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Kuwait 1969, Sheik/Emir Sabah III’s rule is golden

How were these little Emirates allowed to exist? This tiny country has 10 percent of the worlds oil reserves, or so they claim. Why was there not an oil rush to take the area from the nomads that pass through. Iraq has also wondered this Surely Britain could have made more colonizing this place rather than finding the oil then just protecting it. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Here we have the Emir Sabah III who ruled from 1965-1977. At the end of the previous British Protectorate status in 1961 the added title of Emir was added over the previous title of Sheik. The Kuwaitis are quite cagey about who these people are despite their claims of promoting press freedom. I have pieced together a little. At least the stamp provided a picture of him.

Todays stamp is issue A96, a 20 Fills stamp issued by the Emirate of Kuwait on October 5th, 1969. With the end of the British protectorate came a new currency and the end of using the Indian Rupee. This was a 14 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

The House of Sabah, Sabah III first and last name was Sabah, have their heritage in Utibi tribesman that were chased from Iraq by the conquering Ottoman Turks. They managed to get control of the former Persian trading posts at Kuwait and Bahrain in the 18th century. They failed in their attempts to conquer Muscat and Oman but then instead allied with them. The alliance then lead to Utibi horsemen protecting Arabic trading posts as far away as Zanzibar and Mombasa.

Oil was discovered in great quantities and the age of colonies was over as people like the Sabahs and the Sultan of Brunei were left in place. and protected by Britain. Imagine instead a colonist diamond rush as in Rhodesia or a gold rush as in California. That this did not happen is something that the anti colonialists would be at a loss to explain. That’s okay though, I am fairly sympathetic to the adventure of colonies and I am also at a loss.

Sabah III’s rule was part of the golden age of Kuwait. Iraq didn’t invade in his years. A tradition of the theatre was started that even today manifests itself with Kuwait produced soap operas being a middle east staple. He started the first sovereign wealth fund that acts sort of like a hedge fund with excess to needs government funds. I wonder who pockets the 2 percent a year and 20 percent of profits. Dangerous questions. His rule in 1973 also saw the peak of oil production.

Kuwait, despite avoiding being a colony, is not just for Kuwaitis. They are only a third of the population, with two thirds being foreign servants. Some thing tells me Britain and the USA are not done having to protect this anomaly.

Well my drink is empty and I am wondering if there will eventually be a new Congress of Berlin as in 1884 where instead of Africa the oil states are divided. Perhaps America will trade Aleppo in Syria for Kuwait. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

T

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Ukraine 1920, calling all Hetmen

The end of World War I was a chaotic time in the Ukraine. The country seesawed back and forth between Bolsheviks and Socialists with Soviets, Germans, and even Poles having their say. If only Ukrainians could find a strong legitimate leader to give an independent Ukraine a chance. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

I mentioned the see-saw Ukraine was on. This is very visible in the stamps. The style of the communist and the monarchist is just diametrically opposed. This is from the definitive issue of the monarchist Hetman government, printed in Vienna. By the time it was ready the government was no longer in Kiev but operated from exile in Warsaw. For this reason the stamp is fake. There was a later overstamp of the issue that celebrated a planned invasion of the Ukraine in 1923 but the invasion was aborted. The Scott catalog admits to a value of the 14 stamp set of $5.

Ukraine had been under Russia since the time of Catherine the Great. Part had been in a confederation with the Poles and Lithuanians. Before all this there was a Cossack ruled area ruled by a Hetman, their term for King/Czar/Head of state. The revolution in Russia in 1917 saw the Ukraine break away under a socialist regime called the Rada that resembled Russia’s Kerensky administration. This did not satisfy Bolsheviks who formed a rival government. Germany defeated Kerensky and when he was overthrown the Soviets quickly signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk which put Ukraine in the German sphere. Germany still had it’s Kaiser so it should be no surprise that the current pretender to the very old Hetman line, Pavlo Skoropadsky was tracked down and the line reinstalled in power.

