Sunday, May 15, 2011

EXPO '70 (Osaka, Japan) - Ajman

I was thinking for a long while about what to choose for the latest Sunday Stamps post....since it is a free theme, one has his hands open to pick whatever he wants...and yeah, my initial itch was to pick again some of my train stamps...but then I thought that I wouldnt want people to get bored and tired of constantly seeing train stamps...so after some thinking and browsing through my collections, the choice fell on something rather unique and according to some, controversial, when it comes to validity...but first let me present you my today's choice of 9 stamps, coming from Ajman. Ajman??!! Where on Earth is that??!!!
Well, Ajman is indeed a real place on Earth, one of the seven emirates constituting the UAE. Its area is only 260 square km, making it the smallest of the Emirates. Its name means 'small city' in Arabic.

Very few stamps from Ajman are considered postally valid. There have been many stamps issued for Ajman, but a great number of them had limited, if any, postal use. The Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue only recognizes Ajman stamps from 1964 and 1965 as valid. The remaining Ajman issues, primarily from 1967 through 1972, are excluded as their postal use appears to be questionable. The stamps I have here date from 1970, so they fall into that latter category...plus, if my observation is good, they are CTO's....but nevertheless, I think the stamps are really beautiful, plus, how would I have learned about Ajman, and their stamps validity issue, if it wasnt for this...



well, sorry if the scan is too big, but this was like the only way to be able to present all of the stamps without them being too cluttered and yet include them all.
They all portray Japanese paintings, as follows:

- 1 dh. stamp shows the "The Actor Sawamura Sojuro" a painting by the Japanese painter Katsukawa Shunsō;
- 2 dh. stamp portrays an "Intimate Kitchen Scene" by the Japanese painter and printmaker Kitagawa Utamaro, considered one of the greatest artists of woodblock prints;
- 3 dh. stamp shows the "The Beautiful O-Sen of Kasamori" by Suzuki Harunobu, a Japanese woodblock print artist, one of the most famous in the Ukiyo-e style;
- 4 dh. stamp shows another of Utamaro's works, called "Portrait of a Woman";
- 5 dh. stamp brings one more of Utamaro's works called "Melancholy Love";
- 10 dh. stamp is by an unknown artist portraying Japanese Ladies;
- 15 dh. stamp is again by an unknown artist, called "A Picnic Party"

the two stamps at the bottom are considered as airmail stamps:

- 1 rl. stamp shows a painting by Uemura Shoen, the first woman recipient of the Order of Culture, Japan's highest award for cultural achievement.
- 5 rls. stamp shows a painting called "Woman in the Wind" by Kaigetsudô Ando.

This issue also should contain a minisheet of 12 rls. value, presenting a Japanese Bathhouse scene. Unfortunately, I do not have it, but if anyone could send it to me, it would be more than welcome in my collection!

To see what others have picked for today, please visit Viridian's blog....just click on the button below :)





8 comments:

  1. Well, now I know about Ajman and its stamps too.

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  2. Great, detailed post! I agree with you about stamps being an "ambassador" of a country, a spark to trigger more research, hopefully. I have many Ajman stamps, but not these! :)

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  3. There is always more to learn, isn't there? Now I know about Ajman too. I like the Womain in the wind image.
    thank you for participating! we'll do trains or transportation as a theme again one of these days.

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  4. Amiga,again, I am amazed at how vast your collection is - I have never heard of Ajman before. Amman, yes. Ajman, NO! I agree about what they are saying about learning from stamps. We really do.
    See yah next time, Amiga@!
    Postcards Crossing

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  5. It's unusual to see the stamps from one state featuring the culture of another in the way that Ajam has doen with these.

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  6. Who would get tired of train stamp, although it would have been a shame to miss these. Japanese painting is so beautiful, I like the internal shape.

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  7. I really like the design of these stamps. The borders match the curves and style of the illustrations.

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