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Awesome Åland
“In philately a maximum card (also known as a maxi-card, or maxicard) is a postcard with a postage stamp placed on the picture side of the card where the stamp and card match or are in maximum concordance (similarity).”
Wikipedia definition from Maximaphily page
This beautiful maxi-card features an illustration by stamp designer Allan Palmer. Allan has contributed several issues of Åland postage stamps, each a portrait of a sailing ship. Ships figure prominently on the stamps of this little archipelago.
There were no fewer than seven stamps used altogether: one on the front of the postcard and six on the back. The first is another of Palmer’s tall ships; the second “1 klass” celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Åland flag.
The Åland islands are a small Swedish-speaking community of about 30,000 people. Compared with the Isle of Wight (that internationally recognised standard geographic measure, between “a football pitch” and “an area the size of Wales”) Åland has less than a quarter of the population on 60-80 inhabited islands with a total land area over four times the size of the IW!
Letter from the Philippines
On the lower right of the cover is a beautiful portrait of the Filipino actor Gloria Romero who is now in her 90th year. The “Queen of Philippine Movies” had been performing for 70 years when this stamp was issued in her honour in 2022, as part of a “Living Legends” series to celebrate 75 years since the first stamps of the Republic of Philippines appeared.
The other stamps on the cover celebrate the longer history of a postal service that began with the opening of the territory’s first post office in Manila in 1767, when it was administered as a district of Spain. This is part of a sheet featuring two of the four designs from an issue from November 2017. The 16th century Galleon and the 18th century “bagadero”(?) on horseback. (The other two designs show a 19th century train and a 20th century bicycle postman.)
Enclosed were a letter from Lou, a mini-sheet of stamps and a postcard of Rizal Park. The park is named for José Rizal. I had to admit my ignorance here, but he was a very important figure in the history of the Philippines. He was a novelist, poet, essayist and playwright. His writings and political activism gave energy to the revolution that gave rise to the country’s independence, but not before the Spanish authorities had executed Rizal. He is now considered a National Hero.
On a lighter note, also enclosed was this mini-sheet featuring the art of Larry Alcala (1926-2002), a celebrated illustrator and cartoonist. These are fun designs issued to commemorate the late artist and the posthumous conferment of the title of National Artist in 2018.
Links
- Maximaphily – Wikipedia
- Åland – Wikipedia – a Swedish-speaking autonomous region of Finland.
- José Rizal – Wikipedia – the polymath who inspired a revolution.
One response to “PostDay – 20th January 2023”
The sketch of the sailing ship is very fine. Notice that the sails are facing towards us in the sketch, but away from us on the stamp. Why does the name ‘Aland’ appear on Finnish stamps? Do the islands have some autonomy, like the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands?
Filipinos seem to like a party! What are the ladies centre-left preparing in the three white boxes?