Sverige

Here we have two covers from Sweden.

The first bears part of a souvenir sheet dedicated to Ingmar Bergman.

Ernst Ingmar Bergman (14 July 1918 – 30 July 2007) was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. He depicted bleakness and despair as well as comedy and hope in his explorations of the human condition. He is recognized as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of modern cinema.

He directed 62 films, most of which he also wrote, and directed over 170 plays. Some of his internationally known favorite actors were Liv Ullmann, Bibi Andersson, and Max von Sydow. Most of his films were set in the landscape of his native Sweden, and major themes were often bleak, dealing with death, illness, betrayal, and insanity.

Bergman was active for more than 60 years, but his career was seriously threatened in 1976 when he suspended a number of pending productions, closed his studios, and went into self-imposed exile in Germany for eight years following a botched criminal investigation for alleged income tax evasion.

An interesting to note about Bergman is that he was married five times, was involved with three women other than those he married, and acknowledges nine children to be his own! What a playboy, eh?

Sadly, the entire S/S can't fit onto a small envelope so the sender had to resort to clipping it! The entire sheet is shown below. Notice that only the stamp is engraved. Ingenuity or cost-cutting?

Here is another great cover, this time showing one of my favorite themes: aviation! The se-tenant set is actually part of a booklet entitled Postflyg (Postal Flight) issued 8 Sept 1972 and features the Douglas DC3, the Junkers F13, the Junkers JU 52, and the Friedrichshafen FF .49. Curiously, the designs for the Junkers F13 and the Douglas DC3 were repeated and the Junkers JU 52 and the Friedrichshafen were shown only once.... Why is that?

The leftmost stamp on the bottom shows chocolate, perhaps issued for the 2007 CEPT, which had the theme of gastronomy. The other stamp is part of a 4v set dedicated to angling, more commonly known as fishing.

Just a little side note: this angling set brought back some childhood memories. Seeing all the children going fishing reminded me of my childhood days when my parents and I would go to different lakes all over the state, from North to South, just to fish. Fishing actually made up a large portion of my childhood - or at least the portion of it that I remember. It wasn't that we needed to fish or that most people where I lived fish; it was just my father's hobby. Honestly, I didn't like to fish very much and only enjoyed it when I'd catch a fish right away! But that's not how it's done, according to most anglers. Patience is of utmost importance when you go fishing, they say. No wonder I never found interest in the hobby! Philately is truly my one and only! :-)