With German troops and more Cossacks inducted in the Ukrainian army the Bolshevik and Rada forces were pushed out. A deal was struck that Ukrainian grain would now feed the German war effort providing much exchange revenue. They were open to white Russians who wanted to escape the Soviets. However unlike in the Baltics, see https://the-philatelist.com/2019/08/09/latvia-1919-ulmanis-slays-the-russian-dragon-to-take-kurland/  , the end of Imperial Germany saw the German army quickly depart. Quickly the Soviets put aside the treaty they had signed and invaded Ukraine. Poland then invaded from the west and there was a difficult few years of fighting with the Soviets eventually victorious. Additional Polish lands were allocated to the Soviet Republic of Ukraine after the Soviet invasion in 1939 that were never returned to Poland.

Now former Hetman Skoropadsky settled eventually in Berlin. He did not collaborate with the Nazis and was not involved in their administration of Ukraine between 1941-1944. In 1945 he fled west to avoid the Red Army and took refuge in a German monastery. He died there when it was bombed. Skoropadsky had no son but his daughter lived on in Switzerland. She visited the new Ukraine a few times late in her life but there was no one alive to remember the Hetman.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the Hetman Royal line. Sure being Cossacks they weren’t exactly Ukrainian but they were strong, a necessity in a neighborhood of powerful lustful neighbors like Russia, Poland, and Germany. It beats putting faith in Biden’s drug addled son. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting

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Australia 2001, the USA has Slim Shady, but even better Australia has Slim Dusty

Australia is kind of off to itself. So many of it’s artists are homebound. Sometimes a truth is so universal that it transcends. Who after all can not comprehend the tragedy of a pub with no beer. So slip on your cowboy hat, fill your pipe, take your first sip of beer and gather around the campfire. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

I am a not so sure about the use of a black and white portrait of Slim Dusty. It was probably how people remembered him  and was used for all of this long series of stamps of Australian legends. In 2001, Slim Dusty was still with us and so colour might have emphasized that. Oh well, Australia got to see him the year before in colour performing “Waltzing Matilda” at the closing ceremonies of the Sydney Olympics.

Todays stamp is issue A522, a 45 cents stamp issued by Australia on January 25th, 2001. Slim Dusty’s issue of the Australian legends series comprised two stamps. According to the 2020 edition of the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1 used. The 2017 edition of the catalog had the same value. Late USA President Ford would have been happy to know that inflation is so thoroughly whipped. Stamp collectors can be excused for hoping for higher prices.

Slim Dusty was born as David Kilpatrick in Nulla Nulla Creek in New South Wales in 1927. He wrote his first song at age 10 and took the stage name Slim Dusty at 11. His songs built on the tradition of Australian Bush poet and in them you can hear echoes of wild dingoes and ex convict swagmen of an earlier time.

In 1957 he had his biggest hit with “A Pub with no Beer”. You can watch him perform it in more modern times here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fb1Pzo4ZMPk   . It was the first Australian Gold Record. It was also heard in the USA and the UK. Belgian artist Bobbejaan Schoepen did versions in Flemish and German that saw the song become a big hit in central Europe. See here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDGFxdwdvoM.

The move toward pop and rock in the 1960s meant Slim Dusty got ever less play on the radio. Slim and his manager wife started an annual 10 month circle tour of Australia that was still quite successful. In the 70s his newer music took in the trucker scene in fashion then that Slim must have felt a kinship with all the traveling. In 2003 Slim Dusty died and was awarded a state funeral. The Anglican head clergy of Australia lead the mourners including several Prime Ministers in a rendition of “A Pub with no Beer”.

Well my drink is empty and beer is not usually my favorite, but just this once, I will have another. Come Again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Italy 2004, remembering Byzantine Pricesses in art

Italy did a long series of stamps of women in art as portrayed by mostly male Italian artists. By the later stamps in the higher, less printed denominations, they were getting pretty far afield, all the way to Constantinople. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

I had hoped this stamp was a nineteenth century style depiction of Italia, the Latin female embodiment of a nation. To have such a thing on a 21st century stamp would be quite novel. Instead we have something else that was pretty novel. A stamp that focuses in on a women that was a tiny part of a half lost fresco from the Quatrocento period. Proving you never know where a stamp story will go. So start collecting and dig in!

