Boobies!!

Obviously a philatelic souvenir of some sort. What caught my eye is the unusual nude figure in the cancel. I assume this was a special event cancel? But for what...

Translates to Postage Stamp Exhibition (or Stamp Show) Berlin, 1922.

Some examples can occasionally be found on ebay, although not in the US, as shown here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1922-BERLIN...em23140713f5

That is an attractive cover and no less for the cancel.

I am kind of torn on this cover. It is unaddressed, so it is a philatelic piece. I do however like undressed boobies!

There was/is a national level exhibit called "Beguiling Orbs of Beauty: The History of the Female Breast from a Western Perspective" which won the National Topical Stamp Show Grand Award in 2009. I've read where at least one judge tried to refuse to judge it when it first appeared on the national level because of its subject.

I clicked on this thread expecting to see BIRDS ???

To be honest Kirk, that was my first thought as well. Blue or brown footeds.

MEN!! LOL!!

My fellow men <sigh><good grief>

It's an exhibition cancel allright............ Europe is far more open in this area than the puritan US which is why I still have a hard time understanding how the 2¢ Pan American stamp made it past the proof stage.

Could you explain why the 2 cent Pan American Issue would seem in the group the post references? It's a train???

The devil is in the details, see the side "ornaments"


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Thanks stallzer, now I see what the comment was directed at. Guess my eyes are just trained not to see those anymore. Marriage can do that LOL.

Seems a good point was made then. I also wonder, at a time when that was really risque, it is strange it got past the proof stage, and being issued without any fanfare. I've looked at that stamp 1000 times and never even noticed.

It was not unusual in the early part of the 20th for semi nude sculptures representing the virtues, e.g., liberty, justice, etc. to adorn various public places and artifacts. That is, the US was not the prude it is now.

For example, there are similar nude statues at the entrance to Highland Park in Pittsburgh near where I grew up, I think erected around 1910. It wasn't until the 1980s that a group began protesting this nudity, a rather comical endeavor from my viewpoint at the time. At one point the bronze statues were painted black in an attempt to clothe the wanton metal harlots. Saner heads prevailed later, I think at the behest of the Highland Park Community Club and the statues were restored to their naked beauty.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File...landPark.jpg

Sc #308 is very similar.

Looks like they wear pasties on the PanAm issue....albeit transparent pasties...