25/03/2017
ROBERT MORRIS – PATRIOT
13 Cent
POSTAL STATIONERY CARD
Issued 1981
(Ref: UX92 in ‘The Postal Service Guide to U.S. Stamps)
Postal used in 1995
I noticed that this used postal stationery card is the same as one I posted earlier today with a special baseball cancel. This one here has been genuinely postal used. Because of the date difference between the issue of this card and its date of use there was a need to add extra postage. This was done by the addition of a 27 cents value (the postage cost really did go up!!) postage label. The card was posted to England so the card also required an AIRMAIL label and bottom left you can see a yellow coloured ‘WORLDPOST – PAR AVION – LABEL 19-B, JUNE 1990’ airmail sticker. Proper used copies are always nice and especially those which are posted to other countries.
25/03/2017
NEWFOUNDLAND
UNIVERSAL POSTAL UNION
2 Cents
Orange on pale cream card
(Ref: 4 in the ‘Higgins & Gage’ catalogue of Postal Stationery)
Issued 1880/1890
Queen Victoria 2 Cents pre-printed stamp
This one I have got information for as I have the relevant Higgins & Gage section. This card is from the second issue of Newfoundland postal stationery cards, the first having been issued in 1873, and is the partner to a 1 cent issue which features the Prince of Wales on the stamp. This card was printed by the ‘British American Bank Note Co, Montreal’. I think this is one of the nicest of the early postal stationery cards.
25/03/2017
PORTUGAL
“PROVINCIA DE ANGOLA”
20 REIS
Postal Stationery Post Card
Unfortunately I do not have access to the ‘A’ section of the ‘Higgins & Gage’ postal stationery catalogue, so, I can-not supply any further details about this particular card (except that the same design can be found issued in Mozambique, except with PROVINCIA DE MOZAMBIQUE across it, and also for PROVINCIA MACAU E TIMOR, so this basic design seems to have been used across the Portugal run areas).
25/03/2017
AMERICAN BASEBALL CANCELLATIONS
I know very little about Baseball, except that it is very popular in America. Because of this popularity, you do come across postal stationery postcards which have related Baseball cancels.
STAMP EXPO / STATION HONORING BASEBALL
PASADENA, CA 91105
JUN 30 1990
This hand stamp has been applied to a 14cents ‘Stars and Stripes’ postal stationery card (issued 1987 – reference UX117 in ‘The Postal Service Guide to U.S. Stamps). An additional 1cent Omnibus 1880’s Transportation Issue stamp, released 19/08/1983, has been applied to make up the correct postage rate for 1990 rate. Interestingly only the applied stamp has been cancelled, the pre-printed flag stamp has remained uncancelled.
41
THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES
SHEA STADIUM STA (Station)
JULY 24, 1988
FLUSHING N. Y. 11368
This is a very pictorial baseball cancel with a full player depicted. I suspect that baseball themed cancels are quite numerous from the U.S.
This cancel has been applied to an ‘IOWA TERRITORY, 1838 – 15cent’ Postal Stationery card issued in 1988 (Ref: UX123 in ‘The Postal Service Guide to U.S. Stamps).
TOP
MIDAPHIL ’83 STA (Station)
K. C. MO. 64111
OCT 23 1983
Another baseball cancel, this time applied to a ‘Robert Morris – Patriot 13cent’ Postal Stationery Post Card, issued 1981 (Ref: UX92 in ‘The Postal Service Guide to U.S. Stamps).
BOTTOM
PADRES 1987 HOME OPENER
SAN DIEGO STATION, CA 92108
APRIL 13 1987
SAN DIEGO JACK MURPHY STADIUM
SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS VS SAN DIEGO PADRES
And another baseball hand stamp. This one has been applied to a ‘George Wythe – Patriot 14cent’ Postal Stationery Post Card, issued 1985 (Ref: UX108 in ‘The Postal Service Guide to U.S. Stamps).
