Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Wool, longstanding greatness in the material game...




This stamp has long intrigued me, and while I will  do a halfhearted chase, I am very sure I will not be able to identify it.   The wool logo on the bottom left makes it even more suspicious to me.  RSA??  15.  There is a name on bottom left that may be the only real clue.  The cancel is serious, but not identifiable by me.  I am fairly certain I am looking at a lamb here.

Lambs as we know are young sheep which we know produce wool, which for my money is one great fabric or material.  I have always been able to count on it to keep me as warm and dry as possible in the most adverse circumstances that I have found myself, which admittedly, aren't the harshest experiences.  However, in my 'ute, I slept in a snowbank or two, and certainly squeezed into a tent with  a combination of characters with the temperature sliding fast to below zero.  I am sure I was in a down sleeping bag, but I am equally sure I had wool pants, shirts and hat, either on or in my backpack.  Some of my favorite business suits that I have owned have been 100% wool, light enough to wear in summer and serious enough to wear in winter.   Versatility in the fabric game....as valuable there as in life itself.  Wool socks.... a fixture forever, and a count-on-it Christmas present.   One of my great visuals of my father, from long, long ago, that I have been able to hold onto was him in his red and black wool jacket with a blue wool hat and a happy man smile. Great memory visual there.

Now, I am sure there is a whole generation of newer, better, faster, lighter, warmer, sexier and less scratchy hybrid combinations of winter warmth greatness right at the click of a mouse, and I am not against any of that.  However, as I lie on the couch writing, it is my favorite wool shirt that is keeping me warm.    In fact, I wouldn't even need it so much as today is winter warm, except for SOMEBODY (think the e-trade baby's voice) failed to secure the front door when bringing the groceries in from the car.  But I digress, again.

Update:   Much to my surprise, this stamp was easy to identify.  1972 from the Republic of South Africa.  There was a set of two which was identified as wool industry lamb and sheep.  It was an odd pairing as the sheep looked almost like a photograph and this lamb, anything but that.  While a curious stamp, it has negligible monetary value or collector value.




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