British Lighthouses on Postcards

Lighthouse on the island of Scalpay, joined to the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides by a bridge. The picture was taken from the ferry between the isles of Skye and Harris.

This one is on the Scottish mainland opposite the island of Skye in the Inner Hebrides. Like almost every Scottish lighthouses, it was designed  (and most were built= by four generations of one family, including Thomas Smith, who was both the stepfather and father-in-law of Robert Stevenson.

(There is some ink on the postcard due to the unknown accidents that the envelope suffered...)

Long postcard showing the lighthouse at Neist Point, probably one of the most famous in Scotland.

Maximum card showing the lighthouse in St John's Point Lighthouse (Northern Ireland).

Lighthouse of Llanddwyn Island, a small tidal island off the west coast of Anglesey. Actually, as the sender wrote: "The cards shows an island (Llanddwyn) off an island (Anglesey) off an island (Britain)".

All postcards sent by John (the UK). The first and second are his own pictures. I guess I need a new label for the blog: places I want to visit.

My First Sun

Drawing on an envelope sent to Philippe (France), for his mail art call Send me your sun.

Mexican Market

San Juan de Dios Market
Designed by Arq. Alejandro Zohn
Constructed during the early 1950s

Postcard sent by Bryon (Mexico), along with these pieces of mail.


Post added to Maria's link, Postcards for the Weekend. This week, the theme is Markets.  

Resistence

«Il avait pensé à tout le mal qu'on faisait au langage. Il lui était alors apparu comme une évidence qu'écrire des cartes postales était un acte de résistance.»

Sébastien Lapaque, Théorie de la carte postale

Women on Postcards

Retrato femenino (17th century)
Ludolph de Jongh

Postcard sent by Bruno (PC). The painting is in the Museo Lázaro Galdiano.

Desafío (detail)
Verónica Alcácer

Postcard sent by Laura (Spain). The artwork belongs to a series of paintings named Cuerpos libres (='Free Bodies'), exhibited in the Museo de la Evolución Humana (Burgos, Spain).

Postcard sent by Lluïsa (PC). One of the 18 muses represented in the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona. Actually, I had received more of them, but here I can appreciate more details.

Henriette Sauvant's Rapunzel, illustration of the book Zaubbermärchen (='Fairy tales). Postcard sent by Heleen (the Netherlands).

Foundling Girls at Prayer in the Chapel, by Sophia Anderson, late nineteenth century. Foundling Museum (London, UK). Postcard sent by Laura (UK).

Postcard sent by John (the UK).

Postcard sent by Fabienne (France). Poem by Patricia Castex Menier.

Fearless Cats

Heleen (the Netherlands) draw the Cowardly Lion, which happens to be one of my favourite characters of the Oz world.

Some days after, I received this envelope from Eric (France). It was inspired by a Mini Mission Inspiration, and not intended for the Oz Postcard Project. But it reminds me a lot to the Cowardly Lion... The cat on the matching stamp seems everything but coward!

Send a Mermaid

Painted envelope sent to Laura (the UK). As you have noticed, inspired in this.

Sunday Stamps | L(aw)

For the letter L of Sunday Stamps-II. I have chosen another theme that I find curious: stamps devoted to legal texts.

French stamp issued on 15 March 2004, to commemorate the bicentenary of the promulgation of the Civil Code, on 21 March 1804 (30 Ventôse, year XII), by Napoleon Bonaparte. More information about the stamp here (in French). It features a modern Justice holding the code.

A Mexican stamp that commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Constitución de 1857, issued on 5 February 2016. Designer: Ricardo Venegas Gómez.

In 2015, the Royal Mail issued a set of six stamps to mark the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta. The stamps feature major charters, bills and declarations that have developed the rule of law in the centuries since around the world. The three that I have received, from 1265 to 2013. Complete information about this issue.

And one stamp from 1987 that I have recently received, that celebrates the 200th anniversary of the drafting of the United Sates Constitution.

Alice in a Meeting

This postcard was sent in July by Bryon (the USA). But, actually, signed by several postcrossers that attended a Postcrossing meeting... Which made it still more interesting!

I had received a different version of this postcard some time ago.

