1970 New Zealand (overprinted 1971 or 1973)

This seemingly simple stamp from my shoebox led me down a bit of a rabbit hole. I picked it out because of its bright colors and appealing design of a Magpie Moth and I figured the price change didn’t get in the way too much. So the original stamp comes from this lovely set of pictorials from 1970 and was designed by Eileen Mayo, but like all printed matter that goes through multiple passes, errors can occur, which you can see documented here. When the rate increased in 1971, there was no longer a use for 2½¢ stamps so they decided to overprint the stamp with a surcharge (which still kind of blows my mind as it seems like a lot of extra, and not so attractive, trouble to go through, but there were more than 37 million stamps left), and apparently the way the surcharge was printed can affect its value. There are actually three variations of the overprint: photogravure on un-perforated sheets and letterpress on perforated single sheets done in England in 1971, and then a letterpress overprinting in New Zealand in 1973. It’s kind of amazing to think of all the details and work that went into this little stamp.

Loved the cover of this book of Bergman scripts that we came across at Powell’s (Grove Press, 1970).

photos by Jeremy

The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. By Washington Irving
Popular Edition, 1848

I found this in a bookstore in the U District in Seattle. The cover is somewhat dirty but otherwise it’s a nice copy of this seminal American book that is more known nowadays for its individual stories than the book itself. You can read more about it here.

This installment of stamps from my shoebox gets an extra family/travelogue spin.

stamp 1985 China; portrait and my brother George at a memorial in Humen, China

I vaguely remember receiving these stamps when I was younger and being told that we’re related to the subject, Lin Zexu, who started the first Opium War. In truth, he is related to our grandma’s cousin, so our claim on him is a bit tenuous, but I always thought it was cool that a distant relative was stamp-worthy. As it turns out, he has not only been commemorated on stamps (these were to celebrate the 200th anniversary of his birth), but there are several memorials and statues of him and he is celebrated as a Chinese hero, scholar, and patriot.

1985 China

We had some down time on our recent trip and took the hour drive from Dongguan City to Humen’s Weiyuan Emplacement, the site of the burning of opium in the above stamp. You can walk through the battlements looking out on the Pearl River and tour a museum that is devoted to the Opium Wars. It had a lot of information and presumed artifacts, but it wasn’t presented in a particularly coherent way (maybe it was just a translation issue). It also had a wing entitled “National Education Base for Anti Drugabuse” which we found comical in its attempt to scare people into not trying drugs. It was a particularly hot day so we didn’t stay long enough to tour the whole area, but it was definitely an interesting historical site and a testament to how history is made by individuals.

Weiyuan Fort below one of China’s longest suspension bridges

walking inside

almost every cannon had tourists posing on it–funny to think of how many people will have the same exact shot of their visit

I really liked the design of their tickets. It was free to get in, but you had to show your passport.

Humen Naval Battle Museum

Pictures weren’t allowed in the museum, but I couldn’t help myself in the Anti Drug hall. I wish I could have properly captured the entrance relief sculptures of the horrors of drugs, but here’s an idea. I don’t mean to make light of drug abuse, but their approach was so propagandist and over the top.

uh, don’t do drugs or you’ll end up sitting in front of a chain link fenced graffiti wall

I was recently visiting Dongguan in China’s Guangdong Province on a family-related trip. It’s not really a city that tourists would visit and I hadn’t been in almost ten years and didn’t have particularly fond memories of it. To my surprise, it has blossomed into a real metropolitan city and become much more pleasant with lots of greenery and better air quality than a decade ago. I had pretty low expectations of having anything of interest to do there, but on our first night, we went to a vegetarian restaurant and then stumbled upon this little shop/cafe called Swallow Book Bar.

