Traditional Costumes : Postage Stamps Holland

This Friday I show you some stamps of The Netherlands that have some connection with traditional Dutch costumes. The stamps above are from the summer stamps of 1974 (of designer J. v.d. Toorn Vrijthoff) and they show the Dutch author Herman Heijermans and the actress Esther de Boer – van Rijk in her star role as Kniertje in the famous 1900 play "Op Hoop Van Zegen" (Dutch for "Trusting Our Fate in the Hands of God") of Herman Heijermans. The play is taking place in a North Sea fishing village, and Kniertje is wearing a typical North Sea traditional Dutch costume.


This stamp is from the local post service in North East Friesland for the winter season in 2000. It shows 3 couples in traditional Friesian costumes glide skating, a typical old Dutch way of skating.


The next stamps do not show traditional costumes as such, but more typical (Dutch) historical costumes. Because I like them too, here some pictures and a short description.
This stamp is of 1996 and commemorates 200 years of the province of Noord-Brabant. In 1796 Noord-Brabant became the ninth province of the Netherlands; this fact was celebrated with roll of drums and flag throwing in historical costumes.


This lovely milkmaid is a historic ornamental stone on a house in Alkmaar. She is in the 1975 Child Welfare Issue together with some other ornamental house-stones. She is wearing a typical 16th century farmer's wife costume of North-Holland. I found this picture of her on Flickr (Sierag):


This lovely set commemorates the 50th Anniversary of Child Welfare Issues in 1974 and shows early photographs. They are from an old photograph album of around 1900 of Gerardus van Bruggen and Cornelia van Nes with their ten children (living on a farm in Haarlemmerliede). The kids pose in their Sunday clothes looking like small adults: Gerrit with a hoop (30 ct), Dora holding hands with her little brother Jo on a chair (35 ct), Sjaan and Ans (6 and 5 years of age) standing beside a chair (45 ct), and Cornelia sitting beside a decorated travelling box (60 ct).

Traditional Costumes : Postage Stamps Holland 1960

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.