My interest here is in the Postal Stationery cards, which I collect, but, when I can I try and pick these up used, either genuine postal use or as here used with special cancels.
25/03/2017
WONDERGROUND GALLERY
WALT DISNEY WORLD
FLORIDA
Original Artwork of
“THE FORCE WITHIN”
By Artist
J. SCOTT CAMPBELL and NEI
When I visited Walt Disney World in Florida in 2015 I found a series of Star Wars based artwork postcards issued in this ‘Wonderground Gallery’ series. This were cracking images and I bought a couple of each design. This ended up being a bonus as whilst I was in America Royal Mail announced the issue of a Star Wars based set of stamps. These stamps were released only four days after I returned. Looking at these Wonderground issues it seemed obvious to me that they were the perfect items to receive some of the Royal Mail stamps and special handstamps. So, I got inventive and these three are examples of some of the end results.
The stamps applied here are:
1st Class- Luke Skywalker (top left)
1st Class - Darth Vader (top right)
1st Class- Stormtrooper (bottom left)
1st Class - The Emperor (bottom right)
The special hand stamp applied here is the ‘Royal Mail, Tallent’s House, Edinburgh’ first day of issue red print cancel which depicts a Star Wars Imperial logo and which is date 20/10/2015.
With the postcard image depicting both Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker I thought the choice of stamps I used here was appropriate. I was very pleased with the result, which I suspect, is probably unique.
WONDERGROUND GALLERY
WALT DISNEY WORLD
FLORIDA
Original Artwork of
“THE LEADER WITHIN”
By Artist
J. SCOTT CAMPBELL and NEI
The postcard image here depicts Princess Leia and the robots C3-PO and R2-D2. Again, I chose four of the Royal Mail stamps and tried to make at least some of them representative of the postcard image. The four stamps here are:
1ST Class - Princess Leia (top left) this one also depicts the two robots so is very relevant
1st Class – Rey (top right) Rey is the lead character of the new Star Wars film – The Force Awakens
1st Class – Tie Fighters (bottom left) this stamp is from the miniature sheet which depicted space craft from the series of Star Wars Films.
1st Class – Yoda (bottom right)
The four stamps applied here have all been cancelled with a special first day of issue hand stamp for ‘Hothfield, Ashford’ and which depicts an image of an AT-AT. This was a walking Imperial craft which was first seen in th film ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ on the planet of Hoth (can you now see why they picked the hand stamp location to be ‘HOTHfield’? Very clever I thought). This hand stamp is printed in the normal black ink.
Again, I thought the final article was attractive and made for a very interesting and unique item.
WONDERGROUND GALLERY
WALT DISNEY WORLD
FLORIDA
Original Artwork of
“THE REBEL WITHIN”
By Artist
J. SCOTT CAMPBELL and NEI
This image depicts the characters Han Solo and Chewbacca superimposed over the outline of their space craft the Millennium Falcon. Another cracking design. As I had already picked out four stamps for the previous two cards I also wanted four for this one:
1st Class – Han Solo (top left) this one was always going to be used, and it also depicts Chewbacca as well so is doubly appropriate
1st Class – Obi-Wan Kenobi (top right) also appropriate as the character travelled in the Millennium Falcon
1st Class – Millennium Falcon (bottom left) although a different shape to the others, because it came from the miniature stamp sheet, this one was also always going to be used here
1st Class – Boba Fett (bottom right) I chose this one because Boba Fett was the bounty hunter who was chasing Han Solo and who took possession of his carbonite frozen body in the film ‘The Empire Strikes Back’
Having used a red and a black hand stamp on the previous two cards I decided that this one would receive the blue printed special first day of issue hand stamp which depicts the Rebel Legion logo. This hand stamp is for ‘Elstree, Borehamwood – 20/10/2015’. This location was picked because of the Elstree studios where Star Wars interior shots were filmed. The third and last of this set. I ended up being delighted with how these turned out and think I managed to make some very collectible items. I do wonder what these would be worth, which would be difficult to work out due to their probable uniqueness, although I would never sell them as they are special to me because of all the work it took to get them done.
