New Dickens stamps from Royal Mail

 

To be issued on 19 June 2012

To celebrate the bicentenary of Dickens' birth Royal Mail is to celebrate his life and work of with ten new stamps to be issued on 19 June.

The stamps feature iconic characters from some of his most famous novels, including Mr Bumble from Oliver Twist, Mr Micawber from David Copperfield and Captain Cuttle from Dombey and Son.

Six of the stamps feature original illustrations adapted from Character Sketches from Charles Dickens, by Joseph Clayton Clarke (otherwise known as Kyd) and originally published around 1890.

Royal Mail is also issuing a miniature sheet of four stamps of illustrations by Hablot Knight Brown, (known as Phiz), who illustrated ten books by the author.

 

From our Readers….

 

New meter stamp impressions

Two new meter stamp impressions of  ‘remotely managed franking system’ (RMFS) machines.

I have marked some points in the illustrations with Question Marks. I would like to know what these numbers / letters indicate in the meter stamps.

- Madan Middha – Gwalior

email : madan_middha@yahoo.co.in

Club News

New MICHEL South Asia Catalogue 2012

Prices of Indian stamps upgraded…..

After many years, prices of modern Indian stamps has been upgraded in International stamp catalogue, which will enhance interest of Indian philatelists, dealers and investors by large.

 

: Shrikant Parikh – Ahmedabad    Read More…

New stamp by India Post  on Jain personality : Karpoor Chandra Kulish on 16th May 2012

India Post is issuing a commemorative stamp on Jain personality and renowned journalist Karpoor Chandra Kulish on 16thMay 2012. He was founder of Rajasthan Patrika Group which is among India’s leading Hindi Media Groups.

He was born on 20th of March, 1926 in Soda village of Tonk district of Rajasthan. He started his journalistic life in 1951 and the major turn in his life came in the year 1956 when he started an evening daily in the form of Rajasthan Patrika. Started with this small newspaper, developed into a big Media Group. Today, newspapers of this Group are published in over 30 editions in 7 states. Patrika family comprises of around 1 crore
and 94 lakhs readers per day.

He received “Haldi Ghati award” in 1983, “B.D Goenka award” in 1987, All India Editor's Guild Award” in 1999, “ Dr. Headgevar Pragya award” in 1993. He was also conferred with “Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi award”  He also composed 11 Vedas in a single volume which is considered as the largest and most bulky in terms of weight in the world.  He died on 17th Jan. 2006.

- Sudhir Jain – Satna (MP)

Books on Philately

 

 

     

Hi ! I am giving here the list of books on Philately, compiled by Dr Bibhudutta Mishra, Bhubaneshwar. Readers may send the names of books which have not been mentioned in the list . It will be included in the list and re published on the blog.

 

