Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee, Gibraltar

The Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II, celebrated in 2012, marks the 60th anniversary of the Queen's accession to the throne. Queen Victoria is the only other monarch to have celebrated such jubilee (in 1897). Go the Queens! To have this postcard with a matching stamp from Gibraltar gives me much joy, thank you Rachel :))

UK - The Royal Princes

Two handsome fellas from the House Of Windsor :)
Thanks so much Anu, I was hoping for this card for such a long time!

The Royal Golden Carriage, The Netherlands

The Dutch royal family uses this golden carriage yearly, to bear the Dutch monarch from Noordeinde Palace to the Ridderzaal in order to pronounce the Speech from the Throne. It is made of teak wood and covered in gold leaf. It is pulled by eight horses when the monarch is riding in it; only six when its the other members of the royal family.

Thanks to Tessa/TessaL and our private swap :)

British Royal Family

A lovely portrait of the newlyweds, pre-stamped from Canada. On the 2nd one the fellows aka princes playing polo, 'The Sport Of Kings'.  It is so british in my head that it surprised me greatly that polo originates from Persia...

Thank you Kelly/AlbertaGirl for the private swap; and Serena/AllSerene on choosing a card from my favs for the RR :) and a winnie-the-pooh stamp!

The Romanov Children

Daughters of Emperor Nicholas II:

Grand Duchesses Olga and Tatyana in the uniforms

of the regiments under their patronage

Tsesarevich Alexis, 1913

I seem to be slowly building a collection of Romanov postcards..! They are just so vintage, beautiful and full of history....new additions from Yana/Botwa and Angela_lala, thank you!!

Ah what can i say about the stamps...Russian mail is really considerate heh.
These stamps show:
- a viaduct over the river Matsesta valley, Sochi
- Volgogradskaya Oblast
- Beluga/Sturgeon from the Caspian Sea
- Shar Pei, a Chinese dog breed
- Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg
(wow i never thought it to be a cathedral, more like a museum or a historical monument!)
- (and this one was hard to find) Agustín de Betancourt, a prominent Spanish engineer who worked and died in Russia. He's a founder of The Saint Petersburg Institute of Communications Engineers. There!

i dont normally do this, but it was a bit of a challenge to decipher as my cyrrilics is rusty :)

The Romanovs

I think we can all agree how tragic the story of The Romanovs is...I've known the outlines of the story for a while, but only now that i've started receiving these striking portraits have i decided to read more about it.

This card showing Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna was received via CaCrr - big thanks to Angela :) The photo was taken in 1898.

Nicholas was a successor to Alexander III - became The Emperor And Autocrat Of All The Russias in 1894, and abdicated following the February revolution of 1917. He also got engaged to Alix of Hesse in 1894, who had to convert to Russian Orthodoxy for the marriage. Alix /Alexandra was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.

They are both known as the last Tsar and Tsarina of Russia.

Official Card: RU-381405

This card showing Emperoror Nicholas II and his only son Alexei was sent to me by Julia/Faina.

In 1991 bodies of the executed royal family were supposedly found in Yekaterinburg, but only of the parents and three children. An American scientist concluded from dental and vertebral remnants that the bodies of Anastasia and Alexei were missing (two of the youngest). This mystery may never be solved..!

Red Panda & Royal Wedding, Australia

What an awesome surprise from Heather: my first red panda card (yaaay!) AND the royal wedding stamps, am stoked! thank you very much for this grin-inducer :)

Tonight there's a movie on TV about how prince William & Kate met and what they went through up to the point of the wedding being announced. And tomorrow of course is a big day! I am not a fan of flash weddings in general - but this has many more connotations, and will be interesting to watch for sure. I'll peek around the corner :D

From Russia With Love

I have chosen these postcards in offer tags not knowing they can't be sent written & stamped. And for them I abandon the 100%ness of my decision to collect only w&s postcards! There is a wonderful plethora of such postcards which have information on the theme written at the back, in russian and sometimes english.

This graceful portrait shows Elizabeth Petrovna, who was the Empress of Russia from 1741-1762. The word is she actually disliked governing, and adored dancing and new clothes. She owned 15 000 ball-gowns and several thousand pairs of shoes! But I guess she is not historically unique in such royal extravaganzas :)

Thank you Kate (Orangemood) for this addition to my still modest royalty collection!


I was exhilerated to find this Sagittarius in one of the offer albums! Zodiac sign cards are not very common, and i guess it is even more of a feat to find one's own zodiac sign....The text in the back is written in russian, and whereas I can follow some of it a translating endeavour might end up in painful pidgeon sentences..!

Generally, sagittarius in the 9th astrological sign; positive, extrovert , fiery. The ruler planet is Jupiter. It is traditionally depicted as centaurus, a mythical creature which is half man, half horse. They were considered to be wild, savage and lustful! Surely not the characteristics of the astrological sign they represent - well here's hoping! :D The constellation can be seen here in the summer months while looking southwards, just above the horizon.

Thank you Anna (Anutik) for this rare card!