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Postal History as Collector’s Items


By Birgitte Wistoft

The postal services of 47 countries are represented in a collection of cards which has been donated to the museum. The benefactor’s aunt of French origin moved to Denmark together with her mother after World War I. She brought with her a treasure of pictures in memory of her father who died for France on 22nd April 1916.


They call to mind the Richs cards from the golden age of coffee substitution in Denmark. Here the publisher is, however, a producer of mineral water and the series is much older, probably from 1908.

Each card has a coloured front decorated with a national flag, a postal motif, and a stamp postmarked "08" (1908). In the upper left colour it says "Eau Minérale Naturelle de St-Galmier" and in the lower right corner is the name of the country whose postal service is the motif of the card. A presentation of the organization and the tasks of the service are printed on the back of the card together with praises of the mineral water producer’s products.

"La Poste au Danemark"
Denmark has got a motif which only a few Danes would consider particularly Danish. A postman with his trouser legs thrust into high boots and wearing a blue uniform jacket and cap in conversation with a young woman in "national costume" and a small boy carrying an enormous tankard. The motif is probably meant to illustrate an everyday situation in the life of a Danish rural postman. He seems to be well provided for. But even though he actually got a blue uniform in 1893, this one has too many buttons and braids. If, however, we imagine the jacket red, the design is very close to the uniform of the Danish urban postman. On the other hand, no instance of trousers thrust into high boots has been found.

The swallow-tailed flag is provided with a petty cross, but we cannot complain about the stamp – a blue 20 ore stamp of the arms type which was used for letters to abroad during the years 1882-1904. On the back of the card the following proud declaration, probably of Danish origin and translated into French, can be read:

"The Postal Service in Denmark
Being engaged in extensive domestic and foreign trade for centuries Denmark has a postal service that fully lives up to its general and specific demands and at the same time is abreast of modern development. Despite the modest size of the country the postal service disposes of no less than 1,575 km of railway lines and 3,350 km of telegraph lines. The postal service has joined the worldwide postal convention and its double postal distribution, in towns and in the countryside, is as efficient as in the largest countries of Europe. The transatlantic steamship mail service leaves nothing to be desired.

What a development since the sailing ships and the sleighs of the hard winters between Kiel and Korsoer and the famous ball mail couch of osier, made weatherproof with pitch to protect the letters against moisture!"


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