kasvik
Member 
Posts: 543
What I collect: Cancels mostly, especially Sweden Gävle and Lidingö, Switzerland Geneva, Germany Pforzheim
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Post by kasvik on Jun 9, 2019 0:56:14 GMT
What was the first funny stamp? Or the first deliberately amusing stamp?
From the start stamps were serious stuff, with Queen Victoria in black, sculpted, eyes averted. Stamps stayed serious for a long time, like miniature contracts between the state and customer. Something changed in the 1970s; a combination of anti-authoritarianism, populism, and above all commercialism? I can only guess.
Here Sweden--the country I know best--took the plunge in 1980, with F1144, a commemorative featuring the comic figure Kronblom (Americans can translate that as Dagwood Bumstead). But surely the Swedes were not humor pathbreakers, of all things. Which country was first?
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Post by dgdecker on Jun 9, 2019 2:10:08 GMT
A very good question . I will keep this in mind when sorting through my next lot of stamps. Gives me an excuse to browse through what 8 all ready have.will post photos if I find anything .
David
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angore
Member
Posts: 5,348 
What I collect: WW, focus on British Empire
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Post by angore on Jun 9, 2019 10:43:10 GMT
The US has issued stamps on comic figures (Bugs Bunny, etc) but would not call them funny. These are more about pop culture that has taken over most postal programs. My first reaction is a stamp that actually tries to be humorous. It is a good question.
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stainlessb
Member
qaStaHvIS yIn 'ej chep
Posts: 4,642
What I collect: currently focused on most of western Europe, much of which is spent on France, Belgium, Germany and Great Britain Queen Victoria
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Post by stainlessb on Jun 10, 2019 13:03:02 GMT
Whether meant to be humorous and/or commemorate the life of a cartoonist and otherwise eccentric soul...  |
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kasvik
Member
Posts: 543
What I collect: Cancels mostly, especially Sweden Gävle and Lidingö, Switzerland Geneva, Germany Pforzheim
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Post by kasvik on Jun 11, 2019 1:01:52 GMT
Like a Rube Goldberg, this is more humorous than funny. I think it's the first humorous Swedish stamp; a cartoon seventeenth century post rider staring at an equally cartoonish airplane, Scott 215/Facit 216. For the annual conference and fiftieth anniversary of the UPU. Design commissioned from Johan Adolf Ture Tideblad, who doesn't seem to have tried too hard, but obviously had a good time.
It must have been thought a mistake; the Swedish Post didn't show a sense of humor again for… a long time.
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kasvik
Member
Posts: 543
What I collect: Cancels mostly, especially Sweden Gävle and Lidingö, Switzerland Geneva, Germany Pforzheim
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Post by kasvik on Jun 12, 2019 11:29:44 GMT
There's nothing like a comparison.
Illustrating the choice behind Sweden’s comic design, compare Denmark’s wistful interpretation of the same theme in 1925. The Plowman and Airplane series celebrated the opening of Copenhagen’s Kastrup Airport. The copy-cat design by landscape painter Axel Peder Jensen, conveys not amusement but pure contrast. The plowman ignores the airplane. He's busy controlling his horses.
It's an expensive set, but not too interesting.
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youpiao
Member
APS #218885 IPDA #196
Posts: 131
What I collect: Worldwide, mainly classic-era, Topicals: Classical music, Literature/Fiction Writers, Accordions, Novelty stamps.
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Post by youpiao on Jun 14, 2019 6:01:29 GMT
How about some potty humor, as depicted on these San Marino stamps calling attention to World Toilet Day.  |
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angore
Member
Posts: 5,348
What I collect: WW, focus on British Empire
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Post by angore on Jun 14, 2019 10:22:22 GMT
If you expand the definition to light hearted.  |
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swvl
Member
Posts: 523
What I collect: FDCs, plus some US modern and new issues. Topical interests include music, art, literature, baseball, space...
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Post by swvl on May 20, 2022 1:39:53 GMT
Here’s a humorous FDC that made me smile recently, by a cachetmaker after my own heart (cachetmaker is named Dave Curtis). Side note: The stamp is from the 2004 Cloudscapes series, a really nice set of 15 that I have as a sheet.  |
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