Showing posts with label Europa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Europa. Show all posts

Monday, October 15, 2018

France: St Jean de Moirans



This envelop specifies that it is "philatelic correspondence," probably to let postal workers know to treat it carefully. Probably it is merely the postmark which the sender wanted to conserve through the postal journey. The stamp is Scott 2664, issued 13 June 1998, for a National Music Festival. It was the Europa theme for that year. As such it is at least tangentially related to the postmark. The instrument in St Jean de Moirans was installed in 1978 by Xavier Silbermann. The same builder added stops to the pedal division in 1981 which completed the instrument. It is small, a mere 713 pipes.  This site gives the specification and a few more photographs. Finally this site also discusses this little instrument. This one notes a need for restoration work on the organ, and a fund that has been set up for the project. Without more information it would seem the postmark is simply to promote a series of concerts on the organ scheduled for 18 June 1998. Moirans, France is in the former Rhone-Alpes department of France, near the Swiss and Italian borders. At a little less than 8000 residents, the population is similar to the town where I currently live!


I recently came across this envelop as I was doing some more cataloging of my collection. It shows a pretty view of the church in the cachet. The postmark shows the organ and some pipes, though it is faint.


Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Netherlands: Street organ


This stamp was issued as part of a set of two in 1981. It features a street organ. These instruments are self-contained and built on carts that can be towed or otherwise moved from place to place. These are apparently quite a thing in the Netherlands, as a cursory image search revealed many, many images. I am not able to determine the maker of this particular instrument. It has three openings for sound to emerge from the works. It seems that it was designed to be moved by hand, rather than self-propelled or towed by a vehicle. The other stamp in the set (issued for the Europa theme "folklore and customs") depicts bells. The present stamp, Scott 614, is denominated 65c.

Saturday, January 18, 2014

Russia: JS Bach


Much like the 1985 issue from Poland, this stamp is a small souvenir sheet that includes a single stamp. Scott 5346 was issued in 1985, honoring the birth 300 years earlier of JS Bach. The present stamp features stylized pipes and wood-scrollwork in the selvage. An inscription at the bottom notes the anniversary year. The stamp itself also shows Bach's signature.

Netherlands: Europa, 1985



The Netherlands prepared a pair of stamps for the 1985 music year. Scott 669-670 feature a piano keyboard on the low-value and  stylized organ pipes on the 70c stamp.