Map stamps post!

Hello blog-world! It has been a little while and I have missed you! I have wanted to share this wonderful package that I received from  João in Brazil for ages - but it has taken me a little while to get my act into gear. First of all - let's appreciate the gorgeous envelope.

How cool is it that there is a special postmark that matches the stamps? Crazy cool!! It is sometimes hard to judge scale on these scanned images of stamps, but the animal stamps are lovely big square stamps. My favourite though, are the stamps the ones that refer to bookplates: the ex libris stamps.

Aren't these stamps wonderful?  They feature bookplates AND a world map. Two of my favourite things! Anyhow, if you think the outside of the envelope was cool... wait til you see what is inside!

I think I love little envelopes of stamps more than I love albums of stamps. I love the colours through the glassine paper of the envelopes, I love that the envelopes are mini, and I love that a little envelope of stamps makes you thumb through the stamps so that you can appreciate them in a more tactile way than if you have them stuck in the austere pages of an album.

Of course, traditional philatelists would be horrified at the thought of grubby oily hands on precious stamps, but I just can't resist the temptation of getting a little collection like this, from a little pocket, and spreading it over the table and admiring each individual stamp, picking them up one by one and examining them.

To do that in a blog sense, to spread the stamps from the above little pocket all over the desk and appreciate them one by one, I have scanned a sample for you to enjoy:

Fantastic collection of map stamps, right? And this is only a sample! Thankyou  João! I am still collecting a few little things to send to you in return.

This weekend in Melbourne it is probably the biggest weekend in philately circles for the year/decade... it is the World Stamp Expo 2013! So you know what I am going to be busy doing this weekend!! I will be sure to let you know how it goes.

Thankyou João: Sunday Stamps

Last week I received this amazing letter from João in Brazil, which was a great delight. João contacted me after I put up a post about Australia's Christmas stamps and asked whether I would like to do a stamp swap, as he collects Christmas themed stamps.

The 2012 Christmas stamps are pretty cool, as you can see - they are round (interesting) and presented with a very nice cancellation. The Christmas stamps are great, but it was the other stamp on the envelope that totally caught my attention:

How wonderful! A stamp featuring a palaeontologist. João totally has me pegged. I really love the stamp design as well - the black and white portrait sketch against the intriguing background of a cave full of fossils. Awesome. Great stamp.

Inside the envelope João also sent me a couple of extra treats as well as mint copies of the two round Christmas stamps. My favourite was this clever stamp paying homage to libraries. I love it:

Books forming the architecture of the library. Fantastic. I know I am often a little too liberal with my superlatives, but this stamp is pretty darn magnificent. To be honest, I don't know which stamp I love more: the bibliotheque or the palaeontologist. A very hard call. But I am thrilled to now have them both in my collection.

João also threw in one more little surprise, a strip of stamps featuring female aviators.

What a fantastic treat in my mailbox from  João. Thank you so much! And it is lovely to share these little gems as part of Sunday Stamps this week. Check out other stamp blogs this Sunday, here: