European flags in 1979

Inaugurated in 1958 as the Common Assembly, the European Parliament originally consisted of representatives selected by the national parliaments of EU member countries. Beginning in 1979, members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were elected by direct universal suffrage to terms of five years. Britannica.com When I saw that today’s theme over at Sunday Stamps, hosted … Read more

Post date Sunday, January 23, 2022
Categories In GB stamps
Tags Commemorative

Speed, Regularity and Security – 200 years of the Royal Mail

3 Comments on Speed, Regularity and Security – 200 years of the Royal Mail

When I first read that the theme over at Sunday Stamps today would be “transportation”, I knew right away that this wonderful se-tenant set celebrating the 200th anniversary of the inauguration of the Bristol, Bath, London Mail Coach Service in 1784 would be my choice. This five stamp set of GB commemoratives issued by the … Read more

The first British stamps of the 1900s

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There’s an interesting theme over at Sunday Stamps today at See it on a Postcard: “Issued in the 1900s”. Our website was created initially to celebrate Victorian line-engraved stamps from the 1800s, but Queen Victoria had a very long reign and the very last stamps to be issued while she was on the throne actually … Read more

Post date Sunday, July 18, 2021
Categories In GB stamps, Victorian Surface-Printed

Back to the future! Information Technology on GB Commemoratives

5 Comments on Back to the future! Information Technology on GB Commemoratives

The theme this week over at Sunday Stamps hosted by See it on a Postcard is “inventions/discoveries”. My mind went straight to this set of GB commemoratives when I read the topic, so I thought I would once again share them exactly as mounted in my teenage stamp album. This particular pair, with its unusually … Read more

Post date Sunday, June 27, 2021
Categories In GB stamps

Beningfield’s Butterflies on Stamps

5 Comments on Beningfield’s Butterflies on Stamps

There is a timely seasonal theme over at See it on a Postcard today for Sunday Stamps. The weekly theme is left open to interpretation, so I have chosen this set of commemorative GB stamps from my childhood collection featuring British Butterflies for the theme of summer. While butterflies are active all year round, with … Read more

Post date Sunday, June 20, 2021
Categories In GB stamps
Tags Insects

When England Won the World Cup in 1966

1 Comment on When England Won the World Cup in 1966

With the 2014 FIFA World Cup kicking off today in Brazil, and England’s first game – against Italy – fast approaching on Saturday, this seemed like a very good moment to look at the last time England hosted, and then won the contest, way back in 1966. The General Post Office issued its first ever … Read more

The 1948 Olympic Games

Whilst the world’s attention is firmly fixed on the 2012 Olympic Games in London, I thought this would be an excellent time to look back at the postage stamps issued to commemorate the last time the Olympics were staged in London – The Games of the XIV Olympiad. Issued on 29 July 1948 to coincide … Read more

Post date Sunday, July 29, 2012
Categories In GB stamps
Tags Commemorative, Sport

The First Flight of Concorde

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The Sunday Stamps meme over at Viridian’s Postcard Blog this week is taking a look at flag stamps or patriotic stamps. This first day cover commemorating the First Flight of Concorde came to my mind as a great example. It features both the British Union Flag and the French Tricolour and celebrates the combined efforts … Read more

Happy Birthday Charles Dickens!

The Pickwick Papers and David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

Today marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of one of the most well-loved storytellers of all time – Charles Dickens. The great 19th century English novelist and outspoken supporter of social reform will be remembered in a new set of British stamps to be issued by the Royal Mail in June this year featuring … Read more

British Spring Flowers

4 Comments on British Spring Flowers

The clocks went forward one hour in Europe in the early hours of the morning today and the March equinox came and went several days ago, so it is now officially springtime! In Rome, balmy temperatures and blue skies have also heralded in the new season and the cyclamens have been in bloom for a … Read more

Post date Sunday, March 27, 2011
Categories In GB stamps
Tags Flowers

Happy Darwin Day!

Darwin Day is a global celebration of science and reason held on or around February 12, the birthday anniversary of evolutionary biologist Charles Darwin. 2009 marks the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth. In his On The Origin of Species, published in 1859, Darwin outlined how life evolved through natural selection over millions of years … Read more

Crazy GB stamp mixture on one envelope!