Todays stamp is issue A1142, a 65 Euro cents stamp issued by Italy on March 20th, 2004. It was a 25 stamp issue issued over 6 years that depict women in art. The earlier ones showed the denomination in both Lira and Euros. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 70 cents used. My new catalogs were delivered yesterday from Amos and so from here on out the values will be from the 2020 edition. Out of curiosity I checked the value of the stamp in the older 2017 edition, same 70 cents. No inflation in Italy, perhaps that should be the headline.

The artist of the tiny piece of the fresco depicted on the stamp was Antonio Pisanello. A fresco is a mural painted on fresh still wet wall plaster so that the painting bonds permanently with the wall. Pisanello was born in Pisa but spent much of his time in Verona. That time in Italy was the early Renaissance known as the Quatrocento. Pisanello studied under Gentile da Fabiano and they worked together on several frescos that did not survive. Pisanello received commissions from the Pope, the Doge of Venice and other heads of Italian city states.

“Saint George and the Princess” was commissioned by the Pelligrinni family for their Chapel in the Saint Anastacia Church in Verona. It is considered Pisanello’s masterpiece. It depicts the Princess of Trebizond, a successor state to Byzantium, sending an Knight to do battle with a dragon. It is thought that the dragon represents the Ottoman Turks that were then laying siege to Constantinople. Half of the fresco was lost to a water leak at the chapel in the 19th century.

Surviving part of the stamp fresco

Soon after this work, from the 1430s, Pisanello changed the medium of his art. He began casting medals with likenesses of those who commissioned them. They were not cast like a coin but rather in bronze. melted in low relief. He believed this better showed the hand of the artist.

Pisanello bronze medal of Pope John VIII

Well my drink is empty and I am left with the feeling that todays stamp did not do justice to the artist. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Vietnam 1993, After a renovation, wondering about becoming an Asian Tiger

As the memory of war with the South, the USA, Cambodia and even China faded, Vietnamese wondered why their economy hadn’t taken off like the Asian tigers. Perhaps it was time for a renovation. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This stamp promotes Asian architecture, in this case a Malaysian Buddhist Temple. The stamps didn’t go far and wide though, just countries close in to Vietnam. Whether Malaysia or Thailand, they were showing Asian tigers, inviting a comparison of how neighboring countries were doing in comparison. Pretty bold for a Communist country and traditional, calling to mind the even better done stamps from the Royal period in Laos, see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/04/30/laos-1959-the-last-royal-succession/  .

Todays stamp is issue A608, a 2000 Dong stamp issued by united Vietnam on July 10th,1993. It was a seven stamp issue in various denominations that also came as a souvenir sheet. According to the Scott catalog, This individual used stamp is worth 21 cents. This is the lowest value for any stamp I have done on this website. While the printing and artistry are below Royal Laos similar stamps. This is still a big colorful stamp with a building many in Asia will recognize. This stamp, now 26 years old, deserves a higher valuation. We need more Vietnamese stamp collectors.

The Vietnamese economy was in a terrible shape after the wars. The south had been wealthier than the north but was economically destroyed post war. Over a million from the north had been relocated south. Many of the southern people had been relocated to the countryside. To try to turn this around former Viet Cong leader Nguyen Van Linh was made Communist General Secretary in 1986.

Linh, not his real name, was born in North Vietnam but was assigned to Saigon in 1936 by the communist party. His job was to set up secret cells. He was more of an organizer that a military leader. His triumph was the Tet offensive in 1968 when Linh proved the Viet Cong was everywhere in South Vietnam. Southerners or adopted southerners in Linh’s case, were tossed aside after the war. Despite being in the Politburo, Linh’s arguments to better take advantage of southern capabilities fell on deaf ears.

