Strange Stamps: A Checklist

Strange Stamps by Mark Valentine & Colin Langeveld

A Checklist

 

1  The Upware Republic.  August 2003. 10 sheets of 72 unperforated, ungummed, home produced. A stamp for a Victorian literary micro-nation based in a pub, revived in its centenary year.

 

2  Shangri La.  April 2004. [400?] copies perforated gummed, produced by Jordan Printery, Washington State, USA. Used for a mailing of the newsletter of the James Hilton Society, Vol 1, No 14 (Hilton wrote Lost Horizon, about the Himalayan kingdom of Shangri La). 

 

3  Hy Brasil. 2004. 200 copies. Based, with her permission, on the imaginary island nation created by Scottish author Margaret Elphinstone in her novel, Hy Brasil, a fine tale. Produced by yourstamps, Berlin [all subsequent issues so produced unless shown]. 

 

 

4 Faerie Queene. December 2004. 200 copies perforated, gummed. Poster stamp of Queen Elizabeth I with faerie horns, ears etc.

 

5 Rockall Post.  February 2005, issued June 2005. 500 copies best described as "trials". Produced for a charity fund-raising expedition to Rockall for Mental Health Media. A slightly different version was produced by Discworld Stamps and used on covers.

 

6 Isle of Axholme. June 2005. 200 copies. Offered free to readers of The Epworth Bells, the local newspaper for Axholme, an inland island in Lincolnshire.

 

7 Dr Nikola. August 2005. 200 copies. Poster stamp, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the death of Guy Boothby, creator of the master criminal Dr Nikola. Reprinted 2013. 200 copies.

 

8 Lost City of Z. August 2005. 210 copies. Commemorative stamp for explorer Colonel Percy Fawcett.

 

9 Heligoland. January 2006. 200 copies. Commemorating the island’s period as a British colony.

 

10 Rayba. March 2006. 500 copies. Celebrating M.P. Shiel’s fictitious North Sea isle, in the form of a fantasy Norwegian local. Issued in association with a new edition of Shiel’s book The Pale Ape (Tartarus Press) and used on parcels of the book.

 

11 Healey Post. June 2006. 500 copies. Local, accompanying copies of The Hotspur, the parish magazine of Healey, Northumberland.  

 

12 The Bowmen. July 2006. 300 copies. Poster stamp celebrating the book by Welsh fantast Arthur Machen, creator of the myth of the Angels of Mons. Available.

 

13 The Great Return. August 2006. 300 copies. Poster stamp celebrating the book by Arthur Machen about the return of the Holy Grail. 

 

 

 

14 The Inner Hebrides. August 2006. 300 copies. Designed with Thomas A Clark, Scottish poet and artist, for his Cairn Gallery, Fifeshire.

 

15 Irrawaddy Canoe Expedition. September 2006. 300 copies. Fantasy issue for the voyage of Major R Raven-Hart by canoe up the Irrawaddy.

 

16-19 Southwold Christmas Post. November 2006. [500 copies each?]. 

Produced for the Rural Dean of Southwold for a Christmast post delivery service. Four values.

16 Angel 10p 17 Southwold Church 15p 18 I Saw Three Ships 25p 19 The Magi £1

There were also mini-sheets of the 10p and 15p se-tenant and the 25p and £1 ditto.

 

20 Ayles Ice Shelf. January 2007. 300 copies. Fantasy for a breakaway Arctic island.

 

21 Thelema Post. January 2007. 400 copies. Produced by The Olathe Post, Colorado, USA. Issued to accompany the pinpoint appearance of Aleister Crowley on a GB stamp (the Sgt Pepper issue).

 

22 Par Imagination. January 2007. 200 labels. Designed with Thomas A Clark, Scottish poet and artist, for his Cairn Gallery, Fifeshire. Air mail style etiquette.

 

23 Green Monkey Redonda Expedition. February 2007. 306 copies. Produced for a voyage to the island of Redonda, near Montserrat, by the Green Monkey scuba shop and inn.

 

24 The Copeman Empire. March 2007. 286 copies. Produced for the micro-nation based in a caravan in Norfolk, with the authority of HM King Nicholas I. 

