Cool Stamps from Austria!

Whilst I was picking up some crypto stamps earlier last month from Austria... I was reading about how the Austrian Post Office is really on the forefront of experimentation with new forms of materials and designs for their stamps. The Ethereum crypto stamp was just a small example of that experimentation...

Anyway, it did lead me to taking a look at their "rare" stock of stamps... which are limited edition runs of some very interesting designs and materials. I ended up picking up a few of the embroidered fabric stamps to hold onto... These are just really beautiful designs and such a novel idea for stamps! I would really be disappointed to actually use them as a stamp... to send stuff...

The above stamp is a embroidered version of the Edelweiss... the flower made famous in The Sound of Music! I've learnt a great deal about Austrian culture whilst reading the accompanying blurb for the stamps... all the quotes are taken from the English version of the Austrian Post Office website.

The latest commemorative is offering collectors around the world the opportunity to acquire a new “embroidered” creation: the Gentian stamp is, like the first embroidered commemorative “Edelweiss”, a product of the Austrian embroiderers Hämmerle & Vogel. The commemorative will be sent around the world, telling the stories of embroidery and Alpine plants. The threads and the colour follow the natural shape of the Clusius gentian (gentiana clusii), discovered around 100 BC by King Gentius of Illyria.

Every single type of gentian, of which there are hundreds on this planet, is a protected species. On the stamp, the gentian is protected as a registered design. It is a work of art whose symbolic and collector’s value is much greater than the postage value of € 3.75. Poets and philosophers have praised the curative powers of the gentian roots. Many a fairytale and myth talk of the pure blue of the gentian’s petals, a colour older than any empire, the colour of the creation of the skies and the waters. Blue is the divine and earthly colour of infinity and uniqueness, preserved in the blue skin of the Egyptian gods, coveted on earth like the Blue Mauritius, or the blue tree of the Romantics as a symbol of faithfulness and longing.

On a stamp, the embroiderer’s art transforms the aura, mythology and symbolism of the gentian into a philatelic event of sustained value. The Alpine flower, embroidered using thousands of needles and fine threads, is a thing to be bought, collected, given as a gift and stuck on envelopes; in this way the embroidery and the gentian will be sent millions of times around the world as a symbol of success.

This next one was the original stamp that got me interested in checking out the rest of the Austrian special stamps that were on sale... It was the stamp that was used to send my crypto stamps to me, and I was just blown away that there were embroidered stamps that existed! Anyway, this is the traditional Styrian hat that is traditional to Austria in the 19th century. I notice that they are completely sold out of this stamp already... so, I managed to get them just in time!

The Styrian suit was already a popular item of clothing in Styria in the 19th century. A famous wearer of the Styrian suit was Archduke Johann, who used it to demonstrate his connection to the common folk. In this way the rural costume found its way into noble and bourgeois society as the clothing of choice for keeping cool in the summer and for hunting.

The grey loden jacket with its dark green trim is traditionally accompanied by a Styrian hat. This is primarily manufactured from dark grey or dark green woollen felt or animal hair; the hat band is likewise usually dark green and is decorated with a “Gamsbart” (made from the greyish black hair from the neck of a chamois buck) or feathers.

The traditional Vorarlberg company Hämmerle & Vogel, with its headquarters in Lustenau, has been in the business of embroidery for 60 years. International clients such as Chanel and Oscar de la Renta rely on the company’s expertise. Austrian Post's philatelic programme deliberately draws repeatedly on technical innovations: the Dirndl stamp from 2016 was the first embroidered stamp to be issued, and the current Styrian hat stamp is the logical continuation.

Every Styrian hat stamp takes around 6,600 insertions of the needle and 33 metres of embroidery thread to make. The hat, in the special “Styrian green”, is made of exclusive merino sheep’s wool thread produced by the company Schoeller from Hard in Vorarlberg. This “Shaminah” merino wool thread impresses with its 14.5 micron wool fibre, the finest and highest grade of wool fibre that exists. The sheep’s wool used for this comes from a number of Australian farms which have been awarded “Bluesign” certification for their sustainable textile production. The gamsbart decoration is made of two twisted black and grey threads. The hat is affixed to an ecru background with guipure lace perforations.

In part of the same series as the Styrian hat, is this Drindl stamp.... which is the traditional female costume that you still sometimes see in Austria or lower Germany. In fact, I was in that area recently and the wait staff at a particular restaurant were dressed in this costume... but I do see people walking around with it as well. Unfortunately, I missed out on the male equivalent of this stamp, the Lederhosen... which was all sold out!

Following on from last year’s Lederhosen stamp, this year we are introducing yet another special innovation in the form of the corresponding outfit for women: the world’s first embroidered silhouette stamp in the traditional form of a dirndl. In some areas of Austria and southern Germany “dirndl” is used to designate a young girl, and it is almost certainly from this that the name for the dirndl dress was derived. Today’s dirndls often have little to do with the traditional regional costumes: short skirts, low-cut necklines, fancy lacing and bold colour combinations are not to be found in so-called historical traditional costumes. These are, rather, characterised by traditional colours and patterns specific to the region, and – at least in the case of working dress – simple cuts, as the dirndl was and still is worn as the daily working garb in many rural areas. For special occasions and public holidays there is a more elaborately designed and decorated traditional costume with embroidered ribbons and scarves, silk aprons, often full-length skirts and matching headgear, such as the golden bonnets from Upper Austria. For a long time the dirndl was considered old-fashioned and “fusty”, but in recent years it has become increasingly common to see women and men wearing traditional costume in urban areas too. This is probably largely connected to the rising popularity of “Wiesen” festivals, which, taking as the basis Munich’s Oktoberfest, have become increasingly widespread throughout the world. For these it is most often the modern version of the dirndl that is worn – as sexy and eye-catching as possible. The dirndl stamp is particularly impressive in the method of production. The Vorarlberg company Hämmerle & Vogel, based in Lustenau and specialising in high-quality embroidery, is responsible for both the design and the manufacture. Each stamp is made from around 40 metres of thread in three colours. The embroidered silhouette, the different colours and the various stitches make the dirndl appear three-dimensional whilst at the same time creating a light and airy effect. You can even see the way the material drapes and folds. The dainty blouse is executed in off-white, as is the apron, using a different stitch. The red dirndl dress and the inscription “Austria”, also stitched in red, create a little red-white-red work of art. The bow on the apron and the denomination in green are particularly eye-catching. Hämmerle & Vogel is a family run firm from Vorarlberg with a long history, that has been producing embroidery for international customers including fashion houses such as Chanel, Marc Jacobs, Victoria’s Secret and Agent Provocateur for over 100 years. A total of 5.6 million metres of thread were used to make the dirndl stamp. Hämmerle & Vogel has already made several embroidered stamps for Austrian Post, including an Edelweiss a gentian motif and a petit-point embroidery.