In 1986 Vietnam revisited Linh’s ideas. He wanted to improve relations with China, the USA, and other Asian neighbors. He wanted to allow peasants to cultivate small private fields next to the collectives, he allowed people to start businesses and was more open to foreign investment. He worked to end the discrimination of those with southern backgrounds. None of this included more political freedom and all was done within the communist system. His program was called Doi Moi, meaning renovation.

The renovation was less than successful. Per capita GNP in Vietnam is about 25% that of China and a third that of Thailand. Thailand economically and politically most resembles the old South Vietnam so might well demonstrate what a southern victory might have achieved. One of the most vocal critics of the renovation economy was Linh himself. In his last years in retirement he wrote a scathing series of newspaper columns  complaining about the distance between the haves and the have nots and the corruption and subservience caused by the foreign investment. Lucky for Vietnam he was too old to get back to his true talent of organizing secret cells of disadents.

Well my drink is empty and so I will patiently await tomorrows new story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Poland 1985, 40 years of GrossPolish Reich, can Weislaw get a seig heil, comrade

Here we have a map of Polish conquests in the war. It resembles greatly those maps of conquered territory put out by wartime Germany when it began referring to itself as Gross Reich. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This really is a fascinating stamp. The map shows land gained from Germany in the north and the west. What it does not show is land lost in the east. It describes what happened as the “return” of the western and northern  territories. The stamp issue also shows 12th century Polish Prince Boleslaw. who had ambitions in Pomerania. Boleslaw seems more famous for blinding his brother than actually conquering territory. This stamp shows the Prime Minister another shows the governor of Danzig, errr Gdansk. In 1946 there was a three times yes referendum on the new western, no vote on the eastern, border and the imposition of a communist system. The vote was faked as a 3 yes victory but the only vote actually won was the new border. Only by two thirds and not including all the Germans uprooted in defeat.

Todays stamp is issue A842, a 10 Zloty stamp issued by Poland on May 8th, 1985. It was a three stamp issue on VE day. There was another stamp the next day with Polish troops brought in behind the Red Army at Brandenburg Gate in 1945. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used or unused.

Several time Prime Minister Wladyslaw Gomulka had an interesting road. With little formal education, he apprenticed in metalworking and worked in a refinery  during the 1920s reconstituted Polish state. From this he became involved in the trade union movement and became readicalized. As such he was persecuted by the Polish government whom he viewed as fascist. Communists in Poland were divided between trade unionist and the internationalist intellectuals of mainly Jewish heritage. Though he was not himself of that heritage, Gomulka changed his first name in his writings to Weislaw to try to get ahead. He also self taught himself the Ukrainian language because Poland of the time was looking east to go gross.

Stalin in the late thirties purged many communist parties of the internationalists because he thought they were not loyal enough to him personally. That does not mean they did not head east when both the Soviets and the Germans invaded in 1939. Gomulka stayed in Warsaw and completely renounced the internationalists and let his first name revert. He was in place to be named prime minister during the Red Army occupation. However he did not last long as he was not adequately close to Stalin.

People remembered the new territories stuff. After worker uprisings in the new territories had to be suppressed. Stalin’s buddy himself was conveniently fatally ill and Gomulka was brought back from a persecuted retirement to again be Prime Minister. He managed to end the uprising and prevent the Soviets from invading. Gomulka was getting older however and when workers on the new territories got unruly again in 1970, he put them down brutally and then was forced to resign. Interesting how so many of the uprisings against the communist Polish government came from their “returned” teritories. Maybe they didn’t get rid of as many Germans as they thought?

