400 years since Rembrandt's birth, joint issue between Netherlands and Germany

here comes a small piece of art for today's Sunday stamps

I picked this cover with the sheet issued in 2006, to commemorate the 400 years since the birth of this great dutch painter and etcher. He was born on 15 July 1606 and died on 4 October 1669.

Im pretty sure you know quite a lot about him, so I wont be holding on to his general life, but will try to explain what's on the stamps here.

the set consists of 5 stamps plus a vignette, containing the information.
all stamps have a face value of 0,39 euros, and this is actually a joint issue between Netherlands and Germany, which has arisen some controversies, esp regarding a 70c stamp of Saskia in the prestige booklet, which the German's found invalid, since he printing - made in the Netherlands - was different from the prinitng made in Germany for the German sheetlets. The Dutch one actually contained the text in German and in some catalogue listings was said to be good for postage only in the Netherlands, which on the overall is rather confusing as to what's what, so i wont go into depth about it here.


Anyways, as for the stamps here, they all show Rembrandt's works. The top left stamp shows us Saskia van Uylenburgh in a pompous dress (Rembrandt's wife). The portrait was done sometime around 1642 and can be found at the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen in Kassel.

The stamp next to it shows a portrait of Titus reading, c.1657-1658 (Rembrant's son) at The Kunsthistorisches Museum (or the Museum of Fine Arts) in Vienna.

The third stamp in that row shows us the painting called "Woman in a doorway", c. 1656-1657, and can be found at the Gemäldegalerie (or the Art Museum) in Berlin.

As for the bottom stamps, the both show etchings, where the one on the left shows us the "Bearded man, in a furred oriental cap and robe", from 1631, which some consider to be a portrait of Rembrand's father. This can be found at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, while the other one shows us the artist's mother seated at a table, c.1629 - 1633, which can again be found at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

for some more artistic inputs, click on the big button below

Czech Film Posters, Czech Republic

Some days ago I received this great cover from Radim.
Even though in the end I was prevented from participating in the 11.11.11 group, Radim had still decided to surprise me and sent me this great cover....with such a neat cancellation coz not only he sent the covers on 11th November but also sent them after 11 am, meaning the cancellations obtained another 11 in the postmark! Awesome, no??

and apart from the great cancellation, Radim used a great set of stamps, issued just this October, portraying Czech Film Posters.

The left stamp shows the poster for the film Markéta Lazarová (1966, Czechoslovakia) directed by František Vláčil.
The poster was designed by Zdeněk Ziegler, born on October 27th, 1932 in Prague. He is the author of three hundred film, exhibition and theatre posters, and had designed a number of sleeves for gramophone records and logos and also the author of a number of postage stamps and member of the Czech Post's Stamp Graphic Design Board
The movie is a 1967 Czechoslovak historical film and is an adaptation of a novel of the same name by Vladislav Vančura. The movie takes place in the Middle Ages, and tells the story of a daughter of a feudal lord who is kidnapped by neighbouring robber knights and becomes a mistress of one of them. Marketa Lazarová was voted the all-time best Czech movie in a prestigious 1998 poll of Czech film critics and publicists.

The other stamp portrays the film "Une femme douce" (1970, France) directed by Robert Bresson, while the author of the poster is Olga Poláčková-Vyleťalová, born on August 8th, 1944 in Hradec Králové and an author of overall seventy-six film posters which have won a number of prestigious international awards. The one portrayed on the stamp won the Cannes International Film Festival 1973 - Grand Prix for the Best Poster.
The movie is a 1969 French drama film and is Bresson's first film in color, and was adapted from Fyodor Dostoevsky's short story "A Gentle Creature (Кроткая)".

technical details:


Date of issue       5. 10. 2011
Face value          10 CZK
Size                    40 x 50 mm
Printing method   multicoloured offset

thanks a lot again Radim!

Volleyball + Football, Argentina

Today's theme at Viridian's is sports and everything related to it....having quite a lot of sports' stamps, it was a but difficult to pick...and after changing my mind several times, i ended up with two sets of stamps Argentina issued in 2002

the first set consists of two stamps, each with a face value of 75c, issued on 27 April 2002 called 20th Century World Cup Football Champions, bearing the flags of championship winners (from 1930-2002). So on the left stamp you can see the flags of France, Germany, England, Argentina (of course), Brazil, Uruguay and Italy. So far, France have won in 1998, Germany in 1954, 1974 and 1990 (this last one, in the summer of 1990, i followed with great attention), England was a winner in 1966, Argentina has two titles, 1978 and 1986, Brazil is the record-holder with 5 titles - 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002, Uruguay was the best in 1930 and 1950 while Italy has won in 1934, 1938 and 1982. Following the 2002, two other championships were held, in 2006, with Italy winning and 2010, with Spain winning the trophy. The right stamp portrays Argentina in particular, and as I had already said, indicating the years it had won the championship, in 1978 and 1986.

the size of both stamps is 43.5 mm, in length and width, while the left one is also perforated on the inside in a round shape.

the second set for today shows the Men's World Volleyball Championship, 2002

there are four stamps in the set, each with a face value of 75c. issued in 28 September.

Width 33.5 mm
Height 43.5 mm
Perforations 13.6 by 13.5

The FIVB World Championship is an international men's and women's indoor volleyball competition. It is the oldest and most important of all the international events organized by the FIVB.
It is again held every four years, and Argentina was the host in 2002, where Brazil had won, beating Russia in the finals with 3-2. So far Argentina doesnt have any trophies, neither in men's nor women's competition.

Most trophies so far were lifted by the Soviet Union, 6 in total. Brazil and Italy follow with three each, Czechoslovakia has two, and Poland, US and East Germany have one. Funny to see three no more existing countries...


to get more of your sports' dose today, take a peek at Viridian's blog