COVER N. 412 - ICELAND

Postmark: Kopavogur Islandspóstur 12.02.2024

Posted on the 12th December 2023; Received on the 22nd February 2024

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Brrrrrr.... should be cold out there, even though fire seems to burn perpetually not far from the surface, as so many recent eruptions of several  of Iceland's many volcanoes have proven lately.

Iceland, the photographer's paradise, the place where you can put a foot on the americas and another on the old continent, while chewing on some rotten dried shark piece of meat. For all these reasons and many other I'd love to visit one day,

Until then I can always enjoy the beautiful cover The flying Dutchman made sure I'd get, so as not to leave Iceland unticked in my list of countries.  Hartelijk dank, Eric!

- Johannes S. Kjarval (1885 - 1972) was an Icelandic modernist painter whose works defy classification within any of the styles and currents for which modernism was known for, although these were fully assimilated by the artist, and synthesised into his own personal style.

His works can be divided at large into three thematic groups - portraits, landscapes and  fantasies - and it is to the later that the magnificent painting “Yearning for Flight”, illustrating the mythological story of “Leda and the Swan” can be attributed.

This is the painting that was chosen to illustrate the 100 Kronur stamp issued on the occasion of  Kjarval's birth centenary, on 15OCT1985. Of note is the fact that the stamp painting was also used to illustrate a 2000 Kronur banknote issued in 1986.

- The theme for CEPT/EUROPA stamps in 1992 was "Voyages of Discovery in America". 

This is a theme that is still open to controversy as there are two main contenders to the title of first European on American soil: Christopher Columbus, on his voyage of 1942 and Leif Erikson, in 1000.

 

Iceland post chose to highlight both epic journeys on its issue, which began to circulate on 06APR1992, illustrating two 55 kronur stamps with a depiction of Erikson's drakkar on one stamp and Columbus Santa Maria carrack on the other. The individual stamps were also issued integrated into a souvenir sheet, this time without the white frame around them. The full issue (stamps and sheet) can be seen on the cover.

- The 10th anniversary of Reykjavik’s water works was also the occasion for Pósturinn to issue on 07MAY209 the 10 Kronur stamp, which can be seen on the lower left corner of the envelope.

Judging from the postmark the cover was mailed from Kopavogur, Icewland's second most populous city.