25/03/2017
THE GREAT WALL
Film Poster Postcard Set
Exclusive
ODEON CINEMA
Set.
Those of you who follow this sites facebook page will have seen an official posting where the Odeon Cinema advertised that people who bought tickets to see the, then, new film release ‘The Great Wall’ would receive an exclusive free set of postcards which depict individual character film posters for the film (if you are on facebook then look up ‘Marks Postcard Chat’ page where cards are posted but where also we place photographs of postcard racks, locations and other postcard stuff – like our page then you can receive all the additional stuff). Unfortunately, mainly due to family circumstances, my wife and I could not get to see the film. This ended up not being such an issue where the free cards were involved as sometime after the film had come out and moved on some of the cinemas still had copies. So, I was not surprised to hear that some of the cards had ended up out on display for anyone to take. My eldest son James found some in his local cinema, but there were none in my local Odeon. But at least James has got me a set. I was also not surprised to find that although advertised as postcards, these are actually plain backed (this has happened before – I remember a Harry Potter set that Odeon Cinemas gave out for the first film, many years ago now, which were also plain backed). Anyway, here are the five cards:
MATT DAMON
THE GREAT WALL
24/03/2017
PENNY POSTAGE JUBILEE 1890
Letterpress stamp on pictorial envelope
POST OFFICE JUBILEE of UNIFORM PENNY POSTAGE
At South Kensington Museum 2nd July 1890
This is a well-known philatelic issued postal stationery envelope with a pre-printed Queen Victoria stamp. It came out in 1890 and can be found with several different South Kensington special hand stamps, although my copy here is unused.
PENNY POSTAGE JUBILEE
ENVELOPE INNER (FILLER CARD) CARD
My interest in the above envelope is the filler card which came with it. This card, depicted here has a drawn image of the inventor of the penny black postage stamp Rowland Hill. Again, these cards can be found with any of the 1890 special Kensington hand stamps, but, again, my copy here is mint.
PENNY POSTAGE JUBILEE
ENVELOPE INNER (FILLER CARD) CARD
This is an original 1890 filler ‘PENNY POSTAGE JUBILEE’ card but someone, almost certainly a stamp/postal history collector, has applied the 1979 Rowland Hill 10p stamp and had this cancelled with a special hand stamp that reads:
SIR ROWLAND HILL, 1795 – 1879
CENTENARY EXHIBITION
22 AUG 1979
WYRE FOREST DISTRICT COUNCIL
KIDDERMINSTER – WORCS
Rowland hill was born in Kidderminster, which explains the location for this hand stamp. The combination of old card, new stamp and related special hand stamp makes this an interesting item.
24/03/2017
OH, LOOK MOTHER
THERE’S FLETCHERS’ TIGER
‘FLETCHER’S (SHIPLEY) LTD’
Published by
FIELD SONS AND CO, LTD (BRADFORD and LONDON)
For me it was always going to be the inclusion of the tiger that made this such a cracking postcard. But it also a cracking advert postcard.
Fletcher’s was best known for its ‘Tit-Bits’ and Tiger bottled sauces. Fletchers sauce was sold in the UK into the 1990’s.
Joshua Percy Fletcher (1879 – 1960) was a ‘drysalter’ (pickle manufacturer) who produced sauce at the Airedale Works in Shipley (initially). Fletchers (Shipley) Ltd was registered in 1907 (share capital of £20,000) and by 1911 sauce manufacturing was J.P. Fletchers principal occupation.
The popular ‘Tit-Bits’ sauce rights were acquired in 1913 and was then produced by ‘Fletchers’. By 1922 Millions of bottles of ‘Tiger Indian Sauce’ had been sold each year. Tiger Sauce was a brown sauce which was spicy by nature and influenced by the spices of India.