This crazy envelope surely has to win some kind of prize for its eccentric mix of British commemorative and definitive stamps from many different years and issues! Posted on 7 October 2003, it carries the following stamps (running clockwise): 11 1/2p – Policeman Directing Traffic issued on 26 September 1979 as part of the 150th … Read more

Post date Friday, February 22, 2008
Categories In GB stamps

Good King Wenceslas, the Page and the Peasant

Merry Christmas from Penny Black 1840! I have just made this little video of the 1973 British commemorative stamps for Christmas telling the story of Good King Wenceslas – Good King Wenceslas, the Page and the Peasant. The stamps were issued as a se-tenant strip with a slightly higher value 3 1/2 pence stamp issued … Read more

Post date Monday, December 3, 2007
Categories In GB stamps

The Twelve Days of Christmas

1 Comment on The Twelve Days of Christmas

I’ve always loved these 1977 Christmas stamps because they were one of the first sets I collected as a child, eagerly waiting for different images to arrive on letters and then steaming them off Christmas card envelopes to make up the full set of six. The five 7 pence stamps represent different lines of the … Read more

Post date Saturday, December 1, 2007
Categories In GB stamps

The Royal Silver Wedding Anniversary 1948

With Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary this week I thought this stamp might make a timely post – The Royal Silver Wedding Stamp issued in 1948 to celebrate 25 years of marriage between Queen Elizabeth II’s parents King George VI and the Queen Consort, Elizabeth (later known throughout her … Read more

Post date Thursday, November 22, 2007
Categories In GB stamps

The Defeat of the Spanish Armada

I was lucky enough to have got tickets for the première showing of Elizabeth: The Golden Age starring Cate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush at the Rome Film Festival last week. The film was a sumptuous romp through history with Cate Blanchett as fabulous as ever – the scenes showing the defeat of the Spanish Armada … Read more

1981 FDC Guernsey Diana and Charles Stamp

Whilst news broadcasts the world over follow the Diana Inquest I thought I’d post this First Day of Issue Postcard featuring the Guernsey 12p stamp featuring Prince Charles and Lady Diana (as she was then known) together on the occasion of their wedding on 29 July 1981. The photograph shows the couple at the announcement … Read more

George VI stamp find in mixed bag!

One of the fun sides to buying the occasional mixed bag of stamps is that you’ll inevitably find the odd rarity that pays back your minimal investment. For example, I was delighted to come across this George VI £1 brown (SG 478b). First issued on 1 October 1948 this stamp is actually harder to find … Read more

Post date Sunday, September 23, 2007
Categories In GB stamps
Tags George VI

1979 GB commemoratives

Here’s an interesting curiosity…A very nice strip of three London Post c.1839 13p GB commemorative stamps on an envelope above another strip of three Policeman on the Beat 10p GB stamps. What makes this unusual, however, is that I received this envelope in the post the other day – in fact if you look carefully … Read more

Silver Jubilee 1977

In the opening track of Badly Drawn Boy‘s latest CD Born in the UK there’s a line in it that talks about being a kid in the UK back in the summer of 1977:Vicious and his brothersWere trying to set us freeBut much more than this to you and meThis was the Silver Jubilee This … Read more

More GB Stamps

The way we were … European flags in 1979

EU Assembly 1979 – 41mm x 30mm Inaugurated in 1958 as the Common Assembly, the European Parliament originally consisted of representatives selected by the national parliaments of EU member countries. Beginning in 1979, members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were elected by direct universal suffrage to terms of five years. Britannica.com When I saw that today’s theme over at Sunday Stamps, hosted by See it on a Postcard, was Maps/Flags my mind went right away to this set of GB commemorative stamps from 1979. Recent turbulent events in the UK over Brexit make this particular issue a poignant piece of political history. This isn’t intended as a political post, however, although as a British citizen who has lived almost her entire adult life in Italy, I have always considered myself thoroughly ‘European’! Issued on 9 May 1979 to mark the very first Direct Elections to European Assembly, this set consisted of four very similar stamps featuring subtle variations of the main design of hands – all conspicuously white – placing flags of member nations into ballot boxes. This is the 9 pence stamp, with a blue background, with the other denominations seeing different directions and colour changes of the background. I don’t own this entire set, and only have this used stamp, which I carefully steamed off an envelope as a child. The post mark seems particularly quaint, with its ‘REMEMBER to use the POSTCODE’ slogan. The flags featured include the original six member nations – Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Italy, and the Netherlands – as well as the three nations that joined later in 1973 – Denmark, Ireland, and the UK – with the UK Union Flag the very first in the top left hand corner. The four stamps were designed by Stafford Cliff, best known as the creative director of the Conran Design Group in London. Don’t forget to head on over to See it on a Postcard and visit the other Sunday Stamps bloggers today!

