The Tristan Da Cunha postal administration has issued 6 stamps and 1 miniature sheet to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the publication of Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures In Wonderland". I have not seen any details about this issue yet but the art used in the designs is clearly that of the artist, Victor Ambrus, who also designed the other recent issue from the island titled The Great Lifeboat Disaster (see Blog 657).
My immediate reaction to seeing this issue was "why on earth is Tristan Da Cunha issuing stamps on the subject of Alice In Wonderland?" until I realised that the connection between the book and the island lay in the author's name which of course was actually Charles Dodgson. Dodgson's younger brother, the Rev. Edwin Dodgson, served as the island's pastor from 1881 to 1884 and 1886 to 1889. So Tristan Da Cunha has a very satisfactory reason to issue these particular commemoratives. Rating:- *****.
Post scriptum:- The issue was released on 1 December 2015 and lithographed by BDT International.
Meanwhile, my attention was drawn to an interesting philatelic item/work of art by the Machin Mania Blog which mentioned an item produced and sold by the artist Darren Cullen at the temporary anti-theme park which was set up during the autumn by the famous artist Banksy in the English West Country sea-side resort of Weston-super-Mare.
The inspiration for the exhibition could easily be deduced from its name - Dismaland. I visit Weston quite frequently mainly for my dog to have highly enjoyable swims in the sea but the holding of Dismaland unfortunately did not coincide with one of my visits and the exhibition had closed by the time of my most recent trip there - though on a bitterly cold, dark, wet, very windy autumn weekend day one could easily believe that the whole resort had turned into Dismaland.
I have managed to obtain an example of Cullen's pseudo-Machin Head stamp which seems to be printed on thick, glossy photograph paper and is crudely perforated with ellipses at the lower vertical edges. The design incorporates "1st" in the place where the value is found on a real Royal Mail definitive stamp and the overall effect is very grim and unpleasant since the base of the Queen's neck has a red ring so that the design of this item has been called the "Beheaded Queen".
This may be considered to have more relevance to the world of art than the world of philately but it is an interesting illustration of the iconic nature of the Machin Head design and how it has become a normal and immediately recognisable part of British life so much so that subversive artists make use of it to make their political points.
Another example of an artist's adaptation of the Machin Head is that by James Cauty who produced designs of the stamp with a gas mask fixed to The Queen's face in response to news stories of a possible chemical attack on London by the then Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein.
As well other designs, Cauty produced 3 "values" (1st, 2nd and 3rd) in different colours and these became the subject of legal action by Royal Mail against him in 2003 where copyright infringement was alleged. After the court action a "new postal service" was started - "The CNPD" (Cortese National Postal Disservice) and over the following 2 years 134 stamp designs were produced many of which were printed as stamps and first day covers. Not surprisingly, none of these are to be found in the Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogues - not even in the Appendix!
Anyone wanting to buy one mint example of all the stamps and miniature sheets released by Philatelic Collector Inc. in its latest grouping of emissions will be charged US $313.48c (£206.35p) by the agency for the pleasure of doing so. So, what do you get for your money? :-
Cook Islands - (see also Blog 668) - 20 November 2015 - Achievement of Queen Elizabeth II in becoming the longest reigning British monarch - 1 sheetlet of 4 different stamps. Rating:- **.
Cook Islands Aitutaki - 20 November 2015 - Achievement of Queen Elizabeth II in becoming the longest reigning monarch of Britain - 1 sheetlet of 4 different stamps. Rating:- 0.
9 December 2015 - Christmas - 1 miniature sheet of 3 different stamps. rating:- 0.
Cook Islands Penrhyn - 20 November 2015 - Achievement of Queen Elizabeth Ii in becoming Britain's longest reigning monarch - 1 miniature sheet of 4 different stamps. Rating:- 0.
9 December 2015 - Christmas - 1 miniature sheet of 3 different stamps. Rating:- 0.
Samoa - 5 November 2015 - Oceania 21 Cilmate Change Conference and United Nations Climate Change Conference, Paris - 4 stamps (2 se-tenant pairs) and 1 miniature sheet of 4 different stamps. Rating:- ***.
15 September 2015 - Express Mail Rate stamps ($10, $12.50, $56.25 and $75) - sold as single values, se-tenant strips of 4 (1 of each value) and 1 miniature sheet containing 1 of each value - the completist collector will therefore have 3 versions of all values to buy!. Rating:- 0.
16 November 2015 - Achievement of Queen Elizabeth II in becoming the longest reigning British monarch - 1 miniature sheet of 4 different stamp. Rating:- 0.
4 December 2015 - Christmas 1 miniature sheet of 3 different stamps. Rating:- 0.
Tonga - (see also Blog 668) - 23 November 2015 - Achievement of Queen Elizabeth II in becoming the longest reigning British monarch - 1 miniature sheet of 4 different stamps. Rating:- ***.
7 December 2015 - Christmas - 1 miniature sheet of 4 different stamps. Rating:- 0.
Tonga Niuafo'ou - 25 September 2015 - Chinese New Year - Year of The Monkey (not depicted in Blog 668) - 2 stamps (with security markings visible under ultraviolet light) and 1 miniature sheet). Rating:- 0.
23 November 2015 - Achievement of Queen Elizabeth Ii in becoming the longest reigning British monarch. Rating:- 0.
7 December 2015 - Christmas - 1 miniature sheet of 4 different stamps. Rating:- 0.
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