Traditional Costumes : Postage Stamps Holland

This Friday my last stamps with Dutch costumes :)) Some more exist, but they are not in my own collection yet .... We start with a tourist stamp sheet of 1978, commemorating 10 years National Office for Tourism in the Netherlands; it shows tulips (Keukenhof Lisse), cheese (Kaasmarkt Alkmaar), mills (Schermer) and traditional costumes (Volendam).



The next stamp is from a stamp sheet of 2007, called "summer beach fun". I do not have the whole sheet, but only the used stamp. On this stamp we see a woman from Walcheren in Zeeland paddling her feet in the North Sea wearing traditional costume. The funny thing is that I have a postcard with her in my own collection.



This third stamp is from 1993 and published by local post service 't Hogeland in the north of Groningen. It commemorates the 28th Op Roakeldais in Warffum (international folklore festival) with 10 stamps each showing folk dancers in costumes of different countries. Holland is represented by a couple in the traditional costume of Marken.

Flickr Favorites : Traditional Costume , The Netherlands

Today in the Flickr Favourites we descend along the North Sea coast until we reach the islands in the south of the province of South-Holland (Rozenburg, IJsselmonde, Voorne-Putten, Hoeksche Waard, Goeree-Overflakkee) and in the north of the province of Zeeland (Schouwen-Duiveland, Sint Philipsland, Tholen, Noord-Beveland). The costumes of these islands all differ a bit, but this is very difficult to see for outsiders. The most striking part is the long lace cap with the head iron ending in large spirals with lots of jewelry attached to it. The dress they wear is often an old fashioned dress from around 1900.

For more flickr favourites see ArtMind's blog.

1. Zeeuwse Klederdracht, 2. Joke Terlouw, 3. My greatgrandfather en -mother and my grandfather with sisters, The Netherlands, 4. Goes 2010

And two picture postcards from my own collection.

Traditional Costumes : Dutch Costumes on Postage Stamps

This Friday again some non-Dutch stamps with Dutch costumes :)) We start with a cute Dutch boy from the Netherlands Antilles, published in 2008. The costume of the boy must represent the man's costume of Volendam. The Netherlands Antilles was an autonomous country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, consisting of six islands in the Caribbean Sea. Aruba became a separate country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1986, followed in 2010 by Curaçao and Sint Maarten. Saba, Sint Eustatius and Bonaire joined the Netherlands as "special municipalities". The name "Netherlands Antilles" is still sometimes used to indicate these last three islands.



The next stamp is from Suriname and shows a Dutch woman in the costume of Volendam waving to a Surinamese woman in the Creole costume called koto missie. This stamp was published to commemorate the first KLM flight between Paramaribo and Amsterdam in May 1949.



This third stamp is from 1965 and published by the former German Democratic Republic and shows a statue of a Dutch woman of Putten in the traditional costume of the Veluwe. It is a World War II Memorial to commemorate the victims of the German raid on the 1st of October 1944, in which the entire male working population (between 15 and 50 years of age) of Putten was deported to several concentration camps, as a revenge act against a Dutch resistance attack on a German Wehrmacht vehicle nearby on the 30th of September. From the 660 deported men, only 107 men survived the war.



This fourth stamp is a very fancy one; it's from Umm Al Qiwain (one of the United Arab Emirates) and part of a 1972 series of dolls in traditional costumes of the world. It shows a doll in the costume of Volendam and it is a hologram.



This last stamp sheet seems to be from Mordovia or Mordvinia, a federal republic of Russia. However, these are forged stamps issued by anonymous private companies operating outside Russia. Among other typical Dutch things, it shows a Dutch woman in the costume of Walcheren in Zeeland and a pair of typical Dutch wooden shoes.

Traditional Costumes : Postage Stamps Holland 1958

If you have looked into my vintage shop P8iosities on Etsy, you know that I collect postage stamps. I started as a kid and collected each stamp I could get. This became much too much, and finally I decided to collect only stamps with traditional costumes on it. Each Friday I will show you some stamps of my collection in this blog. We begin with the stamps of The Netherlands.




The series of stamps I will show you today is the 1958 summer stamp series. Summer stamps are distributed each year by the Dutch Post and you can buy them at every post office in The Netherlands. There is an extra charge on the stamps, which is intended for cultural, social or health projects. In 1958, the summer stamps had to show the traditional costumes of different areas in the country. The designer Hubert Levigne was asked to make the stamps. He made two engravings of the provinces of Zeeland and Overijssel which were intended to be printed in one color. His engravings were rather stylized with an emphasis on one aspect of the costume and dominating lines.



However, the Dutch Post and the designer did not agree; the Dutch Post found Levigne's designs too expressionistic, not colorful enough and not realistic enough. Finally they took the assignment from him and gave it to five different designers: P. Wetselaar (4 ct), W. den Ouden (6 ct), C.R. de Josselin de Jong (8 ct), J.R. Mensinga (12 ct) and A. Sins (30 ct).


These five designers have made a very harmonious series together, more realistic and with dominating color spaces of delicate nuances instead of lines.
4 ct: Walcheren, Zeeland
6 ct: Marken, Noord-Holland
8 ct: Scheveningen, Zuid-Holland
12 ct: Friesland
30 ct: Volendam, Noord-Holland



I like the 1958 series very much, but I must say that I like Levigne's designs even more; somehow they look much more modern. It's a pity that they were never realized.

Source: Postzegelblog

Buttons : Zeeuwse Knoop or Button from Zeeland

(from detuin and from Juwelier Minderhoud)

This fascinating form of button was developed in the Netherlands, where 18th century male residents of Zeeland wore it as part of their traditional regional costume. The "Zeeuwse knopen" are convex cannetille filigree buttons made using coiled and twisted gold and silver wires. The golden ones were worn at the neck to close the shirt at the top. The bigger silver ones were trouser buttons to close the long flap trousers of black velvet or wool on the front. Those who could affort wore "gold under the throat and silver on the belly". Boys and poor men wore trouser buttons made of coins.


(from my own postcard collection)

Today there are almost no people left who wear this traditonal dress. While young people do not wear it anymore, there are only a few older people who wear it occasionally. However, there are still quite some families who own (parts of) this traditional costume and you see them wearing it at summer festivals, feasts and other cultural festivities. Lots of these traditional buttons have been saved and transformed into necklaces, broches, earrings etc., to begin a second worthy life.

(Pieter Verhage from Heemkundige Kring Walcheren)

(from Ebay: Zeeuwse broche)

For some young Dutch Jewellers it's a new source of inspiration; see the stunning work of Willemijn de Greef (go to "Zeeuwse knopen" at the bottom).

(from Zeeuwse knopen, study, 2005)

There's even a plant that 's named after this "Zeeuwse Knoop" (Astrantia).

(from "Astrantia" of Petal Wijnen and "het zeeuws knopje" of Jan Vermeij)