Long-tailed Duck decoys

The issue of a 3-part series of franking labels featuring old style wooden duck decoys began in 2012.

First out was the Common Eider; the 2013 motif is the Long-tailed Duck.

Wildfowl decoys are lifelike dummies used by hunters to encourage birds to land nearby.

The oldest decoys were made from plants such as bulrush, and the first decoys carved from wood were unpainted. Decoys are now mostly made from plastic.

The Long-tailed Duck belongs to the order Anseriformes.

It reaches a length of between 39 and 47 cm and can weigh up to almost one kilo.

It has a rounded head and a short sturdy bill. The all-dark wings are quite sharp and pointed. Their flight is smooth and rapid, with a characteristic wing-beat dipping low below the horizontal.

Technical Details

Issue Date: 19.02.2013

Designer: Juha Pykäläinen

Printer: The Lowe Martin Group

Process: offset

Size: 4.00 x 30.34 mm

Values: €0.65, 0.80, 1.00, 1.10

Passenger ferries- Ålandsfärjan

Many Ålanders associate the name Ålandsfärjan with the ship servicing between Mariehamn and Kapellskär 1987-2008. However, the ship featured on the 2013 stamp is the very first ferry named Ålandsfärjan.

Following a disagreement between the founders of Rederi Ab Vikinglinjen, the shipping company that pioneered passenger traffic between Åland and Sweden in 1959, a group of owners started the competing shipping company Rederi Ab Ålandsfärjan.

S/S Ålandsfärjan was built in Scotland in 1933 and named S/S Brittany. Ålandsfärjan was the first ferry in service for the newly started company. Operations between Roslagen on the Swedish coast and Mariehamn in Åland began on 20 June 1963. The ferry was originally owned by the British Railways and in service on the British Channel.

S/S Ålandsfärjan was withdrawn from service in 1972 and demolished in Teijo, Finland, after having run aground and been damaged.

Technical Details

Issue Date: 19.02.2013

Designer: Håkan Sjöström

Printer: Cartor Security Printing, France

Process: 4-coloroffset

Colours: 4 colour

Size: 35,4 x 26 mm

Åland Art Museum 50 years

Stamp

Gutter Pairs

First Day Cover with stamp

 The 50th anniversary of the Åland Art Museum in 2013 will be marked with a stamp issue. The stamp motif was chosen through a public vote between seven pre-selected works of art from the museum collection.

A vote organized in the spring of 2012 allowed voters to choose between seven works of art by Henrik Nylund, Guy Frisk, Sigrid Granfelt, Robert Hancock, Hildur Stenbäck, Ture Bengtz and Johan Scott. An expert group had selected the seven works of art that are all part of the art museum collection.

Votes could be cast at the Åland Art Museum, on the Post's homepage and at the post office in Mariehamn. Guy Frisk's painting ‘Yearning' won with as much as 42 percent of the total of 1 582 votes cast. The artwork is one of the most popular pieces in the museum collection. The painting mediates a meditative force that captures the onlooker, enticing him or her to return to it. Painted in oil on panel between 1973 and 1975, the work measures 103 x 120 cm. The artwork is part of an extended series of around 400 paintings, the last of which is named ‘Sea of Oblivion'.

The Åland Art Museum is owned and administrated by the Government of Åland. Promoting knowledge about Åland art, stimulating artistic activities and increasing the general interest in the subject field are some of the core operations of the museum.

Technical Details

Issue Date: 09.10.2012

Designer: Minna L. Immonen

Printer: Cartor Security Printing

Process: 4-colour offset

Colours: 4 Colours

Size: 35,4 x 26 mm

Values: €0.60