 

25 Kokoarrah. April 2007. C.200 copies. Local for a sandbank near Ravenglass, Cumbria, celebrating Lewis Carroll’s reputed association with the area, and featuring a top-hatted Jabberwock.

 

26 The Coach Horn. April 2007. 400 copies. Poster stamp celebrating the instrument also known as The Post Horn. Se-tenant design, depicting a Coach Horn booklet and player, the late Duncan Jack. .

 

27 Asian Minor Screw Steamship Co. April 2007. 312 copies. Facsimile version of vintage stamp.

 

28 Patagonia Motor Expedition 1912. May 2007. 274 copies. Fantasy version of a noted phantom stamp for a crossing of Patagonia by motor car by Mr Lionel Smith.

 

29 Hands Off 2007.  June 2007. 400 copies.  Poster stamp issued for the The UK Theremin Symposium, a conference devoted to this electronic instrument. Some copies were used on the symposium’s correspondence. Available.

 

30 Four Lords Isle. June 2007.  304 copies. Local for a tidal island, four paces wide, at Jenny Brown’s Point, Silverdale, in Morecambe Bay.

 

31 Esperanto. April 2008. 514 copies. Poster stamp issued for The Esperanto Society of Great Britain to mark the UN Year of Languages, 2008. Some copies were used on correspondence for the society’s annual meeting. .

 

32 The Hidden Place.February 2009. 315 copies. Designed with Thomas A Clark, Scottish poet and artist, for his Cairn Gallery, Fifeshire. Part of an art project for The Hidden Place, a burgh in Fifeshire.

 

33 Pendragon Society.March 2009. 240 copies. Poster stamp to commemorate 50 years of the Pendragon Society, devoted to matters Arthurian. Used on a commemorative mailing to members.

 

34 Fast Incoming Tides. July 2010. 200 copies. Poster stamp depicting a National Trust shoreline notice.

 

35 Sandcastle Island. October 2013. 200 copies. Local, the first and last issue before the island was engulphed by the sea.  This ephemeral kingdom was briefly seen on  Brancaster Sands, Norfolk, in October 2013 before it fell to the waves. Four shells value. Photograph by Jo Valentine.

 

36 Bletting Medlars, With Care. December 2013. 200 copies. Etiquette for boxes of home-grown medlar fruit posted to connoisseurs. The medlar is a fruit best eaten in decay, known as “bletting”.

 

37 Lord of the World. October 2014. 200 copies Poster stamp depicting the cover of R H Benson’s book about the return of the Anti-Christ, to commemorate the centenary of the author’s death in 1914.

 

38 Great Bernera. September 2015. 200 copies. Island stamp depicting the Peace Bell on the shore.

 

39 Bletting Medlars, With Care. December 2016. 200 copies. Second etiquette for boxes of medlars, depicting the fruit on a branch from the tree against a winter sky.

 

40 Antigua, Penny, Puce. July 2019. Commemorative label for the novel with a stamp collecting theme by Robert Graves. 200 copies.

 

41 Pandora’s Shocks. July 2019. Commemorative label for the novel by Laura Wildig. 200 copies.

 

42. Stalk. February 2020. Celebrating 40 years of ‘The Aliens Stalk the Wrecked Planet' by Robert John. 200 copies. 

 

43-44 Island of Storn. September 2020. Local post for the island off the West Country coast in Vita Sackville-West's novel The Dark Island (1934).  Two issues: rock-pool blue (standard), salmon pink (special). 100 copies of each.

 

45 G D. July 2021. Celebrating Guy Debord, French thinker and psycho-geographer with a design reflecting his idea of the derive (aimless wander) and his interest in strategy games. 200 copies.

46 Pirie-Gordon Aegean Stamp. June 2023. Souvenir of an overprint issued by Harry Pirie-Gordon, friend and co-author of Baron Corvo, as Civil Administrator of an Ottoman island in WWI. Faded rose. 200 copies.

 

MV and CPL no’s 1-6, 8-11, 14-19, 22-25, 28-29, 31-33. All others MV only.