This Friday I show you the children charity stamps of The Netherlands of 1960.
Children charity 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 1960, the children stamps were designed by Jeanna Bieruma Oosting, one of the most prominent Dutch graphic artists in that time. The rather realistic colored line drawings of children in traditional costumes are placed in front of loudly colored backgrounds. Funny enough, just like the rejected designs of Hubert Levigne from only two years before, she gives only a bust view of the kids (face and half-face).
The stamps depict some traditional costumes from around the former inland sea the Zuiderzee (now Lake IJsselmeer), and very appropriately the first sale of these stamps started in the Zuiderzee Museum in Enkhuizen. The children portrayed are Aaltje van Rie from Marken (4 ct), Jannetje Kwakman from Volendam (6 ct), Magda van Halteren from Bunschoten (8 ct), Janna Marijke Atema from Hindeloopen (12 ct) and Dittie Klein from Huizen (30 ct).
I think this 1960 series is a very charming set, lovely designs with children very well taken into consideration.
It is Wednesday again, so it's BUTTON DAY on my blog !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This Button Wednesday is about the Celebrity Button Art Charity Book. The book was launched in November 2010 and compiled by Karen Gammon, a retired art teacher from Staffordshire (UK). It contains over 240 pieces of artwork collected from celebrities around the world. Each piece of work is done around a button and a full list of celebrities participating is attached. Contributors include actors, actresses, royalty, academics, chefs, singers, authors, politicians and designers. The artwork has been collected over the past nine years. The book is a continuation of a fundraising project started at the beginning of the new millennium, and a range of charities will benefit. It is a marvelous initiative and the book is beautiful (I just had to buy it....). Next to the celebrity button art, it contains a short history of the button, button assemblages made from tens of thousands of buttons and lots of other information that is related to buttons. You can buy the book here.
Some of the art work presented in the book:
Have you seen a lovely, beautiful, stunning, crazy button or button-related thingy, or did you make something with a button / buttons, or did you even make buttons yourself, blog about it on your blog on Wednesday, and give the link here in the comments so that everybody can enjoy it !!
(from wikipedia)This week's button fact I want to share with you is about the Pearlies from London, also called the Pearly Kings and Queens. The Pearlies are raising money for charities and can often be seen around London participating in various Parades and Carnivals, and the most striking thing about them is that they wear clothing that is fully covered with mother of pearl buttons. The magnificent suits, hats and dresses, are handed down from generation to generation as well as the Pearly King and Queen titles. 
(Photo from The London Pearly Kings and Queens Society)The tradition started in 1875 with an orphan called Henry Croft, roadsweeper from profession, who wanted to help those who were more unfortunate than himself and realised that in order to collect a lot of money he needed to draw attention to himself which was quite difficult for the very small man as he was (less than 5 feet tall). So as Henry swept the market streets he started to collect all the pearl buttons he found that had fallen off of the clothes of people visiting the market, and when he had enough he started to sew them on his cap and then continued until his entire brown wool suit was filled. The idea he got from the clothing of the London costermongers that had pearl buttons sewn on the piped seams of their trousers and waistcoats. They distinguished themselves from the other market traders in this way. It is said to have sprung from a Japanese cargo ship that lost its cargo of pearl buttons in the Thames in the 1860's. The costermongers looked after each other if they were sick or in need by organizing a collection. Traditionally, costers elected "Kings" to lead them against bullies seeking to drive them from their pitches. Henry Croft was in so much demand for his charity work, as many of London's hospitals, workhouses and orphanages needed help, that he turned to the costermongers. Many of the costermongers became the first Pearly Families. There were 28 families, one for each of the London boroughs, one for the City of Westminster, and one for the City of London.
Carole Jolly, Pearly Queen of Crystal Palace, with the statue of Henry Croft, The Crypt at St Martins in the Field.Each outfit can hold many tens of thousands of buttons on it and can weigh as much as 30 kilograms or more. There are two types of suit - a Smother Suit and a Skeleton Suit, the former having very little cloth showing and totally covered in buttons (those are the oldest costumes), and the latter having far fewer buttons, often decorated with mystic symbols, like stars, moons, suns, flowers, diamonds, Trees of Life, Eyes of God and fertility designs. Some of the early costumes are still worn today. 
(from Citynoise)Modern re-inventions of the pearlies concept:
Based on:
Wikipedia
The London Pearly Kings and Queens Society
Citynoise
The Button Lover's Book (Creative Machine Arts Series) by Marilyn V. Green
