From the archive: June 2007 Review

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Perhaps there is a cat-lover in Cuba's stamp-issuing authority! Following the cats set in March 2005, and the Animals set late last year that included a cat, there is now a further nice all-cats group of six and an MS (miniature sheet) from the island. Cats are shown in different situations, including the delightful example pictured.

From Guyana comes another new set; they have produced numerous cat stamps in the past, but these are the first since 2001. A set of four and an MS have attractive portraits of a Chartreux, a Seal Snowshoe, a Maine Coon, the Turkish Angora (shown right), and a Blue Burmese on the MS. As yet I do not know the issue date for them.

All the other cats that have reached me this time come from Europe. Pride of place should perhaps go to a couple of 'first-ever' ones. The relatively new nation — in modern times, anyway — of Macedonia has a single stamp with a jaunty white kitten wearing a pink bow tie; the stamps, issued on 19 April, come in sheetlets of 9 with small cat drawings in the margin.

Strangely, the country's near neighbour, Greece, seems never before to have had any stamp with a domestic cat on. That has now been put right, in November 2006 — although these cats are toys. A group of eight stamps depicts children's toys from the Benaki Museum in Athens. The Childhood, Toys and Games collection in the museum was founded in 1995 and comprises some 15,000 games and children's objects dating from antiquity to 1970, derived from Greece and the wider Greek world as well as from Europe, America, Africa and the East. On one of the stamps there is a rather dashing Puss-in-Boots (pictured), while another has a cloth cat beside three splendid rocking horses.

From Germany we had last September (see March 2007 review) Joshua the Post Cat, and now Die Post features again on a charming pair of stamps. One has a young boy writing a letter (or maybe it's a Valentine card?), with his cat nearby. On the other the youngster is posting his letter, with a heart on the back of the envelope, and he has taken his cat with him, on a leash, to the letterbox.

In a sheet of Greetings stamps rather reminiscent of the Great Britain 'Smilers', France produced in November 2006 a cartoon sheet of 10 featuring a bear and some penguins in a wintry landscape — maybe they are well-known children's characters in France? Anyway, the penguins present the bear with a gift tied up in a box, and in the sheet's bottom margin the bear has opened the box to reveal a feline jack-in-the-box.

There is a cat stamp from Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a long-haired, pale 'ginger' tabby. It comes from sheetlets of 8, which have two kitten labels included in the centre, and I believe it is the highest value in a set of six domestic animals, issued in January 2007.

Lastly, I have come by two groups of 'priority' stamps from Belgium, all attached to labels with cat or kitten photographs. I have not found these mentioned on La Poste's website, so probably they are in fact personalised stamps. One group of four is quite puzzling, as it bears the same images, in modified colours, as four of the 2005 cat stamps from Argentina! Even the inscriptions in silvery letters, including the country name, are still there. Surely the Belgian postal authorities would not be too happy for someone to have copied these designs so blatantly and put them on personalised labels?