The 1948 Olympic Games - Penny Black 1840

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 with the opening ceremony that day, these games were significantly the first Summer Olympics since the 1936 Games in Berlin – the advent of World War II had seen a twelve year interruption, and the London Games therefore took place in a time of post-war austerity. This was the second occasion that London had hosted the Olympic Games, the first being back in 1908.

The stamps issued in 1948 were stunning in their simplicity, incorporating King George VI and the Olympic rings, and were designed by artists in a variety of fields.

2 ½ d (ultramarine) – The Globe and Laurel Wreath was designed by Percy Metcalfe, a sculptor and medallist who chose to put the rings in a straight line;
3 d (violet) – Speed was designed by Abram Games, a poster artist;
6 d (bright purple) – Stanley Scott, a young engraver, designed the Olympic Symbols stamp;
1 shilling (brown) – Winged Victory was designed by French book illustrator Edmund Dulac, who would later be one of the designers of the Wilding series stamps, the first definitive stamps of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.

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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 […]