Bicentenary of First Mail Coach Run, Bath and Bristol to London When I first read that the theme over at Sunday Stamps today would be “transportation”, I knew right away that this wonderful se-tenant set celebrating the 200th anniversary of the inauguration of the Bristol, Bath, London Mail Coach Service in 1784 would be my choice. This five stamp set of GB commemoratives issued by the Royal Mail on 31st July, 1984 was a childhood favourite of mine, and as usual, I’m presenting them exactly as displayed in my teenage stamp album (nearly forty years ago), in a row of five black Hawid mounts. I still remember the excitement of obtaining the full strip including selvedge at the very end! The souvenir pack summed up the themes illustrated on the stamps with some enticing titles that evoke the romance of stagecoaches: Taverns & Turnpikes · Floods & Footpads · Highwaymen · Travellers’ Tales · Blizzards & Blunderbusses. The stamps were designed by Keith Bassford and Stanley Paine, and all carry a value of 16p. So let’s take a closer look at the individual stamps: The Original Bath Mail Coach of 1794: The first stamp, on the far left, shows the very first mail coach, the idea of theatre-owner John Palmer from Bath, as it leaves the Swan with Two Necks in 1794. An Attack on the Exeter Mail 1816: The next stamp shows a lioness, which had escaped from a local menagerie and attacked the Exeter Mail in 1816. Happily everybody survived the attack. The Norwich Mail in a Thunderstorm, 1827: This dramatic illustration beautifully showcases the work done on this set by prolific stamp engraver and designer Csezlaw Slania (1921-2005). The Holyhead & Liverpool Mails, 1828: The stage coach is depicted in front of the historic inn The Angel, in Islington, London. The inn also was the subject of William Hogarth’s 1747 drawing, The Stage-Coach, Or The Country Inn Yard, which also depicted the busy coaching inn’s customers and traffic. The Edinburgh Mail Snowbound in 1831: This illustrates the story of the Edinburgh to Dumfries Mail which was brought to a halt by a terrible blizzard on 1st February 1831. Both the guard and driver perished in their attempt to continue carrying the mail on foot. Don’t forget to head on over to See it on a Postcard and visit the other Sunday Stamps bloggers today!

World Thematic Stamps

Still Life Painting by Eranuhi Aslamazyan on DDR Stamp

The theme over at Sunday Stamps today is “food”, so allowing myself a little wiggle room here, I have chosen a thematic stamp from my childhood album featuring a traditional still life painting depicting arrangements of food – grapes, pomegranates, a lemon, and I think, some oranges, alongside a large pitcher, and other tableware in what looks like pewter or melchior. This postage stamp would have been bought in one of those mixed thematic bags sold by weight, that were so popular with fledging philatelist when I was young. While it was a quite recent commemorative at the time, fast forward to today, and it is suddenly half a century old! Modern Masters – E.A. Aslamasjan This 20 Pfennig stamp features a still life painting by E.A. Aslamasjan and was issued as part of a two-stamp set celebrating Russian and Soviet Paintings – Modern Masters Picture Gallery. (The other 5 Pfennig stamp featured a portrait by D.K. Sweschnikow.) It was issued in 1969 by what was then the German Democratic Republic or East Germany (often abbreviated to simply the DDR from Deutsche Demokratische Republik). Vahan Kochar, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons My background is in Art History so I could not leave my research there, so I dug a little deeper to see if I could find out a little more about the artist or painting featured. A rewarding half hour on Google led me to the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD) online archive of Modern Masters, and a 1967 oil on canvas by Eranuhi Aslamazyan (1910 – 1998), an Armenian and Soviet multi-genre artist, who like her equally famous sister Mariam, painted landscapes, portraits and still life paintings, as well as producing graphic works, ceramics and pottery, always including strong cultural references to Armenia in her art. Although they both mostly lived in Russia. She was both a member of the Artists’ Union of the USSR and an Honored Artist of the Armenian SSR. Do head on over to See it on a Postcard for more Sunday Food Stamps!

Most of my childhood stamps were acquired in those big, mixed country bags, divided by themes rather than country, and mostly date from the mid-1970s and earlier. Animals and birds seem to proliferate and there are a great many stamps featuring big and domestic cats. Here are a just a few […]