Yngve Ekström' furniture

I've just returned from having been away from home for three weeks so I wasn't expecting to be able join in this week's Sunday Stamps.  During most of that time I've had my Postcrossing account inactive but I changed it back to active last Wednesday evening - and the postcards have already flooded in!

Are you sitting comfortably?  Then I'll begin...

One of those cards, by happy chance, comes from Sweden and the stamp is one from a set that features Swedish furniture design.  This particular stamp shows the Lamino chair and stool by Yngve Ekström, designed in 1956.

This is a post for Sunday Stamps, now hosted by Violet Sky at "See it on a Postcard!"

Esbjörn in the armchair

Carl Larsson was a Swedish artist and interior designer.  He married a fellow artist they went on to have 8 children, many of whom featured in his paintings.  Esbjörn, born in 1900, was his youngest and this picture shows him in an armchair.  It is a watercolour dated 1912 and can be found in the National Museum in Stockholm.

The card was sent to me from the Netherlands.

Stockholm palaces

The Swedish royal family has three palaces:  the Royal Palace in Stockholm which is their official residence and workplace, the Drottningholm Palace which is their permanent residence, and Solliden, a summer residence.

The two pictured on the card are the Royal Palace, above, and the Drottningholm Palace, below.  The Drottningholm Palace is also on the UNESCO World Heritage List because it is a fine example of an 18th century palace along the lines of Versailles.

the card is a type of multi-view, something I hadn't realised at first glance, thinking the buildings were facing each other across a river.  I don't know if there is a technical term for this type of image, where one fades into the other with no lines in between.  I've been misled by them in the past.

Moomins

The Moomins are a Swedish/Finnish phenomenon, a family of trolls living in the forest, whose story was brought to the world by author and illustrator Tove Jansson.  The characters shown here are Moomin who is leading Snufkin, his best friend, by the hand.  Little My, on Snufkin's hat, is his half sister.  She is described as "small, determined and fiercely independent".

I've often seen people asking for Moomin postcards and I think I'm beginning to understand why.

Kastelholm castle

I love the look of this castle, so very different from the medieval castles I know from other countries.  In France they often look like fairytale castles but this one is so solid, massive and so impressive.

Kastelholms slott, to give it its Swedish name, was originally built on a small island surrounded by moats.  It is on Åland, the main island of the archipelago of the Åland Islands which consists of over 6000 islands or islets.  It is an autonomous region of Finland where Swedish is spoken.  It is separated from Sweden by only 38 kilometres (24 miles) of water.

The castle was built in the 1380s, but severely damaged in 1599.  It was repaired but burned down in 1745. It has - obviously - been reconstructed and restored, and now is a major tourist attraction.

Swedish post 1913 to 1927

A staged street scene showing a delivery van from what was then the Royal Postal Agency.  This type of van went into service in May 1913 and and was used until 1927.

When I turned the card over I was surprised to see this sheet covering the stamps.  I haven't seen anything like that before but it worked very well. 

Both the sheet and the stamps were franked.  Three of the four stamps are Christmas issues.

The one at the bottom right is from 1972 but it's the only one I've been able to identify so far.  I will keep looking.

This is a post for Sunday Stamps, now hosted by Violet Sky at "See it on a Postcard!"

Lighthouse

Unnamed, but sent to me from Sweden. A beautiful summery scene.

Linköping in Sweden

I have been very lucky recently to have been sent some really beautiful cards.  This from Linköping is one of them.

I'm sorry to say I'd never heard of the place.  It turns out to be a city in southern Sweden, the centre of a region which celebrated 700 years of existence in 1987.  It is especially well known for its cathedral and the spire can be seen clearly on the skyline and on this card.

In 2006 a sculpture of a dog on a roundabout in Linköping was vandalised, and had to be removed.  people started placing home-made dog sculptures on roundabouts in the city and then further afield.  The phenomenon has spread to other countries and now they have started appearing in Hemel Hempstead, in England.