Mail in Pink

Mail sent by Fabienne (France).

Fête

From the picture, you canot appreciate how nice this envelope is! (And its contents as well).

Sent by Fabienne (France).

Read and Read

Reading is one of the main activities during the Stay-At-Home-a-Lot period...

Reading
Ignace Henri Jean Fantin-Latour (1836-1904)

Femme lisant, c. 1885
Edgar Degas

Harry Potter

From The Illustrated London News
(1856 or 1874) 

Postcards sent by John (the UK) and Fabienne (France).

Greetings from Gryffindor (and Great Britain)

Which house will the Sorting Hat assign you to?

Postcards and matching stamps sent by John (the UK).

It Is Raining Letters

Postcard sent by John (the UK). It features a scene on one (the first?) Harry Potter's film. Probably the favourite scene of snail mail lovers, isn't it?

Harry Potter Stamp

I had got some of the Harry Potter's stamps from the latest (I think) Royal Mail series about these characters...

... but never before the stamp featuring Harry Potter himself!

Women on Stamps | I for Imaginary Women

I am afraid that imaginary, or fictional women are far more likely to appear on stamps that real ones...

You can see above one of the latest Harry Potter stamps, issued on 16 October 2018. It features the actress Emma Watson as one of the main characters: Hermione Granger (If you are familiar with the Potterian universe, you will recognise also the time turner, at the corner.)

Morgan Le Fay, a character from the Arthurian legend, appeared on this stamp from the set Magical Realms (9 March 2011).

The stamp above features a portrait of Leda, the queen of Sparta, from the ancient Greek mythology.

The stamp below shows a woman in a landscape who Royal Mail says about: 

The most plausible explanation is that this is the maiden Matelda gathering flowers, as she appears to Dante on the far side of a stream in Purgatory, the second book of his Divine Comedy. However, the purpose of the drawing is unknown.

Both stamps belong to the issue Leonardo Da Vinci (13 February 2019). You can read more about this issue here. I have received, so far, three more stamps from this set:

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For the current round of Sunday Stamps A-Z I am showing stamps dedicated to women. You can see here all the Women on Stamps featured on this blog.

Go to Sunday Stamps to enjoy more I-stamps.

Three Cities

Letters sent by Phillip (the USA), about three cities he visited. Of course, the letters din't arrived in the right order.

Envelope made out of a bookshop shopping bag 

Envelope made out of wrapping paper

Sunday Stamps | X for... ?

For me, X is the most difficult letter to find stamps related with. In the previous rounds of Sunday Stamps A-Z, I showed stamps related to the shape of the letter (see here and here).

Today, I thought of another meaning of the letter X: when it designes the incognito or obscure things. And I have recently received some stamps related to... magic!

The following ones belong to the series issued by Royal Mail on 16 October 2018. The 15 stamps feature characters from the books, and also their magical modes of transport. But these are no ordinary stamps – they have secret details that require the touch of a wizard to uncover. Each stamp will include hidden details that will only be revealed when it is placed under ultraviolet light. You can see the messages here, too.

I had received more Harry Potter stamps in the past (See them on this post and this post). But the following ones arrived on a letter last month and were new to me. They were issued by USPS post in 2013.

But, of course, Harry Potter has not the sole control of the magic of the world. I think these stamps dedicated to The Art of Magic, and issued in July 2018, offer an striking design (More information about this design, see here.)

For more X themes on stamps, wander through the links at Sunday Stamps.

HitM | Fantasy Houses

All kind of houses keep arriving for the Houses in the Mail project. Here, some houses from fantasy books...

This postcard sent by Bruno (PC) features a background painting for the film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1917), by Disney.

Postcard sent by Bryon (the USA), showing Hagrid's house. One of my favourite characters of Harry Potter books!

Postcard sent by Phillip (the USA) showing a house in Hobbiton, from The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien. Illustrated by Alan Lee (1991).  And it arrived inside a no less fantastic envelope!

Potterian Postcards

These postcards sent by Laura (the UK) would make the day of any fan of Harry Potter books... like me. But maybe I am not such a great fan: I didn't recognise the phoenix at first sight!

This one is the poster for the Christmas party (from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire). Alas... it landed in my mailbox one day too late!

#AtoZChallenge | Q is for Quail, Quidditch & Quibbler

Today I introduce you Quinnlyn the Quail, on a postcard sent by Bryon (the USA) especially for the challenge. With a beautiful postmark as a bonus!

There are even two games with the letter Q on the back. The last question (Can you spot the hidden letter in Quinnilyn the Quail?) isn't intended for adult recipients. But I let the first to you:

Are you:

• Quirky
• Quiet
• Quick
• Quotable
• Quaint
• Queen-like?

(My option is the last one, of course!)

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I know: Quail, Quiditch and Quibbler have nothing to do. But I started the #AtoZChallenge asking for help with some letters. Help arrived by mail... and reorganised some posts. 

Envelope sent by Phillip (the USA), with an illustration of the poster of the 422nd Quidditch World Cup. [Update: it also appears in the Q-post of Phillip's blog, envelope100. His challenge is dedicated to mail art.]

It included, among others, a postcard with the same design (that I coloured and re-sent):

Another about The Quibbler. (For non-Harry Potter fans: The Quibbler is a wizarding tabloid, considered rubbish by some people, that publishes odd articles, including conspiracy theories and discussions of imaginary creatures.)

And perfectly matching stamps:

Harry Potter on Stamps

The theme for today in Sunday Stamps - II is Illustration. I have chosen to show you some stamps I have received about the same subject: Harry Potter. I am sure it is not necessary to explain the characters on the stamps, is it?

From the Netherlands

From a mini sheet of December Personalized stamps issued on November 24, 2005. I received it ten years later!

From the UK

Only the top right stamp belongs to the miniature 5-stamps sheet that focuses on the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, issued on July 17, 2007. 

The two stamps below make part of the set of Magical Realms issued on March 3, 2011.

From the USA

These were received on the back of a big postcard sent by Phillip. As you can see, completely uncancelled, and with an enormous cancellation on the wrong side.

They belong to a set of twenty (twenty??) issued on November 13, 2013. 

I received another one from this set last week: