True Art

I was lucky enough recently to discover an artist in Croatia who has merged his love of Philately with his artistic talents to create a Cinderella series from the fantasy city of Albion. A couple of his works of art were purchased for me for Christmas.

Albion 2/-

This first stamp, modelled after the British 1929 £1 PUC, bears the head of a young Queen Victoria, presumably the reigning monarch of Albion.

Albion 1/-

The next stamp bears the head of the Prince-consort, Albert. Seemingly the stamp designers of Albion were happy to include Prince Albert on their stamps! Perhaps they saw merit in this after viewing the Newfoundland stamp of Albert...

 I love these stamps. They will make fine additions to my set. I will be on the lookout for more of the work of this talented artist...

Stay Stamp Crazy!!

The Seadragon

Decommissioned.

The USS Seadragon (SSN 584), launched 16 August 1958, was decommissioned on 12 June 1984. She was the first submarine to transit the Northwest Passage and the third submarine to surface at the North Pole.

The cachet on the cover is awesome...

The Seadragon

The Story of the Sub...

The USS Seadragon (SSN-584), was a Skate class submarine. Her keel was laid down on June 20, 1956. She was actually the second submarine to go by the name Seadragon. The Seadragon number 2 was launched on August 16, 1958, and commissioned on 5 December 1959, with Lieutenant Commander George P. Steele in command.
   On 21 August 1960, Seadragon completed the first submarine transit of the Northwest Passage, a sea route through the Arctic Ocean. She reached the North Pole on 25 August and broke through thin ice to become the third submarine to surface in the North Pole.She was to make one more journey to the Arctic in 1962 with her sister sub USS Skate.

  
This lovely cover was posted on 14 May 1963 while Seadragon was undergoing repairs in Hawaii. The cachet on the envelope is a copy of the Seadragon insignia. The colour version looks like this...

 The Seadragon was decommissioned on 12 June 1984.

Great Find Translated.

Postcard Translated!

After buying the cover I wrote a blog about yesterday, I received a translation of the text, which I believe is in Swedish. This is the cover...

  The translation goes: from Margareta and Kalle. The Title is: Happy Easter. The message reads:' hope you are well. everything as usual here. Mathias is coming home for Easter. Olivia is in Malta now.( reading?) English there for three months.' 

   Thank you to my Facebook friend Dawn. This is one of the reasons I love collecting. Finding gems such as this...

Great Find!

Sweden Year of the Dragon on Cover

I'm thrilled!! I just found an awesome little cover with one of my favourite dragon stamps affixed. And the cancel is great to boot...! I saw it and just had to have it. Wahoo!

Not So Genuine Postmark!

Benin Postmarks

I am always on the lookout for dragon stamps with genuine postmarks. With some issues, such as Benin Year of the Dragon 2000, this is impossible as the stamps weren't made for postage. So you can imagine my surprise when I came across a photo of a Benin 2000 Year of the Dragon stamp that was actually postmarked!!

   But then reality set in. Pause for a big sigh! The postmarks were added as part of the printing process. Massive bummer.

   Once the disappointment had subsided, I realised that these stamps were worth having despite the fact that the postmarks were fake.

   A closer look at a couple of the postmarks reveal that they are supposedly from Cotonou, the economic capital of Benin. Fake - yes. But still interesting, and a fine addition to any Dragon collection...

The Dragon with Red Eyes

A Delightful Book

In 2000 Sweden released, what I think, is a delightful set of Year of the Dragon stamps. The dragon in this set comes from the children's book "The Dragon with Red Eyes" by Astrid Lindgren. The images actually inspired a character in one of my books, so it's a favourite! The set of three stamps was released in booklet form with the vertical margins imperforate.

  
   I recently picked up the book The Dragon with Red Eyes. It is a charming little story about two farm children who one morning go outside to tend the pigs. They discover one of the pigs has had piglets. To their shock, they also find that the pig has somehow given birth to a baby dragon! A dragon with glowing red eyes. Over the next few weeks they discover the dragon is quite mischievous. In the first stamp the little dragon is prancing about having all kinds of fun...

   Through the story we discover that the baby dragon loves to eat candle wicks. For being good, the children give him a whole basket full of wicks to munch on...

   But the dragon is very sad. Then one day while outside, the dragon suddenly takes off and flies away. He is the happiest he's ever been... 

  The End...

A Genuine Cancellation!

Serbia Year of the Dragon Cancellation.

Last night I got very excited when I found in my mailbox a small package of stamps from Serbia. Affixed to the package were two Serbian 2012 Year of the Dragon stamps. And they were nicely cancelled to boot !!

Here's a close-up of the Year of the Dragon stamps with genuine cancellations - wahoo!!

The package was sent from Belgrad, the capital of Serbia and its largest city on 12/9/12. This envelope is a definite keeper. 

Slaying the Nazi Dragon

The Netherlands Dragon Prevails.

A sub-set to my dragon collection is Dragon Slaying. Generally St George is depicted slaying said beastie, but often the motif was used for different purposes. Take this amazing block of 4 for instance. It is a WWII liberation stamp printed in 1945. The dragon in this image represents the Nazis. The lion of the Netherlands is slaying the oppressor...

     It is interesting to note that during the design phase of this stamp, the title was altered to suggest the stamp was a depiction of the Lion of Netherlands slaying tuberculosis, which takes the form of the dragon. This was to ensure the Nazi's didn't twig to the significance of the image. But by the time the stamp was released the Netherlands had been liberated so the TB reference was removed.

     It is always nice to have postally used examples of stamps. Recently I picked up a nice cover with four copies of this stamp affixed. I think it is a beauty...

     This letter was posted on the 13th of December just a couple of months after the stamp was released. Anyone else have any examples of this stamp postally used?