A modern view of the Gdansk Shipyard in the “returned” northern territory. It was formerlly the Kaiserliche Werft Danzig. It is now part owned by Ukraine so Gomulka might advise modern Poles to look east again

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another while I consider the benefits of stable borders. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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Sri Lanka 2000, Buddhist Monks try and fail to reclaim Sri Lanka’s education system

Sometimes it is enough to appreciate an effort. For thousands of years Buddhist Monks were in charge of education in the Kingdom of Kandy. When Kandy fell to the British, British Anglican based education followed. The Monk on todays stamp is considered “Most Venerable” because he started a Buddhist school that tried to keep monks involved in education. Nice idea, but long after the British, his school is falling down with fewer than 100 students. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Sri Lanka education is really a success story. The country has 96% literacy. The reality however was that the educational system was put in place by the British, with most of the important schools founded, taught, and funded by the British. How annoying! So here we have a counterfactual stamp to make Sri Lankans feel better. A Buddhist Monk who long ago set up the first Buddhist school to rival British education. Wait I thought Buddhist Monks had been in charge of education on Kandy for thousands of years. Confusing, first Buddhist school?.

Todays stamp is issue A595, a 3.5 Rupee stamp issued by Sri Lanka on November 14th, 2000. It was a three stamp issue of famous people, here Baddegama Siri Piyaratana Nayake Thero who founded the Buddhist school in Dodanduaua. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 30 cents used.

The Kandy Empire fell to the British in 1819. The British replaced the Dutch there after the Napoleanic wars and took a more hands on role in governance. Remember during the time of the British East India Company, profit was the motive and so tea plantations were the order of the day. Profits of course were always illusive, see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/12/04/ceylon-1935-hinting-the-money-was-drying-up-for-great-britain/ . The British Governor had wrote back to Britain that there was no point building schools in Ceylon as the local children would not attend as they were too intwined with the Monks. Somehow the Anglican Church saw this as a challenge and soon they were many missionary schools, which found many willing students. As in Britain, the schools in Ceylon were brought under government control in the 1830s, see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/10/11/great-britain-1989-defining-educational-leadership-as-bringing-it-to-the-masses-earlier-than-most/ , and afterward there were Ceylon schools based on the various religions of the students and same sex. This system was expanded in the 20th century to cover ever more of the people.

So where does this leave the Monks. Well Dodanduaua had prospered under the British as they were able to trade the salted fish for which they are known. With the prosperity came a Buddhist religious revival. Monk Thero, he has a lot of names, not just the ones listed above, and Thero is the one I have some hope of spelling, saw the opportunity. He traveled to Burma to get a Upasenpada. a higher level or Ordination. He then returned and built his school on the site of a luxuriant Ginger plant in the shape of a parasol. This was viewed as a good omen. The school did not just teach religion but had a fully equipped science lab paid for by a British Coronel who was impressed with what he saw at the school. Monk Thero worked very hard building the school. He believed you could see God in the sweat generated.

The school still exists and is listed on Sri Lanka’s list of historic places. There are very few students now and the facilities are in sad shape. The School hopes that a dignitary from the National Education Ministry will visit and realize the historical significance and pony up some money. There is about as much chance of that as attracting a modern British Coronel. Maybe they should take inspiration from their founder and build some sweat equity.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Governor Brownrigg. Modern Sri Lanka really has it out for him. In the final battles with Kandy, Brownlee published a list of local “traitors” to his side in the of course English local newspaper. Sri Lanka took that list and redesignated them all national heroes. Yet Sri Lanka apparently wishes Britain had taken Brownlee’s advise on leaving education to the Monks. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Exiled Yugoslavia 1943, remembers a Croatian/Bosnian/German? Bishop

A fake stamp may still be interesting. They can get quite convoluted. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

So this stamp issue started out as a recognized issue, albeit just barely. The stamp was issued with the aim of raising revenue by the Yugoslav Royal government in exile in London. At the bottom of the stamp you can see it was printed in London. The international community, excluding of course the Axis troops then occupying Yugoslavia, still recognized the Royal government as the legitimate representative of the people. So far so good, but the stamp collecting community requires a stamp to also be useful for postage and this stamp was unavailable at Yugoslav post offices. The London Embassy developed a work around. This stamp would be valid for postage no matter how many were printed because it could be used on Yugoslav Navy ships at sea. One submarine and two torpedo boats had escaped to Egypt during the 1941 invasion and very occasionally operated with their old crews under British command. A thin string of legitimacy. That string soon broke. In 1944 the Allies began recognizing the partisans under Tito as the legitimate government. They took over the London Embassy and it’s large stock of unsold copies of this stamp issue. It was not their type of issue and the issue was cancelled. Not however thrown away. In 1950, a 1945 victory overstamp was added to remaining stocks and sold off not for postal use to stamp dealers. This stamp is one of those, so fake.

