A Very Yellow Letter

Sent by Fabienne (France).

Sunday Stamps | Yellow Flowers

Yellow Flowers for today's Sunday Stamps!

Help for Ukraine
Canada, 2022

Yellow Gentan
Welfare: Alpine flowers
Berlin, 1975

Winter Aconite (Eranthis hyemalis)
Flowers Definitives
Germany, 2018

Bukhara iris (Iris bucharica)
Flowers
Hungary, 2015

Vase with Sunflowers
150th Birth Anniversary of Vincent Van Gogh
Netherlands, 2003

Lesser Celandine (Ficaria verna)
Experience Nature (IV) - Garden Flowers (2019)
Netherlands, 2019

Golden Rain (Laburnum anagyroides)
Pro Juventute: Poisonous plants of the forest
Switzerland, 1974

Harvest Fayre
9th World Congress of Roses, Belfast
United Kingdom, 1991

Sunflower
Flowers
United Kingdom, 2023

Yellow Moth orchid (Phalaenopsis)
Garden Flowers (2021)
United States of America, 2021

Here Comes the Sun (I)

Postcard sent by Phillip (the USA), with matching stamps. It is difficult to take a proper picture of these foiled stamps...

HitM | Streets of Paris

Another beautiful sending for the Houses in the Mail project, from Fabienne (France). The envelope was made of a page of a magazine. I guess it shows Paris? It matches perfectly with a superb stamp:

Le quai aux fleurs, Notre-Dame (1950) is the work of the Japanese-French painter Léonard Foujita reproduced on this stamp, issued on 26 January 2018.  

And still more Parisian streets inside. This postcard reproduce's Van Gogh work View form Theo's Appartment (1887). 

Letters Written on Stamps

Yesterday's yummy postcard arrived with a non-less yummy stamp on the back:

I think that it is impossible to collect all the Van Gogh stamps issued by the Netherlands. Only in 2015, they issued at least... 60! But I am not an exhaustive collector (Actually, I do not call myself a collector). So I am happy just to see Van Gogh on my letters and postcards, in order to get to know more about this amazing artist.

On the following stamp, issued in August, 2015, you can read (see here the whole set, bigger) a fragment of The Letters of Vincent van Gogh. It is written both in Dutch and the original French:

"Waarde Theo, ik ben als een bezetene aan het werk, want de bomen staan in bloei en ik wilde een Provençaalse boomgaard maken van kolossale vrolijkheid." /  "Mon cher Theo, je suis dans une rage de travail puisque les arbres sont en fleurs et que je voulais faire un verger de Provence d'une gaieté monstre"

A letter written on a stamp... isn't it a sort of disturbing idea?

Caféterras bij avond

This  postcard was sent by Heleen (the Netherlands), with no one but two matched stamps:

Maybe this painting by Van Gogh is one of his best known. But still it is one of my favourites! By the way, on both the stamps the title is written as Caféterras bij nacht. However, on the postcard is written Caféterras bij avond (?).

I really cannot complain about the Van Gogh stamps that PostNL has issued in 2015. I received these as part of a present. Correos stuck an ugly label on them, but happily I could remove it without any damage for the stamps.

The Sower

This postcard sent by Heleen (the Netherlands) makes me think of Autumn. It is De Zaaier (='The Sower', 1888), by Vincent Van Gogh, belonging to the Wheat Fields series.

The sender chose this postcard for me because, among the 60 Van Gogh stamps that PostNL has issued this year, it was the only one that matched her booklet of postcards. Yes: Van Gogh painted a lot! Anyway, it was the perfect choice, because I really love the colours on this postcard/stamp.

Update 24 Sep 2016: I added this post to Maria's link party Postcards for the weekend. The theme this week is Autumn colours.

Japan Week - 1

Some weeks ago, I had my particular Japan Week thanks to mail...

Do you know the Gotochi cards?

Gotochi cards are designed and released by the Japanese Postal System, and each one of them represents a place in Japan - hence the name 'gotochi', which means 'local'. They showcase Japanese symbols (which might be local dishes, costumes, monuments, landscapes, etc.) on a national and regional level, in a brightly coloured and fun cartoon.

