ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST

I've shown you some Austrian Jubilee items before, which you will find under the Austria link on the left somewhere. The general idea is that an enormous jubilee set was issued in 1908 with lots of imperial portraits. For the various postal stationery however, it seemed that only the recent portrait of Franz Joseph was used (with one expection being the special 1908 jubilee postcard). I have now found another item that backs up that theory.

It is a letter card with a 35 heller stamp imprinted. As you can see from the close up, it is the portrait of the emperor as he looked then.

The ordinary sheet stamp does show the emperor too, but an earlier portrait was used, from 1878 rather than 1908. Interesting!

By the way, note that the 35 heller sheet stamp has a variety, which changed the emperor's name from Franciscus to Eranciscus.

:-)

Adrian

NEW CLOTHES

I've said it before that I quite like postal stationery as complementary items to any definitive collection, but sometimes they're even more interesting than usual. Take this one for example.

It's a special jubilee card for the 60th anniversary of the accession of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria, issued in 1908. Now most post cards and other stationery just depict the sheet stamp which prepays that particular rate, but on this one, some more attention was paid to the whole concept. Let's have a closer look at the imprinted stamp image.

And now let's have a look at the ordinary 5 heller sheet stamp.

Exactly. You see, the front of the card already showed a contemporary portrait of the Emperor, so for the stamp image they chose a portrait of the Emperor at the time of his accession in 1848. This actually is the image that was used for the 30 heller sheet stamp.

Great stuff!

:-)

Adrian

SPREAD YOUR WINGS

I know I always go on about definitives, but they're just so great! For one, you can chart a country's history much better than you can with all those special stamps. See how empires spread their wings. Take a look at these for example.

Officially this is a set commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Austrian Emperor's Accession, issued in 1908, but the stamps were used as definitives too. This copy here is a heller value, used in Austria. But the same set was also introduced with values in Turkish paras.

These were for the Austro-Hungarian post offices in the Turkish Empire. You see the clues heaping up?! There's a story behind the Austro-Hungarian bit and the Turkish Empire bit. Lots of history to be discovered. And then, you can even find that set in French currency!

These were usually described as for the Post Offices in Crete, but you do find them in other parts of the Turkish Empire too. Why French? Well, the Austrian post offices in Crete were run together with the French postal authorities who had already established their post offices on the island. And when we enter Crete we find lots of various foreign post offices with various currencies about. But I haven't delved into that yet...

So yes, I repeat once again: who dare say that definitives are boring!

:-)

Adrian

THE EMPEROR STRIKES BACK

The first issue for the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary was a set depicting the Emperor Francis Joseph, issued from 1 June 1867 onwards. The 5k is a very common stamp and up til now I just had the one copy in my album. But now that I'm concentrating more on my European Classics, I took out my Austria catalogue and found that there are two main types and three subtypes! Things are never what they seem, eh!?

This here is main type I.

It is a very coarse printing. Note the thick hair and whiskers, and the heavy eyebrow. This printing is from the 1867 set, which was used in both Austria and Hungary. There are two subtypes (A & B) but I haven't got copies to show the difference so that will have to wait til a later date.

And this here is main type II.

This is a fine printing. Note that hair, whiskers and eyebrow are so much lighter! This is a copy from the 1874 set, which was used in Austria only. Again, two sybtypes exist (B & C) and on top of that there are a number of perf variations. This copy here is perf 9.5.

Isn't it great that such a common stamp will keep you busy for a whole night?! And I haven't even mentioned the fact that the sheets were watermarked "BRIEF-MARKEN" in double-lined capitals. Copies with part of that watermark come definitely at a premium!

:-)

Adrian

AUSTRIA - MONASTERIES AND ABBEYS

I was doing Austria last night and was reminded of that stamp fair years ago, when someone asked a man sitting next to me what he thought was the country with the most beautiful stamps. He answered Austria and I butted in saying: "Don't be silly, it's Britain!" At that time I still lived in Holland and was yearning and craving for anything British, so I must have been biased! For now that I live here in the UK and have seen a few more world stamps, I must admit that that man could well be right.

I know it's an impossible question to answer, for as soon as you come up with an answer, there's a doubt in your mind saying: yeah, but what about that set and those stamps ah and those oh and yes, I love that one too.

Sigh.

But it is true that I do feel immense pleasure everytime I browse through my Austria pages. It's like their stamps represent the splendour (and yes, decadence) of Old Europe. I've got a fair number of Austrian stamps and yet struggle to point out any really horrible ones. I've only got the one!

And it's not just the definitives that are beautiful, their commemoratives are splendid as well, and what about their Christmas stamps: that's how they all should be (in my humble opinion, of course)!

One of the most beautiful definitive sets is the Monasteries and Abbeys set from the 1980s. I'm showing you a few here but the scans do not show them off to their full advantage, I don't think. But enjoy them anyway! And maybe I should try and come up with a top 10 of the most beautiful stamp sets. Now there's a challenge!

:-)

Adrian

AUSTRIA - SAGEN UND LEGENDEN

My sister told me the other day that she had had a dream in which I had been writing about fairytales on stamps in a leading Dutch newspaper, being very famous an' all.

Well, I don't mind helping fate along a little, so here's a piece on myths and legends (which would do as well, she said). I don't know any fairytale definitives you see! But there are a few with myths and legends (like French Andorra) depicted, and even though this is far from my favourite set from Austria (they have absolutely stunning "views" definitives!), it will have to do. It is a set of 12 stamps, issued from 1997 onwards. The stamps are a combination of photogravure and recess-printing which usually works very nice.

This top value, issued in 1999, shows the discovery of the Mountain of Ore. An old popular legend explains the origin of the iron: In ancient times three fishermen caught a waterman when they were fishing in a nearby lake, the Leopoldsteinersee. When they took him back to their village the waterman began to struggle as soon as the Erzberg came in sight. To get free, he let them choose between three gifts: They could have either a river of gold that soon would end, a silver heart consumed in time, or an iron hat that would last forever. The fishermen chose the iron and when they set him free, the waterman pointed at the Erzberg and told them that they could find iron there.

So there you go. Is there a lesson in there for me as well? Mmhh, maybe I'll just keep on humbly plodding along!

:-)

Adrian