zondag 22 januari 2017

Sunday stamps: books, authors

Today's Sunday Stamps theme is 'books / authors'.

According to many postcrossing profiles, books are popular among mail lovers. And among mailing people there are several librarians. Thanks to John I received this stamp which shows a library. It is one of my favourites as it shows the evolution of reading. And, according to Royal Mail, the evolution of information technology:



Belarus Post has issued these stamps in 1997 in honour of one of the first book printers in Eastern Europe, Frantzisk Skaryna (for more information, see for instance here and here):




Similar to mail, books connect the writer and the reader. And sometimes postage stamps themselves connect countries, via joint issues.
This stamp I received thanks to Eva, and connects Morocco and Monaco:



Dutch PostNL happens to have issued a book stamp sheet recently. Only after purchasing this stamp sheet and reading the words in the selvage, I learned that 2016 was the 'Year of the Book'! Did you know is was?



Two books of which I used to mix up the title and author, for the title is a person's name, are Don Quixote and Max Havelaar.

Regarding the first mentioned: these Spanish stamps have been designed on behalf of a contest in honour of the author Miguel de Cervantes.
The book character Don Quixote and his good friend Sancho Panza you can see on the stamp on the left. And I am not sure whether the portrait on the right is the book character or the author:



Concerning Max Havelaar, he isn't the writer but the main character of the book 'Max Havelaar', written in 1860 by Multatuli, pen name of Eduard Douwes Dekker.
The stamp shows a portrait of the author, and a quote from the book. 'Ik groet u allen zeer' means 'I'm greeting all of you very much'.

Although I've never read Multatuli's Max Havelaar ('Max Havelaar: Or the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company'), I think it an important book. In colonial times the Europeans have done a lot of harm to the people in the countries they colonized. Multatuli was one of the few who, by for instance this book, openly critized the abuses of colonialism, in this case in the Dutch East Indies (today's Indonesia).



I hope to find some time some day to read this book. But - maybe you recognize it: my 'to-read'pile' is large..


A book on the selvage you can see here, it belongs to a stamp of the famous children's book character Paddington Bear:



What else to do with books?
You can keep them above your head, as did the woman on this Japanese illustration:



The image is part of a woodcut print, created in 1854 by Utagawa Kunisada, as part of a serie 'parody at six poets'. The artwork is in the Rijksmuseum, whose collection you also can find on the internet. The complete picture you can see here.
The stamp is part of a ten stamps sheet, issued in 2013 in honour of the Rijksmuseum. You can see the other (non-book) stamps and more details here.

Finally: what would books be without readers?
This pretty colourful stamp I received from Russia:



See more stamps related to this theme at and via today's Sunday Stamps!

11 opmerkingen:

  1. Great stamps today, and fantastic to see Paddington Bear.

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  2. So many beautiful stamps and things to comment on this post!
    I've received the same stamp from John, and I was about uploading it today. And also the stamps of the Year of the Book that you sent to me!Now I've got all of them: thanks, thanks, thanks!

    And about the stamps of Don Quixote, yes, they are the main characters on the stamp, and the windmill... seen through young eyes.

    I'm waiting the results of the contest this year.The theme was free, and a lot of beautiful designs have been selected!

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    Reacties
    1. I am happy that you received all stamps of the book sheet!

      Do I understand correct that the portrait on the Spanish stamp on the right also is Don Quixote and not the author?

      And thank you for the information, I didn't know the contest is yearly. Such a nice idea, and such beautiful and interesting designs!

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    2. Yes, he is Don Quixote , too. I am afraid hi is more well-know than the author. Even if this is one of the books that everybody speaks about but nobody reads... (I did; several times!).

      This year was only the third of the contest. I think it is a very good idea. At least, one stamp that isn't religious or military... The themes that designers choose might give to Correos an idea about what people really want to see on the stamps!

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  3. You have rounded off this post with a very important reminder to us all in this electronic age - the importance of introducing children to books and reading.

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    Reacties
    1. You are so right, Bob, it is important. Though hard to realize continuation of reading books (speaking from experience from mt two teen kids: the amount of time spent reading books I estimate being less than 2 procent of the time spent at electronic devices..)

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  4. Hi Heleen, What a nice post for Sunday Stamps. No, I did not know that 2016 was the Year of the Book. Well, I learn something new every day and today, thank you, it’s from your blog. :-) I love the Dutch PostNL stamp sheet featuring books. Curious: On that sheet, does the “1” on the stamps refer to 1 Euro?

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    Reacties
    1. Thank you very much for your kind words, John!

      The "1" is similar to the US 'forever' stamp. Until some years ago, all stamps showed their price in euro, but for some reason also Dutch PostNL switched to the 'forever stamps' method. The number 1 on stamps in combination with the word 'Nederland' are for national mail (until 1-1-2017 they cost € 0.73 each, from 1-1-2017 it is 0.78), and 1 in combination with 'Internationaal' is for mail outside the Netherlands (was 1.25, now is 1.33 up to 20 grams). There also exist 'Nederland 2' stamps which are used for national mail from 20 to 50 grams weight.

      Also I have to learn: in Spain there are stamps showing A or B, the meaning of which I still haven't captured. We keep on learning in life!

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    2. Spanish system, with prices from 1st January 2017:

      A letters/postcards up to 20g, within Spain [0,50€]
      B letters/postcards up to 20g, to Europe (including Greenland) [1,25€]
      C letters/postcards up to 20g, rest of the world [1,35€]

      A2 letters/postcards 20g-50g, within Spain, and letters non standard (bigger or smaller than a normal envelope, squared, round... most of mail art) [0,60€]
      B2 Same, but to Europe. [1,55€] Last year any B2 stamp was issued.

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    3. Many thanks to you for your additional information, Eva!

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