From the Archive:

January 2015 Review

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Quite a short review this time, as not many domestic-cat stamps — apart from the inevitable African ones of dubious provenance — have come to my attention.

I guess the first ones mentioned here could fall into that 'dubious' category, but I did buy a couple of sets, both dating from June 2014. One is a 'standard' sheetlet of four portraits of named breeds plus a miniature sheet (MS) from Niger; we picture a Japanese Bobtail from the sheetlet, while the MS has a blue Persian. The other set, from Togo, is a bit more unusual with the four stamps + MS depicting paintings of chess. One of the stamps has 'Cats with a Chessboard' by Agnes Augusta Talboya (1863-1941). She was a British artist who specialised in paintings with cats, and this isn�t the only one that has felines on a chessboard.

Turkey issued an MS for Mothers' Day in April 2014; it features a composite border made up of animal images, with a heart at the centre, and one of the images is of a tabby cat. Late in 2014, although I don't know just when, Sierra Leone produced a set of stamps showing various farm animals; this is quite a big set consisting of ten stamps in four sheetlets, each with two or three stamps in an overall design. One of the stamps has a large tabby cat, presumably the farm cat!

It's quite a while since the Maldives issued any cat stamps, the last I know of being in 2000. Now there is a new sheetlet of four + an MS of named breeds; I don't know the issue date but I think it's in 2014. We picture the MS, which has a British Blue shorthair on the stamp and a fine-looking tabby in the margin.

Switzerland's annual Pro Juventute semi-postal stamps for youth funds — issued every year since 1913 — show some youthful activities on the three 2014 stamps, which are self-adhesive. One of the two 100 + 50 values shows biscuit making, with a tiny tabby cat in one corner taking an interest in the proceedings. In March 2014 the Czech Republic commemorated 150 years of the Czech firefighting service with a single cartoon-type stamp picturing firemen on an old-style fire engine, with a cat sitting on the bonnet (hood).

Lastly, in early January 2015 Great Britain produced a colourful set of 10 stamps to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, written in 1865. One of the 81p values depicts a rather fine version of the grinning Cheshire Cat — the first domestic-cat stamp of 2015.

A little belatedly, a happy New Year to everyone!