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Sunday 30 December 2012

Beginning or End - Sunday Stamps

I had several stamps lined up  to cover the beginning of something as I thought, erroneously, that this was the theme for this week's Sunday Stamps. Now I find the actual challenge is to find a stamp commemorating the end of something.

Nevertheless I am going to proceed with what I had in mind to see if I can get there in the end.

My favourite market stallholder seems to have bought up the collection of a man from the town of Hartlepool. Among a number of first day covers, I found this:

Philatelic Souvenir from Spain
 Inside the envelope was a hand written message on a card.


From this I have deduced that Mother and Dad had begun their holiday in Spain and as you can see the plane was new. Boeings 737s started commercial services in 1968; unfortunately the date on the postmark can't be seen but could have been in the early 1970s.

The postmark tells us the envelope was posted at Malgrat; Malgrat de Mar is situated in the province of Barcelona, Catalonia on the Mediterranean coast of Spain.

The two CEPT stamps with the Europa Bird were first issued in 1961.

The stamps on the bottom row show the Costa Brava and Lope de Vega, author, playwright and poet (1562-1635)

On the top row from left to right are:
  • Torla in the province of Huesca, Aragon. Take a good look at the stamp and compare it with this picture ex wikipedia
Torla (by Gordito1869 - 1987 - CC BY 3.0)
  • Nave Medieval - medieval ship.
  • Betanzosica, Corunna - Emblem, church stamp issued 1967
  • Catedral Sevilla - Seville Cathedral issued in 1965.
That's the last of the stamps I have to offer, Perhaps I should say that Seville Cathedral is a World Heritage Site. It also the burial site for Christopher Columbus so you could claim that his voyages came to an end here.

Don't forget to visit the usual crowd at Viridian's Sunday-stamps-103

11 comments:

Postcardy said...

I like the design of the envelope and the way all the stamps are arranged on it.

Lisa B said...

Very nice cover, these mixed covers are lovely to find. Happy New Year.

21 Wits said...

I could step inside that photo and tour the area. Very nice Sunday Stamp, on theme or not I find it very interesting.

Jo said...

Interesting stamps and a somewhat convoluted way of getting to the end.

I am not familiar with the work of Lope de Vega, but I have read about him before.

Marcie said...

Happy new year!

Sandra Tyler said...

glad you stuck to your own stamp idea. Interesting!

VioletSky said...

this recipient's parents seem to have been generous in adding to the collection - that looks like an awful lot of stamps for the era (the date looks like 11 ago [Aug] 71)

You did an excellent job of getting to an appropriate ending :)

Peter said...

Very nice envelope, Bob. Happy New Year!

Sheila @ A Postcard a Day said...

A perfect end to your story!

Little Nell said...

That's a lot of stamps! I've learned something new again (about Christopher Columbus).

Joy said...

Attractive stamps from "Mother and Dad", it have been received with great excitement. I like the serendipity of finding the message inside, great find.