And more Alice: on this envelope from John (the UK), I received a new stamp from a beloved set:

From the Present and Past

By sheer coincidence, this letter from Fabienne (France), arrived together with John's... but safe and sound, this time! I don't know if you can appreciate from the picture how beautiful this is: the lighthouse is glued to the envelope, and the sea horse... is made from wood! The stamps match very well, too:

The sender included postcards from a place she visited: Le Tréport, and its lighthouse. The first witten by her. The others, bought in a second-hand shop; and amazingly, written by the same people on 18 September 1972 and on 17 September 1986.

Do you know the Twitter and Instagram accounts of Postcard from the Past? They publish old postcards from holidays with just a sentence of what was written on the back. Sometimes it seems silly, out of context. But most of the time it intrigues me. I always think of the life of the people who write exactly that, at a given time, probably without paying a lot of attention... 

On the back of these postcards, Louis and Henriette just speak of weather and how well (and how much!) they are eating and sleeping. It sounds like the perfect holidays, except for the wind.

Post added to Maria's link, Postcards for the Weekend. This week, the theme is Lighthouses. Actually, I receive lighthouses quite often, for what I am very happy.

Déchirée

It seems that this mail art envelope sent by John (the UK), has suffered some accidents in way. At least, rain and... a mail monster attack? Because the post service in Casablanca (!) says on the back that it was déchirée ('ripped, torn'). So they tried to repair it with tape, as you can see. 

Anyway... it arrived! With a lot of beautiful lighthouses inside, that I will show in another post.

University Views

Exeter University (England, UK). Sent by John. This postcard arrived a bit wretched, after having travelled during more than two months from the UK.

Royals Roads University (British Columbia, Canada). Sent by Bryon.

-------
Ooops!

It seems that I had two more postcards, received some time ago, that had been unfairly neglected (and banned from the album!): Queen's University in Belfast (North Ireland, the UK), and the University of Cambridge (England, the UK).

From Bosnia & Herzegovina

It is always a pleasure to add a new country to the list of received mail. This is my first postcard from Bosnia and Herzegovina, sent by Sally (who arrived to the blog thanks to the A to Z Challenge).

The postcard shows the National and University Library. During the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, during the siege of Sarajevo, in the night from 25th to 26 August 1992, the enemies shelled Vijećnica where the library was located at that time. As a result, many of its archival and library holdings were destroyed. It has been rebuilt since.

Also you can seethe Latin Bridge, an Ottoman bridge over the river Miljacka. The northern end of the bridge was the site of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in 1914, which started the World War I.

Sunday Stamps | K(limt)

Special stamp depicting Portrait of Fritza Riedler (1906) by Gustav Klimt, issued on 14 July 2012, commemorating the 150th birthday of the artist. Design by Adolf Tuma.

The original work (Oil on canvas, 152 x 134 cm) is located in the Belvedere Palace in Vienna and is part of the world's largest collection of Klimt paintings.

Added to Sunday Stamps-II, for the letter K.

Va où le vent te porte

Letter sent by Catherine (France). I like when the post also cancel the stickers...

Map Envelopes

Letters sent by Laura (the UK) and Phillip (the USA). Actually, Phillip made a bunch of them...

Mail from Mexico!

These pieces of mail where sent by Bryon from Mexico (plus another postcard to be published). They took two to three months to arrive.

Agave Landscape
UNESCO WHS

Hidalgo Garden, in Tlaquepaque

This is a very original one. The menu of a restaurant in Sacramento (California, the USA), but sent from Mexico as well. It is a big A3, folded twice... The kind of things that the owners never suspect to be sent by mail. Let alone to Morocco!

Sunday Stamps | J(heronymus Bosch)

This set of 10 stamps was presented on 4 January 2016 with the title 500 Years of Jhieronymus Bosh, to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the death of the painter. On each stamp is a significant scene from his work the The Haywain Triptych, currently housed in the Museo del Prado (Madrid, Spain). The edge of each stamp features a brief explanation, written by Jos Koldeweij, Professor of Medieval Art History at Radboud University Nijmegen and an expert on Bosch’s work. 

I was really happy to see this impressive painting in person, last year, and then to receive the receive the whole set on a packet from Heleen (the Netherlands).

I am adding this post to Sunday Stamps-II, for the letter J (Although in English the name begins with an H...!)