Showing posts with label Asia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Asia. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

THE WIND IT BLOWS...
Yes, we're staying with windmills but this time we're off to Paris. This stamp from Bhutan depicts a painting by Vincent van Gogh of the Moulin de la Galette.

I'm not sure whether it would classify as a proper stamp, though. It's huge and not mentioned in my world catalogue. But it seems to be part of the Van Gogh set issued in 1991. I like it because it brings back memories of Paris for me. I always stay in a small hotel in Rue Tholozé, which leads to the Rue Lepic. On that street you'll find the Moulin de la Galette, a lovely little restaurant with the same name and the house where Vincent van Gogh stayed for a while with this brother. The only thing I'm wondering is whether the scene painted by Van Gogh was how it was then, which I can't really imagine as it's so built up now and their house on Rue Lepic is very much part of that built-up scene. But who cares.

Anyway, curious? Have a look here, and you know where I spend my time abroad (although I do try and avoid the Place du Tertre at all costs). The site has nothing to do with me, mind, I just happened to find it when looking up some info for this post.

:-)
Adrian

Saturday, August 25, 2007

COLONIALISM

No, have no fear, I'm not gonna advocate a return to the old colonial days, but philatelically they had the advantage (if you like definitives, that is) that the overseas territories/colonies used to have similar definitives to those of the mother country. That goes for the Dutch situation anyway. Netherlands New Guinea was the last area to continue with this practice. Between 1954 and 1960, they issued a set of Juliana En Profil stamps which were very similar to the Dutch version.

The final set to have identical designs for the Netherlands and the overseas territories was the Juliana En Face set, introduced in 1949.

This is one of those stamps, issued in Netherlands New Guinea. Here, these definitives were issued between 1950 and 1952. It's one of my favourite Juliana sets as it is the end of the old-fashioned era. After this, all definitive sets and most commemorative items too, were "modern", and therefore less attractive (in my humble opinion anyway).

:-)
Adrian