List of Indian Books on Philately

Sl. No	Name of Books	Author	Publisher	Year of Publication	Price Rs & Lang.
1	The Post Office of India	Ananda Gopal Sen		1875
2	Postal History & Practice	I G J Hamilton		1910
3	Early Indian Cancellations	Jal Cooper		1948, facsimile reprint, 1995
4	India Used Abroad.	Jal COOPER		1950 100pp.
5	Story of the Indian Post Office	Mulk Raj Anand		1955
6	Post Card Catalogue of India and Indian States 1879 - 1979	Madhukar Jhingan		1979
7	Army Post Office & Philately (A Selection of Philatelic Articles)	Brig D S Virk		1980
8	Hyderabad Philatelic History	M A Nayeem		1980
9	Gwalior	Prof V K Gupta		1980
10	Essays on Postal History	several authors		1980
11	From the Diary of Stephen Smith	D N Jatia		1980
12	Indian Army Post Offices in Second World War	Brig D S Virk		1982
13	Slogans and Special Postmarks of India 1875-1947	Ashok Kumar Bayanwala		1982
14	India used Abroad	Vispi S Dastur		1982
15	Postal Censorship in India	Brig D S Virk		1983
16	Postal History of Zemindari Dawk	M L Majumdar		1984
17	Madras GPO Earlier Postal History of Madras Presidency	M M Inamdar		1986
18	Bombay GPO Earlier Postal History of Bombay Presidency	M M Inamdar		1986
19	Local Postal Service of Thikana Khetri (Jaipur State) and Its Fiscals	O P Bhatnagar		1988
20	Postal History of Indian Campaigns :Sikkim - Tibet 1903 -1908	Brig D S Virk et el.		1989
21	A Study of East India Half Anna Stamp	Dr A Y Kantharia		1989
22	Bibliography - Indian Philately			1989
23	Ajmer Postal History	J M Dhor & T C Ranjan		1989
24	Registration Receipts & Acknowledgment Forms of Indian Post Office	Col. L G Shenoi		1989
25	Imperial Post Offices of British India	M L Majumdar	2 volumes	1990
26	Philately	S.P.Chatterjee	NCERT, New Delhi	1990 94 pages	26.50 (English)
27	Indian Postal History 1873 - 1923	Brig. D S Virk		1991
28	Postal History of Indian Campaigns :China Expeditionary Force 1900 -1923	Brig D S Virk et el.		1992
29	Early History and Growth of Postal System in India	M L Majumdar		1995
30	Philately for the young	Mathew Varki	Children’s BookTrust, New Delhi	1996 100 pages	50.00 (English)
31	Indian Telegraphs 1851 - 1914 Philatelic & Operational History	I Patel & D Desai		1996
32	Conservation, restoration and Philatelic Chemistry	Prof V K Gupta		1997 208 pages	1500.00
33	Classics of India	G B Pai		1997
34	The Scinde Dawks & Lithographs of India	D E Wadia		1997
35	Stamps of Indian Native States	P M Medhora		1997
36	Thematic Philately	Prof V K Gupta		192 pages	250.00
37	Calcutta GPO	M L Majumdar		1998
38	Indian Airgraphs	Manohar Lal		1999
39
40	Brahmini Dawk: History of Postal Communication in Mewar	R K Sarawagi & M Deogawanka		1999
41	Sorath Stamps & Postal History	R A Malaviya		1999
42	Collecting Stamps	Balchand and Jaya Pai	Children's Book Trust, New Delhi, India	1999	20.00
43	India's Bi-colored Four Annas 1854	D N Jatia		2000
44	How to collect stamp	A.S.Mittal	Adarsha Prakashan, Jaipur	2000	25.00 (English)
45	A Brief History of the Army Postal Service Corps,	Brig S K Sen		2002
46	An Approach to History of Post Office in India and Other Essays	Shivnath		2002
47	Hand Book of Philately	Secretary, Dept. of Post, Govt. of India	Dept. of Post	2003 60 pages	16.00 (English)
48	Dakatikata Sangraha Kaise Karein	A.S.Mittal	Adarsha Prakashan, Jaipur	2004	20.00 (Hindi)
49	Milepost	West Bengal Circle India Post		2005
50	Stamp collecting today	Sangeeta Devgawanka	Vasundhara Publication, Kolkatta	2005 73 pages	96.00 (English)
51	Gandhi Handbook	Manik Jain & Mrinal Kanti Ray		2006
52	Window to Philately	B.Padmini	Sura Books Pvt. Ltd., Chennai	2007 124 pages	70.00 (English)
53	Stamp Quizzes-A handbook of Philatelic Trivia & Quizzes	Anil Dhir	Amadeus Press, Bhubaneswar	2007 244 pages	300/- (English)
54	Nature through Postage Stamps	Dept. Of Post New Delhi		2007	175.00
55	Indian Freedom Struggle through Postage Stamps	Dept. Of Post		2007	500.00
56	Stamps of India -Gandhi	Dept. Of Post		2007	200.00
57	Discover India through Philately	Dept. Of Post		2007	600.00
58	1857 – Through India Postage Stamps	Dept. Of Post		2007	400.00
59	India Post-A journey through ages	Aravinda Kumar Singh Translated- Shailendra Das	National Book Trust, New Delhi 978-81-237-5592-2	2009 485 pages	150/- (English)
60	Uttarakhand - A Philatelic Journey	Abhai Mishra & Rajesh Varma		2009
61	India's Freedom Struggle Through India Postage Stamps	Vishnu S Saksena
62	Famous stamps-The romance of rarities	Anil Dhir	Amadeus Press, Bhubaneswar	2011 192 pages	200.00 (English)
63	Dakatikata Sangraha	Bibhudatta Mishra & Shanti swarup Rath	Grantha Mandir, Cuttack	2011 130 pages	80.00 (Oriya)
64	My rainbow of Philatelic Articles	Dr Satyandra Kumar Aggarwal	Phila gold Publication	2011 150 pages	1200.00
65	Anche Janapad	Mr M.R.Pravakar	Karnatak	2012	150.00
66	Know Your Stamps	D.Chakravarthy	Chakravarthy, 1-C Gayathri Apartments, 302 James Long Sarani, PO Jokha,   WB 743512, India
67.	A Guide to Modern Indian Postal Stationery, 1947-2003	Prashant Pandya	Vadodara		Rs 400 US $ 20.00

- Dr Bibhudatta Mishra – Bhubaneshwar

Blog : http://fishstamplover.blogspot.in/

Club News

Guinness Records to  Daniel Monteiro

Brahmavar: Daniel Monteiro, Office Asst. of St. Mary’s Syrian College here has secured ‘Guinness World Records’ for his largest collection of stamps featuring birds. His total collection consists of 4911 stamps from 263 countries. The old record was in the name of Mr. Paul-Erwin Oswald of Germany.

