Gisteren (= yesterday) I happened to have received a special, 3D mail art elephant. One of the coming days I'll post it on my animals mail art blog. But there is a reason to share some part of it here today with you: two stamps showing a 'gebouw' (building; 'bouwen' means 'to built').
When receiving this piece of mail art I was immediately attracted by this gebouw:
Not because of the gebouw (building) itself, but because of the name. In my twenties I loved to listen to so-called new wave music, and the band 'Bauhaus' had a song I really liked. Later in life I learned about the art movement 'Bauhaus', including architecture. But seeing this stamp made me think of my own geschiedenis (= history) and I was pleased to welcome this gebouw-stamp.
On this piece of mail art there was an other stamp showing a gebouw, which happens to be a galerie (not to be confused with a galerij), namely the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart, Germany.
(It was impossible to put the 3D mail art object in my scanner, so I hope that these photos will do.)
The following stamp sheets depict the geschiedenis (history) of Spain in a grappige (funny) way.
Although geschiedenis is no grap (grapje, joke in English), and although it is a sad fact that people don't seem to learn from history and invent bad wheels again and again, and despite of some of the cartoons making me sad because of the depiction of disgusting deeds, I think this 'light' way of sharing historical facts is a good one. Maybe people will learn easier from images than from spoken or written facts.
(By the way: the English word for 'grap(je)', 'joke', has a false friend, too. In Dutch Joke (written the same way, but pronounced 'yoe-ke') is a normal, not necessarily funny, girl's name!)
See more stamps on the letter 'G' at and via today's Sunday Stamps!
More fun Dutch lessons and stamps this week.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenThanks for your comment, FinnBadger! :-)
VerwijderenThe Bauhaus stamps would have caught my attention too. Not only because of the name, but also the pretty design. But, with those high values, I guess it is not that easy to use them on normal letters/postcards.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenAnd I also like the stamps depicting the Spanish history in that funny way, but I wouldn't like to send some of them (and dont' agree with others). Anyway, as you can see, not chance that I sent those, because they aren't real stamps: only one stamp on every set, and the value is 3 €. Besides that, as usual, they aren't easy to get. On the previous editions, every stamp had a face value. I have still some stamps depicting the older centuries.
By the way, in Catalan we use the same word galeria, for 'galerie' and 'galerij'. Also in Spanish, with an accent on the i: galería.
The German postcard on which the Bauhaus and Staatsgalerie stamps had been added, wasn't normal indeed :-)
VerwijderenThe Spanish history stamp sheets I received thanks to a swap with someone I know via instagram, she's a Chinese girl living in Madrid. Usually I don't swap stamps at all (first I have to decrease my too large 'to reply' (mainly mail art) pile.. and of course the costs exceed my budget if I'll start swapping stamps without using them for postage). But I realized I cannot resist certain cartoon and comics stamps. So I was pleased to help her to add some Dutch stamps to her collection and happy to receive these (and some other Spanish cartoon stamps before these).
Is the pronounciation/ accent of the Catalan galeria different from the Spanish word?
By the way, galerij also is part of the type of flat I am living in, and this type of flats is even named after it, I am living in a galerijflat :-)
The pronunciation would be the same in both languages (with a slightly difference on the "l" that nobody perceives any more...).
VerwijderenI bet that you have more Spanish stamps than me, because I send all of them to the world. And let alone the Moroccan ones! but... what are stamps made for? :)
Er, for collecting? No, you are right and I agree: stamps in fact are made for traveling, and for landing into a happy recipient's hands.
VerwijderenNevertheless, I have these two sheets.. And two more cartoon stamp sheets... And recently the starwars cartoon sheet (the latter to impress my kids / to convince them of the importance of snail mail - they don't understand my love for postal things and that sheet was the first one they said 'wow!' to).
And I must confess that a lot of Dutch stamps which arrived mint into my house, still haven't been sent.. Some themes (cartoons/music) probably will stay mint for the rest of their/my lives...
I got dragged into a clothes wear shop this week in Michigan, It was quite a coincidence to see that same Bauhaus sign in a photo on the displays. Having worked with Royal Dutch Shell for several years I'm pleased to be expanding my dutch vocabulary as well through your stamps.
BeantwoordenVerwijderen