COVER N. 525 - FRANCE

Postmark: Pierre Puvis de Chavannes 1824-1898 Premier Jour 69 Lyon 25.10.2024 

Posted on the 25th October; Received on the 29th October 2024

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Un grand Merci, Eric, for another great First Day Cover, this time dedicated to a French painter who although not as resounding as those which made the first decades of the 20th century a true collectors' cards album, for he belonged to the precedent artistic generation, left his mark on many a public building not only in France but also elsewhere in the world.

Culture... in its many forms. Art... the precipitate of Man's existence... what's left after we have all gone... our intimate imprint as a society, our offer to the universe, should we ever make contact with other forms of life...

That's why it is so important to celebrate it and its creators. Some have spent lives of incredible hardship only to now fill the pockets of those that see in art nothing but "an asset"; some have managed to make do with the fruits of their hard work; some even have made it extremely well in their lifetime... but they all are or will one day be gone too, and what will be left is their sublime work.

Such as the huge canvases Pierre Puvis de Chavannes has painted for Marseille's Museum of Arts, which I had the pleasure of admiring in loco, or any of his other majestic paintings in the Pantheon, Sorbonne or the Library of Boston.

Born in 1824, in Lyon, and deceased in Paris, in 1898, Puvis de Chavannes would only climb the stairs of reconnaissance and admiration after a first success in 1961, when after several unsuccessful participations in the Salon de Peinture et de Sculpture, the French State bought his painting Concordia which can now be seen in the Musée de Picardie, in Amiens. So enthralled was the painter by his success that he offered France the companion work, Bellum, so as not to disrupt the conceptual link between the two paintings, allegories for War (Bellum) and Peace (Concordia).

On the occasion of the bicentenary of his birth, la Poste issued on 25OCT2024 the 2,58€ stamp on the cover, illustrated with a detail of his painting Le Bois sacré cher aux arts et aux muses, which decorates the monumental staircase hall of the Musée de Beaux-Arts de Lyon.

It should be noted that Puvis de Chavannes produced three versions of this painting, the other two being an original much smaller study, created in 1864 which won that year's Salon grand prize  and  residing currently at the Art Institute of Chicago and a large painting originally destined for the Sorbonne, finished in 1889 and which can now be seen at the Met in New York.

Fittingly, the First Day postmark was issued at Puis de Chavanne's birthplace, the city of Lyon. 

POSTCARD N.168 - GERMANY 

Postcrossing Postcard sent on the 26th October, received on the 29th October 2024

Postcard image: Moselle river somewhere in Germany

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UPDATE:

These are the days of wonder...said Paul Simon on his "The boy in the bubble" song... indeed they are.

While trying to conjure a few phrases together to fill the post pertaining to Stefan's nice Moselle valley postcard, I fired up Google Earth and tried to follow the course of the river from France and Luxembourg up to Germany, to see if I could find anything remotely superimposable to the image on the card. I confess I did not spend too much time on it and, maybe because of that, I was totally unsuccessful.

Well, turns out Stefan was indeed kind enough to take a look at my blog and read the post regarding his postcard and he kindly provided me with all the relevant information regarding the location in the image.

Quoting direct form his message, for which I could not be more thankful:

"If you're interested in the exact location of the view side:

49°48'40.67"N, 6°53'25.00"E

The town in the middle of the photo is Leiwen. The little village in the middle behind it is actually a holiday village (Eurostrand). At the foot of the right mountain range, the first village to come is Köwerich on the side of the slip slope, where I live. Diagonally behind on the side of the impact slope is Klüsserath."

So there we have it. Thanks a bunch Stefan. You do live in a fine place.

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A very nice postcard from Germany with a view that clearly illustrates the importance of the Moselle Valey for Rieseling production in Germany. Danke Sehr, Stefan.

Stefan tells me that grapes have been cultivated in this region since the time of the Romans who left some quite remarkable landmarks behind such as the "Porta Nigra", at Trier, the oldest city in Germany and a UNESCO World Heritage site.

David Bowie (1947-2016) is one of those names that need no introduction, so important was his contribution to popular music of the 20th century, as a performer, composer and musician.

Born David Robert Jones, David Bowie, as he would later be known, first hit the chords of fame with his well known song Space Oddity, in which he tells the story of Major Tom, an astronaut whose mission at some point seems to go awry.... but "planet Earth is blue and there's nothing I can do".... so maybe, in the end, Major Tom manages to go back into his capsule and return to our planet....

The song was released in 1969, the year  Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon and just one year after the epic Kubrick Film from which it gets a strong inspiration.

Bowie would not only draw inspiration from movies but he would also participate in them, in fact in more than 30 of them. His role in Nagisa Oshima's Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, comes to mind, as I write.