Mr.Daniel made an attempt for this record by organizing a major philatelic exhibition Birdpex-2011’ on 7^th and 8^th December 2011 at S.M.S. community hall, Brahmavar. More than 6000 people including VIPS, Juries, stamp collectors participated in this event.

Daniel began the hobby of collecting stamps at the age of 11 (year 1973). In the Primary School, when a teacher encouraged Daniel and his other classmates to develop any one of the hobbies, the collection of stamps attracted Daniel. He began by collecting stamps of all types and then went on to specialize in water birds, which aroused his interest in them so much. Since his house is surrounded by a river and a lake with variety of water birds, he took special interest in them.

Later he also took to ornithological studies, Bird watching and Environment protection activities. The awards, distinctions and recognitions he won are numerous, 10 international level from Belgium, Austria, South Africa, Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok , Korea, Indonesia, China and India, 21 national level and 13 state level and from 31 prestigious institutions in Karnataka State, including All India Sahitya Convention Award, District Rajyaotsava Award, Vishveshvarayya Award, Ambedkar award, Extraordinary Personality of Konkani Award.

Daniel’s another noteworthy achievement was his entry into the ‘Limca Book of Records’ a due recognition for his rare collection of ducks stamps and also three records in ‘India Book Of Records’ for largest collection of ducks stamps, largest collection of birds stamps and one man largest exhibition, Birdpex-2011.

He is also a member of all the recognized Philatelic Associations in India. He has, on his own initiative, organized 163 exhibitions on Philately and 31 workshops on environment and philately till date, and also actively involved himself in creating an awareness about wild life and the need to protect the environment. He has presented papers on birds and stamps at seminars held, even at the national level. Mr. Daniel Monteiro loves to talk to children about birds and stamps, and this he does by organizing workshops, exhibitions and competitions for school children and college students.

Daniel Monteiro  may be contacted at email : danielbvr@yahoo.com

 

 

CRICKET WORLD CUP - A STAMP COLLECTION

COLLECTOR'S BOOK

This book is a journey into the history of World Cup cricket. It begins with a brief introduction of the World Cup Cricket starting from first world Cup played in 1975 to the recently concluded one in 2011. The book then covers cricketing history of 9 Test playing Nations and participating nations in 2011 Cricket world cup. Finally book journeys into the world of cricket memorabilia like stamps, special covers, coins, medals, cricket bats, cricket kits etc.

Housed in this informative album, the collection of 10 postal sheets featuring 9 test playing nations and captains of world cup teams issued during world cup 2011 by postal departments of Caribbean island nations - St. Kitts, Nevis and St. Vincent.

Price : INR - 2,499.00  For more details contact :

Pradip Jain, POST BOX 128, MITHAPUR, PATNA 800 001 (INDIA)

PH:   0091-612-2215929, FAX: 0091-612-2238010

Mobile : 0091-93341 32162, EMAIL: philapradip@gmail.com

Tributes to the greatest Indian Poet - Tagore

 

 

Pride of India

 

7 May – Birth Anniversary of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore

Today is Birth Anniversary of  Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. This post is a tribute to the greatest poet of all time and  Pride of India . The post is dedicated to all those who love and admire the works of Tagore !!  Tagore has been honoured on postage stamps issued  by many postal administrations of the world .

    

Rabindranath Tagore (7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941), also known by the sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali mystic, Brahmo poet, visual artist, playwright, novelist, and composer whose works reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He became Asia's first Nobel laureate when he won the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature.

 

The government of Sri Lanka released on May 7 2011, a postal stamp  on Rabindranath Tagore, on the occasion of his 150th birth anniversary celebrations.

A Pirali Brahmin from Calcutta Tagore first wrote poems at the age of eight. At the age of sixteen, he published his first substantial poetry under the pseudonym Bhanushingho ("Sun Lion") and wrote his first short stories and dramas in 1877. In later life Tagore protested strongly against the British Raj and gave his support to the Indian Independence Movement. Tagore's life work endures, in the form of his poetry and the institution he founded, Visva-Bharati University.

