Homstead Guardians

Hanwen sent me this card from Taiwan. It depicts two "Homestead guardians" or door guardians as referred to by the locals in Lungci township, to ward of evil spirits from one's home.

Now, Lungci Township is a rural township of about 4,420 residents in Tainan County, Taiwan. 

River Daugava towards Old Riga

The photograph on the card was taken sometime in 1890. It shows shipping in the river Daugava towards old Riga. The River Daugava (in Latvian) or Western Dvina, not to be confused with Northern Dvina, is a river rising in the Valdai Hills, Russia, flowing through Russia, Belarus, and Latvia, draining into the Gulf of Riga in Latvia, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The total length of the river is 1,005 km (624 mi): 325 km (202 mi) in Russia, 328 km (204 mi) in Belarus, and 352 km (219 mi) in Latvia. In the 19th century, it was connected by a canal to the Berezina and Dnieper rivers (the canal is currently not functioning). The Daugava forms part of the international border between Latvia and Belarus.

Thank you Merja for this nice card.

Esko Salminen

Now, this card was issued along with the set of six stamps on contemporary Finnish stage and cinema actors on 4.3.2013. This card has a stamp featuring Esko Salminen. He is a Finnish actor with notable shows on TV and especially on stage. His parents were actors, so were his wives and children. Salminen has been an actor of the Finnish National Theatre since 1961. The stamp depicts him in the role of Shakespeare’s King Lear. In front of the Theatre Building you can see the Ice-park, located in the heart of Helsinki, next to the Central Railway Station.

Thank you Ella for this lovely card.

Modern Art in Austria

This maxi card commemorates Modern Art in Austria. It was sent to me by  Björn from Berlin. The card depicts a painting by Ernst Fuchs.

Ernst Fuchs (February 13, 1930 in Vienna). Ernst Fuchs is an Austrian painter, draftsman, print maker, sculptor, architect, stage designer, composer, poet, singer and one of the founders of the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism.

Battle of the Chios Channel

This painting depicts the duel between the Turkish flagship Real Mustafa (84 guns) and Russian admiral Spiridov’s ship Svyatoy Evstafiy(68). During the boarding action the burning debris of the Turkish ship set the Russian flagship on fire and soon she blew up. The Russian admiral escaped the explosion just minutes before. Ten minutes later Real Mustafa exploded too. The Turkish squadron retreated to the Bay of Chesma only to be destroyed there in the next two days in what later to be called Battle of Chesma.

Ivan Aivazovsky was a Russian world-renowned painter living and working in Crimea, most famous for his seascapes, which constitute more than half of his paintings. Ivan Aivazovsky dedicated a number of his works to the Battle of the Chios Channel on the 24^th of June 1770. This one was painted in 1848.

Thank you Polina for this lovely card.

Oldenburg Palace

Oldenburg is an independent city in the state of Lower Saxony, Germany. During the French annexation (1811–1813) in the wake of the Napoleonic war against Britain, it was also known as Le Vieux-Bourg in French. The city is situated at the Rivers Hunte and Haaren, in the northwestern region between the cities of Bremen in the east and Groningen (Netherlands) in the west. It has a population of 162,173 (as of 2010), which makes it the fourth biggest city in Lower Saxony after Hanover, Braunschweig and Osnabrück. In German, the formal name isOldenburg (Oldenburg) or Oldenburg (Oldb) (spoken: Oldenburg in Oldenburg) to distinguish it from the city of Oldenburg in Holstein.

The city is the place of origin of the House of Oldenburg. Before the end of the German Empire (1918), it was the administrative centre and residence of the monarchs of Oldenburg.

The site of the splendid Oldenburg palace used to be the location of a moated castle. The palace as it now stands was built by Count Anton Günther (1583-1667). From 1607 to 1615 he had the medieval-style castle converted into a splendid Renaissance-style palace. From then on it served as the residence of all counts and grand dukes of the city.

The appearance of the palace also changed frequently in the following centuries. During the period of Danish rule from 1737 to 1753 the palace underwent a great deal of conversion work: The shape of the roof was changed, the tower entrance was closed and a main gate was built instead. In addition a north-east wing was built from 1774 to 1778. It served to house the Danish governor and minister Friedrich Lewin Graf Holmer. Duke Friedrich August probably named this wing the "Holmerflügel" after him. His successor Duke Peter Ludwig had the two-floor "library wing" built and had the inside of the palace refurbished by the court painter Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein (1751-1829) in a classicist style. In 1894 the dilapidated "Kanzlei-Flügel" was torn down.

Since 1921 the Oldenburg palace has been part of the Federal State Museum for Art. The square in front of the castle is often used as a meeting place for different cultures as depicted on the card. Thank you Marco.

Historic Post Offices

On 3^rd February 1987 the GDR issued four stamps commemorating four historic post offices in East Germany. Along with the stamps a maximum card depicting each of these post offices was also issued. The maxi cards shown here portray the post offices atWeimar which was established in 1888/89, and the one at Kirchau in 1924/26. The other two post offices were at Freiberg and Perleberg.

Marco sent me these nice maxicards.