Gotochi cards have a couple of unique features that make them special. First of all, they are not perfect rectangles, but in fact take on the shape of their picture. Also, each card not only has a cartoon picture on it, but also the name of the place that is depicted in the image. Every prefecture has multiple cards, which might be one of the reasons that collecting them has taken off and became such a popular hobby! (Taken from the Postcrossing blog).

I had seen many, many, many of these cards on the net. But I had not received any of them until the twin of this one landed in my mailbox. It arrived from Japan... after a short layover in Heleen's mailbox (the Netherlands). It was beautifully stamped on the back:

Landscape with Stamps

I was not sure about what to share for this week's Sunday Stamps -II, the topic being very general: Scenery...

This is a big postcard sent by Heleen (the Netherlands), drawn and collaged on the backside of a calendar. I like the drawing, and specially I look how she was able to create a scenery using the stamps. Yes, also the post office contributed with the ink... Very difficult to postmark, wasn't it?

Also, the windmills are a favourite of mine. One of them belongs to the set of Dutch Icons issued on January 2, 2014:

Le Moulin de la Galette and La Butte de Montmartre are Van Gogh paintings from 1886. As stamps, they belongs to one of the many Dutch series dedicated to this artist: City and Village.

Sheep (More or Less)

Postcard sent by Christophe (France). It seems that if you wash a cow in a washing machine, and then hang it outdoors in the clothesline... It become a sort of sheep and then you can knit its wool. Not sure about temperature, though, because it indicates 30, 60 and 95 ºC. 

Arrived the same day (funny, isn't it?): postcard sent by Heleen (the Netherlands). It shows the typical breed of sheep in Drenthe, in the east of the Netherlands. It arrived with these two wool-related stamps: De Schapenscheerseter (naar Millet) (1889) and Weefgetouw met wever (1884), both by Van Gogh.

Welcome, Spring!

Postcard sent by Laura (the UK). Van Gogh's?

Postcard sent by Lluïsa (PC). It shows almond trees in the beautiful village of Deià (Mallorca island).

From Japan

From the USA

Dutch Painters on Stamps

This is a post for Sunday Stamps #200, and that means this is the last Sunday at Viridian's. I am thankful, and I hope that the Sunday Stamps series will be very successful at See it on a postcard (even if I do not participate every week!).

Today's theme is Art. Among the Dutch stamps I have received, some are dedicated to very famous works by Dutch painters. I am sure you know most of them!

Van Leyden

David playing the harp for Saul (gravure, c. 1508), by Lucas van Leyden (1494-1533). The stamp was issued on 14 April 2000. It belongs to a sheet of 10 commemorating the 200th Anniversary of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Rembrandt

Man with a beard in oriental clothes by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606-1669). The stamps was issued in 2006; it belongs to a 12-stamps sheet named The 400th Anniversary of the Birth of Rembrandt.

Vermeer

Girl with a Pearl Earring (c. 1665) is probably the most known masterpiece by Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675). The stamp was issued on 1st July 2014.

I like this painting, but the theme of the three works below is more appealing for letter lovers: The letter writer and her maid (left), The love letter (center) and Woman in blue reading a letter (right). There were issued on 27 February 1996. 

Don't you love the stamps which have letters as a main theme?

Shoemaker Doyer

Jan van Speijk Debating whether to Set Fire to the Gunpowder (1834) is a work by Jacobus Schoemaker Doyer (1792-1867). The stamp belongs to the same sheet that the first one in this post.

Van Gogh

I have published Van Gogh stamps before, but I have recently received three more:

Café Terrace at Night and The Zouave by Vicent van Gogh (1853-1890) were painted in 1888 and issued as stamps on 2nd January 2003. They belong to a 10-stamps sheet celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the birth of Van Gogh..

The last one was issued on 14th July 2014. It shows the The Courtesan (1887) one of the Japonaiserie works by Van Gogh. The whole sheet is really a beautiful and one!

Van Gogh

Postcard sent by Heleen (the Netherlands). It's a portrait of Vincent van Gogh, whose 161st birthday would be today. It was sent with a matched stamp. I love the quote on it:

werkelijk, er is niets kunstzinniger dan liefde voor de mensen

('Really, there is nothing more artistic than loving people'*)

And I have just discovered that I got another stamp of this series long time ago:

*Google Translate dixit.