That does not mean it is not an interesting issue as it recognizes people who the Communists would have mostly found unworthy. I have already covered another stamp from this issue here, https://the-philatelist.com/2018/07/30/communist-yugoslavia-1950-sells-off-the-invalid-exile-stamps/ . On todays stamp, we have a Bosnian Croat Catholic Bishop who became a political figure promoting Croatian nationalism. He is thus an odd figure for a Yugoslav government to be honoring. Especially at a time when Croatia was given independence by the German invaders and one of the first stamp issues of Croatia literally blots out King Peter II’s face. See https://the-philatelist.com/2019/09/20/croatia-1941-crossing-out-peter-ii-is-something-we-all-can-agree-on/ .

Bishop Joseph Strossmayer was born into a German family in the Croat area of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He received Catholic clerical training in Belgrade, Budapest, and Vienna. He was ordained a priest in 1838. He was opposed to what he perceived as then Hungarian domination of Croats politically and served in the Croat Diet, a national assembly. Strossmayer was named Bishop of Diakovar in modern day Bosnia. He founded the wonderfully named Academy of South Slavs. Why don’t they still give out names like that?

As Bishop, Strossmayer ruffled a few feathers. At the Vatican Council he spoke out controversially in favor of Protestantism and reuniting the Catholic Church with the Eastern Orthadox Church. Even more controversially, perhaps even heretically, he spoke out against Papal infallibility and even Papal Primacy. He lost those fights at the Vatican Council and as Bishop was forced to yield “at least outwardly” as he put it, to the official position. He died in 1905.

Well my drink is empty and so I may pour another while I ponder why Bishop Strossmayer would be honored By Yugoslav Royalty. Were he alive, given his background, he would have probably gone along with a German influenced Croatia. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Japan 1987 remembering Goyo for using Japonism to revive Ukiyo-e

The world was becoming a smaller place in the 19th century. European impressionist painters like Van Gogh and Degas had been greatly influenced by Japanese Ukiyo-e style of woodblock print art that was fading fast in Japan. However when a new generation of Japanese artists like Goyo Hashiguci saw what the Europeans were up to, The Shin-hanga style rejuvenated the old style now with more emphasis on light, as with the impressionists. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

The Ukiyo-e style means pictures in a floating world. The revival to succeed had to be commercially viable. So the Shin-Hanga revival included a lot more geishas and even nudes. The Goyo print on this stamp is called “Woman Combing Hair”.The upside of the printing technique is that the numerous prints have more of the hand of the artisans involved. A reprint of this work done in the old way but printed from a modern woodblock is worth $500.

Todays stamp is issue A1300, a 60 yen stamp issued by Japan on April 14th 1987. This stamp and one other with a different Goyo work were issued as part of a philately week. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 30 cents used.

Ukiyo-e was most common in Japan in the 18th and 19th centuries. The most common subject was nature scenes. The style is very labor intensive, not just for the designing artist. The work then goes to a wood carvers who carves the woodblock that will transfer the image. The printer is then responsible for the coloring and the handmade paper on to which the image goes onto. Last but definitely not least is the job of the publisher, whose job it is to promote and distribute the work. Around 1870, Ukiyo-e prints became available in Paris. There they had much influence on the artists who were part of the impressionist movement. This influence is referred to as Japonism.

A Van Gogh portrait of a man selling Ukiyo-e prints in Paris from 1887.

Goyo initially tried his hand at the traditional style of Ukiyo-e at a Japanese art show in 1911. It was not a success. Goyo, not his real name, was then approached by a publisher to do a work more influenced by the use of light by western impressionist. This was the Shin-Hanga movement. It was also more influenced by demand in the world market. The subject was nude and the title was “Bathing”. This work was a big success and the publisher wanted to continue the collaboration. Instead Goyo supervised the artisans involved in later works personally.

