Postcard from China no. 3

Received in May 2009 this beautiful postcard showing the world-famous Summer Palace or Yihe yuan, in Beijing, one of China's UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The top se-tenant stamps of 1.20 yuan each show the islands and peaceful waters of Qiandao Lake, a man-made lake located in Chun'an County, Zhejiang (issued on 16 April 2008, also as a souvenir sheet). The other colourful stamp of 0.60 yuan shows a scene from the well-known fairy-tale The Emperor's New Clothes by Hans Christian Andersen. Born in 1805, many postal administrations around the world commemorated in 2005 his anniversary by issuing stamps dedicated either to him or his works. Thank you, Xie Kui!

Postcard from Great Britain no. 4

Another beautiful view from Anglesey in North Wales, this time of the castle of Beaumaris, designed by James of St. George and begun in 1295, but never completed. Beaumaris has been designated as a World Heritage site (Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd), and "is regarded by some to be the most architecturally perfect castle in Britain" (wikipedia).

And I am still riding the literature-on-stamps wave and have here four covers of Ian Fleming's Goldfinger (1959), ranging from the earliest hardcover to the latest paperback edition (stamp issued on 8 January 2008 in commemoration of the centenary of the author's birth). Thank you, Mia!

Cover from Russia no. 7

Another fine cover from Alex from Astrakhan! The souvenir sheet (issued on 1 February 2009) is dedicated to the 175th anniversary of birth of the Russian chemist, inventor and teacher D. I. Mendeleev (born 1834), and apart from his major achievement, the periodic table of the elements, shows a very cosy bookshelf with some leather-bound volumes and an old-fashioned chemical apparatus. I find this sheet quite lovely.

The other commemorative stamp is dedicated to another Russian personage, the writer A. N. Tolstoy, and his 125th anniversary of birth (stamp issued on 10 January 2008). Besides his writing historical fiction, he penned also some works in the science fiction genre like "The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin" (1926).

Postcard from Ukraine

A beautiful postcard showing the city of Odessa (pop. 1,050,000) on the Black Sea, a famous port and resort. Most of the rear part is covered by a lovely decorative souvenir sheet commemorating the 200th anniversary of the birth of the writer Nikolai Gogol (Mykola Hohol in Ukrainian, 1809-1852), issued on 1 April 2009 in 100,000 copies. The artist was born in Sorotchynsi (Poltava, Russian Empire, now Ukraine) and is famous for his comedy The Government Inspector and novels Taras Bulba and The Dead Souls. The stamp on the left of 2.20 UAH shows a portrait of N. Gogol, the stamp on the right of 1.50 UAH a scene from one of his stories; other scenes can be seen on the margins of the sheet.

There are also two small definitives issued in February 2002.
Thank you, Irina!

Cover from the Czech Republic

Received today a domestic letter featuring two nice stamps. The 10 Czk commemorates the Beijing Paralympic Games and was issued on 18 June 2008 in 1,500,000 copies. The cartoon stamp is actually an illustration by Josef Lada of one of the most celebrated Czech novels, the Good Soldier Švejk (1923) by Jaroslav Hašek. The stamp was issued on 10 September 1997 in 3,350,000 copies.

New Czech stamps - March 2009

A trio of new Czech stamps, issued today, on 18 March 2009. The 10 CZK Easter stamp is the work of my favourite Czech illustrator and graphic artist Adolf Born. The stamp puts together the classic articles of the Central European Easter in the country - hares and decorated eggs - in a nice humorous combination. Print run: 8 million.

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Two large engraved stamps in a series dedicated to the Oriental art from the collections of the National Gallery in Prague. The 18 CZK stamp (rate for sending a postcard or a letter up to 20 grams outside Europe) is connected to China and features the Immortal Lu Tung-Pin or Lǚ Dòngbīn (呂洞賓), revered by Taoists, depicted here as a Chinese mandarin with a miraculous blue sword. The 24 CZK stamp is connected to Bali, Indonesia, where this scene from the Sanscrit epic Ramayana was painted in the 1920s.

Print-run: 148,000 each.

Postcard from Slovakia

On 25 July 2008 I received this nice postcard from Trenčín in western Slovakia (actually closer to my hometown that Prague, for example). Trenčín is the capital of the Trenčín Region with 56,000 inhabitants and is dominated by the Slovakia's third largest castle.

The stamps on the card present the "old" and "new" of the Slovak stamp production. The ship stamp was issued 30 December 1994 as part of a series dedicated to the ships made at the Slovak Shipyards in Komárno and shows the cargo vessel Rýn (Rhine) [print run 5,050,000, engraved]. The other stamp was issued this year on 25 May and is part of the ongoing series "For Children". It depicts a many-headed dragon and is dedicated to the memory of Pavol Dobšinský, Slovak fairy-tales collector living in the 19th century (print-run 10 million, engraved).

Actually, both stamps were bought in one day in a news stand in the centre of Trenčín. I think that the Slovak Post tries to get rid of the stamps with the Slovak koruna denominations before the country's transfer to euro in 2009 and therefore, such old stamps can be bought quite frequently these days. The Slovak koruna stamps will still be used and valid during 2009.

Cover from Brazil

This letter reached me today after 14 days of travel from Rio de Janeiro. I am not sure if "economico" means that it did not go by air. Anyway, if it sailed the Atlantic by boat, it arrived pretty quickly (in my opinion, from a position of a person living in a landlocked country).
The long stamp (RS 0,60) from 2008 commemorates the 100th anniversary of birth of the Brazilian writer Joao Guimaraes Rosa whose books have been translated also to Czech. The other stamp (RS 0,40) was issued for Christmas in 2001. Thank you T.!