HP Sauce (Birmingham) acquired ‘Fletcher’s Sauce Co Ltd’ in 1947 but Fletcher’s continued to be a leading brown sauce in areas of Yorkshire right into the late 1970’s.
Hazlewood Foods took over the production of Fletchers from HP in 1982. But the Tiger Sauce was discontinued later in the 1980’s, with Tit-Bit sauce going in the 1990’s.
24/03/2017
DOCTOR WHO
THE COMPLETE SIXTH SERIES
DVD BOX SET
3D CARD SET
My wife Jo says I have an inner radar for postcards, a type of sixth sense as to where I will find them. This week I was looking in my local branch of CEX (it’s a company that have stores all over the place in which they sell second hand computer games and DVD’s and mobile phones etc). As I love television and film it is the DVD’s I look at. I always look for any type of special box, sticker or information that might indicate that a box might contain postcards.
This week I found the box set for the sixth season of the new Doctor Who. This was a special box as it had the moulded head of one of the aliens called ‘The Silence’ on the front. So, I picked it up and opened the box and checked through the interior packaging. To my delight, I found four cards inside, held together by a paper strip with the following information on it:
DOCTOR – DW – WHO
CAT NUMBER BBCDVD3564 / BBCBD0193
The DVD box set was £10, which I thought was a very reasonable price as I would obviously be watching the discs as well.
PHOTOGRAPH
Front of the DVD package
Doctor Who – Sixth Series
THE SILENCE
3D CARD
One of these appears on the DVD box set cover, in moulded relief, and it was this moulded head that brought my attention to the box set in the first place.
I don’t know how long these were available, but they are cracking cards and I was delighted to find them, although Jo did ask if I knew the box set was issued with these cards – which I didn’t. But, I believe a good postcard collector knows instinctively where to look.
23/03/2017
JAPANESE POSTAL STATIONERY POST CARD
Special Hand Stamp
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Another of the postal stationery post cards from my collection. I have previously mentioned that I know little about these but even I can work out that the hand stamp appears to relate to the composer W. A. Mozart. I bought this because I liked the pre-printed ibis bird stamp but the added music connection is a bonus.
23/03/2017
ALPHABET 2016
(Ink and Watercolors[sic])
Published by
AVANTCARD AUSTRALIA
Ref: #19766
Issued 2016
Artwork by
Ryan Brondolo
This is another of the artist’s cards published by this company (I have posted several of these in the past). This one appealed to me because of how each letter is made up of illustrated creatures and items which begin with that letter:
A – anteater, ant, anaconda, alpaca, accordion, arrow, alligator, aeroplane, armchair, axe, armadillo, apple, anchor, aerial … and others
V - vampire, volcano, Volkswagen, video game, video cassette, pole vaulted, vulture … and others
N – narwhal, Nebraska, newt, nest, novel (book), ninja, nun … not sure about the others here
T – tiger, traffic lights, top hat, tortoise, trombone, trophy, tuna, tank, tentacle, train, tulip, terrier, toothbrush, tomato, toast, typewriter, toad(?), telephone, telescope, taco, trumpet
C - candle, cricket, coffin, crystal, champagne, cheese, caterpillar, carrot, crab, red cardinal (bird), clarinet, camel, cake, castle, cello, coffee, clock … possibly others
R – rainbow, rooster, revolver, robot, ribs, racoon, rubber duck, rocking chair, rubik’s cube, radish, refrigerator, roach (cockroach), rabbit, radio, rubbish bag, rope, rapier (sword), record player, rose … and others
D – dog, dynamite, daisy, dice, door, donkey, disco (glitter-ball?), deer, dragonfly, dollar (coin & bill), diamond, drum, drill, dolphin, dream, dessert (cake/gateau slice by door), drumstick (chicken) … and again there are others.