Tagore wrote novels, short stories, songs, dance-dramas, and essays on political and personal topics. Gitanjali (Song Offerings), Gora (Fair-Faced), and Ghare-Baire (The Home and the World) are among his best-known works. His verse, short stories, and novels, which often exhibited rhythmic lyricism, colloquial language, meditative naturalism, and philosophical contemplation, received worldwide acclaim.

Tagore was also a cultural reformer and polymath who modernised Bengali art by rejecting strictures binding it to classical Indian forms. Two songs from his canon are now the national anthems of Bangladesh and India: the Amar Shonar Bangla and the Jana Gana Mana respectively.

 

 

Farewell My Friend...

 

Farewell My Friend
It was beautiful as long as it lasted
The journey of my life.
I have no regrets whatsoever
save the pain I'll leave behind.
Those dear hearts who love and care...
And the strings pulling at the heart and soul...
The strong arms that held me up
When my own strength let me down.
At every turning of my life I came across good friends,
Friends who stood by me,
Even when the time raced me by.
Farewell, farewell my friends
I smile and bid you goodbye.
No, shed no tears for I need them not
All I need is your smile.
If you feel sad do think of me
for that's what I'll like when you live in the hearts
of those you love, remember then
you never die.

~ Rabindranath Tagore

Dracula on stamps…

 

Death Centenary of  Bram Stoker who wrote famous horror novel “ Dracula”

Date of Issue : 19 April 2012

On 19 April, 2012 An Post issued commemorative stamps to mark the centenary of the death of Bram Stoker. Bram Stoker, born Abraham Stoker on 8 November, 1847 in Clontarf, Dublin, is best remembered for his classic Gothic horror novel, Dracula, first published in 1897.

In 1870, Stoker graduated from Trinity College, Dublin, whereupon he took up a civil service post in Dublin Castle. Unsurprisingly perhaps, Stoker discovered the civil service wasn’t his cup of tea, so to speak. So, in his spare time, he turned to being a drama critic for the Dublin Evening Mail and also started to develop stories and articles for publication. That said, he rose through the ranks of the civil service, and had his first book published, Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland.

He first met Henry Irving when the renowned actor, who was on a visit to Dublin, thanked him for his glowing review of his production of Hamlet. Their friendship developed to the point where, in 1878, Irving suggested Stoker decamp Dublin and join him in London as manager of the Lyceum Theatre. During his managerial tenure at the Lyceum Theatre, Stoker finally took to writing on a regular basis.

In 1897 Dracula was published. The book, which netted him very little in terms of income during his lifetime, has been the inspiration for hundreds of films and a flourishing tourism industry in both Transylvania and the English seaside town of Whitby, the first landfall for Count Dracula in his search for fresh victims of vampirism.

In later life, Stoker suffered from a succession of strokes, and died on 20 April, 1912 at the age of 64.

To commemorate the centenary of his death, An Post has issued  two graphically arresting stamps designed by David Rooney, and depicting Stoker’s most famous, and enduring, creation.

In addition, a fearful mini sheet  and two dramatic First Day Covers are also available.

Products available with this issue:

Centenary of the death of Bram Stoker 55c Se-tenant Stamps (120755ST) €1.10

Centenary of the death of Bram Stoker 55c Sheetlet (120755STS8) €8.80

Centenary of the death of Bram Stoker Minisheet (1207MS) €1.10

Centenary of the death of Bram Stoker FDC Minisheet (1207FDCMS) €2.10

Centenary of the death of Bram Stoker FDC (1207FDC) €2.10

Orders and/or enquiries relating to this release or indeed any aspect of the Philatelic Business should be sent to:

Philatelic Bureau, Order Department P.O. Box 1991, G.P.O., Dublin 1, Ireland

Philat Telephone: 00 353 1 705 7400  Fax: 00 353 1 705 7289

Internet: www.irishstamps.ie

: Prashant Pandya – Vadodara

 

The cover of the first edition of Daracula

Publication date : 26 May 1897

Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker.Famous for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula, the novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to relocate from Transylvania to England, and the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Professor Abraham van Helsing.

Dracula has been assigned to many literary genres including vampire literature, horror fiction, the gothic novel and invasion literature. The novel touches on themes such as the role of women in Victorian culture, sexual conventions, immigration, colonialism, and post-colonialism. Although Stoker did not invent the vampire, he defined its modern form, and the novel has spawned numerous theatrical, film and television interpretations.

Read More….