Bowie had a strong link to Berlin, a city where he would produce three albums that would become known as the Berlin Trilogy, of which no song is more famous than "Heroes", which would become a sort of a hymn for the events that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany.

On 03JAN2022, for the Musician's 75th birthday, and 6 years after his passing, Deutsche Post honoured him with the 0,85 € stamp on the postcard, featuring a very young Bowie playing guitar, although he was also a multi-intrumentalist who played keyboards and saxophone.

The 0.10€ stamp is part of the definitive "flowers" series initiated in 2005. It was issued on 08JUN2017 and it depicts a Winter Aconite (Eranthis hyemalis).

 

COVER N. 524 - FRANCE

Postmark: Bureau Philatélique of Lyon Bellecour - 21.10.2024 

Posted on the 21st October; Received on the 24th October 2024

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They called it "The longest day"... that was also the name of the book by Cornelius Ryan that I had on my bedside table when I was  a lad of  say 13 or so.... a time, for boys, when all wars are winnable, when only good prevails, when all soldiers are heroes,  when you'd want to be one of those heroes, when you never think that heroes are mostly remembered for having given that most precious possession for a cause...when focus on the future is achieved at the infinity mark on one's inner lens....

The truth could not be far from that, we all know, but sometimes there is no escape: for good to prevail,  force has to be corresponded by force, with all that this simple equation entails.... 

Lest we forget, they said in 1918. Well, by 1939 they all had forgotten and the mad dogs were on the loose again, their leashes held by the hands of a deranged lunatic, who drove the world to 6 years of the utmost brutality that has ever been witnessed, whose devious mind and those of his closest followers, conceived the unconceivable.... a final solution, they said....an euphemism for sheer horror....

And Man thought we would never see such lack of empathy, such cold, irrational behaviour, such barbarity.... and yet, we have plenty of examples in the past since then when this was not so... Even today as I read on the news that the people that once suffered horrors is the same that is bringing horror to others in a way that can never be justified or excused, or even conceived, after being also brutally and senselessly attacked, while those that promptly and justifiably so were fast to condemn the aggression coming from the eastern steppes, turn a blind eye (not to say, overtly support) on a politician who thinks himself above the laws of war and international respect and co-existence.

Peace talks... you'd have to be interested in Peace to talk about it. None of the sides seems to be so.

There was a moment in time. The leaders even won the deserved Nobel Prize, 30 years ago. Then they were eliminated by those they sought to protect... 

The longest day was not the 6th June 1944... the longest day is the history of Man, from the day it evolved from ape to man...in his relentless fight for freedom and his unabated will to deny it....

When will we ever learn?

Un grand Merci Eric, pour ce joli pli avec le bloc commémoratif des 80 ans du débarquement en  Normandie!

The 6th June 1944

The beginning of the end for the Second World War, and of the liberation of France and Europe, from the boots of the Nazi beast.

Lest we forget!

Highlighting this important anniversary, La Poste issued on 10JUN2024  the lovely souvenir sheet with a single 1,96 stamp that Eric use on this particular  letter.

The stamp features the image of allied soldiers  (American, British and Canadian, mostly)  advancing towards the towns of Sainte-Mére-Église, the first to be liberated on the 7th June,  Avranches (30 July);  and Metz (13 December).

It is difficult to devise in the stamp but the image of  the church of Sainte-Mère-Église does include the famous parachutist - John Steele -  dangling from its tower, in which his parachute become entangled. This famous image has been since permanently recreated on the spot by a  mannequin dangling from a parachute, which I had the pleasure of seeing quite a few years ago when I visited the area.

On the foreground of the stamp is a newer monument (or at least I have no recollection of it). The zero milestone of the road to freedom, implanted in front of Saint-Mère-Église Town Hall.

Is should be noted that this souvenir sheet highlighting operation Neptune, the landings in Normandy, is the companion to another beautiful creation by the same designer - Louis Genty - conceived to honour the 80 anniversary of Operation Dragon, the landings at the Cote d'Azur, which I mentioned on post regarding cover #521.

Monsieur Genty was also the artist behing the outstanding souvenir sheet on cover #458.

POSTCARD N.167 - RUSSIA 

Postcard sent on the 21st September, received on the 22nd October 2024

Postcard image: Immanuel Kant

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A surprise from Russia in the guise of a Maxim Card  dedicated to one of the lights of the Enlightenment, sent by The Flying Dutchman. Hartelijk dank, Eric, que é o mesmo que dizer: Muito Obrigado!

Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804) one of the greatest philosophers of all times, was born and died (and lived all his live, it seems) in what was then Königsberg, Prussia, and is now Kaliningrad, the administrative capital of the Russian Exclave of the same name, nested between Lithuania and Poland.