A very clever design which I enjoyed trying to work out – is the Viking like character in the ‘D’ a ‘Dane’?
23/03/2017
DISNEY
THE LION KING
LYCEUM THEATRE, LONDON
Published by
BOOMERANG MEDIA
(Free Rack Card)
Popped into my local Odeon Cinema this week and though and behold found this new Disney ‘Lion King’ stage show advertising postcard in the rack of free postcards. Boomerang have a tradition of producing free advertising postcards for this record breaking musical and it is nice that another has come along. If you have a rack in your local area check it for this card.
22/03/2017
Today’s sad news
TERRORIST ATTACK IN THE CENTRE OF LONDON
There has been, what is being called, a terrorist attack at the Houses of Parliament and on Westminster Bridge. At the moment two people are reported as having died as a result of this incident. One is a woman who was one of a number of people knocked down by a vehicle on Westminster Bridge and the second a police officer who was stabbed within the grounds of Parliament itself. Recent information from the Chief Officer is that four people are reported as having died, which includes the attacker.
My thoughts are with all those caught up in this incident and especially with the family of the woman and the other people injured who have subsequently passed away, and understandably with the family of the police officer and the families of all that have passed away and of those who have been hospitalised.
VIEW OF WHEEL FROM VICTORIA TOWER
Published by
MAYFAIR CARDS OF LONDON
LONDON 2000 SERIES
Ref: 2017
21/03/2017
VERA LYNN
100TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION – 20/03/2017
Yesterday Vera Lynn celebrated her 100th Birthday and I wanted to celebrate the achievement of this wonderful woman. So, I dug out this rather unusual postcard usage:
VERA LYNN
ROYAL MAIL STAMP BOOK COVER
(Attached to card by glue top left)
25p Queen Elizabeth Machin Head definitive stamp (from booklet)
Cancelled with special new release pictorial hand stamp:
‘INSPIRATION FOR VICTORY – NEW STAMP BOOKS – DOVER – 4TH APRIL 1995’
The cover of the stamp booklet depicts artwork of Vera Lynn with her face on the right and then a background image of her entertaining the troops in the jungle. The special hand stamp also features the outline in shadow of the singer. This is an unusual item but for this commemoration I felt it was an appropriate one.
FRONT IMAGE OF ABOVE POSTCARD
KING GEORGE VI AND QUEEN ELIZABETH
Published by
THE NATIONAL POSTAL MUSEUM
Ref: NPM 88/12
“A photograph of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth by Dorothy Wilding, the source of Dulac’s drawn portraits used on the 1937 Coronation stamp”
(Text from reverse side of postcard)
21/03/2017
IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM
100TH ANNIVERSARY
Last night I watched a recording of a television programme which aired on BBC on Saturday night - BRITAIN AT WAR: IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM AT 100. It celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Imperial War Museum through ten specially picked individual items from the museum’s collection presented through ten different celebrity’s. The main presenter was Simon Weston, who suffered severe burn injuries when the ship Sir Galahad was attacked during the Falkland’s War in 1982. Simon was shown, for the first time, a war sketch by the Falkland’s war artist Linda Kitson that showed the Sir Galahad on fire. It was clear that the image affected him and he talked about how the sketch showed the skin of the ship burnt away revealing its ribs of metal. It was an emotional and impactive piece of television. If you can watch this on catch up TV I recommend viewing it. For me it was also of interest as I have also seen this large sketch. And as a collector of Falkland’s War postcards I also knew that the image was one of eight issued by the Imperial War Museum, soon after the end of the war, as a postcard. Here is that very postcard (I will post the other seven sketch postcards on another occasion).
