A Bell Tower on Swedish Locals by Christer Brunström, AIJP
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Cinderella Time: A Bell Tower on Swedish Locals By Christer Brunström, AIJP In the 1920s and mid 1940s Sweden had a large num- ber of privately operated local posts that operated in com- petition with the Swedish Post Office. These local services delivered mail on a local basis at rates much lower than those charged by the state-run postal service. Many of these private posts issued stamps having very local designs. During my travels in Sweden I try to seek out the buildings and artworks depicted on the stamps in order to find out what they look like today. In the summer of 2014 my travels took me to the city of Karlskrona, the capital of the province of Bleking in the south-eastern corner of Swe- den. It was from the ports of this province that many thou- sands of Swedish emigrants left for a better life in North America in the late 1800s. Today Karlskrona is a city of some 35,000 people. It has been declared a World Heri- tage site by the UNESCO. The city was founded by King Karl XI in 1680. It is built on a number of islands in the Blekinge archipelago and it was the ideal spot to build a Swedish naval base to defend and expand Swedish domi- nation of the Baltic Sea area. The architect of the new city was Erik Dahlberg. He not only designed the city but also the fortresses and the shipyards. The naval shipyard was developed by Fredrik af Chapman. In the late 18th century, Karlskrona was Sweden’s third largest city after Stockholm and Riga (yes, Latvia was part of the Swedish Baltic empire at the time). Issue 46 - October 3, 2014 - StampNewsOnline.net If you enjoy this article, and are not already a subscriber, for $12 a year you can enjoy 60+ pages a month. To subscribe, email [email protected] In 1967, Hilding Falk published his handbook of the Swedish local posts. He noted that the Karlskrona local post only existed for a few months and that the owners (Enarsson and Swanlind) were most unwilling to provide any information about their company. However, we now know that the local post was in opera- tion from late 1945 until it had to close in 1947 along with all other private local posts following a change in legisla- tion. O n 1 December 1945, the local post issued five p o s t a g e s t a m p s with de- nominations of 4, 8, 12, 16 and 24 öre (shown). The three higher denominations had printings of 6,000 copies each. The most used values of 4 and 8 öre had printings of 301,000 and 286,000 copies respectively indicating that the operation was quite large. Falk also tells us that the stamps were printed by the Johnssons Pappersindustri in the city of Helsingborg (they also printed the stamps for the local post companies of Helsingborg and Malmö). The three high values all depict a 17th century sailing vessel and as far as I know no specific ship is portrayed. The idea was undoubtedly to stress the city’s long naval and ship-building traditions. A new city obviously needed a church and the build- ing of the Royal Admiralty Church began in 1685. It was intended to be a provisional church and that is probably why it was decided to build a wooden church. It still stands there today and it is the largest wooden church in Sweden. My wife and I found it quite beautiful. In his book Falk states that the two low values depict the tower of the Admiralty Church. It is not really correct as the building doesn’t have a real tower. In fact, a bell-tower was built on a hill a few hundred yards from the church and Issue 46 - October 3, 2014 - StampNewsOnline.net it is this bell-tower which is depicted on the stamps. The tower is located in the Admiralty Park and it is quite an impressive build- ing. When comparing today’s building with the one shown on the stamp they are indeed iden- tical. The unknown artist did an excellent job in depicting the bell-tower. Shown above is one of the 1945 local post stamps depicting the bell-tower. Also shown is a postcard I purchased at the church showing the tower in all its glory. In mint condition the Karlskrona locals are not par- ticularly rare but postally used copies of the three higher denominations are rarities. Genuine commercial covers franked with 4 or 8-öre stamps are unusual as are the First Day Covers. Imperforate reprints in black of all values exist but they are of course of little philatelic value. The Swedish local postage stamps are listed and priced in the FACIT Sweden catalogue. Several minor varieties are included in the list- ing of the Karlskrona locals. In common with many other Swedish local posts the Karlskrona Local Post released its stamps in booklets con- taining panes of ten stamps with straight edges. Thus the stamps have perforations on three or two sides only. Issue 46 - October 3, 2014 - StampNewsOnline.net If you enjoyed this article, and are not already a subscriber, for $12 a year you can enjoy 60+ pages a month. To subscribe, email [email protected].