On the tercentenary of his birth, Marka, the company responsible for producing Russia's stamps, issued, on 22APR2024, the commemorative 70 Ruble stamp used on the maxim card, equally issued by the same company, which Eric so kindly made sure I would receive.

Postage was completed with a 30 Ruble stamp  issued on 17MAR2021, part of a set of identical face value stamps dedicated to  Fedoskino miniature lacquer paintings, a type of folk art that emerged in the 18th century  in the city of Fedoskino, consisting of miniatures painted with oil paints on papier mâché.

The images on the stamps are those of lacquer boxes from the collection of the Moscow Regional Museum of Folk Art Crafts and besides Tea Party (1946) by V.I. Lavrov, which illustrates the stamp on the card, there are stamps featuring images of the following works: "Ruslan and Lyudmila" (1971) by M.S. Chizhov; The Firebird (1959) by S.V. Monashov; and Ivan da Marya (1989) by Yu.V. Dotsenko.

The Very Nice maxim Card which is cancelled with a First Day postmark from Moscow, was mailed to me from the City of Saint Petersburg, as can be grasped from the Postmark cancelling the stamps actually used to post the card.

COVER N. 523 - SRI LANKA

Postmark: Headquarters P. O. Colombo Mail 10.09.24

Posted on the 9th October; Received on the 14th October 2024

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UPO anniversary cover for World Post Day, from Sri Lanka. Thanks a lot Ravi!

 

The Universal Postal Union was created in 1874, in Bern, Switzerland, where it has been headquartered ever since, as the General Postal Union, with a view to harmonising international mail delivery. As of  1878 it changed its name to the current designation, Union Postale Universelle or Universal Postal Union, and in 1948 it became a body of the United Nations.

During its 1969 congress held in Japan, the Indian delegation proposed that the anniversary day for the Union - the 9th of October - should thenceforth be declared World Post Day. 

The proposal having been accepted, the 9th of October has become synonymous with celebrating postal services and their relevance, all over the world.

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the organisation, so a lot of its members are issuing stamps  dedicated to the occasion, under the motto 1250 years of enabling communication and empowering peoples across nations, with their designs being basing in the official graphic resources created by the UN agency for the occasion.

Such is the case of Sri Lanka who, on World Post Day,  issued the two 50 rupee stamps  on the cover, cancelled with a postmark of this particularly significant date, from the central Post Office at Colombo.

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COVER N. 522 - FINLAND

Postmark: Lempäälä 37560 Posti 08.10.2024 

Posted on the 8th October; Received on the 15th October 2024

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A very carefully treated cover received in a protective bag.  Kiitos paljon, Esko! 

 

I can imagine that in such a northern latitude, the Sun and its warming light assume an extra importance that us, in the south, have always taken for granted. 

Thus, it is fitting that "The Glow of the Sun" be the theme chosen for a two se-tenant priority stamp set issued on 11SEP2024, one of which can be seen on the cover, illustrated with a nice sunset with some flowers on the foreground.

The second stamp on the cover was also issued on 11SEP2024, included in a five stamp set dedicated to popular Hobbies. Frisbee golf is the sport highlighted by the image in the stamp, the four other hobbies selected for being featured in the stamps being Hobby Horse Riding (quite an uncommon sport, if I may say so...); Trekking; Freeclimbing and Postcrossing.

COVER N. 521 - FRANCE

Postmark: Bureau Philatélique of Lyon Bellecour - 07.10.2024 

Posted on the 7th October; Received on the 10th October 2024

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Operation Dragon, such was the codename for the landing on the shores of the Cote d'Azur, which was conceived to be executed at the same time as operation Neptune, the landings in Normandy, so as to apply pressure on the German occupiers with a set of huge military tweezers squeezing from both sides. 

In practice, Operation Dragon would only come to be more than two months after Neptune, (which began on the 6th June 1940) on the 15th August, for the sheer scale of the operations imposed logistic limitations that had to be taken into consideration.

As a result of this operation, the liberation of important cities in the south of France, like Marseille, Lyon or Dijon, was achieved and by September the American and French combined forces coming from the south would join the allied contingents advancing from the west and finally progress into Germany, finally liberating France from the Nazi beast, one would have tought forever...

Un grand Merci, Eric pour ce splendide bloc!

On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Provence landings La Poste issued on 14AUG2024 the souvenir sheet Eric used, comprising a single 1,96€ stamp, illustrated with several French soldiers (some from the African Colonies) looking  across the Mediterranean towards the soon to be liberated cities of Toulon,  Marseille, Lyon and Dijon, the last three represented by their imposing cathedrals, featured on the souvenir sheet.

Postmark from the Bureau Philatélique of Lyon Bellecour.