COVER N.90 - FRANCE -

Postmark: Clanecy - Nièvre 30MAR2022
Posted on the 30th March; received on the 4th April 2022
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Sometimes all it takes is a simple clean background to let a work of art shine. It surely is the case with the nice clean cover I got from France today. Thank you so much Jean Pierre!

A magnificent stamp honouring a magnificent craft: the Luthier. 

I suppose that the concept of luthier is usually  synonymous with the manufacturing of instruments of the violin family, but I like to think of luthiers as chordophone craftsmen. 

I love chordophones. Generally speaking they are probably, at least in the western tradition, at the fulcrum of the dissemination of our musical tradition since they have the ability of being polyphonic, hence harmony capable, without being hugely cumbersome  (well, double basses are but violins for giants, right?), thus lending themselves effectively to the role of supporting that most natural music form: singing.

Chordophones are also usually made of wood, and wood working is in itself a craft of wonder, calling on  all our senses to fully appreciate it. It's the wood itself, its grain, its colours, its textures, but also all the other raw materials of the woodworker's alchemy: glues, varnishes, polishes (usually all volatile...)

And then there's the tools of the trade that range from the humble hammer to the countless chisels needed for detailed work, that cry out "mastery" and call on our admiration and bewilderment.

A Luthier is a specialist woodworker and he or she has the ability to perform miracles, since they make wood sing... if this doesn't deserve the recognition of a beautiful stamp, what does then?

The 1,65€ in taglio printed stamp, part of the "Métiers d'art" series, was issued on 14FEB2022. Its image shows a finished violin with the hand of a luthier driving a chisel through the scroll of another violin being made in the background.