Shock! Horror! Deerhounds in the post!

If you’re going to ‘post’ to you’re blog what better to use than a Scottish Deerhound Stamp and where better to start than in Scotland itself. Would you believe we deerhounds are so revered throughout the world that many countries, republics and islands have dedicated postal images to us – and quite rightly so. Many of the stamps featured below are available to purchase on line and indeed some of the accompanying text comes from information supplied by a Philatelist at Animal Stamps – visit them for further stamp details and prices.

Eynhallow
From the Holy Island of Eynhallow in the Orkneys, one of the group of islands to the north of mainland Scotland comes this lovely Scottish Deerhound stamp. It was produced in October of 1984. Eynhallow is one of the numerous islands off the coast of Scotland that issues stamps under their own authority. They are not really valid postage stamps but if the island is occupied, the stamps can be used to send mail to the mainland, but are not of use beyond that or even to send mail back to the island. Many of the Orkney Islands are not occupied and the stamps from those are considered simply privately produced stamps. These stamps are not very common. Find out more about the Orkneys here and in particular the stories of Eynhallow and the Sorcerous Finfolk by clicking on the heading. Could they be ancient links to Fionn mac Cumhaill and the Fianna.

Hungary
This lovely old stamp was produced by Hungary in 1972. Hungary is located in Central Europe, northwest of Romania. The climate is temperate; cold, cloudy, humid winters; warm summers. The terrain is mostly flat to rolling plains, hills and low mountains on the Slovakian border. Interestingly Scotsmen appear in the Jokes of the Hungarians as kilt-wearing skulks who invariably violate common sense in order to save a few pennies in the short run. It seems they have experience of the people so with that obviously garnered experience came an admiration for their hunting hounds, enough to feature them on a stamp. Find out about Hungary by clicking the heading.

Komi
This beautiful deerhound stamp was issued in 2001 in Komi. The Komi Republic is a federal subject of Russia, to the west of the Ural mountains, in the north-east of the East European Plain. The population of Komi Republic is estimated at just over 1 million and consists of varied ethnic cultures. And interestingly of the 415,900 km² area it occupies 70% of the territory is covered by forest. It has the largest expanse of virgin forest in all of Europe. A short summer and long cold winter. It may of course be because of this that there is interest in the deerhound as a dog of the hunt suited to these conditions. See the image or visit the website by clicking the heading or better still visit the Rebublic.

Jewish Autonomous Oblast

This wonderful set of stamps are real collector's items. Since the break-up of the Soviet Union, inflation was totally out of hand in some areas. Money was devalued to the point where the stamps that had already been printed were not worth enough to mail a letter. There were new stamps being processed, but not ready to be printed yet. In an effort to keep the post office in business, they took blocks of five stamps and overprinted them with a new image and a new value. These stamps were issued by the Jewish Autonomous Oblast a republic near Siberia.

KaraKalpakia


This collection similar to the collection above comes in a set of five stamps of different colours produced in KaraKalpakia. The stamp was also overprinted with the deerhound based on an image that was used for one of the other stamps featured here. Deerhounds are either common or popular in Karakalpak to have won their way onto the postage stamps of the region.

The Russian local state of Karakalpakia also issued this surprising stamp in 1998. This is a very small stamp with a most attractive deerhound in an idyll setting, which may be because . . .

. . . frighteningly Karakalpakia, now under the domain of Uzbekistan, is on the edge of the shrinking Aral Sea, which has recently revealed a shocking scale of disease brought about by a science-fiction like nightmarish ecological disaster. Women and children are most severely affected from the spread of pesticides and other pollutants as the lake - once the fourth largest in the world - has turned into a desert, its waters siphoned off to irrigate vast cotton fields and rice paddies in Central Asia. Although the Aral Sea probably has less than 10 years of life left, if nothing is done to salvage what remains of it, the 1.1 million residents of Karakalpakia are under immediate health threats. Something has to be done to improve the health of the people or we may be witnessing the end of another entire society as a result of human folly a warning to peoples of the world everywhere.

St. Vincent & the Grenadines

This unusual stamp was issued by the islands of St. Vincent & the Grenadines in honour of their Forestry service. Caribs were the first inhabitants of St. Vincent. Columbus marked the presence of the island on his third voyage in 1498, but didn't go ashore. The Caribs were tenacious, keeping the Europeans at bay longer than on any other island. The island was eventually settled by the French and control changed hands between them and Britain on more than one occasion Britain eventually winning out.
In 1787, Captain William Bligh set sail from England on the Bounty, bound for Tahiti. The purpose of the voyage, which ended in mutiny, was to collect breadfruit plants and transport them to St. Vincent for use as food for slaves. In 1793 Bligh eventually arrived in St. Vincent on another ship loaded with breadfruit seedlings. The fruit would make the island famous. To this day, bananas are the main export from the island. St. Vincent and the Grenadines achieved independence in 1979. The islands have produced many stamps over the years, including this lovely art piece with the Scottish Deerhound. It is difficult to say who the stamp portrays as further historical research is required, but of interest here is the dog standing to the right of the image.


Scottish Deerhound Souvenir Sheets from Fujairah

This lovely souvenir sheet was issued by Fujairah in 1970. Fujairah is one of the seven Emirates that combined in 1974 to form the United Arab Emirates. This souvenir sheet predated that union in 1970. The name Fujairah refers to the spring of water beneath one of the mountains as this is almost entirely a mountainous state. Click the heading for iformation from wikipedia.