It was a charming hangout and had a pretty good selection of books considering we were in industrial China. After a browse, we were headed out the door when a book caught my eye. It was in Chinese (I can pick out a few characters but that’s about it as far as reading goes), but it looked promising as something that might have some good drawings. However it was shrinkwrapped and the woman working at the counter couldn’t tell me much about what I would find inside. I made out that it was by a Japanese artist, but that was the extent of it. So I literally judged this book by its cover and decided to take a chance on it (thanks go to Vicky who insisted on paying for it).

We unwrapped it as soon as it was paid for and I was pleased to find great drawings of hotel rooms (usually on hotel letterhead), street scenes, and scenery. There are lots of notes on the sketches with wonderful details and I got a real feel for the travel even if I couldn’t read the essays.

I finally got to do a little more research when I got home and I was surprised to find that instead of a 30-something woman (I guess that’s just who I expect drawn travelogues from?), this book was by an older Japanese male designer/architect, Kazuya Ura. I haven’t found too much of his work online except the book Superior Interior Renovations, which seems like a more formal study, but also has some sketchbook drawings like this book. I wish I could find out more about this book in English, but I had to settle for a Google translation of the Chinese publisher CITIC’s page. I’m not even totally sure I have the title correct. It’s translated in the book as “Tabi Wa Guest Room” but I decided to defer to the title on his Nikken Space Design profile, “Tabi ha Guestroom” (Travel is Guestroom). I hope to one day sit down and figure out what he says in his writings, but for now I’ll just enjoy the art.

I’m still not totally sure how the whole “Christmas in July” thing seeped into our consciousness, but Wikipedia does give the history a go. I’m just taking it as an opportunity to show off some of the myriad of Christmas stamps from my box. Seems like the majority are from Canada so here’s a gander at what our friends to the north have offered in Christmases past!

These Chinese brush-painted pandas from my box of stamps are too cute. No, really. I always thought they were more contemporary looking than traditional brush paintings–I think it’s the way they’re stylized with the Mickey Mouse ears and the eyes (they look like little beads that were add-ons after the paintings were done). Actually, if you scroll down this forum page, you can see the first day covers and they’re in a more traditional style, but the other panda stamp released that year is way more so.

And well, it’s no wonder they’re so cute. Turns out the artist who painted these, Han Meilin, was the creator of the 2008 Beijing Olympics mascots.

1985 China

1984 Canada

I love the design of these stamps of Trefflé Berthiaume from my box. I had no idea who he was, but all the text running over his portrait was mesmerizing. Turns out he was a Canadian typographer, newspaperman, and politician, and this stamp marks the 100th anniversary of La Presse, a newspaper he rescued in 1889 and used to champion many social causes. But apparently the stamp has some infamy of its own–I saw it referred to as “the monkey-in-the-hat stamp” because when it’s turned upside down, there seems to be a small monkey in the hat. I’ll leave that up to you.

Today is Walt Whitman’s birthday and there is a lot written about his personal life and his life as a writer, but much less is written about him as a bookmaker. He self-published most editions (including the first edition) of Leaves of Grass and was heavily involved in the production of all of his books, even as he advanced in age. The third edition of Leaves of Grass is a particular highlight with some amazing hand-drawn typography on the cover (he made eight different editions of Leaves, each one re-written and re-edited with new poems and arrangement as well as design, basically creating eight different books). There is a great book called Whitman Making Books/Books Making Whitman which is entirely online as part of the Whitman Archive and goes into real depth about the making of each edition and I highly recommend checking it out even if all you are only interested in is book design. The University of Iowa Press released a facsimile edition of the 1860 Leaves of Grass that you can buy at their website.

Here are some images of the various covers of the third edition of Leaves of Grass (1860):

above image from Whitman Archive

above images are from University of Virginia

Original brass dies used for 1860 edition

all eight editions of Leaves of Grass

above images from Library of Congress

After watching the epic “Andrei Rublev” last night, it only seemed appropriate to share this awesome stamp from my box celebrating the 50th Anniversary Year of Talking Pictures.

1977 USA