History of the Mail Coach with a stamp from Sweden.

Eigil Schwab, born on 28 March 1882 in Stockholm, was an immensely talented Swedish artist. Schwab studied at the Higher School of Arts and Design in Stockholm and The Academy of Fine Arts. Proficient in many areas of art, he particularly excelled as a painter, graphic artist, illustrator and cartoonist.

Schwab began his career as a portrait painter, but soon after he moved on to be a political-satirical cartoonist in the newspaper Sunday Nisse Protruding notch anchor (a Swedish satirical Magazine, published in 1913-22) and Lutfisken, a Swedish Yearbook for Sunday Nisse.

During his lifetime he produced a number of posters, book covers and magazine drawings and illustrations. Particularly interesting are Schwab’s illustrations for Frida's book and Ådalen’s poetry, and in the book series Sweden.

In later life Eigil Schwab returned to landscape and still life painting. His work can be found at the National Museum in Stockholm and the National Portrait Gallery. He died on 4 July 1952.

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The history of the mail coach can be traced back to Great Britain. A man by the name of John Palmer, who owned a theatre in Bath, believed that the coach service he was running to transport actors and materials between theatres could actually serve as a nationwide postal service. In 1782, Palmer sold his theatre interests and went to London to campaign his idea to the Post Office. Senior Post Office staff opposed the idea. They were of the belief that the current speed of mail delivery could not be improved. William Pitt, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, disagreed. He showed great interest in the concept.  

On 2 August 1784 an experimental mail coach journey from Bristol to London was undertaken at Palmer's expense. The coach left Bristol at 4pm on 2 August. It reached London at 8am the following day, exactly on schedule. A journey that had originally taken up to 38 hours now took just 16 hours.

The mail coach was slowly phased out in the 1840s-50s to be replaced by trains as the railway network expanded.

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On the 28 September 1971 Sweden issued a stamp based on an oil painting in the Postal Museum, Stockholm by Eigil Schwab. The stamp was engraved by Czeslaw Slania. The stamp vividly depicts a mail coach, heavily-laden with mail bags, being pulled over rough terrain by three stout horses. The detail Slania has managed to incorporate into this engraving is nothing short of superb.

A look at the Sweden 1966 National Museum stamps engraved by Czeslaw Slania

The Sweden National Museum was established in 1792 as Kungliga Museet ("Royal Museum"). The current building was opened in 1866 and renamed the National Museum. It is located on the Blasieholmen Peninsula in central Stockholm.

Construction on the current building began in 1844 and it was completed in 1866. It was designed by German architect, Friedrich August Stüler. The design drew inspiration from North Italian Renaissance Architecture.

The museum houses close to half a million drawings from the Middle Ages up to 1900, including a Rembrandt and Dutch 17^th Century collection. The museum also holds a collection of porcelain items, paintings, sculptures, and modern art. In addition, the museum has an art library, open to the public and academics alike. And it has a restaurant which opened in 1996.

I should also mention that the museum is currently closed for renovations and should re-open in 2018.

On 26 March 1966 Sweden issued a set of two stamps to celebrate the Centenary of the National Museum. The stamps were engraved by Czeslaw Slania. The design shows the Entrance Hall of the Museum. The same design was used on both values. The first stamp has a face value of 30o and is violet in colour and the second has a face value of 2.30k and is olive green..

My eye is immediately drawn to the three people standing at the bottom of the staircase at the bottom right of the stamp. To me it looks like a mother, father and daughter in their finery preparing to walk inside. You have to agree the detail is absolutely astounding.

As with many stamps Slania engraved, he has left a personal touch in these stamps by including LODZIA (short for Leokadija) which was the name of his sister. This is written in a V shape across the gown.