Tag: Sweden stamp

Sweden fought it’s last war over 200 years ago. That in itself might have guaranteed fast development. Fast development means much change and dislocations. Some of those changes still show their effects. 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 bulk postage, (if only it was unused) puts the numeric value front and center. Sweden had just followed Germany’s lead and moved to a gold instead of a silver backed currency. They had also entered a monetary union with old rival Denmark. Remember at the time Sweden controlled Norway, and Denmark controlled Iceland, so if not for those pesky Russians in Finland, Scandinavia was coming together and taking off.

Todays stamp is issue A5 a 12 Ore stamp issued by the Kingdom of Sweden in 1872. It was a 32 stamp issue that came out over several years and had to take into account the currency change. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1 used. Sometimes old bulk postage issues are worth much more unused and that is the case here. The unused value of this stamp rises to $225. An imperforate pair of them rises to $1,000.

Agriculture was changing rapidly in 19th century Sweden. There was a move from village based large communal farms under rich often absentee landowners to smaller much more productive personally owned farms. You can guess this lead to what to do with excess sons. Farms tend to want to get bigger not be subdivided between heirs. So what to do with the excess boys. Well even with a pacifist foreign policy, there was still military conscription offering that traditional relief valve. There was also fairly rapid industrialization in the growing cities. What perhaps changed  Sweden the most was sending over a million immigrants to North America. At the time the population of Sweden was under 5 million.

In the short run sending them off made sense. Some returned having made a fortune. The ones that stayed had less competition and more was being done for them. Schooling became much more complete and began taking on a more physical component to retain fitness absent farm work. Mandatory gymnastics that resembled Asian martial arts were added for both boys and girls. Far more skiing that at the time took on a military flavor became common.

At first there was political change but in the 19th century it was mostly finessed. Up until the 1870s there was no Prime Minister and the legislature was a single house comprising wealthy landowners. New King Oscar II slowly allowed a few changes. The new Prime Minister was just the old Foreign Minister and there would now be a new bicameral legislature. The old order mostly survived though and why not, things were working.

One thing that might not have worked so well was letting all those young men go abroad to make their lives away. More education and living in cities leads to later and smaller families. Now Sweden finds itself short of people and as opened itself up to much immigration. The population is still only 10 million with a quarter of those being of immigrant heritage. One third of children have at least one foreign born parent. With the change lead to the new Somalis and Syrians learning to love gymnastics and skiing or will Sweden have to change to accommodate to what the new folks love?

Well my drink is empty and I may have another while I brood over my copy of todays stamp being used. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

It was very common in the 19th century for poets to put their work to music in a sing along fashion to bring their work to a wider audience. In Sweden such people were known as visas. In the 20th century, Swedes became again well traveled, and Evert Taube was able to build on the old traditions by adding a wider view of the world including the seeds of social protest that so took over the tradition. Sounds like a man who should collect postage stamps. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and plug in your guitar. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This stamp issue is trying to do too much. Taube’s songs had romanticized views of areas that might suggest that people might want to visit. One can imagine that a stamp issue by a government may subvert Taube’s stamps to promote tourism to the places he loved, at least the ones in Sweden. Taube probably wouldn’t have minded. He should have minded the Swedish postal tradition of drab coloring and uninspired presentation.

Todays stamp was issue A337, a 95 Ore stamp issued by Sweden on May 2nd, 1977. It was a 5 stamp issue in various denominations honoring visa Evert Taube a year after his death. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 45 cents whether used or unused.

Evert Taube was born in 1890 to a wealthy noble family. His father was a ship captain and Taube himself sailed far and wide in the Mediterranean and to Ceylon and Argentina. His style of singing could be done with the accompaniment of a full orchestra or stripped down to just a guitar and accordion. The songs were several verses of poetry that invited singing along to. His time in Argentina brought Sweden it’s first taste of the tango and Taube often sung with the affectations of the Gaucho. You can watch a sample of his singing in 1966 here https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=evert+taube&view=detail&mid=1ACDC6987DC5F19E92A71ACDC6987DC5F19E92A7&FORM=VIRE.

Over time the music became more political. Taub had witnessed Italian colonial wars in Africa and became an ardently anti war and anti fascist. That was no doubt a popular view in neutral Sweden. His musical poetry on the beauty of nature also appealed to the rising ecology movement. Throwing in this political stuff will tend to chase off people like me but often has the opposite effect on those into the politics. It becomes a gateway to letting them more fully explore the tradition that the music comes from. All too often, in my opinion, the artistry and poetry get pushed aside by more modern practitioners who would rather get straight to the politics. Imagine all the… yuk.

I mentioned that Taube’s work found a new audience in his old age from the new protest movement. This didn’t work well for Taube personally. In 1969, at age 79, Taube’s vacation home was burned down by a 37 year old women named Mona. She was diagnosed as a schizophrenic and institutionalized. Her story was that he promised marriage and delivered a psyche ward. Taube had been married since 1925 and remained so till his death. Mona became famous as an early celebrity stalker.

Well my drink is empty but I will always have time to pour another to toast a great troubadour er visa. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting

Back when Kings really ruled, dreams could become reality. 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 is not very well printed. It is somewhat a surprise since this is a modern stamp from an advanced country. That the subject matter is so good, the Chinese Pavilion is what earned the site UNESCO heritage status, is a further letdown.

The stamp today is issue A204, a 2 Krona stamp issued by the Kingdom of Sweden on August 28th, 1970. It was a single stamp issue celebrating a year late the 200th anniversary of the Chinese Pavilion at Drottningholm Palace Park. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used despite it’s high for the time denomination.

King Adolf Fredrick planned a surprise for his Queen Louisa Ulrika on her birthday in 1753. A Chinese style Pavilion was designed off site and quickly assembled of logs on site. A walk through the Gardens on her birthday culminated in the new addition to the Palace grounds. 7 year old Crown Prince Gustav, dressed in the garb of a Chinese Mandarin Scholar presented his mother with a golden key to the new structure. Queen Louisa Ulrika wrote her mother in Prussia that it was like walking into a fairy tale.

The log structure proved to be unable to cope with the Swedish climate and within 10 years it was badly rotted. A new much larger pavilion was built of stone. That has lasted and what appears on the stamp. The Pavilion also inspired neighboring Kantongaten that housed small lace manufacturers and silk weavers. At the end of the street was a another small Chinese style house. This is where a later Prince kept his ballet dancing mistress, Sophie Hagman. According to Swedish poet Bellman, Her entire being was a feast for the eyes. So I can see why it would be good to keep her handy.

The palace is still used by the Royals today. In 2010, the Chinese Pavilion was broken into and the collection of priceless Chinese artifacts stolen. The thieves were in and out in 6 minutes and escaped on a moped and the police think by boat. No artifacts were recovered and no arrest was made.

Well my drink is empty and so I will open the conversation in the below comment section. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.