Covers

Last Saturday (29/08/2009), a preview sale was organized in Gent. I've been there to send some covers similar to the one you see here:


These are the persons who will receive this cover with the special stamp 'Maurice Béjart (1927-2007) - Life is dancing!':

1. Lars Overballe (Denmark)*
2. André de Mélo (Portugal)
3. Andrzej Bek (Poland)
4. Luis Toribio (Spain)
5. Vladimir Gritsay (Russia)
6. Eric Contesse (France)
7. Lunder Tadej (Slovenia)
8. Robert Brnka (Slovakia)
9. Viaceslavas Kuznecovas (Lithuania)
10. Stefan Zugravu (Romania)
11. Vural Oguz (Switzerland)
12. Ali Nasseri (Iran)
    
13. Mehdi Yarahmadi (Iran)
14. Aniruddha Chatterjee (India)
15. A.N. Nayak (India)
16. Myron dela Paz (Macau)
17. Ben Cooper (Australia)*
18. José Luiz Peron (Brazil)*
19. Edy Nugroho (Indonesia)
20. Matthew Cassetta (Trinidad)
21. K. Veeraraghavan (India)
22. Gabriel Hoffman (Argentina)

Covers with other stamps were sent to:

1. Ravindra Ratnapala (Sri Lanka)
2. Robert Brnka (Slovakia)
3. Tristan Juvet (Canada)
4. Ahmet Demir (Turkey)
5. Edward Hong (Hongkong)
6. Ouari Khemissi (Algeria)
   

I hope you all like what you get :)

* with WWF stamps for return envelope

Slovakia

Latest cover from Slovakia, received yesterday. Thanks to Robert.

The stamp on the left was issued in 1995 to commemorate the 18th World Jamboree (scouting), organised in the Netherlands in August 1995.

In the middle we see a very recent stamp, issued on August 14, 2009. On the website of the Slovakian Post I found this text about the stamp:

The Biennial of Illustrations Bratislava (BIB) is an international competitive exhibition of original book illustrations for children and youth. The work as featured on the stamp was a book illustration awarded by the international jury during the 21st Biennial of Illustrations Bratislava, 2007. This event was attended by 387 illustrators from 38 countries. The Grand Prix obtained the German illustrator Einar Turkowski. The featured illustration is taken from the award winning book ‘Es war finster und merkwürdig still’ (‘It was dark and eerily quiet’) published by the Atlantis Publishing House of Switzerland. During the last BIB event, the jury steered away from experimental techniques of any kind and avoided garish colours. Instead, its main focus was on less noticeable yet carefully elaborated black and white drawings with a touch of technically brilliant ingenuity, the ability to build on the contrast of light and shadow, and a bias towards miniature. Hidden humour, bright ideas, precision, and unobtrusive visual expression were especially praised by the jury.

(Barbara Brathová - www.pofis.sk)

Finally, the stamp on the right was issued in 1996 and pictures a work of Endre NEMES (1909-1985), a painter who received the Swedish State Prize.

Endre Nemes was born in Pecsvarad, Hungary and spent his childhood and youth in Slovakia - in Levoča, Spišská Nová Ves and Liptovský Mikuláš. From 1928 to 1930 he worked as a journalist and cartoonist in Prague, where he subsequently studied at the Academy of Fine Arts (1930-1934). In 1938 he fled to Norway to escape fascism, and from 1940 lived in Sweden, where he taught for a number of years at the school of art in Goteborg. From 1955 he worked as a freelance artist in Stockholm. His oeuvre belongs to that offshoot of Surrealism informed by the struggle against fascism. In Sweden he created a number of monumental works in enamel. His celebrated work "Baroque Chair" (1941) is a continuation of his Prague paintings from the 1930s, and in it the artist endeavours to address the international situation during the war from the viewpoint of Swedish neutrality. "Baroque Chair" was Endre Nemes's first major work in Sweden.

(www.pofis.sk)

China

Thank you Vane Liu for this wonderful cover from China. On the cover you see a stamp serie issued in 2002, and picturing various monkeys.

(left to right:)

1. Hoolock gibbon (Hylobates hoolock)
2. Black gibbon (Hylobates concolor)
3. White-handed gibbon (Hylobates lar)
4. White-cheeked gibbon (Hylobates leucogenys)

WWF Netherlands

I bought two new covers from the Netherlands last week, franked with the 1984 WWF stamp (Panda symbol) from the Netherlands. Here are the two covers:

The first cover commemorates the first scheduled flight Amsterdam-Newcastle on October 29, 1984. The second cover has a special postmark of the WWF Exhibition in the castle of Zeist (Netherlands) on September 18-19, 1984.


To my surprise, and happiness, the seller of these covers also used the 2 WWF stamps issued by the Netherlands (in 1971 and 1984) on the envelope in which the items have been sent to me. Thank you very much Jos for this nice gesture!

Brazil

New cover from Brazil, courtesy of José Luiz Peron.

The stamps on this cover are very different from each other. We see stamps picturing Pope John Paul II, the Scarlet ibis (Eudocimus ruber) and a train (part of serie commemorating the Brazilian railways)... Quite a miscellany :)

Algeria

Thank you Ouari for this nice cover with stamp picturing the Red fox with white tail (renard rouge à queue blanche).

WWF Netherlands Antillen

Two very nice First Day Covers from Netherlands Antillen, picturing the White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus).

