The cover shown above was posted on the 10th of December 1948 from Amsterdam to London, at least, that's where the sender of the cover, Prof Dr A.W. de Groot, thought C.K. Ogden would dwell at the time.
The Wilhelmina "Konijnenburg" stamps which adorn the cover were initially issued in 1940, but after the German invasion of May 1940 the stamps were withdrawn from use as of 11 October 1940. The occupying force reasoned that the stamps could incite resistance, since the stamps bore the portrait of Queen Wilhelmina whom the Dutch considered their only dignity left, as she successfully escaped to England. After the war the stamps were reinstated although the paper quality was noticeably poorer than the 1940 issue. A small act of resistance during the war was to put a Wilhelmina Konijnenburg on cover with a 2 cent orange "Lebeau" Flying Dove stamp above. This would allude to the "Oranje Boven"- song which was (and is) a very popular song in the Netherlands:
Oranje boven, Oranje boven
Leve de koningin (2x)
Orange above all, orange above all,
Long live the Queen (2x)
After more than a century the Netherlands has a king once more, so we'll have to wait until Willem-Alexander's daughter ascends the throne before we can sing the song again...
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| The Lebeau 2 cent 'Flying Dove' Orange stamp. Artist Chris Lebeau, who helped Jews during the war by faking official documents, was betrayed and deported to Dachau where he died in April 1945... |
I'm wandering off, since the real interesting part of this cover is the seal in the upper left corner, which was the reason I bought the cover at an auction in Diemen.
It reads Academia Amstelodamensis - Seminarium Classicum. In my next post I will reveal more about the sender and his relation to the department of classics of the University of Amsterdam and his even more intriguing relationship with the famous linguist/philosopher Ogden.
