Sunday Stamps | Vilains

Sunday Stamps is today dedicated to Stories and folk tales. This is a recurrent theme on this blog, and I have used it for recent Sunday Stamps (here and here). So, I thought I was run out of stamps, but I remembered these Disney vilains. I am sure you recognize most of them!

Honest John (Pinocchio)
Gaston (Beauty and the Beast)
Captain Hook (Peter Pan)
Scar (The Lion King)

Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty)
Lady Tremaine (Cinderella)
Queen (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)

Cruella De Vil (One Hundred and One Dalmatians)
Ursula (The Little Mermaid)
Queen of Hearts (Alice in Wonderland)

Sunday Stamps | Fables & Tales

Four stamps from the Hong Kong 2015 series Chinese and Foreign Folklore:

The Tortoise and the Hare
The Wild Swans

The Old Man Who Moved Mountains
The Little Engine That Could

From Hungary, a 2021 stamp celebrating the 400th anniversary of Jean de La Fontaine:

The Ant and the Grasshopper

A 2003 stamps about Aldar Köse, a Kazakh folk fairy tale and name of main character:

Strega Nona, a children's picture book written and illustrated by Tomie dePaola, on a 2023 USA stamp:

Princess Aurora and the fairies Flora, Fauna and Sunshine: a Disney version of Sleeping Beauty. on a 2008 USA stamp:

From the 2025 UK series Myths and Legends, the Loch Ness Monster:

See more Illustrated/Engraved stamps on Sunday Stamps!

First Day of Autumn

Фея на улитке ('Fairy on the snail')
by Анна Злобина

Postcard sent by Heleen (the Netherlands).

Dreaming of Letters

Collage on envelope sent by Laura (the UK).

Postcard sent by Amita (India).

One of These Postcards Features a Real Place

Realms of the Imagination
Sveta Dorosheva, 2023

Sent by Phillip (the USA) and Laura (the UK).

Sunday Stamps | Fairy Tales

Your choice is possible the most difficult theme in Sunday Stamps!  Today, I have chosen some stamps featuring legends and fairy tales:

Finland, 1990. This stamp belongs to a series that features the work of the illustrator Rudolf Koivu. I have found that the illustration belongs to the tale Lamb Brother.

Germany, 2020. The legend of The Pied Piper of Hamelin (above) and a tale collected by the Brothers Grimm: The Wolf and Seven Young Goats (below).

Croatia, 2009. Svarožić, the small god of fire (left) and Bjesomar, an evil spirit (right), characters in Priče iz davnine ('Croatian Tales of Long Ago'), by Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić.

Green Letters

Sent to Laura (the UK).

Received from Catherine (France). In Breton folklore, a Korringan is a fairy or dwarf-like spirit.

Little Green Men

Leprechaun: Small mischievous Irish fairy, symbolising good luck and fortune. If found he can be forced to reveal the hiding place of his treasure, but beware if you take your eyes off him he will vanish instantly.Nearly became extinct in the early 20th century but now can be found in abundance throughout Ireland.

And I have got not one, but two little green men who are supposed to bring me luck. Nothing can go wrong from now on, can it?

Glückspilz

Postcards sent by Laura (Ireland) and Maren (Germany).

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.

Sunday Stamps | F for Fairy Tales

Some fairy tales and legends from around the world, for the letter F of Sunday Stamps!

Guaraná
Brasil, 2012

Víla Amálka (Fairy Amálka)
Czech Republic, 2016

Pixies and Giants
United Kingdom, 2009

Latvian Fairy Tales
Latvia, 2008

Snow White
USA, 2005

Dragons
USA, 2018

From different senders, all the dragons arrived almost the same day. Some of them on this perfect cover made by Phillip (Better pictures of the stamps on his D-post!):

#AtoZChallenge | L is for Little Red Riding Hood

Little Red Riding Hood is a character I love. I had not seen this version by Fiep Westendorp until Heleen (the Netherlands) sent it to me in the shape of a postcard. The same illustration appears on the selvage of this wonderful (wonderful, wonderful!) sheet of stamps issued last year. Can you spot her?

And there is another version on the following postcard, also sent by Heleen:

But, besides Little Red Riding Hood, the Fairy Tale Wood, by Molly Brett (1902-1990) includes A LOT of fairy tales characters on one single illustration:

Puss in Boots

Hansel & Grethel

Cinderella

Snow White

The Twelve Swans

The Three Piglets

The Ugly Duckling

The Red Shoes

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Petter Rabbit 

The Chinese Nightingale (Thanks, Heleen! Again)

Sleeping Beauty (Thanks, Donna!)

The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs (Thanks, Phillip!)

The Golden Bird (Thanks, Eva!)

Dick Whittington and His Cat (Thanks, Anne!)

Saint George (Thanks, Anne!)

...

Are other characters on the postcard that I have missed?

Thank You Mail

Thank you hand made card and postcards, sent by Nic (the USA), Laura (the UK). and the girls and boys of this classroom. (Yes: mahalo means `thank you'. I learned that with Nic's card.)

The postcard below shows De Efteling, a beautiful theme park that, according to the writer (named Shara, and with a wonderful handwriting), all the Dutch children love. And not only the children.