Unfortunately Goyo was a sickly man suffering from beriberi and meningitis. When he died in 1921, he had only completed 14 designs. His brother and then nephew stepped in with 7 new designs allegedly taken from Goyo sketches. No doubt helping the value of the original prints, the original woodblocks for making the prints were lost in a Tokyo earthquake in 1923.

The Shin-Hanga movement faded after the war. Modern practitioners tend to do for themselves the woodblock carving and printing. When it is done all by one person, it is called Sosaku-hanga.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Goyo’s publisher of “Bathing”. a Mr. Watanabe. To bad for being shut out of the later success after suggesting the right track for “Goyo”. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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India 1931, The Royal Mail Ship Mooltan, brings the mail and a few passengers

We forget there was a time when bringing the mail was big business. The ship on the stamp was or course a cruise ship, but a big part of its service was bringing mail from Britain to Egypt through the Suez Canal then on to India, Sri lanka, Singapore and Australia. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Todays stamp showed off the British Royal Mail Sevice as practiced in British India. In this case we have a cruise ship, named after a city in the Punjab in the service of delivering the mail to far off colonies. It is interesting how many colonial issues have to do with reminding colonists that their home has not forgotten them. This issue really ran the gamut of how hard Britain worked to stay in touch. Giant ships, whose size was limited by the need to pass through the Suez Canal, planes, trucks, even to the man pushing the cart locally. What a massive operation.

The stamp today is issue A81, a 6 Anna stamp issued by British India in 1931. It was a 19 stamp issue in various denomiations showing the operations of the Royal Mail and King George VI. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 95 cents used.

A Royal Mail Steamer (RMS) is a designation that goes back to 1840. It indicates that the private ship is under contract to carry mail. In theory, if the ship is not carrying mail the name of the ship reverts to SS. The ship will fly the pennant of the Royal Mail and the Crown Emblem, The ship on todays stamp was built in Belfast Northern Ireland by the ship maker Harland and Wolff. Harland and Wolff also built the Titanic, 6 aircraft carriers, and the first supertanker built in the UK. The ship was built for the Peninsular and Oriental Shipping Line was founded originally to take mail to Spain by a Scottish sailor and a London based ship broker. The company later added mail contracts further East. The RMS Mooltan was built around 1920,  named after a city in modern day Pakistan, replacing a similar named ship that had been sunk while requisitioned to World War I troopship service. This RMS Mooltan was also requisitioned for war service in World War II but survived. There was post war less demand for worldwide ship mail service and the ship spent it’s last days taking British emigres to Australia and New Zealand. The ship was scrapped in Faslane in Scotland in 1954.

Already by the time of this stamp there was less profits in moving the mail. The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, a competitor to P&O was the largest shipping company in the world in the 1920s.. It was operating at a loss but denied that and kept paying a dividend. A prospectus was sent out trying to attract additional investors. When the line asked for an extension on money owed the government, the government sent an auditor that found the disguised losses and the omissions from the previously publicized stock prospectus. The managing director, Owen Phillips, the First Baron Kyslant, was jailed and the company was reorganized with heavy government subsidies. The case lead to higher company auditing standards.

Lord Kyslant. jailed head or the Royal Mail Steam Packet Line

The infrastructure that built the machine of the Royal Mail is mostly gone now. Harland and Wolff’s last ship was built in 2003. They tried to make it on ship repairs and a desperate scheme to build off shore wind energy platforms. The company closed just this last August. The parent company of Peninsular and Oriental Lines was sold to Dubai Ports World in 2006. The associated cruise line had previously been sold to Carnival and the commercial shipping arm to Danish firm Maersk. One nod to the old days is that British Airways jets regularly carrying Royal Mail, have the old pennant painted on.

Well my drink is empty and when I look at old stamps like this of the infrastructure to move the mail, I come away amazed how cheap it was to send a letter. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.