HitM | Ready Player One

Hand-painted envelope sent to Phillip (the USA). The illustration is inspired in the film Ready Player One. 

After drawing it, I thought that it can easily be included in the Houses in the Mail project...

Sometimes, Postcards Bring Memories

This postcard, sent by Laura, shows some prehistoric menhirs in Atapuerca (Burgos, Spain).

I have never seen them in person. But the postcard reminds me when I walked some 300 km of the Way of St. James (back in 1993), and my visits to Burgos some years after. Right now, all this seems to have happened in prehistoric times, too.

Women on Stamps | Red X

Emily Bissell (1861-1948) was an American social worker and activist (and also a devoted anti-suffragist...). She is best remembered for introducing Christmas Seals to the USA, in order to help people with tuberculosis. In 1980, on the 119th anniversary of her birth, the USPS issued this stamp in her honour.

The double barred cross is the international symbol of the fight against tuberculosis. You can read here about the history of this symbol.


X is a difficult letter, so I went for the same that in the previous round, when I showed, among other crosses, this 1948 stamp dedicated to Clara Barton (1821-1912), the founder of the American Red Cross:

The following stamp was issued on 1 May 1981, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the American Red Cross.

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For the new edition of Sunday Stamps-II A to Z, I have decided to show some of the stamps I have got on letters and postcards, related to one topic: women. This is the post for the letter X.

More women on stamps.

?

Postcard sent by Laura (the UK), with a quotation of Edward Morgan Forster: "Life is easy to chronicle, but bewildering to practice" and a small scratch. 

Envelope sent by Bryon (the USA), made of Trader Joe's stationery, and some stickers inside.

Two Postcards from the Sea

La cabane à Trouville, marée basse, 1881
by Claude Monet (1840-1926)
(Sent by Lluïsa)

Barceloneta Beach, in Barcelona
(Sent by Bruno)

In 1935

«(...) and wondered just way it was that Up-to-Date Americans like Philip always used the long-distance telephone rather than undergo the dreadful toil of dictating a letter a day or two earlier. It didn't really seem so efficient, the old-fashioned village editor reflected, to spend seventy-five cents on telephone call in order to save five cents' worth of time.»

Sinclair Lewis, It Can't Happen Here

Every Letter Is Special

From Rebecca (the USA)

From Catherine (France)

Repurposing: Free Postcards

I picked up these free postcards in a restaurant in Barcelona. I think they weren't intended to be sent, but to inform people about Vietnamese food (Which was delicious, by the way!). But they looked a beautiful artwork to me. And they even included a recipe on the back! 

So I took two and sent them to Bryon (the USA) and Heleen (the Netherlands).

Do you like to get free or repurposed postcards?

Slower Than a Tweet

But undoubtedly more interesting! Mail art envelope sent by John (the UK), with the nice addition of Beatrix Potter stamps.

Women on Postcards | Wonder Woman

In 2016, USPS celebrated the 75th anniversary with stamps that depicted the superhero during four eras of comic book history: Golden Age (1941–55), Silver Age (1956–72), Bronze Age (1973–86) and Modern Age (1987–present).

You can read here all the information about this issue, and see two more stamps dedicated to her, in 1988 and 2006.

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For the new edition of Sunday Stamps-II A to Z, I have decided to show some of the stamps I have got on letters and postcards, related to one topic: women. This is the post for the letter W.

More women on stamps.

Repurposing: Paper Bags

Two envelopes made of the two sides of a paper bag (from a clothes shop). Sent to Julia (Australia) and Anita (Canada).

Mail by Sea Post & Go

All these letters and postcards, sent on different days, landed in my mailbox together the same day.

Royal Mail issued post & go self-adhesive postage labels on 14 February, featuring six ships that represente the history of mail transportation by sea. (More information about this issue)

I have been receiving some of them. It took me three letters to realise that they were different ships!

Packet Antelope, 1780

SS Great Western, 1838

SS Britannia, 1887

RMS Olympic, 1911

RMS Queen Mary, 1936

RMS St Helena, 1990

HitM | Kent

This postcard, actually, wasn't intendedly sent for the Houses of the Mail project. But you can see some traditional houses on the postcard, including a castle and beach cabins. And the conversation on the back was mostly about... houses.

I like the sketchbook style of the postcard. It was sent by Laura (the UK).

Long Live the Summer!

Postcard sent to Laura (the UK). I painted this watermelon-whale during the spring, when I was longing for the summer...

And another watercolour postcard sent to Dot (New Zealand). This was my first one, hence the yellowish spot on the edge...