For more information: http://www.nhptv.org/NATUREWORKS/whitetaileddeer.htm

New covers from Turkey

Thanks to Vural and Ahmet.

Canada

Thanks Tristan for this cover with the original serie 'Roadside attractions'. The more I look at it, the more I get fascinated by this sheet. Really great topic, it shows Canada from a rather unexpected but very interesting point of view!

Another cover from Malaysia

Courtesy of Kang Wei Xie.

The stamps were issued in a serie picturing traditional houses. This envelope is franked with 3 stamps, but the complete serie has a total of 16 different stamps (see sheet below)!

Parrots from Brazil

Special thanks to my friend Luis Alberto for this wonderful cover from Brazil! I already talked about the parrots pictured on the stamps in a previous post.

Russia

Thank you Vladimir for this cover from Russia.

WWF Belgium

I recently discovered these official stamps from Belgium with WWF logo... These 'Duostamps' are in fact issued by Belgian Post, and therefore official stamps, but these are not taken up in the catalogue because they are not part of the official stamp program. There are various motifs, like Lucky Luke, Smurfs, Pink Panter, Thorgal and Peanuts. (http://www.post.be/site/nl/residential/stamps/philately/stamps/duostamp/index.html)


The Duostamps are comparable with the 'My stamps', because the tab on the right is in fact the stamp, where as the left part is in fact a tab without any value.

You and me can create similar stamps with pictures we like ourselves. A set of 5 stamps costs 4.99 euro; a sheet of 15 stamps is sold for 14.50 euro.

Sri Lanka

Thanks Ravindra for a new elephant cover from Sri Lanka. Unfortunately, the stamp on the right is damaged so I think I'd better not use it for the exhibition... :s

Australia Day

Today is an 'all Australia day', as I have bought and received some Australia (WWF) items lately. And all very nice items, Australian Post has done a great job if you ask me :)

First I want to show you some items I bought on the internet last May: stamps, First Day Covers, Maxicards and Numiscover. All items picture endangered Australian dolphins and were issued on May 26, 2009. You're right, I'm talking about the latest Australian WWF issue! :)

Here are the pictures of the items:

The stamps picture following animals:

1. 55c: Spotted Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops aduncus);
2. $ 1.35: Hourglass Dolphin (Lagenorhynchus cruciger);
3. $ 1.40: Southern Right Whale Dolphin (Lissodelphis peronii) ;
4. $ 2.05: Dusky Dolphin (Lagenorhynchus obscurus).

Very nice stamps, not only on the internet but also in a stamp album! :)


Now I want to show some items that were sent to my by Ben. Thanks a lot Ben for these great stamps!!

First we have a real sent 2006 WWF FDC 'Australian Whales'. The whales pictured on the stamps are:

1. Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae);
2. Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus);
3. Fin Whale (Balaenoptera physalus);
4. Southern Bottlenose Whale (Hyperoodon planifrons).

Then we have the 1998 WWF FDC from Australia, picturing different Australian birds.


These wonderfully coloured stamps picture:

1. Yellow-tufted Honeyeater (Lichenostomus melanops);
2. Orange-bellied Parrot (Neophema chrysogaster);
3. Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus banksii);
4. Gouldian Finch (Erythrura gouldiae).

Ben used this pre-paid envelope to send me the birds FDC:


That's all for now. No Dolphin cover or other Australia WWF item has reached me so far... but if I get one, you'll see it here! :)

First cover from Argentina - and a fantastic one!

My first cover from Argentina is what I call a direct hit! A clean cover, franked with 5 (!!) WWF stamps and cancelled with a very nice 'filatelia' postmark... Thank you very much Gabriel for a new masterpiece in my WWF collection!

This set was issued in 2002 and pictures these animals (left to right, top row first):

1. Pampas deer (Ozotoceros bezoarticus)
   (http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Ozotoceros_bezoarticus.html)
   
   
2. Vicugna (Vicugna vicugna)
   (http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Vicugna_vicugna.html)
   
   
3. Southern puda (Puda puda)
   (http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Pudu_puda.html)
   
   
4. Chacoan peccary (Catagonus wagneri)
   (http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Catagonus_wagneri.html)

First cover from (Southern) Cyprus!

Thank you very much Nasia for this very nice cover from Cyprus! The three large stamps on the cover were issued to commemorate the 2009 (XIIIth) Games of the Small States of Europe.

These games were held in June 2009 among the participant nations Cyprus, Iceland, San Marino, Luxembourg, Monaco, Andorra, Malta, Liechtenstein and Montenegro. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Games_of_the_Small_States_of_Europe)



Amongst the events are the sports pictured on the stamps: sailing, mountain bike and tennis.

The small stamp is the 2009 Refugee Fund tax stamp.

End of vacation - start of new philatelic season

Hello to you all! :-)

Now that my vacation has already ended, it's about time to get back to my stamps and covers collection - AND to my blog :)

I didn't receive many covers during this last month, but well I think that's normal because I can imagine that people (including me) want to enjoy other things during their vacation. But for me it's time to restart my philatelic activities...

Some 10 minutes ago I ordered lots of new stamps from Belgian Post offices, so let's hope I get these stamps soon so I can catch up with what I have to do. :)



The first cover I want to show you is one sent by André and picturing turtle doves from Madeira. I already spoke about these stamps in a previous post. Thank you very much André for this beautiful cover and the used WWF stamps from Portugal that were put inside!