Plura Scriptum Epistola

Hello Friends!
I am feeling the love at the moment, or more precisely my mailbox is feeling the love, and I just wanted to say thank-you to all the wonderful people who have sent me mail lately.

Postcard from Rohan, my semi-retired jungle-explorer friend (for real!)

This blog is not really supposed to be about the mail I receive, but the thing of it is, stamps and mail go hand in hand.

I love stamps, and I love post. Part of what makes stamps so special though, is that they adorn envelopes, which in turn promise to hold gems of  correspondence. Hand-written personal notes. Ah, the warm and fuzzy feelings I get when I receive hand-written personal notes in my mailbox!

And I certainly felt very warm and fuzzy the other night, when I went to my special "I heart post" post box and found the following amazing card waiting for me, from Carla at 365 Letters; not least of all because this was my first piece of post directly from the blogosphere.

There are so many things that I love about the card, that I feel it warrants a list:

1) Check out the awesome vintage-ness of the colours, the rounded corners and the image. BRILLIANT.

2) This came from Carla's holiday in June 1980... and she labellled the back of the card with that information when she bought it. Swoon. I love a bit of historical record-keeping.

3) THE STAMPS ARE AMAZING (and worthy of an exclamation in capitals). Click on the image above to check them out properly. They are worth it.

4) Did I mention it was the first piece of mail from a random fellow blogger?? 

Yep, I am feeling all warm and fuzzy just looking over it again. Thank-you Carla, you made my day (slash week)!

My parents are travelling at the moment, and they sent me the above lovely postcard from Austria featuring a Gustav Klimt painting... and the Wiener Werkstätte logo on the reverse, with a very nice stamp indeed. And they also sent me a Swedish map postcard. Thank-you parents! Three of my favourite things!

The thing is, with this blog, I have been thinking alot about why I like post so much. The correspondence part is definitely an element. And with that in mind, I recently joined the Letter Writers Alliance, because, I feel like with all this banging on about post that I do, I really should be sending some!

 

And my membership card arrived in the mail last week... and the envelope was enough to make me happy (I am a girl of simple pleasures, it is true).

I can tell you that I do plan on using my "Letter Writers Alliance" membership/superpower for good and not evil. And they have a Latin motto: Plura Scriptum Epistola. I did a Latin major at university, and the only thing I really remember is "Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus". Yep. That is the Hogwarts motto. Never disturb a sleeping dragon. In muggle idiom that would be, "let sleeping dogs lie".

Anyhow, I am all for Latin mottos, and I am very happy to be part of an organisation that has one. So, Plura Scriptum Epistola. I am going to take this on as a personal motto forthwith; and I shall, I shall, write more letters. They probably won't be in Latin.

Thankyou Laura!

Thankyou Sandra - a postcard AND stamps. Yippee!

Oh yes, my friends do know that I love a bit of royal kitsch!

Thankyou Sandy

Thankyou to all the lovely people that have sent me things in the post recently. I do so love post. xx

And last but not least, just in, vintage-post Post from Jaz!  Yay!

Austrian adventures in post

A souvenir stamp from the Republik Osterreich 

When I travel I like to pick up stamps as nice little souvenirs. Stamps can reflect so much of the place that you have just visited, and as a bonus, they don't take up any space in your backpack. Perfecto. A perfecto memento, you could say!

Mozart in Salzburg in 2006!

So when I was in Austria in 2006 I hunted down a little cavernous stamp shop, down a little cobbled street, (at least that's how I remember it). I had to buy the above Mozart first day cover, because my sister Emily and I had not been able to escape the presence of the great maestro during our stay in Salzburg. He was everywhere. On chocolate wrappers. In museums. On banners in the street. On post.

I also bought the above beautiful set of stamps from 1977 which depict St Stephen's Cathedral. The cathedral, which is a striking landmark in Vienna was unfortunately being restored while we were there, which meant it was partially obscured by scaffolding. You can't tell from the scans, but the stamps are quite large - appropriately imposing for such a grand cathedral. And the stamps let me appreciate the icon which I didn't quite get to appreciate while I was there, due to all the pesky scaffolding.

Pariser Postkonferenz 1863-1963. Paris Post Conference - my type of event, I should think.

Admittedly, some stamps I just bought because they appealed purely and simply for their aesthetic value. The Pariser Postkonferenz 1863-1963 doesn't represent anything of my stay in Austria, but it is one damn cool stamp. Check out the hats, for starters! And the mustard background. What a great image. The same goes for the commemorative stamps celebrating 50 years of the Republic. I like the crests that feature in the design, but more than that, the stamps are textured due to the printing process, so they look and FEEL pretty.

I also bought two stamps that feature the art work of Gustav Klimt. These stamps represent something of my holiday, because we visited art galleries in Vienna and saw some of Klimt's work (which I love love love) - but being miniature works of art themselves, they also tick the aesthetic box.

'Hygieia' from Klimt's 'Medicine' ceiling painting for the University of Vienna 

Detail from 'The Kiss' by Gustav Klimt

My favourite Austrian stamp, though, is not actually in my collection. I sourced it on ebay, but then gave it away as a gift (post makes brilliant gifts, I think). The stamp depicts the sculptor Anton Hanak, who was a contemporary of Klimt. I used the stamp as an illustration in a research project for my Masters, which was last year published into a lovely little book by the Duldig Studio.

Hanak was the teacher and mentor to two young sculptors in Vienna, Karl and Slawa Duldig, whose home in Melbourne is now a house museum. Hanak is not very well known in Australia, but this stamp shows that he was acclaimed enough to warrant a stamp from his homeland, and thus the stamp made it into the book.

So how about that... without even being totally conscious of it, I managed to wrangle some post into my first book!* That is how much I love stamps and post!

And if I ever get the chance to return to Austria, now that I have read so much about Hanak, I will certainly be seeking out his sculptures. And right after I do that, I will be seeking out a little stamp shop down a little cobbled street, just to see what other treasures I might find...

(*And if anyone is interested in the book... it's a super great read about art and history and Melbourne and Vienna and so much more, and it is available for $25 from the Duldig Studio, or email me at helenheartspost (at) gmail.com and I will organise a copy for you!)