“Linda Kitson ‘Sir Galahad’ moored at Fitzroy 14 June 1982. She continued to burn until she was towed out to sea and sunk as a war grave – Conte pencil and coloured chalk – 297 x 420mm”
(Text from reverse side of Postcard)
21/03/2017
MICKEY ROCK STAR
Published by
LAWSON MARDON POST CARD
Issued by
THE O. S. P. LINE
Distributed by
ORANGE BELT DISTRIBUTORS, INC (FLORIDA)
Ref: HSC-638 (PC709)
I bought this postcard on a trip to Florida way back in 1993. I have been looking for a rock and roll related postcard to post in commemoration of Chuck Berry but I admit I struggled a bit as my ‘music’ box is in storage and I only really visit there at the weekends, and I am not sure that I have a postcard depicting him, I might have, but I would need to check that box. Anyway, I came across this one of Mickey Mouse and it is, at short notice the best I am going to find.
CHUCK BERRY ….. RIP
Charles Edward Anderson Berry
18th October 1926 – 18th March 2017
Musician, singer and songwriter, but this does not even start to capture his importance to the world of Rock and Roll, for which he was a pioneer.
20/03/2017
SOME INTERESTING SCENERY HERE!
Printed by
GENUINE CURTEICH – CHICARGO “C. T. ART-COLORTONE” POST CARD (REG. U.S. PAT. OFF.)
Ref: C-821 (2C-H476)
A nice early American television related postcard, probably from the early, or late 1950’s. One from my favourite collection - television themed postcards
20/03/2017
DUMBO – FANTASYLAND
DISNEYLAND
CALIFORNIA
Ref: DT-35926-C
“In Fantasyland elephants fly and so do you! At the snap of Timothy’s whip, Dumbo soars skyward in a dizzying flight high above the happiest land of them all”
(Text from reverse side of above postcard)
Surely, the most iconic ‘Disney’ ride, and one which is often depicted on postcards both from here, Disneyland, and across America at Walt Disney World where the ride can also be found.
20/03/2017
L’ILE
MAURICE – MAURITIUS
JARDIN DE PAMPLEMOUSSES
“PAMPLEMOUSSES GARDEN”
Published/printed by
Editions CORNER HOUSE Ltee (Librairie)
Port Louis - Ile Maurice
Ref: No 507
Although commonly known as the Pamplemousses Botanical Garden, and that is what the details on the postcard call it, the actual name of this garden is The Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanical Garden (apparently even this is sometimes shortened thus naming it as the SSR Botanical Garden). It is a very popular tourist attraction, thus the postcard depicted here, and is in ‘Pamplemousses’, near Port Louis on the island of Mauritius. It is the oldest botanical garden in the Southern Hemisphere and it is famous for its long pond of giant water lilies (Victoria Amazonica) and these are depicted on this postcard.
The garden itself was first constructed in 1770 by Pierre Poivre (1719 – 1786) and it covers an area of around 37 hectares. The garden was for a long time ranked as the third best garden that could be seen around the world. It has had many names down through the years: Jardin de Mon Plaisir – Jardin des Plantes – Le Jardin National de l’Ile de France – Jardin Royal – Jardin Botanique des Pamplemousses (and during the British colonisation as The Royal Botanical Gardens of Pamplemousses and The Royal Botanic Gardens, Pamplemousses). On the 17th September 1988, the garden was official named the Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanic Garden after the first Prime Minister of Mauritius.
I bought this postcard for just 5p, because it was considered by the dealer as cheap card – it is, but the story behind it is fascinating and goes to show that with a little research even a simple postcard view like this can grow in interest.
LEGO - THE BATMAN MOVIE
“YOU’RE INVITED TO A PARTY”
8 POSTCARD INVITATIONS
Published by
DESIGNWARE
I have previously posted a large number of these ‘Designware’ invitation and ‘Thank You’ postcard and invitation packs. This pack here is advertised as having 8 postcard invitations included. When I saw this package on eBay I decided to buy it and add the contents to my ‘Batman’ collection.
Now, when I decided to buy this I already knew there was a chance that these would not be true postcards, and, it turned out that this was in fact the case. This does not bother me as I like all card items, as long as they have some postcard similarity.