Bioluminiscent Mail

Letter sent by Phillip (the USA). On the folded card, a picture by Teresa N. Rishel showing Dale Chiluly's work: Persian Ceiling, vibrant glass artwork. 

It couldn't match more with the Bioluminiscence Life stamps, issued by the USPS on 22 February. They don't glow in the dark, but they incorporate an special holographic effect that is hard to show on a picture or scan.

From left to right:

-a cluster of mushrooms (Mycena lucentipes) photographed by Taylor F. Lockwood; 

-a bamboo coral (Keratoisis flexibilis) by Edith Widder; 

-and a crown jellyfish (Atolla wyvillei), shown under external lighting, also by Widder.

I have received more on the back of postcards:

-Red: a deep-ocean octopus (Stauroteuthis syrtensis), photographed by Edith Widder under external lighting.
-Blue: a deep-sea comb jelly (Bathocyroe fosteri), also by Widder and lit externally.

-Round blue: Midwater jellyfish (Atolla vanhoeffeni).

Sorry if don't like to see jellyfishes in the summer!

De Post

This eclectic style building was built between 1898 and 1910. It was designed by architect Louis Cloquet in collaboration with Stéphane Mortier for the 1913 World Exhibition.

The façades of the building are decorated with different statues and coat of arms, representing Belgium, Flanders, Wallonia, the at that time 9 provinces and the 23 European heads of state. There are about 100 statues in total. 

The interior has been newly refurbished and turned into the classy De Post shopping centre and luxury hotel 1898 The Post. The post pigeons painted on the walls still refer to the original function of the building.

More pictures, including the 51 m high clock tower: here, here...

Women on Stamps | Villains

I guess it is not usual to dedicate stamps to bad women, or bad people in general... unless they are fictional characters.

Cruella De Vil
(One Hundred and One Dalmatians)

One year ago USPS issued a sheet of stamps showcasing 10 classic Disney villains: six women, a man, two animals and a half-man-half-beast. I received two of them.

The Queen
(Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)

The Red Queen
(Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There)

Royal Mail has dedicated some stamps to Lewis Carroll's novels. The first one I show here was issued in 1998. The second stamp belongs to this 2015 issue. These two villains are often confused!

The Queen of Hearts
(Alice in Wonderland)

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For the new edition of Sunday Stamps-II A to Z, I have decided to show some of the stamps I have got on letters and postcards, related to one topic: women. This is the post for the letter V.

More women on stamps.

Mountweazel

Have you ever heard about Lillian Virginia Mountweazel and her passion about mailboxes? You can read about her interesting life on the page 1,850 of the 1975 edition of the New Columbia Encyclopedia:

Mountweazel, Lillian Virginia, 1942-1973, American photographer, b. Bangs, Ohio.Turning from fountain design to photography in 1963, Mountweazel produced her celebrated portraits of the South Sierra Miwok in 1964. She was awarded government grants to make a series of photo-essays of unusual subject matter, including New York City buses, the cemeteries of Paris and rural American mailboxes. The last group was exhibited extensively abroad and published as Flags Up! (1972) Mountweazel died at 31 in an explosion while on assignment for Combustibles magazine.

A fountain designer who made a book about rural mailboxes? Oh, how I wish Ms. Mountweazel and her works were real! Because, actually, she is famous for having never existed.

It was an old tradition in encyclopaedias, dictionaries, maps, etc. to put in a fake entry to protect the copyright. An so was Mountweazel: a copyright trap, a fictitious entry composed specifically to note whether persons were copying content without due attribution or royalties. Today, professional editors refer to such fictitious content as a Mountweazel.

(The picture above is from a 2009 exhibition in Dublin,  that explored "the fictitious life and legacy of one Lillian Virginia Mountweazel". And Ms. Mountweazel has a page on Facebook and a memorial society on Flickr...)

Time to Vote the Most Beautiful Bridge

Handmade postcard sent by Laura (the UK), showing the village of Bridge in Kent, the UK.

Bridges is a favourite theme for mail, being snail mail, in a way, a bridge itself. don't you think so? And it is also this year's theme for the competition EUROPA stamps. If you hadn't cast your vote yet, till 9 September, here is your chance to vote for the most beautiful EUROPA stamp in 2018.

HitM | Chocolate Houses

Front of the envelope

A sweet entry from Micu (Hungary) for the Houses in the Mail project (See here her first one). I love the way she attached the chocolate packaging to a recycled bag of paper.

Back of the envelope

She reused another box of chocolate to make a folded postcard:

Someone ate a lot of chocolate for Easter!