So, I got a bit of an historical education... as apparently the Empress Maria Theresa was a dedicated embroidery fanatic! Also known as petit point, this probably explains why it is such a big deal in Austria... and why it has a stamp dedicated to the craft! This stamp is smaller than the others, but it is a beautiful and delicate design...

Empress Maria Theresa was a fanatical embroiderer, and the ladies at her court used embroidery to compete for her favours. Anyone who wanted remain anyone at the Vienna court was obliged to admire the Empress’s skills.
The entire Empire worked with petit point, and from 1720 to 1775 petit point was the exclusive form of embroidery of the aristocracy. Using hand-painted models, queens and princesses, armed with a magnifying glass, set out to apply the 19 x 19 stitches per square centimetre to the fabric. They worked from right to left, inserting the embroidery thread from behind across two threads of the canvas, pushing the embroidered motif on the front upwards to give it a three-dimensional effect. Petit point was a cult during the Viennese rococo, with Marie Antoinette introducing it to the French fashion world in Versailles. The skill was rapidly democratised thanks to the first publication of petit point models in 1804. The ladies of the upper middle classes, always keen to follow the fashions of the court, devoted their hours of leisure to this gentrified activity. During the Biedermeier period, the rose became the favourite motif of an embroidering social class that used petit point to decorate personal accessories with individual touches: tone-in-tone pastel shades were the embodiment of the ideal of domestic harmony. The embroidery acquired depth through the shades of the yarn colours.

Petit point is part of the Viennese cultural heritage, and bears the cachet of both imperial society and the upper middle classes. It is also an internationally famous and appreciated sign of a quality souvenir from Vienna. The use of petit point on a stamp, however, is something new, resulting in a work of art for the philatelists’ collections courtesy of the Vorarlberg embroidery company Hämmerle & Vogel. Following the successful “Edelweiss” premier and its successor, the “Gentian”, the series of stamp-sized embroidered works of art continues with the “Rose”. To reflect the love of philately, the rose on this masterpiece of stamp art is red.

Glass and stamps aren't two ideas or words that would immediately spring to mind... well, embroidery and stamps don't spring to mind either! But the Austrian Post Office did do it... I saw that they also had done crystal ones and ceramic ones in the past as well, but those are long sold out... It's quite amazing what they have done with this design, the glass seems robust enough... and the glass painting is on the reverse of the stamp tile, which means that it is easier to keep in clean condition. This is the first of it's kind, the first glass stamp in the world!

The glass stamp shows one of the famous “Sandlbilder”: a reverse glass painted Pietà from the Upper Austrian municipality of Sandl. In reverse glass painting the design is painted on the back of the glass, enabling the front to be cleaned easily, which was a big advantage in the smoke-filled farmhouse parlours of yesteryear. There is a long tradition of reverse glass painting in Sandl. This is because there were many glass works in the nearby Bohemian forests, from which sheets of glass could be acquired easily and cheaply. Glass painting provided peasant families with a welcome additional source of income; during the winter the whole family worked together to produce the mostly religious designs step by step, each member of the family having his or her own particular task e.g. painting in the outlines or filling in the coloured areas. The traditional design of the Pietà (also known as a Vesperbild in German) dates back to the 14th century. It shows the Virgin Mary weeping over the dead body of her crucified son, Jesus. She is usually depicted alone, cradling the body of her son in her arms. The subject of the Mother of Sorrows probably came to Sandl via the devotional images which were supposed to remind believers of Christ’s suffering. The reverse glass painting used in this glass stamp comes from the last quarter of the 19th century. The painters are unknown – as was usual, the work was a collaborative effort. Particularly noteworthy aspects are the bold colours and the expressive brush strokes, which strongly emphasise Mary’s pain and Jesus’ suffering. The seven swords in Mary’s heart symbolise the seven sorrows of the Mater Dolorosa, the Mother of Sorrows, Mary, whilst the tendrils of flowers below the cross represent the hope which Jesus’ sacrifice brings to all people. The Viennese porcelain manufacturer Augarten is responsible for the time-consuming production of the glass stamp. Every glass blank will be hand-crafted, with all production following ecological principles. The design will be applied to the back of the glass by hand using non-fading pigments and a special silkscreen printing process. The colours will then be heat-treated, thereby ensuring that the design is firmly bonded to the glass and giving the glass a particularly high tensile strength. The high quality, mostly hand-crafted production, the unusual material and the traditional, hand-painted design all make this stamp very special. Folk art and innovative production techniques will thus be combined to produce a very special miniature work of art.

... and of course, a few more of the Ethereum stamps that kicked off my curiosity! I managed to pick up another three... only the lowest tier of Black... but still very much nerdy cool!