PhilosateleiaMilestones of stamp collecting
Monday, October 3, 2011 (posted by Philatelius at 10:13 pm)
The past month has been pretty quiet for Philosateleia, but that’s not because anything’s going wrong. Quite the contrary—the last few weeks have been very philatelically productive for me. I feel like rambling a bit about what I’ve been up to.
Since December 2009, I’ve been working off and on on the only thematic, or topical, collection in which I’ve ever taken an interest: landscapes on stamps. We’re talking mountains, rivers, forests, and so forth from all around the world. Think Yosemite Valley, Mount Everest, and the Amazon River, and you’ll know the kind of scenery we’re talking about.
It’s a funny sort of collection, in a way. The irony of trying to display huge chunks of the Eternal God’s creation on tiny scraps of paper is not lost on me. It’s amazing, though, the number of styles stamp designers have used to illustrate those marvelous works.
At any rate, I digress. I’ve been making a big push to “finish” this project, and last night I did just that: finished organizing my landscape stamp collection—or, more accurately, finished organizing the landscape stamps currently in my collection. For there’s always room for growth, is there not?
I ended up scanning one stamp depicting each site, then doing some image manipulation and using the results as the backgrounds of my album pages. Here’s an example of one of my Yosemite Valley pages at an intermediate stage; I added another stamp to it at a later date.
Thus, the page for each landscape has a different background.
The benefit of this approach? Not just the stamps, but the pages themselves, change as you leaf through my albums. My U.S. stamp album pages are formal, with the spaces for the stamps laid out in neat rows. The pages for my landscape stamps have some uniformity to them, too, in terms of font size and style, but there’s also a certain randomness, an unpredictability from one page to the next, that I’ve never encountered before in stamp collecting. And I’m not saying it would work for every collection, but for this particular grouping of stamps, it does. It does.
A negative of building my pages this way? The time involved. I estimate there are presently 350–400 stamps in my landscape collection. I haven’t counted them or even made a proper list just yet, but that’s my gut feeling. I designed, trimmed down to size, and three-hole punched 336 pages. As mentioned earlier, that did take the better part of two years. Was it fun? Yes, but there was a time investment, too, to the extent that I feel both a sense of accomplishment and a sense of relief to be “done.” So if you’re thinking of doing the same thing, count the costs in advance.
Now, to bring an end to this long-winded summary of my recent philatelic pursuits…I’m working on the October issue of the Post Horn, and then I have some commitments that will keep me busy over the next two or three weeks. Hopefully after that I’ll be able to get back to adding some new content to Philosateleia. I hope you’ll join me for the ride.
Where is that sunny coast?
Thursday, March 24, 2011 (posted by Philatelius at 10:14 pm)
I’m in the process of creating pages for my landscape stamp collection, and each page bears the name of the natural feature depicted on the stamp(s) it holds. That works just fine until I run across a stamp with a scene I can’t identify.
Such was the case with this 45¢ airmail stamp issued by the U.S. in 1990. It’s obviously a tropical island—but where?
For an answer, I contacted Mark Hess, the designer of this stamp and several others. I asked whether he had a specific location in mind when he created the design, or if it was intended to be a generic piece.
Mark was nice enough to respond, and wrote:
“The tropical image was a conceptualized idea of Columbus’ first visits to the continent; i.e., the tropical islands of the Caribbean. My initial painting included more palms and banana plants, however expert ‘checkers’ reported that many of these seemingly indigenous plants were actually transplants brought to the islands for commercial reasons and so were removed…
“So, in answer to your question, the tropical scene was intended to be the Caribbean, but in a generic way.”
That’s good enough for me. For my album page, I went with the heading “Tropical Coast, Caribbean Sea.”
Philosateleian Post announces 2011 stamp program
Monday, October 18, 2010 (posted by Philatelius at 8:05 pm)
Philosateleian Post is pleased to announce its 2011 stamp program. Three new designs are planned for the coming year.
Airmail Centennial
For the first time, Philosateleian Post will participate in World Local Post Day, which takes place each year on the last Monday of January. A stamp honoring the 100th anniversary of airmail will be issued on January 31.
Featuring a red, white, and blue background reminiscent of the airmail labels of yore, the stamp depicts a biplane built of LEGO bricks. Philosateleian Post’s proprietor and his wife designed and built the model.
Guadalupe River
As part of its ongoing commitment to commemorating scenic landscapes around the world, Philosateleian Post will on June 1 issue a stamp picturing sunset over the Guadalupe River in Texas.
The river, which runs some 230 miles from its source in Kerr County to the Gulf of Mexico, is popular for fishing, tubing, and canoeing.
Sarah & Kevin’s Wedding
Philosateleian Post’s final stamp of 2011 will be issued to commemorate the first anniversary of the proprietor and his wife. The stamp will be issued on September 19.
This stamp will be Philosateleian Post’s first to picture an identifiable person.
Philatelic Services
Collectors who wish to obtain first day cover service for any of Philosateleian Post’s 2011 stamps should mail their request and a self-addressed stamped envelope or postcard to the proprietor before the requested stamp’s date of issue. Individuals may also request mint singles for their collections.
There is no charge for service on up to three first day covers per issue or for a single mint copy of any new issue. Individuals requiring multiples or larger quantities of first day covers or singles should contact Philosateleian Post for details.
First day cover service and mint single requests may be mailed to:
Kevin Blackston
Philosateleian Post
PO Box 57622
Jacksonville FL 32241-7622
United States of America
